Hello, Family...
Today is the 4th of October, and this e-mail I'm responding to was written on 1st of August. Just so everyone knows: we have not been ignoring you on purpose. After we left the Cairo hotel in mid-June (where they DID have a business office where we bought time to write the one and only e-mail you have been referring to) we moved up to the Mercure Hotel in Alexandria. They claim to have 4 stars, but someone was being way too generous when they performed that ranking. We were put into a teeeeeensy room (about the size of JP's bedroom in Oak Creek) with one full-size bed, one pull-out twin size sofa bed, and Kaisa slept on the sofa bed's "bench" cushion on the floor wedged between the sofa and our bed. We also had to strategically stash 14 suitcases and two car seats in that tiny room. We were supposed to stay there until we had a permanent residence. No pool. Nothing in walking distance. We could watch the traffic on the Corniche from our window (and that proved to be very entertaining) and some Arabic TV, but other than making the kids do "laps" on the stairwell, there was no way to excercise or do anything. The restaurant was permanently closed, so we had to eat all our meals in the coffee shop, where we decided there wasn't much on the menu that we wanted to eat. Magdy (our driver) was away all day with Drew at the jobsites, so we had no option to go farther than a walk -- which was crazy dangerous. The hotel was ON the Corniche -- no place for a car to pull over, cars had to block the right hand lane to load or offload from the hotel. The sidewalk was 3 tiles wide at the entrance (quite generous, eh?) and no cars slow down. Going for a walk was near suicidal, and there weren't any stores or restaurants or beaches within a 30 minute walk. Every so often they have a tunnel to cross the 14 lanes of above-ground traffic (used mainly by non-Egyptians, because the natives just cross where ever they want). JP, Kaisa and I braved the heat and went for a walk on the other side of the Corniche (using the tunnels, of course) one afternoon. Good thing I brought water with us, but otherwise I had cranky kids who'd been through too much traveling and too much "being cooped up". No parks. No beach access. No pool. Nothing. And no business office or internet connections. Geez what fun. Drew came home from work each night and the kids and I would be ready to strangle each other. We had Magdy show us a few restaurants near the Mercure, so we had some decent food in the evenings.
After a week of this, Drew was talking about this situation at work, and a guy knew of a villa for rent at Sidi Kreir (close to one of his jobsites) and there was a pool at the complex. This was a better solution (spreading out-wise) because we weren't forced to share the same thimble-ful of space all day and all night. The bedrooms were upstairs, we had 2 balconies, and the living room and kitchen and dining area were downstairs, with an outside porch. The drawbacks were the bugs (some of them should have helped pay rent) and the lack of air conditioning. Lack of electricity quite often, and certainly no computer or internet access. We ended up calling this chapter in our lives "Luxury Camping"... and once I had that mind-set, it was okay. There was running water and a gas-stove. The ancient, loud, drippy fridge was in the eating area, so walking around the kitchen wall past the table to the corner of the dining area to get fridge/freezer items wasn't so convenient, but at least the items were chilled and we didn't have to have an ice-chest or something more primative. We also were treated to twice-daily "smoke truck" visits. Those were a joy. The smoke supposedly (ha ha ha) kept the mosquitos at bay. (OR! I shudder to think how bad they would have been without the smoke trucks) but the smoke came inside the villa and gassed us out every morning at 5am and again right at dinner time when the food was out. Anyway, the villa itself became more comfortable as we became familiar with it, and there was a pool about 10 minutes walk from our door. Only women and children were allowed to use it before 11am. which worked out well for our needs. After then, the men were allowed to enter any visual area near the pool. This is so the muslim women can bathe without being seen. Even so, they bathe in full head-to-toe coverings. Scarves on their heads at all times, and bathing suits like spandex, but down to the ankles and out to the wrists, with draped fabric around the torso/upper legs. I felt almost nude in a one-piece and an exposed head of hair.
While living at the villa, we went house-hunting a few times. The first time was with a realtor who must have thought we were too rich for our own good and was willing to swindle us of several thousand LE (Egyptian Pounds). Our driver, Magdy, went with us and had contacts, so he would "double check" whatever the realtor told us through his own phone contacts and told us secretly that the price was not what she said, etc. etc. etc. So... we skipped her and went twice with Magdy's boss and eventually found the flat where we are living now. Our landlady is named Madame Samiha and she owns 5 flats in this building -- they are for her children when they are finished with schooling and need a place to live with their own family one day. Meanwhile, she lets the flats out and earns some money. We signed contracts with her in July and our move-in date was set for August 16th (Erik's BD)... so we still had some time to enjoy the villa and our "camping".
