Catch up time!

It’s a long time since I wrote and I’m sure you’ve mostly stopped reading and looking by now, so you’ve probably come across this by pure chance! Life has just become so busy with the company (Nile Wave Travel, find us on Facebook and become a fan - sorry, small ad break there) and the net is so slow here that I just never seem to get around to writing. Besides, life is now routine- the same routine you have – get up, go to work, come home from work, have dinner, watch TV or work on the computer, go to bed! There’s not much exotic or interesting about that!

But because it’s been a few months there have been a few bits and pieces.

Mohamed’s sister Shimaa and her husband and 2 kids, Yousef and Hella visited from Kuwait. I have put some photos of the kids on Facebook – they are gorgeous but “full of life” shall we say. Shimaa is adorable and taught me a little more Arabic and a little more cooking. They mostly stayed in their own flat in Maadi, and bought another one while they were here (in our estate). Mohamed adores the kids and it was lovely when they were around.

We bought a new car – Mohamed finally got his way and we now have a new black BMW which is nice but not sure that I would buy another, at least another not 3 series. There’s no storage room in it for anything, only takes a single CD, no cup holders in the front, doesn’t have anything like floor mats (the dealer generously gave us rubber ones), the leather seats and sun roof are unbelievably hot here in summer (maybe I’ll appreciate the sunroof more in winter) – I have a list! I know these are all little things and I’m sure the engineering is superb, still, little things matter. I especially hate the no cupholders and no storage, there’s nowhere to keep any CDs for example when you want to change the one you can have in the player and your bottle of water rolls around on the floor and you can’t have a coffee…. whinge, whinge, whine…

There was a story in the trip when went to collect it – having sold the Honda we took a taxi. Not just any taxi, the most dangerous, decrepit, battered taxi in all of Cairo I am sure. When we got there Mohamed gave him 100 pounds and told me he hoped he’d go home for the day so no one got killed. For most of the 15 or so kms I was sure it would probably be us! At least I was in the back, but I didn’t have a seatbelt and my door didn’t close properly…. Seemed very incongruous arriving at the BMW showrooms in this fashion.

And Mohamed’s sister Hagar got married, a very nice Nubian wedding through the night with much music and dancing – so many different customs. The contract ceremony was on the Saturday, with Mohamed standing in at the mosque for Hagar (men only ceremony) and then the party on Sunday night. They are not together until after the party.

So - Hagar's wedding was different and interesting, about 200 people I'd guess, most from Upper Egypt (Aswan) as both families originate there. So the faces looked African rather than Egyptian and the music was Nubian, like Ethiopian/Sudanese. The dancing was also African rather than Arab, so no belly dancing. More like line dancing of a sort.... really easy to do.

It was all very different from the start - we collected Hagar around 8.30 pm from the "coiffeur"/dress place/photo studio and her Mohamed (yes her husband is also called Mohamed) was already there along with about 40 other people attending the wedding and about a dozen other brides, all with their own crowds - incredibly hot, incredibly crowded, incredibly noisy - we had one family photo taken and then, once the most important people had all arrived, we all loaded into cars and one of our Coasters amid clapping, tambourine banging and music, people blessing the couple etc. Our new car was the couple’s transport, decorated with flowers, Nubian music playing - loudly.

We all went in a sort of procession (as much as you can in Cairo traffic), horns tooting and music blaring, with some cars weaving in and out of the traffic, to the reception place beside the Nile, open air with coloured lights, awnings and heavy satiny curtains - hard to explain. Tables and chairs and a dance area (concrete but with carpets over some of it). A raised stage for the bride and groom with big chairs. Food was a small cardboard box with a small round croissant, a slice of sponge/cream cake and a small juice. Feeding Omar (one of our little nephews) I managed to get the cream all over me. Lots of dancing. Sometimes just men in one group and women in another, sometimes together. Sometimes the bride and groom sometimes not. Stick waving (like walking sticks being waved in the air by the men), finger snapping, clapping, ululating, spraying with Santa snow and air freshener (go figure). SO HOT!!!!

