Oops...

So... it was just brought to my attention by my blog stalker (aka my mother) who told me (about three seconds after I posted it) that my last posting used the date that I first saved it - which was last week so it is not the most recent listed (in order to figure this out she must be re-reading the old ones - really Mom?!) Anyway so...for anyone who cares there is a new one but it dated September 12 so you will need to scroll down to meet Jemma.

One Month Ago Today...

One month ago today I said farewell to my amazing family and wonderful friends and kissed my beautiful dogs goodbye. I climbed into the car, bawling, knowing that it would be so long before I could see them again. Before long I was here - in Egypt - navigating my way through the fascinating culture and seeking to understand what makes it different and the same and trying to find a way to fit into it.

Here are a few things I have learned so far:

1) Do not even attempt to buy band-aids or nail files here. You can find them no problem but neither do the one thing that they are made to do.

2) Egyptians love bread. If I am shopping and have not picked up bread people will tell me to get some. Recently I mentioned this to someone and was told interestingly, that the word for bread “aish” means “to live"...fitting.

3)Egyptians also seem to love sugar. For example, if you tell them you don’t want sugar in tea they say “one” and then when you say no they say "one" again, then if you agree to that they keep increasing the number. This interaction never ceases to make me laugh.

4) Don’t expect anything to be done when it is supposed to be done. Things happen when they happen. Insha’allah. We are still waiting for books (among other things) that were supposed to arrive weeks ago. This does not seem odd to anyone. Just go with it.

5) You get paid in cash. In an envelope. I feel like a mobster.

6) Sheesha really is everywhere. If you walk through the souk at night you are surrounded by puffs of smoke and the smell fills the air. What is surprising to me is that it smells delicious!

7) Missing your dogs doesn't get better as time goes on.

8)If you are a 12 year old Egyptian boy you better get these little firework things. They light them on fire and throw the flaming whatever it is onto the grass, then it makes this obnoxiously loud bang. There are burn marks all over the grass and the lovely sound of gunshots can be heard every 5 minutes or so.

10) This is a great place to be a vegetarian (mmm fuul and falafel and hummus) BUT don't try to explain this to someone. Even the words "no meat" (which I can say in Arabic) are met with "ok chicken" or complete confusion. Then the rice comes out with beef in it....hmmm.

11)You can get absolutely everything delivered here. Everything. Anything. My personal favourite: a single sheet of aspirin can be purchased and delivered for under 40 cents. Yousee the delivery guys for the various stores sitting on their bikes all over the city. It seems that I could live without ever leaving the house.

12) Interesting questions that are asked frequently: Are you married? What is your religion? How much do you make? These things seem to play an important role in the makeup of one's identity here.

12) Drink mango juice from the stands on the street whenever you can. It is served with a spoon and has chunks of mango in it. The. most. amazing. thing. It is like a drive through/sit down restuarant. You drive up and they come take your order, bring you your drink in a glass then you drink it in the car and they come take the glass back and you pay.

13) There are stray dogs and cats everywhere in Egypt (dogs are limited in the city I live in because it is gated so they don't let them in). I have as of yet not had any luck with trying to get these little creatures to follow me home. I have been feeding two tiny kittens that hang out near my building. Still hopeful that I can train them to be dogs - I have the clicker all ready, Courtney so not to worry!

14) Emails/blog comments/messages of any sort from home make my day...so thanks to all of you. Also, I am very lucky to have such fantastic family and friends.

15)Bills are paid here by handing cash to the man who knocks on your door and yells an amount to you along with a lot of Arabic words that of course I don’t understand.

16)Getting around in Egypt without Arabic is not working.

Happy One Month in Egypt to Me!

And Just Like That....

And just like that my apartment is not so empty. Instead it is full of laughter and love and puppy feet. It finally feels like a home.

The story: About a week ago I was wandering through the souk (market) and I came across a pet store with a crate full of puppies inside. I did not see anyone working there but I stood outside the store for quite awhile watching the puppies. I knew better than to go in...I knew holding a puppy would be a mistake. After awhile I gave in and oohed and aahed at the puppies through the crate. Anyway I resisted as long as I could but before long I had takenall the puppies out, fallen in love with one in particular, given her a nameand was snuggling and playing with her in the pet store. I was there almost four hours that night. For the next week I went every night to visit herand was always there a few hours. How I missed puppy cuddles. I quickly became a part of the family. The teaguy would come to deliver their tea and they would get me one, they pass around cookies. A few nights ago they told me to take her home for a few days - I guess they knew that this was the only way to get rid of me!

She was really dirty and in need of some love. She spends allher time in a really dirty crate with what looks like very

uncomfortable bars on the bottom. I was sooo excited to get her home! She is now looking marvelous. What a difference a bath, a nice walk, a nail clipping, a homemade meal (they have her on really bad food), some snuggles and a nice bed makes!

