As we’ve settled in (read: survived moving across the world far away from everyone we love to a country we’ve never been to and immersed ourselves in a culture totally unfamiliar to us) we’ve started establishing a routine. A routine is good. Here are some photographic tidbits from a day in the life.
Ready for school! The kids wear PE uniforms on Mondays when they have their 30-minute PE class. They also have an hour-long PE class later in the week, and this unit is swimming! On her first swim day, Kennedie reported that she won ALL SIX SWIM RACES. Definitely gets those skills from her father, who won the Tri-County Youth Swim Championship for the 8-and-under division in Colfax, Washington circa 1992. Kyle is very proud of this accomplishment. I think it’s a bit overdone.
The first thing I see on my walk to school is wet streets. Egyptian men use buckets and towels to wash the cars on my street every morning. I’m not totally sure why. They just get dusty again and people rarely drive them.
After my 3-minute walk to school, I see this beaut. Isn’t that Egyptian sky gorgeous?
We order food a lot. It’s very cost-effective and there are lots of healthy options. Usually we have it delivered, but on occasion we venture out into our ‘hood. Don’t be fooled by their smiles. All members of the Moore family were cranky on this day, partly due to the 15 minute walk in 90-degree heat, and partly due to being hungry and waiting for your food to be prepared by a kitchen full of Egyptians who operate on what I’m learning is called “Egyptian time.”
Our school has campus cats. This is Martin. The cats on campus are vaccinated, fed, and cared for by a local vet. Each one has a clipped ear so that people know they are safe to be around. They’re also territorial, so if other street cats come onto campus, they chase them out. It’s kind of like an elite club.
Sometimes we have to resort to using Google Translate. First, let me just say that all buildings here in Egypt have what’s called a bowab. He’s like a doorman or security guard that posts up in front of our building and is there 24/7. We have 4 bowabs that rotate shifts. We will call them OG Bowab, Papa Bowab, Smiles Bowab, and Moustache Bowab. We pay a fee (400 Egyptian pounds per month, so about $13) and he helps us with tasks like bringing in groceries and collecting deliveries (which happens sparingly, because while food deliveries are easy, building deliveries are tricky because I still don’t entirely know how to write our address…). Anywho, one time Kyle was approached by Moustache Bowab who was speaking in Arabic and offering him a pair of black slippers with the word “Groom” stitched in gold across the toe. This gesture was very confusing for Kyle, and he imagined Moustache Bowab was trying to say, “Please take these slippers because you are tracking in dirt after you go running in the morning and if you wear these slippers it will help with that.” I’m not totally sure where this line of thinking came from but when Kyle told me, I decided to go with it.
After that, Moustache Bowab got visibly more and more irritated with Kyle, and it became clear that he wanted money for his kind slipper gesture. Kyle was not about to pay for slippers he didn’t want in the first place, so he decided to give them back. When he went downstairs to return them, OG Bowab was on watch and Moustache Bowab was nowhere to be found. At this point, Kyle assumed that our bowabs work as a team, and so he put the slippers on the front desk and figured OG Bowab would give the slippers to Moustache Bowab all the while commending the nice Moore family who lives in apartment 12. This did not happen. The next time Kyle left the apartment, he was accosted in Arabic by Moustache Bowab who wanted payment for his slippers, and Kyle was trying his hardest/saying over and over in English that he “gave them back” but that doesn’t make sense when you don’t speak English and you are very angry that an ungrateful American basically stole your slippers.
The situation only escalated. A few days later Kyle was walking back from dinner with the kids when Moustache Bowab struck again. Desperately, Kyle enlisted the help of a car washer and a delivery guy to clear up the misunderstanding. It didn’t help and the kids were getting nervous, so Kyle finally knocked on the door of another teacher we know who speaks Arabic. This helped, and culminated with our neighbor yelling at the bowab for scaring our kids and mentioning that he should not give out slippers to people who don’t want them and by the way, this American doesn’t speak Arabic so he has no idea what you’re saying AND he tried to return your slippers but they probably got stolen by a newlywed. After that, Kyle came upstairs, grabbed 100LE (about 3 bucks), pulled up Google Translate to say, “I am sorry for the misunderstanding. I hope you find your shoes,” and the rest is history. Ever since, Moustache Bowab is back to his friendly self and Kyle has learned not to accept gifts he doesn’t want from our bowabs.