About 1 am the bride and groom danced with Mohamed's parents (his dad on crutches so couldn't get up onto the stage etc.) and another relative of Mohamed's also danced with them holding a tray on which was a velvet box and chocolates. Then back onto the stage and it was revealed that this was the wedding gold for Hagar including her wedding and engagement rings, gold bracelets, another couple of gold and diamond rings and a diamond pendant. So Mohamed put those on her and she in turn transferred his wedding ring from his right hand to his left. Then they threw all the chocolates into the crowd. Lots more noise – tambourines and ululation.

And there ended the only formalities, as such. Lots more dancing. Finally the procession out preceded by the tambourine type drums (big ones) and singing, clapping etc., then up to the car and the men all picked Mohamed up and threw him into the air three times after which he joined us in the car and half a dozen cars made another horn-tooting, music-playing procession to where they were staying. Normally it would be to their house but the carpenter didn't finish the kitchen so they stayed a few days at Shimaa's flat. Then it was goodnight and goodbye.

So there you have it – all very exciting and interesting.

And now I’d better go, get back to work so to speak, designing more tours, talking to more hotels, etc. etc.

I hope you are all well and happy



Lotsa luv

Lyndall


PS - there's some wedding photos on Facebook and photos of the family - look for them in the family in Egypt album but feel free to browse and comment on my other photos as well :-)

Life as usual

Back in the office after a trip out and about this morning, Mohamed’s friend called early asking could we take his wife and baby son to the hospital so that was the first task, then a look at the BMWs on the way past to Honda to check out a noise which has turned out to be a broken engine mount (to be fixed next Monday at a cost of 900 pounds), collected Mohamed’s new passport and back to the office.

Had news yesterday that Mohamed’s sister in Kuwait’s new baby is in intensive care; apparently he has a congenital problem that means his food doesn’t go into his stomach but rather his lungs. Apparently he still needs a week in ICU and then they will operate to fix this. We are all very worried. His other sister also arrives from Kuwait on Sunday (I think) to be here for around 6 weeks I believe – she will be here for Hagar’s wedding on the 26th and then a little while after that. She and her husband and two children are coming, Mohamed is very excited as he hasn’t seen them for almost 3 years.

Meanwhile for us the lawyer says the final license will come from the govt between Thursday and Sunday - oh I hope so!!!! We are currently speaking to an Australian company to work with and also a man here in Egypt who brings tourists from the US. Hopefully both these deals will come off and give us some immediate business.

Because we are having visitors tomorrow we have 2 cleaning ladies coming – Umm Rami and her younger niece who looks around 13 and has already had a live-in cleaning lady position – so that all the windows etc. can be taken out and washed and all the lights cleaned and all that stuff you don’t do all that often. Started cleaning the curtains last night. Mohamed gets really fussy when anyone is coming – you should see the flurry of activity if one of his friends calls to say they are coming, even when the place is clean (and really it’s clean all the time!). I have to confess it makes me cross, just one of the things we don’t agree about. Why can’t his friends take us as they find us instead of me cleaning toilets and bathrooms that are already clean and washing down kitchen benches and sweeping floors and putting absolutely everything AWAY? By the time they arrive I want a shower and feel sweaty and horrible and cross and I’m rushing to change my clothes as well so that I don’t ever enjoy a visit. I appear all red-faced and dripping saying “no problem, no problem” – they must all think I have some sort of congenital disease that means I look like this all the time! And I struggle to let my crossness go and relax and enjoy the company. I wonder if they leave muttering to each other – “can’t see why he married her!”

I worry a bit about Umm Rami these days, she is almost 6 months pregnant and looks about 8.9 months and I get concerned for her so find myself saying “leave that I’ll do it” quite often. Crazy! Not sure how much longer she will work. She also cleans the office for us. She told Mohamed the other day her husband is thinking of taking a second wife (remember Egyptian Muslim men can have 4 wives). I felt horrified but when Mohamed asked her she said she didn’t mind, maybe the new wife would help her. This is one of the truly unfathomable cultural things to me – I know I couldn’t do it. But maybe with baby no. 4 on the way and a life of work, work, work, she really does see it as an opportunity to get some help (her daughter isn’t old enough yet to do a great deal although I’m sure she does quite a bit in looking after the smaller children etc.) and maybe all the stuff that would matter to us doesn’t matter to her at all. But I wonder if that’s what she truly feels deep down…. But really what choice does she have?