I am the happiest I have been since I got here. We have no toys so we play fetch with Egyptian lemons (they are little balls) that I freeze for her. Life is so much sweeter with a puppy.

So that this isn't just me raving about my newest baby - which you are all used to listening to me do at home Isuppose I should add in something cultural. Dogs are not beloved like they are back home. There is certainly no buying them jackets and strollers and toys and all the silly things thatpeople do back home. But more than that they are quite rough and even neglectful. This is hard for me to watch. I have been trying to understand this more. According to Islam animals should be treated kindly (I think this just means that you should not abuse them though) but should not be treated, well... the way mine (and most others in the West) are. It is preferable to keep them outside. Dogs are permitted as a way to guard the property but are not raised to sleep in your bed or be best friends. One of the children that live near me said that she has a puppy that is the same age but it can't go outside yet...because if it does it will get used to people. I guess they are right - my puppy raising methods makes pretty horrendous guard dogs. Also, before praying you have to do "wudu" or cleanse(hands, ear, feet etc.) and apparently if you have touched a dog there is a special cleansing that you are supposed to do- with sand to remove more of the dirt. Of course, I have to mention that I learn all of this from various sources and piece it together. I was holding her and had a few of the guards stop me and motion that I should put her on the ground. Even the sweet children that live near me ( well the ones that don't jump away from her with looks of terror and/or disgust on their faces) are so rough with her - pushing her around when she gets into things and yelling at her. I am constantly telling them to be nice to her and trying to teach them about respecting animals. Of course, teaching another way to things that are so engrained in a culture is not easy and I feel like they don't even hear me because they go right back to it a minute later. Obviously they don't understand that when they do this it is like pushing my child....not okay.

The pet store breaks my heart. The dogs are in rough shape and from what I can tell they ever get out of these tiny cages. I was opening up the cage a St. Bernard puppy and the owner even said "oh no don't pick her up - she is really dirty". It took everything in me not to tell him that

she is dirty because he does not clean her cage and she is in there all day. Instead I picked her up and cuddled her and told her she was beautiful - and went home to shower.They smell awful - poor things. I have been spending all my tie thinking of ways that I can suggest being their volunteer groomer/"kennel" worker but have not yet found a way that does not imply that they are not doing a good job. It hurts my heart...sometimes I tear up watching them.

Unfortunately I wrote this about a week ago and since school started I have not had a second to go visit her. Interestingly though, one of my students, when I was telling the class about myself on the first day and brought a picture of my dogs said "isn't she dirty" and when I told her that if the dog gets dirty I give her a bath - just like people she laughed and laughed like it was the most hilarious joke she had ever heard. At least my life can keep my little ones entertained.

These are her very best "don't send me back eyes"

A few more pictures....because I can't resist.

Mostafa, Mennatallah, Mohamed and Friends

I have their names! How wonderful. It was a process. I knew that we would all get them eventually and I am supposed to accept that patiently but with their names...well I just wanted them so badly. So I asked the assistant principal who told me I could talk to Student Affairs who told me that the list wasn't finalized ( I said that was fine and I would take whatever they had), and that there was a problem with the printer (I said I would write them out by hand) and then that they needed to get IT (I sad that I would come back) and so on ... But in the end I got it! I probably did not make any friends with the people who work in Student Affairs and I likely used up all of my favours for theyear but….Ihave it! I could not be more excited. Having their names makes it all very real. They are real little people with names and personalities and favourite things and I can’t wait to meet them.

Starting to Resemble a Classroom...

Everyone has been asking for new classroom pictures. I was waiting until it was done but here ya go!

I was so anxious to get the keys and was asking everyone but it seemed that it was not going to happen – everyone said they would talk to someone but nothing ever came of it. I am getting used to this. Then the director came in one day…he is the kind of man that walks around like he owns the world. He struts around holding his jacket over his shoulder and has this commanding (but very kind) voice. When he speaks everyone jumps. So he starts asking how I am and if I am happy. I know that I should not bother him with something as trivial as NEEDING to get into my room immediately just because I want to stand in it and feel what it is like to be in the space, to envision the great year ahead. I try to stop myself but before I know it I am “casually” mentioning how much I would love to get into the classroom. He immediately calls out something in Arabic and within 45 seconds guess what I am doing…..standing in the middle of my classroom starting to move my desks out of rows….ah magic! I vow never to resort to this method for anything else ever again but grant myself this one!

