Gertrude Bell

Before we got to Cairo I started reading a biography of Gertrude bell, an englishwoman from the Victorian era who was a kind of female TE Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) She led expeditions into uncharted deserts, danced war dances with the Druize, camped with devil-worshippers in the Nejd, held court with expats in Syria and got to know the heads of all the desert tribes. During WW1 she was invaluable to the British, and she basically designed the state of Iraq. The book, desert queen, mostly just paraphrases bell's letters. But I really liked the british-ness of her letters even in the remotest deserts. She would be sneaking around trying to avoid the Turks and getting hassled by an unfriendly tribe and she would write to her father, "we are really having the most marvelous time and learning so much."

I imagined this blog might sound a little like her- clueless suburban american burbles around expat cairo. Now that im here i can see why she wrote that way. When you are new in a place, even the kind of crummy things are interesting. We have had kind of a trying few weeks- thomas misbehaving at school, the school not handling it well, a nest of thousands of ants found in the bathroom, turned down at maadi house, Emmett catching a stomach bug. But I still like it here a lot- and we are Learning So Much.

Thomas plays in a little soccer league for 5-7 year olds. Here he is with his teammates from Al Suez. There doesn't seem to be an English language 4s league, so we fudged his birthday a bit. It doesn't matter- he is a tiger on the b-team field.









Emmett likes to come cheer him on.



I love the Saturday mornings of little tiny people in shin pads.p

Last weekend we went to an "art school" outside the city. It had a very "hey kids, lets put on a play" spirit about it. A big improbable homemade treehouse and farm sitting out in the Egyptian countryside. It reminded me somehow of collinsbrook. but with a better revenue model. We paid $20 for both kids to have the run of the place and choose any two craft activities like pottery or silkscreen. I didn't take as many pics as I should have, but here we are:












Thomas of Arabia!

Emmett rode the horse too but I was too panicked to take any pictures.



Finally, we are sending good wishes and prayers to Devan, who had his bone marrow transplant on Thursday. Here is a pic from our last playdate at Dev's:









We sure miss those times sometimes!

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Cook while still frozen in the same way fresh vegetables are cooked

That is the instructions on a pack of frozen beans I just prepared. In general the vegetables, fresh and frozen, have more flavor here. Also, there are no real directions on anything- a sign of a society where people know how to cook. All the boxes in my kitchen are like this: the rice, the cous cous, the frozen chicken patties. None of them have proportions, or methods or times or anything. They mostly just say cook until done. Or note what is different in the packaged version from the fresh. It makes me realize how funny most of us are in the states that we don't really know how to cook vegetables without instructions.

Here we are at the beach. This is the Hamptons of Cairo, just an hour and a half away. We stayed at a great family resort.




The sparkle effect is a waterfall.







Here is Emmett practicing Arabic.




I really tried hard to get a picture of a burkini. There were lots, but i never had a camera handy. These are burkhas which is not quite the same thing. But it still feels weird standing next to one wearing just a bathing suit.





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Wadi degla

Last weekend we ventured over to a desert canyon where people like to hike, mountain bike and camp. Many thousands of years ago this place was an ocean, and a forest surrounded by volcanoes. Doesn't look much like that now.








I like this picture of me because I look like a deranged British archeologist. Below is my first headscarf encounter. Today we visited a mosque in old Islamic Cairo with dave's Arabic tutor. I was fine, even looking forward to wearing a headscarf until it actually came time to put it on. Then, something about having to wear it put me in a bad mood. Also I put together a little ensemble and came out to show Dave. He told me I was probably showing too much neck. Something about this really rubbed me the wrong way. I know he didn't make or agree with the rules, but just having him in his t-shirt casually tell me that I couldn't show so much neck made me want to kick him. It seemed like at least he should've said it apologetically. Luckily it only took me most of the afternoon to get over it. What's the deal with our feet, you ask? Two old men at the front of the mosque tie these booties on when you come in. Keeps the street dirt out. Emmett was very confused and kept asking shoes? all the way through the mosque. He didn't have to wear them though.