Egyptian women, at least the poorer ones, really do work hard. Again, I struggle not to get agitated when I see the doorman’s wife washing all the cars in the morning or mowing the lawn in the bottom villa as well as looking after the children while the doorman sits under the tree drinking tea. And I know she goes out to clean houses too. And my hackles go up just a tiny bit when the man from the shack over the road arrives home on his motorcycle beeping the horn and one of the women rushes out to untie the load and take everything inside while he parks and sits himself down in the shade. And I know that those women have been up since daylight cooking for the small shop they run and working in the villa over the road.

That’s one thing that I have found out about myself living in Egypt. I am very accepting of other cultures when I visit, I find it much more difficult when I live here, especially in relation to women and children and their rights and treatment. I hate that I see boys who look about 11 or 12 working in the exceptional midday heat, clearing rubbish from the roads or working on a building site. I hate it that the doorman’s little girl doesn’t go to school and that Umm Rami can’t read or write a must ask her young son, who has more knowledge and power and rights than she does. And although I know that women chose to wear the hijab and abeya etc. for themselves and for God, I still find it difficult to watch the women, especially the older women, in the incredible heat fully covered, often with 2 or 3 layers, red-faced and looking like they might expire at any moment.

I know that all this says more about me than about Egypt, but I must confess I love that I can visit home and just be myself and have what is familiar around me. I feel, from my daily levels of irritation, it’s almost time to visit again…

Lotsa love

Lyndall

Home again and we have the net at last!

Well hello at last

I’m so sorry that I haven’t written before now – I don’t know where the time has gone really and I have only been to the net once very quickly and then another trip to Honda to service the car where they have wi-fi. But I spent most of my time there trying to renew my security subscription and update security on the laptop with only time for a couple of quick emails.

We have had Mohamed’s sisters Walaa and Hagar and Walaa’s two children Khamsa and Mariam aged 2 and 2 months and 11 months respectively staying on and off. The kids were both extremely cute but Khamsa is EXCEPTIONALLY active and was awake from about 9.00 am until 1.00 am with maybe a tiny nap in the middle somewhere, around 5 pm. Both had chest infections, with Mariam the worst and a nasty cough. She was such a happy thing though and just on the verge of walking, she took her very first steps from the coffee table to Mohamed (about 3).


But anyway, back to the beginning.

The flight was fine, very smooth, I slept plenty really (business class - I hope never to fly anything else again, unless of course it is first), stayed on the plane in Singapore (why is it that you can stay on the plane going over but you MUST get off at Singapore for all of 20 minutes coming to Oz) and had a fairly quick break in Dubai, where I shopped and bought an X-Box for Mohamed.

There were a couple of surprises for me when I got home – Mohamed had bought the bedroom suite and it is very nice really. Probably not what I would have originally chosen but very good in the room, it really suits it and I like it a lot. It has a king size bed, two bedside tables, a big dressing table with a mirror, a very large wardrobe, a coat stand and another cabinet with a drawer and large cupboard. The dressing table and bedside tables and cabinet are topped in a dark red, white-veined marble.













He had also done a lot of work on the roof and had bought 50 trees and shrubs in pots that are now up there and it also looks very nice. It’s lovely up there in the evening and I really enjoy watering after the sun has gone down. We usually spend an hour or so up there fiddling with the plants. Tonight was magical, cooler than the house, full moon over the desert and the sound and light show (well I could only see the light show) on the pyramids. Pretty special.














We have also been and bought a dining room suite and a cabinet kind of like a large china cabinet with a glass-doored one on top and closed in cupboards on the bottom. It is made of a wood called zaan in Arabic but neither Mohamed nor the lady in the shop knew what it is in English. And I can’t tell by looking either. At the same shop we bought two bedside lamps for the bedroom tables that I really like, a sort of dark red and gold. We also bought some artificial flowers, again not usually my thing but Mohamed really wanted flowers so we went to a specialist shop for artificial flowers and got some that are quite good I think. Got some for the bedroom as well in dark red. They are still too long for the vases but I need a pair of clippers to get them right.








