...and other random thoughts...
Haven't posted in awhile, because we've been busy--not crazy one event after another busy, but busy nonetheless.
The kids continue with school, and as you know, we walk them there and then back home. Once we're back home, we have about an hour and a half before we then walk & ride to our Arabic class--we're there 2 hours--then, walk & ride back home. Fortunately, this is only about 15 minutes one-way, but we only have about an hour before we're out the door again to walk to and from school for the kids. This is our new Sunday, Monday, Tuesday schedule--and it's exhausting on these days because we have homework in addition to their homework. Sundays get a bit crazier because when we get hime with the kids, we have 3o minutes before we need to eat, then rush out the door for our 10 minute walk and 25 minute train ride to Church; then, of course, we get that 10 minute walk and 25 minute train ride back--see, exhausting! The trains, particularly at those times are packed like sardines, so we're not sitting--we're standing at those times. One further note about the train to church--this won't improve when we're able to get a car, because the minimum drive time is an hour and half--minimum! So, we'll be doing the train thing unless half the traffic in Cairo vanishes.
See, all this coming and going is what keeps us busy...
Well, you may think, the other days can't be that bad. And, you're right, they're not as bad; except,
The weather has moved from cool, what the Egyptians have claimed is the coldest and longest winter that they can remember, to more than warm. We had been around 22C, which is around 70F -- that is until yesterday when we unexplainably just jumped to 34C, which is like 94F -- that's one big jump! Today, we're back to around 25C (78F) and we're going slowly down for the next couple days, but still a moderate and wonderful Spring temperature. Spring and Fall are not really seasons here, so any bit of transitional time is very much welcome.
Of course, the warmer temperatures that we have now have followed times of misty rain just a few weeks ago--this combination has led to many beautiful blooming flowers throughout the garden and community.
Arabic classes are going well; Keli and i are used to studying together and helping one another because we did this for a shared major in college. We each pick up on different things, so we can help each other. We have 2 different teachers for our three days of classes--not only are they different ladies, but they are COMPLETELY different in styles and responsibilities. One focuses on our conversation and vocabulary, the other focuses on our writing and reading. The conversation teacher wants us to help each other and ask questions, and encourages us to write lots of notes--this is great for our learning style. The writing and reading teacher wants us to devote complete attention to her, not write many notes, and NOT talk to one another or help each other--Keli and I got separated within 10 minutes of our first class with her last week--and there are only 3 of us in class :(! The see-saw between these two styles and two subjects is a mental challenge in addition to learning a non-Latin based alphabet and language!
The kids continue to do very well. Grace has a spiritual, team-builiding adventure next week with most of her classmates in the Sinai peninsula--though previously dreading this wilderness adventure with limited shower possibilities, she has since gotten a little excited. She will be completely exhausted from this because as soon as she returns, immediately, she hops on a different bus to go with the local youth group to another part of Egypt for their annual Spring Retreat. The school and the church are connected ministries--but neither leader talked to each other in this planning process and each had made non-refundable deposits. But, Grace is greatly excited about both--and that makes us happy.
Titus is following the Peyton Manning drama, and we hope we can move forward from that in the coming week. He is also excited about transferring schools in the fall, though we found out that he will not have the opportunity to take German as a foreign language as we had hoped.
Zeke has been busy with our zoo. Yes, zoo--we arrived to a facility that already had 4 tortoises, we bought the cat for Grace (who is doing well), and Zeke bought two cockatiels. In addition, there are no shortage of cats in Cairo, and a stray recently had kittens just in front of our villa in burrow she made in the ferns surrounding the palm tree. Zeke and Titus have always been allergic to cats and dogs--Zeke usually worse with dogs, and Titus worse with cats--but, amazingly, both have been just fine. We think this is because their bodies are fighting so many new pollens, dust and pollution that they don't have time to worry about all the pet allergens that are around.
anyway, that's some of the random coming and goings from our part of Cairo...
...oh, back to Paul McCartney...
I keep track of the blog stats -- who is viewing, what are they looking at, and so on. The blog has proven to be quite a popular resource for staying connected and keeping people informed. Through this stat watching, i have been surprised that the most viewed page by a mile is the one from last September saying, "That's not me on the cover of Rolling Stone" and has the picture of a long-haired George Harrison. Apparently, "George," "the Beatles," "Rolling Stone," and "long-hair" are all popular search items, and as a result, we weekly get viewers of the blog through a search of one of (or a combination) those key-words. I figure that Paul has to be more popular than George, right? So, this is my experiment: will this page now become more popular? We'll let you know... :)
Haven't posted in awhile, because we've been busy--not crazy one event after another busy, but busy nonetheless.