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Disorganized Friday Morning Post

Here are some random photos from around the neighborhood. I really haven't made it very far out of maadi. Maadi is a relatively green and calm suburb. Downtown cairo, where Dave's office is, is much more urban and hectic. For now, the little bubble of Maddi feels adventurous enough.
I do the same things here that I did at home when not working: check out interesting classes for the boys, go to playdates, go to the pool. It is easy to get lost around here because there are very few street signs. So even setting out to a friend's house feels like a small adventure because we will probably get lost or at least go down a new street.

Above is one of my favorite buildings that I pass walking Thomas home from school. You can't really see but there is a grand open spiral stairway under the cupola. I don't know if it's a private house or apartments or what. This neighborhood is considered posh, but in the last few decades a number of the stately old villas have been torn down for more modern apartment buildings. Now it's a mix, beautiful grand old buildings next to grey concrete apartments. All of cairo is over-crowded, and some of those crowds are moving out to maadi, and even "new maadi" which is basically a horrible apartment complex and mall being carved out of the desert. That's where Judy lives. It is considered a good neighborhood-- middle class egyptians want to live there. But it looks just like a housing project in New York-- rows and rows of small balconies with laundry lines, and no green spaces anywhere ever. It's all surrounded by highway and construction. There must be children there but they must never leave the buildings. The only places that seem at all inviting are the mosques which have airy domes and paved courtyards. That alone would be a reason to love Allah here.


At a friend's house yesterday morning they warned that this guy in Florida who wants to burn korans might cause hostility and possibly violence here and to avoid mosques etc. this weekend. My friend's husband works for Coca-Cola and I guess they get a weekly security report or something. Not only is this weekend Sept. 11th, it is the end of Ramadan here. That means everyone has been fasting and staying up late for a month and is in a bad mood. It's really hot. And it's a national holiday long weekend to mark the end of the fast and celebrate the Prophet attaining enlightenment. So the news that a preacher in Florida wants to burn the holy book is not well-timed. Islam is very coordinated here-- there is no such thing as independent churches or small, out-there congregations. If an imam here were burning the bible, it would be something he had talked with higher-ups about and received at least tacit approval for. And if the state wanted to stop it, they would stop it. This is a police state-- the guy would be arrested. So it really does not translate here that this is not an official action on behalf of US Christians. Even if Obama and Petraeus denounce it-- the sense is if the US government was serious about stopping it, they would.


Here is a picture of a woman walking past an embassy wearing the niquab. I saw the black cloth billowing in the distance as this woman walked toward us and was honestly scared. It looks like those wraiths from Lord of the Rings that float menancingly around and if you get close have skulls for faces. She's probably a nice woman, but there is something hostile about this get-up. I'm sorry, that's just true. Many egyptians think this too. I have been told that the niquab has nothing to do with Islam or the Koran-- its a bedouin tradition to prevent sunburn and stop raiding tribes from stealing your wives. It is only in the last twenty- thirty years that it has been considered part of an Islamic identity. It is true that very few women in Cairo or the other arab states wore a veil a generation ago, and now most women do. But it is a class thing too- the working class embraces veiling and the elites do not. Most women wear just head scarves and abbayas, but I have seen more niquabs (full face veils) than I expected.




Here are Thomas and Emmett dancing to Oum Kathoum in the kitchen. She's a classic egyptian singer. And here we are playing at another friend's house-- Maxou. His mother is french and his dad is a Jewish American- the one working at coca cola. We are about to meet them to go to their fancy pool club that Coca Cola pays for. The thing is-- no one knows what time it is this morning. The Egyptian government announced this year that clocks would be set back for ramadan. But the end of ramadan is decided by looking at the moon somehow. Then there's an official holiday-- which could fall either on this past thursday or Sunday (which is a work day here). No one knew when it would be until whoever decides had looked at the moon Wednesday night. We had to check the school website the night before to find out if there would be school the next day. Many people travel for this holiday and it must have been such a pain in the neck to not know ahead of time whether the day off was Thursday or Sunday. (It is Sunday) But that is how central Islam is here-- no one questions this. So anyway, the time will go forward one hour with the official end of ramadan. We were told a while ago that would be thursday but now-- is it sunday? How does this holiday work anyway? What time is it in this country?

Once we figure that out, in two weeks, the clocks will fall back again for daylight savings.