So the house is beginning to look a little more “full” although still lots to get.

We had two trips to Alexandria to sort out my boxes from Australia. A total cost of just over 3000 pounds to get them out and into the house. Terminal charges, payment for the man to do the paperwork and also customs duties. At first we had a phone call to say that there were many cds with naked pictures on them, but I said that I didn’t believe that was true and was either an attempt to explain why some disappeared or someone wanted more money. So Mohamed just told them it wasn’t true and when we got the boxes they all seemed to be there. I thought I couldn’t find one at all with a naked picture but Mohamed did find a Tom Waits one with a naked woman in the background on the cover.

Unfortunately not everything arrived intact with 4 crystal glasses broken, one of the crystal vases smashed to smithereens and about a dozen pieces of the dinner set broken. And Mohamed told me when we unpacked the silver cutlery that it is haram for Muslims to eat or serve food with gold or silver. So all of that was a waste to bring and it will sit in the cupboard. Actually under the main silver set was a whole lot of miscellaneous silver and cutlery, some of which was stainless so was OK. Can’t use all the silver teaspoons I brought over in my luggage either.

Nor was I meant to have any of mum’s crystal glasses – two days later the glass cupboard in the kitchen fell off the wall and smashed everything!

While the sisters Walaa and Hagar were here I have learned some more Egyptian dishes - white beans you might like (sort of like a spicy homemade baked beans) but I wonder if you’d enjoy the meat soup (basically boiled big chunks of meat with an onion in it and salt and pepper). Still they all think it is delicious. I think I also have the egg perfected and my mashed potatoes are considered good. And koshery I can now also make except for the lemon sauce – koshery is a really cheap dish you can buy on the street – rice, very tiny macaroni and lentils all cooked in together and then you get a tomato type sauce, just a little spicy, a very hot sauce, a lemon sauce, extra crispy lentils and very golden dry crispy onion and chick peas that you sprinkle on top. I only got the method for the tomato type sauce from Hagar but I can do the sprinkles although I would need a recipe for the hot sauce and the lemon sauce. Maybe the net will provide eventually. Mind you a huge dish of it costs 5 pounds (A$1) on the street – you would wonder why we would bother making it!

And the phone and the net is another story. The phone is here and is to be wireless. Yes, the phone will be some sort of wireless/mobile deal as will the net but it doesn’t work right now – we get to wait for them to build the tower for this area – they said a couple of months but goodness knows what that means. Mohamed got it to work the other night but he now tells me it can only make house to house calls, not to mobiles, and he doesn’t know if it will make international calls. So we have made one call to Rania,

Etisalat has a new deal for mobile net for 6 months – it costs 300 pounds per month and if you take 6 months you get your modem free – or something to that effect. At least that was what was advertised. And that was 3.75G with 3G about half that price. I wanted to faster speed, of course, but on further investigation Mohamed has phoned me tonight to say that the fast speed is only available in 2 areas in Cairo so it will be the slower speed. I think he’s organizing it tonight. I HOPE!

On our first trip to Alexandria about the boxes we had a bit of time and we went to the library – it is such an impressive building from the outside, so incredibly unique and unusual – I was a bit disappointed with the inside. It also costs you to get in which surprised me. Still I was pleased to have seen it. It’s renowned throughout the library world.







The new library at Alexandria replacing at last the ancient library that was destroyed by fire.


Have also had a new sort of mango which is just incredibly delicious – it’s called a foss –don’t know if that’s how you spell it but it’s how you say it – it’s very small and also has a tiny seed and is not at all stringy, very sweet and juicy. They are fabulous and so we’re eating lots of mangoes. At the moment most of the roadside donkey and horse carts have mangoes, probably about a dozen different varieties. And cucumbers are just starting to come and corn is getting ripe in the fields, there are food sellers with roasted cobs all around the streets. And guavas are also in season, we have a couple of kilos in the fridge – mind you now everything smells of guava!