(This is Mr. William and Mr. Ryan- the two other Western teachers- working in my classroom- The alphabet behind them is going to be my Word Wall)

The school is great - all the resources you can imagine and it seems that it is the best of everything they can buy. We have Smart Boards in every room, including the science and computer lab, all the best language programs on our computer, even the cabinets have been

sent back a few times so that they are the best that there is. The math manipulatives that are available are apparently cheap and so ours are coming all the way from the States. When I comment on all of this my principal jokes that she is a shopper…which of course I can relate to. I was allowed to go pick out whatever I wanted them to buy for the science lab. We get to this strange building and take an elevator (with hieroglyphs all over the walls) up and go down this long narrow hallway where we come to these giant sliding wood doors. It looks like an apartment building kinda…anyway it does not look like somewhere you go to look at science equipment. We go in and sit in this dark room with the man who is selling the equipment on these leather couches where we stare at each other for a minute (he offers the foreign teachers something to drink but we decline of coursebecause no one else can drink anything). He leaves and comes back and then brings us to this tiny room with boxes full of all these cheap math manipulatives. We explain that we are there for science equipment and so he shows us a dozen types of microscopes. We tell him we don’t want this and so we go to another place that is equally strange. Anyway it is certainly not the way ordering equipment for a school would go back home but the Egyptian teachers seemed to think nothing of it. I ended up ordering a bunch of equipment out of a catalogue. Much less odd. They have actually hired a science lab technician whose job it is to make sure that all the materials we want for the lab are always stocked and ready to go when teachers need them. I am very lucky to be at this school and I am reminded of this every day.

My carpet is the newest addition to my classroom and I am very excited to have it. I also got very lucky - I have the carpet with the environmental message - I would have fought for it if I knew there was one but this one was just delivered to me by chance. Everything is falling into place...

My first day at the school I was told that I would need to be extremely flexible -that the government routinely closes schools and we need to be able to go with it. This has proven to be true already. We were just told that the government is not allowing us to open next week as scheduled. Instead we will be waiting until the Egyptian public schools open - on Saturday the 18th. So this is my new start date. I am grateful for the extra time especially because I am still waiting for some materials and furniture. Some things are stuck in customs, other things are several weeks late on the deliveries (apparently the day the book delivery was due there was a car accident and it seems they just never tried to deliver again). I have learned quickly to accept these things and I do not worry about it. Everything will arrive eventually. It is a great exercise in patience and acceptance. Still I am very excited to meet my little ones!

A Note About Eating in Egypt...

So I have mentioned Ramadan in my postingsbefore. It is the month during the year where Muslims do not eat or drink from sunrise to sunset. It is also a time when they are to be their best selves: to be kind to others, to help people- particularly the poor (there are mandatory donations), not to become angry and so on. I have been meaning to post these pictures of the Community Iftar (the meal at 6:30 that breaks the fast) that we had at the school. It was set up in our courtyard and was a really lovely evening. The food was delicious and it was nice to eat and talk with some of the other teachers. Sitting there looking around at everything and taking in the moment I was blown away at the reality of where I am and at the wonderful adventure ahead of me. I am so grateful for this incredible opportunity. Afterwards the director told us that this is the food that will be served in the cafeteria – that this was like a practice run for the chefs…that was pretty exciting news!! I can’t eat most of it, even though a lot of Egyptian food is vegan friendly because these are rich people and I "eat like Egypt's poor people" as I have been told. Still it means I will certainly eat well at lunch. I don't want to make generalizations so early in my stay here when I still understand so little but class seems to be very important here - more than anywhere else I have ever been.

Speaking of eating like the poor, after a particularly difficult day last week I suggested to the two American teachers and I go out for dinner. We went for Kosheri (a typical Egyptian meal). So we walk in and order and the man grabs a container and starts flinging things in – he throws things in the air and catches them with the container. I think he was putting it on a little for me because I started cheering for him after the first few. My cheer consisted of my giggles and lots of “Yay! Kwayyis (good)” Anyway it is rice, mini spaghetti noodles, tiny circular pasta with holes, brown lentils, fried onions and chickpeas (here they call chick peas hummus – you can imagine how confusing this was while I spent the first two weeks of my stay here searching for what we refer to as hummus). We ordered three of them and got three waters and guess what the grand total was….. $18 LE or the equivalent of about $3. People eat on patches of grass on the side of the road all the time here so we decided to do as the Egyptians do and we found a spot and settled down to enjoy our less-than-one-dollar dinner. Did I mention that I didn’t even get through half of it and that leftover kosheri makes a delicious breakfast…

Aside from this, I mastered the fuul and falafel purchase (kinda). I know how much each costs so if I say fuul and put down 2 pounds (LE) then say falafel and put down 2 more pounds it seems to stop some of the follow-up questions and I can successfully walk out with food. Success! This is a typical breakfast here but I have it for dinner (and then leftovers for breakfast). This meal costs me 80 cents and I have enough left for breakfast.

Other than this I have mastered my stove. I make a lot of rice and a lot of lentil soup. I don't have a measuring cup or spoon so it is just random amounts of everything and random spices. By random I mean that I have no idea what I am putting in. A note on buying spices. It is tricky.

The first one way. On the second one there are signs (and prices in English) so a little better but still no idea what is what. So far I just guess. I think of it as an adventure. It makes me and the man I buy them from laugh...so I go often.

I am doing well and I am happy. Of course I miss home and I miss all of you people who really understand me. But I am happy.