Madame Samiha is very accomodating and let me pick out the paint colors for the walls, and pick out a new stove (the one that was in there wasn't safe, it turned on, but didn't turn off unless you went to the tank and cranked the valve closed). I also got to pick out a new fridge (the one that was ther was quite similar to the drippy, smelly version from the Villa) and now we have a stainless steel German one. I feel so much better with new appliances, even if they're not what I'm used to function or size-wise from the states. The fridge is narrow and small, but it works well. and this stove doesn't need matches, it has a button to push for ignighting the gas when you're ready to cook. The oven section below is not insulated, though, so when you use it, every surface is as HOT as the interior -- not really kid safe -- and it, too, is narrow. My cookie sheets don't fit inside because they're much wider than the oven. Think "large microwave" for the oven cavity.
We have nice cabinets, and Samiha had a workman add shelves to the pantry so I could fit more stuff in there. We haven't had to use the hot water heater very often, because the normal temperature of the "cold" water is the outside air, so it's already lukewarm. The water heater is in the mini-bathroom, and we have to turn it on ahead of time when we do want hot water. (The one at the villa was like this, too, and used a match, but this one has a button to push, no matches). I'll have to send a video of our water, though.... it has to go through the brown phase and the black phase before the water looks clear enough to use. We don't trust it for brushing our teeth. We keep bottled water at the sink and it's hard to re-train kids, but after seeing the yuckiness of the water, they quickly decided that they would use the clear stuff in the bottles. Each week we buy a case of 1.5 liter Aquafina and a case of 0.6 liter Aquafina bottles... the smaller ones go to school and work with the lunches, the bigger ones stay at home for cooking and making nutmilk and washing produce, etc. I do use the sink water for washing dishes and don't rinse with bottled water... I think the germs die when they dry out, so we haven't gotten sick.
We sometimes lose water pressure, so when you turn on the cold, there's nothing there, but I know that the hot water tank holds a few gallons, so I can always use some of that if I really need water when it isn't working. The power stays on most of the time, but we've had some days where several hours go by without any juice. At least in Alex. the temperature isn't as hot as Cairo, so opening windows is a good way for getting a breeze if the AC isn't working. We still have other things in the flat to attend to, but Ramadan started on September 1st and lasted for the whole 30 days -- and during that time NO WORK happens in a timely manner. The muslims do not eat, drink or smoke during daylight hours, and once the sun sets, they eat, drink, smoke and party all night long. You think I jest. No. Then they are sleepy all during the next day. The policemen nap in their chairs. Shops are closed (except grocery stores) and don't open until after the "break-fast" meal in the evening, plus socializing time, plus a nap after eating... so things don't start until at least 8pm. We had our ShowTime hook-up tech come during Ramadan, and he made an appt with us for 11:30 at night. He was serious. We rescheduled for 8pm which was his earliest appt. So.... we lost the whole month of September for productive work, and right now we are in the "Feast at the end of Ramadan" where no productive work is happening because people are eating and partying all day AND all night.
This e-mail is being written in a Hotel in Cairo for a mini-vacation because Drew and the kids all have 6 days off work/school. This hotel comes with e-mail hook-up (which we still don't have in our flat in Maamoura) so I'm madly checking e-mail while the family is watching cartoons on TV and eating sweets. Hopefully the IT (Info Tech Computer) guy from Drew's jobsite can come mid-October and get our home computer hooked up to the internet. We've had our shipment from the Sates one week now, and all the boxes are unpacked. The computer works (with a power converter that we brought with us) but only for the programs that are pre-installed. JP is happy for his games and Kaisa likes to use the paint-box to make pictures. The printer isn't working yet, so she can't print them out and tape them to the wall yet. (darn). I'm anxious to get back to Rosetta Stone and learn more Arabic... maybe impress the Boab, Mohammad, at our next impromptu language lesson. (Each day when I wait for the driver to drop them off from school, Mohammad gives me a few vocabulary words and I get quizzed on the previous day's lesson.).
Since Magdy is usually busy with Drew's jobsites, we hired a second driver to take the kids to and from school. His name is Tarek and he speaks about 10 words of English. Two of which are "No Problem". Two of which are "So Sorry". He also knows "Good Morning". But he's been very reliable and hasn't missed a day. Sometimes I ride with them to the school and stay the day to help teachers... I enjoy getting to know the little community at Schutz school. The class sizes are limited to 15 (and that includes the 2 "extra" seats they reserve for late comers or whatever.) Both JP and Kaisa took up the 15th seat in their grades. Wheeeeeew. But they're in. Someone (Dad?) asked if they have uniforms, and no, they don't. The school runs under the New England school cirriculum, and they are into individual choices, as long as they are withinn tasteful reason.
More later. We're heading down to a Lebaneese restaurant for dinner.
Be patient in case I don't get to write more e-mails during this hotel stay--- we will rejoin the technologic age sometime in October.
Hugs and kisses,
Wendy
