Emmett is 3!

And just as adorable as ever . . .

You want proof?  Full-screen this puppy:

And actually his older brother is no slouch either:

Here's Emmett's birthday party at Maadi House (where we are now members thanks to Mommy's cool new part-time job as IP Counsel for the American University)--

More cuteness examples that dave was hoarding on his iphone:

Lebanon

We had the good fortune to hit Lebanon during an unusually strong rainstorm.  The boys loved running along the corniche in Beirut, dodging the huge mediterranean waves spitting against the railings.

We hit the science museum.  It is housed in a very upscale shopping mall rebuilt after the civil war in the style of the city's old medieval souks.

Then it was off to the mountains for a little skiing.  On the way we stopped at the Jeitta Grotto, which was amazing! (but no cameras allowed, not even phones)

We had to hire a special snow taxi because the roads up the mountain were said to be icy.  In fact, it took three separate snow taxis: the first couldn't make it.  The second got hit by someone else's skidding truck and then the drivers had to get out and argue about it.  Then the owner of the hotel came down and got us in his good old subaru.  It was like Peru, Vermont, old-style.

This was our first clue that this might not be the gentle family resort I had somehow assumed.  We found ourselves perched on a bare cliff in a tiny valley.  Everything was closed, and all the guests in this small hotel were in the dining lounge eating fondue and smoking.  There was lots of flashy ski outfits and Filipina nannies.  The winds were too strong to run the lifts.  Undeterred we rented sleds from the hotel shop and spent the last hour of daylight speeding down the sheer hill beside the hotel.  

Some of loved being reunited with snow:

Some of us were less enthusiastic:

The next day the sun was out.  Thomas and I rented gear and hit the slopes!

Actually though, we found it all a little frustrating.  The mountain was kind of overwhelming.  And we found that skiing was not as easy as we had remembered.  

After lunch, we returned to our trusty sleds:

     

Here Thomas discussed this run:




On the day we were to return to Beirut the roads were so bad we had to hire snowmobiles to get us and our luggage down from the resort.  The boys thought this was cool.

Daddy had to attend the funeral of friend and colleague Anthony Shadid, but the boys and I hung out at a crazy Arab castle next to the airport.

Each room is decorated in the style of a different region.  Ours was the "safari suite"

Then it was home again, home again.

The boys did great, as usual.

Garbage City

This isn't garbage city.  This is a mosque that Thomas and his friend Alexander built out of blocks.

This isn't garbage city either.  This is the British School's "Festive Production" from last December.  It was the Wizard of Oz.  The Pre-K kids were the flying monkeys, Thomas' class were the munchkins, and the year above were narrators and speaking parts.  It was excellent.  Especially the munchkins.

(Thomas is on the very far right of the picture, standing up on his knees, with a cone hat, red tights, and his hands in the air.  One thing I've noticed about the British is that they seem to be much more accepting of little boys wearing tights and nothing else than I think an American school would be.  This probably explains a great deal of the differences between grown-up Brits and Americans.)

This also is not Garbage City, although it's close.  These are the cave churches above garbage city.  The Zabaleen, who live in garbage city, are Christians.  But it's very hard to get a permit to build a church in Egypt.  So the Christians had been holding services in caves in the hills above the city.  Eventually they just blasted these huge caverns, and have these enormous, elaborate churches at the end of tunnels.  This all happened in the 1990s, not ancient history.  It feels very weird to all this christian iconography gaudily displayed above Cairo.  I'm really not sure how they get away with it.

Ten Commandments, in Arabic:

OK, this is Garbage City.  The Zabaleen go all over Cairo and collect household garbage.  They bring it back to this neighborhood and sort it.  Then each separate clan/family is responsible for one type of garbage-- one for plastic, one for cardboard, one for fabric etc.  There are workshops everywhere where the garbage is being sorted, taken apart and put back together to make various new things that the family sells to someone.

I'd heard garbage city was smelly and gross, but it wasn't really.  Maybe it's worse in the hot months.  To be honest, it made me feel better about throwing away my garbage.

We came to a small workshop filled from floor to ceiling with plastic bottles, many of the kind of milk we buy.  It was amazing-- we all kind of startled in recognition, as if we were coming face to face with our own bags of garbage all the way across town.

  

In between the workshops there are cafes, and even schools, and apartment buildings.  We even came to one corner cafe that smelled deliciously of garlic.

On the rooftops some families keep cows and goats.

There's a company that runs walking tours through the area, and we went with them.  They are called Solar Cities and they evidently have some small-scale solar projects going on in this area.

We were with Greer and Joanna and John, who'd come back to Cairo to see us for a few days and say goodbye to the city.  

This was their last day in Cairo, ever, at least as Egyptian residents.  I loved that they spent it going to garbage city.  

Moving on, some people have been curious to know more about the nature of Golden Book awards. Here is a picture of such an award below.

It is a trophy in paper form.  I have no idea what specifically Thomas did to earn it.  I think pretty much improve dramatically in all areas from the beginning of the year until now.

And below is a photo of my finger, because I'm an idiot, and also of a rally at AUC last week in honor of one of the students who was one of the 70+ people killed at a soccer game last week.  The police evidently did nothing to stop the mayhem, or to keep the place secure ahead of time.  The students are calling for a nation-wide strike next week.  At this rally, they showed a film of this young man's life interspersed with damning footage of the ruling military council.  All around other young men marched holding plain black flags.  It was stirring, in a dark kind of way.

  

One of my students asked me if I planned to hold class or not next week because of the strike.  I asked her for how long it was planned.  She said, Indefinitely, until the SCAF meets their demands to transition to civilian rule.  In that case, I told her, I would not be canceling class.

Golden Book! and More Friends Moving On

Today Thomas got a Golden Book award in assembly!  This recognizes hard work and achievement.  We are so proud.

Below are some pictures from the Year One assembly put on by his class.  They did a play about a lazy farmer and a hardworking duck.  Thomas originally was one of the head ducks, but somehow got demoted to a cow.  He didn't mind though because his buddy Sam was also a cow.  That's them below with their cow headdresses.

The theme of the show was "People Who Help Us."  They each drew a poster of someone at school who helps them and showed the picture to the audience with a short explanation.  Thomas drew a picture of Miss Iman, one of the aides in his class.  She also works with him some outside with Dahlia.  This is what he said, "This is Miss Iman.  She's someone that I know and trust, and she helped me when I was new at school."  Dave and I nearly wept.  Then, the farmer/duck play, and then the whole class sang, "Lean on Me."  I swear to God, it was the best show I've seen anywhere, ever.

We went to Felipe's 3rd birthday the other night.

Diana told me they are being transferred to Siberia!  She is not happy about it.  We are going to miss them a lot, though maybe not enough to go to Siberia to visit them.

We have been visiting other friends though.  Last week Thomas and Emmett had the day off school to mark the one-year anniversary of the revolution.  Since Dave was going to be busy summing up what it all means, Clare and I decided to go to Dahab and catch a glimpse of Joanna and Greer.  Joanna just got engaged!  And soon they are moving back to Chicago!  So this was a last chance to hang out on the beach . . . 

(we didnt make this)

Check out these cute knees:

We did see Joanna and Greer and John, but we left the documentation to the semi-professionals.  Hope we can share the results soon--- but here's what they looked like!

What about us, do we ever go the pyramids?  Sure!