Almost over

Another partly cloudy day yesterday and the pyramids were at it again, ducking in and out of shadow and looking amazing. Taken through the bedroom window.


Hi everyone, Ramadan is now drawing to a close and although we don't know the exact date yet, it will be over and the Eid here in 4 or 5 days. That's not quite the end of the fasting - there will be 6 more days in the month that follows but you can choose how and when after the Eid you fast for those days. Mohamed says he thinks for him maybe 2 days a week, but I figure I'd rather get it all over at once. So we'll see after Eid. Muslims believe that if you do the extra 6 days it is as if you had fasted for a year.

Today has been a really nasty day with a very strong wind blowing and a temperature of 41 - there was so much sand in the air that we couldn't even see the pyramids when we went up to water the plants on the roof. It has looked like being in fog all day and the wind was really rattling the awnings. Very like the khamseen although that comes in March-April.

I hope it has cleared a little by tomorrow as I will be up reasonably early tomorrow (well, by 10.30 anyway) as tomorrow we provide an iftar meal to our drivers and the people at the park where the vehicles stay overnight, and for the doorman and his family and the family over the road in the little one room shop/house. Hagar is coming at around 11.00 am and thank goodness really as Masry has put in an order for a range of Egyptian dishes, most of which I know how to cook but have not cooked yet. The doorman's wife is also going to cook the rice - Masry says it's a farmer's dish - rice cooked in milk in the oven but with salt and butter, not sugar. SO that's one thing I don't have to do. The meal we'll provide is:
- dates
- toshi (pickled mixed vegetables)
- bread
- olives
- mixed salad of lettuce, cucumber, tomato, onion, carrot
- mulukhiyya, a soup made of a green leaf that I've never seen before and garlic and coriander and chicken (or rabbit) stock. Masry loves it. My little phrasebook says you'll either hate it or love it! Given the meat broth I have only barely tasted it, to me it doesn't taste much like anything except the garlic.
- maHshi koosa - zucchini and small eggplant and small peppers stuffed with a rice and tomato and dill mix and cooked in a tomato sauce (these are already made, a friend of Mohamed's sent them home with him tonight, along with a full meal for him)
- potatoes sliced and baked in the oven with sliced onion and garlic in a tomato sauce
- makarona bil beshamel - macaroni and mince layered with bechamel sauce and baked (sort of like lasagna but with ordinary penne or elbow or twist pasta)
- meat, chunks of rump, first boiled for about and hour and a half and then baked/browned in the oven
- juice

That's all to be prepared tomorrow and I guess with Hagar's guidance all will be well - insha'allah. The food has to be ready to leave here by 5.00 pm latest and when they get to the park it will all be spread out on carpets on the ground and all the men will sit round and eat and drink as soon as they are able. I won't be there to see it - it will be men only. Don't know if Hagar will be staying the night or not. So I might have iftar by myself tomorrow but that will be OK. Mohamed has been invited out to some of his friends for iftar a few times but he has always declined to be with me; I am sure one night eating by myself won't hurt. Mind you he has gone out often later to the cafe with his friends so it's not really as if he's been deprived.

We went out to the supermarket last night - another of my very rare evenings out in Ramadan. We were also asked out to one of Masry's friends house last night for iftar but preparations for the big meal took precedence. Instead, we will be going in the Eid to Osama's house. Osama doesn't have any English but I spoke to his wife on the phone and she and I should be able to communicate quite well I think. (Yes, Osama's house - I'll keep you posted) We went over to Carrfours in El Maadi, it's a bit of a department type store as well as supermarket and there's not a bad range of clothing stores in the same complex. One of the Ramadan customs is that you get new clothes as a gift before the Eid and we were looking for Mohamed but he didn't see anything he liked. We had been to City Stars earlier in the week but he didn't really find anything there either. Fingers crossed that he can see something he likes in the next few days.

It has been lovely being out on the streets and seeing the lights and the people out taking the evening air, the cafes full and the streets busy, even at 1.30 to 2.00 am when we come home. I think maybe now I can appreciate just a little the special atmosphere of Ramadan.

I don't really have too much else for now, it's 1.30 am and Mohamed is still at prayer, he will finish about 2.00 am and then we'll eat a little earlier tonight. After midnight he prays for an hour, a mixture of reading the Qu'uaran and praying - basically singing the Qu'uaran just as they do in the mosque. This is an important part of the extra religious rituals of the last 10 days of Ramadan for him.

I want to say a BIG thank you to everyone who has written, it's been great to get your letters and hear all the news from your part of Oz. I look forward to hearing more from you all. We are both fit and well. Sorry I don't have any new photos of Logan - news is that he's over 7 kg and laughs lots. I also know he's slept through the night and is being good. Sounds like a great baby, can't wait to see him again.

lots of love for now

Lyndall