Swine Flu Folly [ a rant ]

Yesterday at a meeting with the school doctor, we learned that the school would be taking some pretty amazing preventative measures to fight an H1N1 outbreak, in accordance with the Egyptian Government.

Here are some highlights.

-The school will no longer be using the central air system, because, you see, this is an airborn disease, and our classrooms need "fresh" air from the dessert. If I can't see the field through the haze most days, what does that say about the "fresh" Cairo air we are pumping into our classrooms? Not to mention the noise of the playground most of our windows open to, or the heat, or the bus exhaust from the 100+ buses that are left idling most of the day.

- the bus drivers and the guards at the front gate of the school will be yielding thermal detectors, and are not to let any student or teacher on the bus, nor any visitor in the school, who has a temperature higher than 37.5. When the resources become available, the school is hoping to add forehead thermometer readings to homeroom every morning. Yes, that does mean the kids will be checked twice in about an hour.

-the mandate wouldn't be complete without a nod to Egypt's social class system. In the elementary wing, there are what we call "blue people" (no joke, this is the technical term). They are typically from poorer Egyptian families, and are hired by the school to keep the proper ratio of foreign-local hires. When coming into contact with elementary students, they are to be wearing masks at all times, because, you see, they may take a drug that brings down their temperature but you won't know then if they have swine flu. The same logic is not applicable to foreign hires - no masks for them.

-and last but not least the most frustrating of them all (a government mandate, not the school). Every trip abroad must be followed by an 8 day "in country quarantine" before you can get back to work. SO, no one may leave for our six day break in November, and at Christmas we must be back in Egypt by January 2, not the 10th as originally planned. Incidentally, this has helped me get off the fence about going home for Christmas - not going to happen in two weeks.

As you can tell we're a bit frustrated with all of this, and it's a frustrating way to start the school year (should it actually start in three days ...). Perhaps another day will bring a more cheerful post.

throwing up at the burning bush (and other stories from Dahab)

Sorry for the gross title ... everything is a story, n'est-ce pas?


We ended up extending our trip to Dahab by an extra day because we all entered into total relaxation mode, and saw no reason to return to Cairo and wait for school to start.


Dahab is a resort town on the Gulf of Aqaba, by the Red Sea, on the Sinai Peninsula. It took about an 8 hour bus trip that can only be rivaled by my first trip on Durham's campout. (our bus lost a tire in the middle of the dessert, we had to pay too much money to use the washroom...)

My favourite activity by far was snorkeling, I've never seen such amazing fish and coral reef. It was stunningly beautiful. The first day we snorkeled near our hotel, and the second day we went to the Blue Hole, about 20 minutes away. I'm hooked on snorkeling now, I loved it. I only wish I had a camera like my sister-in-law's that could have done under-water shots. I guess they'll just be ingrained in my mind for a long time...


The other highlight would be riding a camel, which was a hilarious experience. We opted only for a two hour trek, which is plenty long enough, believe me. My camel was rather stubborn, doing it's own thing too often. Megan's camel was the eater, stopping at every sight of green - thankfully it was the dessert, so there wasn't too much green stuff around.


On the last night in Dahab we forewent sleep and left at midnight for Mount Sinai. After a 2 hour bus ride, we began our climb. It was very different than I expected, there were people and camels everywhere! We had to pay careful attention to the camels, so as not to get pushed off the side of the mountains on the way up! It was a hot, sticky, 3 hour climb, but upon arriving at the top we were instantly freezing. We sat huddled under sleeping bags and towels and awaited the main attraction: sunrise. It was amazing. And when it started I couldn't get over how quickly it actually rose. It was hard to have a "moment" because there were people yelling and talking everywhere. We took the stairs of repentance down again, which was rougher than the path going up, but without camels.

Upon arriving at St. Catherine's Monastery, where the burning bush is supposed to be, I got violently ill, and yes, I did throw up by a tree. Probably wasn't the burning bush. The stomach flu continued all the way home, during the 6 hour Egyptian bus trip (driving 140km/hr in the dessert, speeding up on corners, and very, very bumpy). I'm feeling slightly better today.

Dahab's a great place to escape the busy-ness of Cairo, and I can see that we'll be returning there in the next few years. We've been assured that school is indeed starting on October 3, so next week I will actually go in to work for a few meetings and some planning.

Paris je t'aime

Some highlights from a week in France, via point form and pictures.

-seeing John and Alexandrine. It had been 3 years since I'd seen Alex, and about 1.5 since I'd seen John. I hope to see much more of them now that we're on the same side of the world, in countries that share the Mediterranean sea.