The kids continue with school, and as you know, we walk them there and then back home. Once we're back home, we have about an hour and a half before we then walk & ride to our Arabic class--we're there 2 hours--then, walk & ride back home. Fortunately, this is only about 15 minutes one-way, but we only have about an hour before we're out the door again to walk to and from school for the kids. This is our new Sunday, Monday, Tuesday schedule--and it's exhausting on these days because we have homework in addition to their homework. Sundays get a bit crazier because when we get hime with the kids, we have 3o minutes before we need to eat, then rush out the door for our 10 minute walk and 25 minute train ride to Church; then, of course, we get that 10 minute walk and 25 minute train ride back--see, exhausting! The trains, particularly at those times are packed like sardines, so we're not sitting--we're standing at those times. One further note about the train to church--this won't improve when we're able to get a car, because the minimum drive time is an hour and half--minimum! So, we'll be doing the train thing unless half the traffic in Cairo vanishes.
See, all this coming and going is what keeps us busy...
Well, you may think, the other days can't be that bad. And, you're right, they're not as bad; except,
- Keli has Mokattam (Garbage City) on Wednesday, which takes up most of her day as she travels to and from there to teach a beginners English-as-a-second-language to 20 ladies.
- Wednesday is youth group night, so I get 2 extra round-trip walks to the community church to take Grace there.
- Wednesday and Thursday become my only days to try to meet with others, prepare and work on other leadership tasks.
- Fridays and Saturdays are the weekend, and we're catching up on household chores, keeping the kids from being couch potatoes or whatever else comes up.
The weather has moved from cool, what the Egyptians have claimed is the coldest and longest winter that they can remember, to more than warm. We had been around 22C, which is around 70F -- that is until yesterday when we unexplainably just jumped to 34C, which is like 94F -- that's one big jump! Today, we're back to around 25C (78F) and we're going slowly down for the next couple days, but still a moderate and wonderful Spring temperature. Spring and Fall are not really seasons here, so any bit of transitional time is very much welcome.
Of course, the warmer temperatures that we have now have followed times of misty rain just a few weeks ago--this combination has led to many beautiful blooming flowers throughout the garden and community.
Arabic classes are going well; Keli and i are used to studying together and helping one another because we did this for a shared major in college. We each pick up on different things, so we can help each other. We have 2 different teachers for our three days of classes--not only are they different ladies, but they are COMPLETELY different in styles and responsibilities. One focuses on our conversation and vocabulary, the other focuses on our writing and reading. The conversation teacher wants us to help each other and ask questions, and encourages us to write lots of notes--this is great for our learning style. The writing and reading teacher wants us to devote complete attention to her, not write many notes, and NOT talk to one another or help each other--Keli and I got separated within 10 minutes of our first class with her last week--and there are only 3 of us in class :(! The see-saw between these two styles and two subjects is a mental challenge in addition to learning a non-Latin based alphabet and language!
The kids continue to do very well. Grace has a spiritual, team-builiding adventure next week with most of her classmates in the Sinai peninsula--though previously dreading this wilderness adventure with limited shower possibilities, she has since gotten a little excited. She will be completely exhausted from this because as soon as she returns, immediately, she hops on a different bus to go with the local youth group to another part of Egypt for their annual Spring Retreat. The school and the church are connected ministries--but neither leader talked to each other in this planning process and each had made non-refundable deposits. But, Grace is greatly excited about both--and that makes us happy.
Titus is following the Peyton Manning drama, and we hope we can move forward from that in the coming week. He is also excited about transferring schools in the fall, though we found out that he will not have the opportunity to take German as a foreign language as we had hoped.
Zeke has been busy with our zoo. Yes, zoo--we arrived to a facility that already had 4 tortoises, we bought the cat for Grace (who is doing well), and Zeke bought two cockatiels. In addition, there are no shortage of cats in Cairo, and a stray recently had kittens just in front of our villa in burrow she made in the ferns surrounding the palm tree. Zeke and Titus have always been allergic to cats and dogs--Zeke usually worse with dogs, and Titus worse with cats--but, amazingly, both have been just fine. We think this is because their bodies are fighting so many new pollens, dust and pollution that they don't have time to worry about all the pet allergens that are around.anyway, that's some of the random coming and goings from our part of Cairo...
...oh, back to Paul McCartney...
I keep track of the blog stats -- who is viewing, what are they looking at, and so on. The blog has proven to be quite a popular resource for staying connected and keeping people informed. Through this stat watching, i have been surprised that the most viewed page by a mile is the one from last September saying, "That's not me on the cover of Rolling Stone" and has the picture of a long-haired George Harrison. Apparently, "George," "the Beatles," "Rolling Stone," and "long-hair" are all popular search items, and as a result, we weekly get viewers of the blog through a search of one of (or a combination) those key-words. I figure that Paul has to be more popular than George, right? So, this is my experiment: will this page now become more popular? We'll let you know... :)
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