Tear-gassed!

poor Dave!







But actually he says he is fine, and all is mellow, even festive, downtown.

Update: Man with bottle is protester helping teargas victims by offering eye drops.  Photo was taken by a NYT photographer, I think.  Boys and I have not been to Tahrir-- dont worry. (well actually I did stop by with two friends on the way home the other night.  It smelled terrible- we all got sore throats immediatly.  The rumor is that they are dropping extra-strong new chemical gas-- I am getting lots of outraged messages from friends telling me to tell Dave to make the NYT report this.  As if I could.

protests seemed to be thousands of young men sitting around- most looking like Williamsburg hipsters, but some with beards and jalibayas.  Seemed to be teams devoted to ferrying supplies, patrolling perimeter, controlling traffic, organizing buses, and the like.  Other than that, not clear what the focus was, but they are doing good things, and very brave.)

Posted by Laura

Protests

yesterday, on my birthday, I saw that Dave had taken the time to write a front page story on Libya during the few hours of calm between violent protests in Tahrir.  I had had the boys most of the day and all of the day before.  Left the house for milk, then sent Dave a text, "be back in a few hours, good luck with the boys.".

I am the 99%.


- Posted by Laura

Aunt Carola and a Dramatic Rescue

Aunt Carola and Antionette paid a visit to Egypt! They chose to spend their first few days with us in Maadi. The boys and I introduced them to Egyptian culture by having them accompany us to multiple expat children Halloween parties. I think they really came away with an appreciation for the traditional superhero and princess costumes donned by the natives at such celebrations, and the ritual imbibing of candies and popcorn.

They came laden with gifts from far off lands, including our first ever candy corns, Vermont pumpkins, maple syrup, turkish delight and science books! It was awesome. It made Halloween extra special to spend it with family, especially as Dave was still stuck in Tripoli with Qaddafi's corpse.

Emmett showed them how we do things at Kompass.

We visited a horse farm in the country, where Carola wore an amazingly stylish hat and glasses on her ride. I wish I had a picture of that.

Then we hightailed it back to Cairo for a finale feluca boat ride, including the Kirkpatricks, just arrived from the States to spend the November Eid with us.

As usual, sunset on the Nile was sublime.

Antionette was a great sport, and was lots of fun to chat with. I realized later that the boys understood us to be with two of their aunts: Carola and Oinette.

After an hour or so of pizza, wine and conversation, the wind disappeared. We sailed along upstream for another thirty minutes or so, while remaining next to the same fancy villa the whole time. However, it was when the feluca captain started shouting clear distress cries at passing ferries that we realized we might be in a spot of trouble.

Luckily, Grandpa Doug deftly took the helm while our captain tossed a rope to one such ferry.

We certainly were a curiosity to the grizzled men making their nightly commute across the river! I tried to capture the ferry boat passengers watching as they towed us safely to shore, but it was pretty dark by then.

Thomas later remarked how his life so far has been unusually filled with adventure for a 5 year old. Revolutions, evacuations, and now dramatic nighttime rescues on the Nile!

This was not the last of our time with Aunt Carola and Antionette however. Our paths crossed again a week later in Luxor . . . home of the Valley of the Kings! More adventures to come . . .

Halloween