-speaking lots of French, and learning new expressions. This includes getting my foot in my mouth more than once, but that's not always unique to the French language ...


-helping John show Paris to his family. I felt like a teacher again, but it was fun to be an expert.


-attending a three day, bilingual French/American wedding. I've not had so much champagne in such a short period before. But champagne helps me speak coherent French (or so it felt like at the time...)



-meeting John's friends, and recognizing that he still continues to choose his friends well :) (why yes, that is a backhanded compliment to myself!). It is fun to be able to invite people to visit me in Egypt, and also to receive invitations to return again to France.


-going off completely on my own for two days to Strasbourg. Believe it or not I've never traveled by myself, and I found I quite liked it. At the beginning of my séjour in Egypt, it was a good confidence-booster. Hopefully I'll travel some more.

-arriving "home" again in Cairo, and knowing exactly how to not get ripped off by a taxi driver, and being able to give directions to my apartment. It's amazing how far I've come in 4 weeks.

One last thing to add, which did not make me as happy. Upon returning I found out that they've delayed our start AGAIN, now for the 3rd of October (or maybe the 7th???). I really just want to work, that is what I came here to do, and I'm getting tired of waiting for something that may never happen. There are rumours of further dates, but I don't even want to name them at this point, that's how frustrating this is.

Some pictures to accompany previous post...

I broke down and am paying 75 cents to use the Internet cafe near our house. Soon, and very soon, I should be able to do this from my living room. Sigh, how spoiled I am.


This is in Coptic Cairo. Last Friday we walked around here at dusk, and although we enjoyed the empty streets, we could not get in to see most of the amazing sites. Another time, perhaps when the heat breaks. Courtney, enjoying her Hibiscus juice. It's SO strong and sweet, that every time you take a sip, you add water, and by the end of the glass it is almost palatable.


This is the hanging church in Coptic Cairo. It is called "hanging" because it is built on very old Roman pillars, and appears to be hanging. It is a misnomer :)




This picture is solely for my dear sister-in-law Melanie, first to see if she's reading my blog, and second to point out that yes, all the linens I'm buying are in fact, 100% Egyptian Cotton.

Garbage day on Road 233, Ma'adi. You can't necessarily see it, but there is a little boy perched on this garbage truck, his co-workers are throwing garbage up to him. From what I can tell there is no set day or time for this to occur. Basically whenever they want to pick up garbage they do.



Sufi dancing. One of the dancers spun for over 40 minutes without stopping. We think that if he had stopped, he wouldn't have been able to start again. The whole experience was somewhat over stimulating (1.5 hours of bright colours and crazy music, with drums, talkative Egyptians and heat).

The Egyptian National Museum. Yes, it is pink.

The week that was

With all this time off, I've taken to being a rather lazy tourist. We venture somewhere every day, but sometimes it's not far, and it is almost always followed by a rest, a meal with friends, and a nap or a long time reading a book. Not to mention the sleeping in ! I'm on holidays, something I did not really do this summer when I was in Canada.

Having said that, we've done some fun stuff. Wednesday was probably the most interesting. We began our day with a visit to the National Museum of Egypt, which is a glorified PINK warehouse, with tombs and old stuff everywhere - none of it is labeled.

After our siesta, about 7 of us took a taxi (my favourite taxi ride so far - he drove so fast, and the whole time kept reminding us that he was a coptic Christian, and not a muslim, and that since we were white we must be Christian as well - all this in VERY broken English!)

We arrived at the markets to see Sufi dancing, but were so early that we decided to give ourselves a walking tour. Because it is Ramadan some of the Mosques have relaxed their rules about tours, and we were able to enter a mosque (in bare feet!) and climb a Minaret to see much of the outdoor markets and all the lights at night. It was spectacular. Upon arriving at the top of the Minaret I realized we were looking directly into the Mosque - it had no roof! I guess when you get 7mm of rain a year (if you're lucky) you don't worry about extra construction.

We took some time to tour part of the Kahn (market) before heading in to watch Sufi dancing. I'm not too familiar with what's behind it, but according to Marsha, one man spun for over 40 minutes without stopping. It was full of bright colours and the music was loud, after 1.5 hours I felt completely over stimulated. I learned something about Egyptian culture during the performance, as explained by Janet, who has worked in Egypt for many years: they will not stop talking! And I've been warned that this happens in a movie theatre too - they will talk on their cell phones through an entire film, and shout at people near them. I wonder what this will look like in a Middle school classroom?

I will eventually get pictures on here, but the Internet connection I'm "borrowing" tonite will not allow this to happen. Our internet is arriving, inshallah, soon. ARG.