Sunday, December 20, 2009

Still Going Strong

The outside of the daycare. It is called "Cairo Kids' Campus".
This was our first 3 students.

Some of the present students, staff, and parents at the Christmas party.

The director of the daycare now.

Some of my followers know that several years ago, my hubby and I started a daycare here in Cairo with some Egyptian friends of ours. I love little kids, and I would be around them all of the time if that were possible.

Well, the daycare started out really well. We started it in the summer, and hubby was available to administrate, but once it was time for school to start, he had to go back to teaching and wasn't around. Also, we hired several young ladies who spoke English very well, and they were young enough they were "teachable". After a while, one of the young ladies got married and moved to the States. Then one of them had to quit because of health reasons, and we eventually lost the third one also. We had to start hiring older women who were more "set in their ways", and things started slowly going down hill for us.

Eventually, the stress of dealing with cultural differences and the responsibility of being administrator (which is not my gift at all) got to me. In the beginning, we had made an agreement with our friends that if anything started affecting our friendship during this endeavor, one of us would buy the other out, or we would just sell the daycare. Well, the time came, and it seemed like our friendship was being strained, so, our friends bought our share of the daycare.

They held on to it for a while and soon they found a woman to come and be the director of the daycare. This woman was just the right person for the job. She had always dreamed of owning her own daycare and soon came to our friends and asked about buying the daycare herself, and that is just what happened.

Today, the daycare is still up and running, and in fact, I was just invited to attend their annual Christmas party. I was overjoyed when I heard the message she had for all of the parents who were there. She talked about the "5 Love Languages" of children. In the States, this is a very popular book, but I think in this part of the world these concepts are not so familiar.

So, to make a long story short, I am very happy and proud to have been a part of bringing something so beneficial and so needed to this areal. Also, I am happy to have been a part of making this woman's dream come true. It may not have been God's will for us to have started the daycare for ourselves, but I do believe it was part of His will for us to help this woman fulfill her dream.

2 comments:

  1. That is wonderful news. Your daycare center was meant to be. It must have been fun to go to their Christmas party, too.
    Merry Christmas to you and your family!

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  2. Thanks Dedene! Yes, it was fun. Made me miss the work there too, but I am so glad it is still up and going strong.

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