Porto Sohkna - a huge new hotel and apartment complex being built


We took another trip to Sokhna and this time spent a day on a beach at one of the big hotels (cost us 300 pounds to use the beach) and we swam all day and had an excellent lunch (extra, not included). We could also have used the pool if we had wanted but the sea (the Red Sea below Suez) was much better. Lots of fish in it – they would sometimes nibble on you – a bit disconcerting. The sea was beautiful to swim in, fabulous temperature and very clean. Only problem where we were there were rocks with lots of sea urchins, Mohamed got some small spine pieces in his foot and it’s given him some problems but I think I finally got the last very tiny piece out last night as it seems at last to be not so sore. Not a lot of sand and very rocky in places to get into the water but beautiful once in. Not a wave in sight of course. Mohamed is very willing to learn to swim and mastered floating without much problem, I think he will be swimming in no time if we get to go back often enough. He’s just got to get the breathing thing happening, although while we’ve watched the Olympics he has seen how the swimmers breathe out through their nose. He’s very observant and has probably learned heaps just from watching.

The other night we took Walaa and the kids to the airport – she had 120 kg of luggage but she could take 100 for free. At last! Someone with more luggage than me! She also had a problem because the police wanted proof the children belonged to her and she hadn’t put Mariam into her passport yet. I asked Mohamed how she managed and he said that she cried and the policeman let her go. Different – it’s all so very different.

We also went back to the visa halls to get my visa renewed. Now I am married to an Egyptian I am entitled to a 5 year resident’s visa, renewable as many times as you like. So it was back to the first window we ever went to and again off to the other window to pay the fees, but this time I had a pen and we knew enough to have photographs with us and copies of my passport and the marriage contract etc. etc. But we were still caught out because we didn’t have copies of Mohamed’s passport. So it was still back down the stairs to the copy booths and shove through the crowd of dozens all shouting waving papers (well Mohamed shoving through the crowds) to get his passport copied. But eventually we had everything we needed and we went back to our original window and dropped it all off. It will take two weeks, which means that it is supposed to be ready on Monday. I HOPE!

Hagar has come back to stay with us for maybe a week – well as long as she likes really and as often as she likes. She has given up work and I am most concerned about her living alone without any work to do. She can work for us once the company is a reality but meanwhile I hope she stays as often as possible.

So off to wash the floors, talk to you again soon now that I can do it more easily

lots of love

Lyndall


PS - And just for Henry Kwaczynski – Henry when we were driving to the supermarket the other night I saw a whole new one – a truck with the load slipped and no rocks on the road – instead we had a fire on the road to warn everyone of the problem! There’s always something on the road to astound me!

Introducing Logan Steel

Our baby boy got his name today - Logan Steel. He's growing so fast, almost 6 kilos, he has rolled over more than once already and is out of newborn nappies and 000 clothes. His eyes are now a very clear blue and he follows you when you are nursing him or bending over the bassinette. You always forget just how fast they grow and how every moment must be treasured.



















Photos taken last Sunday

Lots of love

Lyndall

New photos, 2 weeks old yesterday

Sharing the floor with mum



















He's so cute


Ian holds him on his first "brunch" at Hot Pippis


Dad Ian looking pretty happy



Nana gets a cuddle





Mum Lahni and baby


Pa and baby boy


Micheal takes a turn



Lonni with her two babies

More pics another day. All I am doing is putting unwanted possessions on ebay, recovering form the surgery slowly and seeing the baby

lots of love

Lyndall

A couple of photos from today (Friday)

Enjoy just a few of today's photos













Everyone is well and he seems like a good baby so far....

love

Lyndall

The new baby in the family

Baby Steel made his appearance one week early at 8.16 am on Wednesday 17th June after a labour lasting roughly 10 hours. He is a BIG boy at 4.62 kilos and Lahni knows all about it, being very thankful he didn't go to term. It's very exciting for us all. Everyone is well and Lahni goes home tomorrow (Thursday). So here are the photos


All together at last


On mum's tummy


Very new


Dad Ian has his first cuddle


Three generations


Mum and Dad and baby makes three


Nana, Aunty Lonni and baby


Lahni relaxes while doting Dad Ian holds the baby

DAY 2




With Aunty Lonni





Day 2 and he's definitely getting cuter all the time


Will post more in a few days

love

Lyndall