We’ve stayed close to home the last couple of weeks and enjoyed our time in Maadi. Fall definitely looks different here than it does in the PNW… fall colors don’t really exist, pumpkin spice is not a thing, and I have yet to bust out any type of boot (will I ever?).
Here’s a quick wrap-up detailing the last couple of weeks.
Halloween is not a thing in Egypt, but our school embraces this American holiday like it’s a religion. Our campus was transformed for a week and a half with 20-foot Halloween-themed wall hangings and all things ghost/spider/witches/bats/cats. Staff members organized a trick-or-treat route around Maadi for the staff kids. My favorite part was that we weren’t trick-or-treating in the rain.
There was a school pumpkin patch, a Halloween parade, cookie decorating, pumpkin carving, trick-or-treating, and a Halloween carnival. The school carnival had like a million inflatables. Blake was jazzed.
We planned to attend a staff Halloween party, but didn’t have any costumes… other than the amazing ghost costume my lovely mother helped me construct in her final hours here in Cairo! I donned the ghost costume to school on Halloween and it was obviously a huge hit. Considering it’s very hard to enjoy a beverage while wearing a sheet, I decided I needed a different costume for a party.
It’s not exactly easy to get a costume in Cairo – my mom brought costumes for the kids in her luggage, and most of our friends get costumes over the summer when they’re back in the States. Anyway, the hosts of the party let us borrow these gems! Kyle was pretty pumped to have a six-pack. You can tell he’s been working out.
Here we have the pumpkin my students helped carve. This is about as orange as pumpkins get here in Cairo.
The end of October also brought the culmination of the kids’ after school activities. Kannon’s activities were track and field, tennis, and origami. Kennedie did swimming and Arabic cooking. Blakely tried gymnastics, arts and crafts, and yoga. It was all very cute!
Kennedie swam the 50 meter freestyle, 50 meter backstroke, and the 25 meter breaststroke. We can attribute her beautiful form to her dad’s “diving off the blocks” lesson in Luxor.
In Arabic cooking, Kennedie learned how to make tameya (flatbread sandwich with falafel), shorbet ads (lentil soup), molokhia (soup made from minced jute leaves and broth), and mahshi (stuffed vegetables). Here she’s learning how to make mahshi from her Arabic teacher, Ms. Basma. The food was delicious and Kennedie’s Arabic is getting better every day.
Blake’s gymnastics performance was set to “The Addams Family.” She crushed it!
Just LOOK at that cartwheel!
She couldn’t figure out why they spelled her name with a “W,” and also why are there so many letters?
The group!
In track, Kannon ran the hurdles, sprinted, did the long jump and threw the discus.
His fave was the long jump.
He crushed it at tennis!
The next session of activities starts up in a couple of weeks. Kids’ schedules haven’t been finalized, but they’re getting excited. I’ll be coaching soccer for elementary, so wish me luck!
In other news around Maadi… people are still bad at parking.
Kannon finds the lack of parking rules frustrating…
We still love our neighborhood cafe.
Dogs still sleep on top of cars…
And the power is STILL going out every day.
Kyle, even in his old age, is still fairly effective on the softball field. Yesterday he hit an IN THE PARK HOME RUN! And he didn’t even pull a muscle as he sprinted at TOP speed into home. I only wished I had gotten a picture but I was far too excited that I might be witnessing history in the making.
We still get excited about discovering places to eat that remind us of back home… like this burger joint!
And Egypt is still quite inefficient with its plastic use. Why is this straw so long?
This week is sure to bring the excitement with OUR SECOND VISITOR TO EGYPT… PETEY! We’re pumped!
Great job on the blog. I hope they have some soccer matches while I am there. Maybe I can help you coach. Nice Dinger, Kyle. See y’all soon.