Kompass!

I have sorely neglected this blog lately. We have been distracted mostly by problems at Thomas' pre-K. After near daily trips to the principal's office we finally pulled Thomas out and have moved him to a wonderful Montessori-based German kindergarten. This is really the school I have wanted for Thomas all along.

Just to be sure, we brought him for a brief morning tour. He seemed to feel at home.





Ok, there's a reason he's in his underwear. Those of you who followed our adventures in Munich will recall the water pumps that were ubiquitous in all the parks and playgrounds. there is one here too, on the other side of the garden, complete with a sluice mechanism representing the finest of German engineering. Thomas stripped down to play in it at the suggestion of the head of the school. Afterwards he told me this was the best school ever. Ahhhhhhh. I have been so waiting for that with this boy.

The kindergarten has children from 30 different countries ages 2 to 6 years and operates on an "open" system. This means that the children can do whatever they want whenever they want except for meals and circle time. Inside the villa are gorgeous, bright Danish modern-y rooms for music, painting, building, weights and measures, library, pretend etc. This is supposed to be based on the latest brain research though of course it's very similar to a school uncle Arthur and I went to back in the 1970s. Viva Collinsbrook!

But with a twist. Here everything is taught through simultaneous immersion in German, Arabic and English. One third of the teachers speak only English to the children, one third speak German and one third speak Arabic. This means that some days circle time is in English and some days it is in German or Arabic with the kids that know the language translating as needed for the others. It is so global village! If this works Thomas will get an amazing education. Almost as good as Tumbleweeds! He's only gone three days but already we think he seems more relaxed and reflective.

And we've put Emmett on the waiting list for march. They will go to school together- and spraechen zie deutsch!

The website is kompasseducation.com but its been down a lot lately.

And here are some pictures from a trip this afternoon with Thomas and Emmett to Al Azhar park downtown. Poor guys were basically mobbed by kids looking to practice their English or just squeeze Emmett's cheeks. Sometimes traveling with these guys is like being a roadie with the Beatles- scores of girls looking to get a cuddle and a picture.

Here is Emmett getting nabbed by some fans. He mostly takes it in stride.






Thomas is a little more stand-offish. Here he is, tiny man of the world.













Kirkpatrick boys!






- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

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!

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

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.





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

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.






-



Posted using BlogPress from my iPad