The Colors of Egypt

Normally, there is not a lot of color here in Egypt. Because of all of the sand, and the buildings, most everything here is different variations of the color beige. I have been surprised though at how much "green" there is. Egyptians take pride in their park areas, and they are always watering, tending, and sculpting them.

In the States, my favorite season is Fall. I love the way the weather starts to cool, after a hot, humid summer. I love the smells associated with Fall, such as cinnamon, apple cider, and warm pumpkin pies. But my favorite thing about the Fall is the lovely colors the trees turn this time of the year. Well, in Egypt, we don't have much of any of these things in the Fall. It does not cool down much from the summer, if we have the smells, it is only because I, or other foreigners are baking (around Thanksgiving), and the trees do not turn different colors, at least in the fall.

When in Egypt, my favorite season is spring. There are many beautiful colors that come out in the spring, and believe it or not, many of these colors are in the trees. Now, the leaves do not turn colors, or anything like that, but the trees have many different colors of flowers that bloom in them. Now I have to admit, at this point, that I am a little late on catching some of the colors. We have some trees that bloom with lavender and a deep reddish maroon color that I missed getting a picture of, but I did happen to catch a couple of trees with blooms of a bright orange, and one with yellow.

Hope you like the pictures above. I will try to get some more pictures of the colorful trees and bushes and post them soon.

Saying Good-Bye is Never Easy

This is a Brazilian couple whom we have gotten to be very close to. They are leaving today, to go back to Brazil for the summer.

This is an Iraqi family who came here 4-5 years ago. I have gotten very close to the ladies of this family. (In particular the little one I am holding.) They are relocating and will not be returning to Egypt.

This young man has been a friend of both of my sons and my husband's student for the last 6 years. He is graduating and going on to University in the States.

This is one of my very special KG-2 students. She is Brazilian (the daughter of the Brazilian couple above).

This time of the year is always a time of many emotions. The end of the school year is quickly approaching, so there is excitement, joy, and happiness. Also, though, there is sadness, because the end of the school year, and the approach of summer, means having to say good-bye.

As a person living on a foreign field, there are always people coming in and out of your life. This is something that can be particularly hard on your kids. I know my kids have personally experienced this way more than they would have liked. Every end of the school year means there are probably friends who are leaving for the summer, for a year, or maybe even forever.

Our kids are not the only ones who have experienced this though. We have been very fortunate to have our kids in a wonderful American school. Through this experience, we have met some wonderful people from all over the world, and as I said before, each year we have to say good-bye to some.

Yesterday, we saw some of our friends that are leaving Egypt: some for just a short time, but some forever. Yes, this can be a very hard thing to do, year after year, but then again, I thank God for bringing all of these people into my life, even if it is for just a short time. I have been so richly blessed with friendships that will last forever.

A Change of Scenery

The previous view from our balcony.

The narrow street on which we now live.

This is the view of our new apartment from the outside.

Sorry it has been a while since I last posted. There are so many things going on here and it is hard to get the time to post. We just recently moved, and we are still living out of boxes, and it is the end of the school year. So many things go on at this time, and it is very easy to get a little overwhelmed. Also, I like to supply my readers with pictures, and it has been hard to find the time to just get out and take pictures.

In about a month, we will be heading to the States to stay for a year. We have some issues going on that we feel would be better taken care of by doing that at this time. Some of my immediate family is experiencing health problems, our youngest son will be going back to complete his final two years of high-school, etc. So, I want to do a few blogs before we leave. It should be easy to get in several. The area we live in now is much more accessible to different aspects of daily life in Egypt.

This is the first blog pertaining to those things. I wanted to post some pictures just to give you an idea of the difference in scenery. In our last apartment, we were in an area where there were a lot of wide, open spaces. The view out of our window was of large, grassy places where kids gathered to play, but the area we now live in is nothing like that. As you can see from the pictures above, the street we now live on is very narrow, and the apartment buildings are very close to one another. Because of this, there is more noise. It is very usual here to hear people in building next door to you, just having a normal conversation. It gets very interesting though, when the neighbors have an argument. I have heard one or two since moving to the new place, but last night we heard a good one. People were yelling, screaming, slamming doors, etc. For the most part, we just go on with our lives and stay out of their business. In the States, we would have been calling the police because of a domestic disturbance. The people here are a very passionate and expressive people, and we know there is nothing we can do anyway.

Another noise that is heard here more than at our old apartment is the cats that live on the streets. This is even made louder by the fact that we now live on the ground floor. We have one cat that pretty much "lives" on our balcony. I think she has been tamed by someone before because she is always trying to come in the house, and one day while I was out on the balcony, she was rubbing up against my legs. Now this can be a problem in several ways. First of all, we do not want her to come in because that might draw more cats into the house who are not so tamed. And, second of all, our daughter Kaily is allergic to cats. (I'll try to post some pictures of some of the cats at a later date.)

One more noise I'll mention in this post, is the sound of the street vendors who walk up and down the street trying to sell things. The most common one we hear is the man who sells the local bread. He walks down the street yelling "aieeeeesh" (pronounced with a long "i" sound at the beginning). We have many other types of vendors that do this, and one day, I will post a blog about them too.

It is very different, after being in Elrehab for 3 years, but it is like being with a long lost friend who you haven't seen in a while. I did not realize how much I had missed being away from the things I had gotten used to in our first few years here.