First Day....

Of preschool in Egypt (Misr) for Jasmine. Miss Nahed is standing near the entrance.



Love the shot walking to school today. :-) She goes to school from 8 - 1 pm on Sun and Mon. The ratio is 1:4. The students are all English as primary language, they are taught Egyptian Arabic on hr every day. Ages are 2 - 6 yrs.
Jasmine was THRILLED when we left, she wasn't even shy to the one assistant taking her hand to go make lady bugs! They're on the letter L this week ;) I guess we will be at home now too ;)























for Nadia (Wendy's home helper) to come CLEAN THE KITCHEN and babysit Joshua and Joshua to work INDEPENDENTLY at his schoolwork (and he did!) GOOO JOSHUA!!

Joshua said he enjoyed it and liked being able to do his work alone. He was VERY nervous and emotional this morning, for Jasmine the prospect of friends and new art projects was HUGE...Joshua had nothing to look forward to, ya know? but he enjoyed. Nadia has 3 teen boys, they even played football (remember, foot like boot..boot...boot...ready? bootball....bootball...FOOTBALL).
and the first day also of Wendy's ESL class - Egyptian as a Second Language ;)
Technically, it's Standard Arabic of Cairo. It is understood in ANY Arabic language....but the opposite is not true. This language cannot understand all other Arabic languages necessarily.


I really liked my class - I am the only American - the only person w/ only one language, so he tells me this will be harder for me than the rest...I took longer to say what I should, but he said I pronounce it better...so..maybe I'm a slower thinker, but at least there's no other dialect to get in my way like w/ 2 or 3 other languages! HA HA HA!

A few more pics....first...is a pic of the small canister for the vacuum. For under 1,000 sq ft.....that is how much dust we get in THREE WEEKS!! THREE WEEKS!!! no pets, never an open window or door..it is THAT dirty here! amazing, huh? So I go to the exterior hallway to empty it and sanitize and reuse for a couple more weeks.























Then there's the kids in the pool having fun! Thought you'd enjoy that!















**********PLEASE storm the gates of heaven!! PLEASE storm with us on your knees for God to send His angels to bring healing to my mom's heart!!! More medical tests tomorrow...PLEASE be praying!!!

**fun house update** our neighbors whom we've requested to go together to pay for THEIR trees to be removed on our property line.......one of the giant dead ones fell on our house...

el Hamdul'Allah! Thankful to God!! Because our sitter and his buddy upstairs are SAFE! and they are safe to continue living there - I'd hate to kick them out THANKS to S family for offering your home!!

Well, THANKS TO another S family!! Coming to help my dad and another neighbor - they got it mostly cleaned out...and we're waiting for specialists to make quotes (chimney, gutters, brand new centra a/c, siding, rubber roof) it's plugging along.

PLEASE JUST STORM HEAVEN ON YOUR KNEES WITH US FOR HEALING OF MY MOM'S HEART!!!!!!!

Shookrahn! Mahsehlehmah!

thank you! Bye Bye!

Love,
Wendy

Move in, Day Two

Two months and 4 days ago, the kids and I moved into our flat in Maadi, Cairo....Country Egypt, Continent Africa.

But today, I moved into our home.

I have actually be holding myself back and not really consciously. Those who know me well know that I like my closet and drawers organized and find things easily. I have never made the time to do so w/ my clothes. They've been piled, I brought barely enough to wear and bought enough to make it a few days and survive here. Everytime I'd do my laundry, I'd pile it up.....

Today I pulled out my winter coat I wore here from Michigan...it...smells...like...Michigan.....only I said....HOME in place of Michigan, when I said it in my head..

I sat and buried my face in it and cried....

mourning all the life I called normal and comfortable....
mourning the laughter of my beloved friends....
the free flow love and conversation with my parents.....

and I knew I needed to move in today.

I moved in today. I hung my clothes and giggled then when I realized they are not only different colored hangers but the styles differ ;)

I made my clothes at home here in the flat...it's amazing how our heart plays tricks like that on us.....

I have the Christmas decorations out of the suitcases and into some drawers, I did some clothes shopping last week so I have more of a wardrobe instead of jeans and sweats ;)

Today..is Move in Day - Day Two....a pc of my heart seems to be left empty, knowing ntohing can fill what living in Kentwood Michigan filled....

but a new part of my heart has been allowed to grow....

This is a good day....not all tough times are bad.....

Moving in...one day at a time,
Wendy, Egypt

I'm laughing so hard.....

we were deep in concentration at school here in the flat, focused and concentrating....

suddenly as if on "cue" by a director of a movie

"cue lawnmower"
"cue over reacting family to run to window simultaneously and stare for 5 seconds before speaking"

HA HA HA HA HA!

another "you know you're an expat in Egypt when" moment, I think, huh?

Here's some other things that are just "normal" here but feel SOOO annoying....Teri reminded me of one, as they've not always lived in America...

You WALK to the bank 30 min or so, stand in line for 45 min - 1.5 hrs, while attempting to proceed with your transaction..here are the few things that could happen

A. 2 people shove their hand in front of yours and start speaking in Arabic to be next since their transaction is simpler (people, people PERSONAL SPACE?)

B. They don't have the right amount of bills to do what you need

Next is this - you need something specific, perhaps it's fitted sheets since no, a 'set of sheets' only includes one flat sheet (not big enough to tuck in if you were stuck in a pinch say the first 2 weeks of arrival) and a blanket. So you need something specific like that, you find a store after 3 days of hunting on foot....and it has a sign IN ENGLISH, you're overjoyed!

A. The store is only open from 11 am - 3 pm on Mon, Tues and Thursday - it happens to be none of those days.

B. You return to the store on Mon at 11:30 am and it's not open. You return at 3 pm and she says THAT day she's open from 3- 5 pm. no explanation, no apology, just...the way it is.

Maybe you'll enjoy this! You hire a taxi who speaks English...you explain the 'new' large shopping market you want to go to. He, thankfully, knows and takes us there. On the way, my knees go into the backs of the seats - I sit in the middle with a hand on each child's legs - but anyway, between the donkey carts, pedestrians and other vehicles....my knees are the seatbelt for us...oh ok back on topic...you get to the new market and these are a few things that will happen....

A. You'll be happy to find fruits/veggies in the same store as meat and bread! You get to check out and the cashier is very annoyed (speaks good English but seems a bad thing in this situation) that you did not get the fruits and veggies priced. So she takes me to where it is to be done...guess what? not only was the person not there when I went thru..but he's still not there...and guess what else? yep..the cashier will still be mad AT YOU!

B. They don't put beef out on this day..but you can purchase the old stuff...and then they're so confused why you wouldn't pay for old stuff that's green and slimey...cuz of course other "locals" are happy to pay cheap for rotten beef..why wouldn't I?

C. Your cheese is cut from a dried up block of cheese....WHY wouldn't you pay full price and eat it?

Finally today my weird story is....you're walking with 2 kids to the sports club, it's a 3 lane road NO sidewalk. I don't mean torn up, I mean NO sidewalk. it's bushes, etc, cars, one lane, parked cars, bushes...can you see it? So since there's cars parked on both sides ,there's only one lane....

you're walking with 2 kids...and there's a line of traffic behind you...and they're all beeping feverishly...WHY? where should I go? Should we swing from the trees? Should we hop on their hood and wait until the next intersection? WHAT GOOD IS THE BEEPING PEOPLE? I'm just as 'stuck' as you drivers are, thank you very much!

So - I'm just laughing! Today, I have good humor about it all again - PRAISE THE LORD FOR THAT RETURNED GIFT!! and our reaction to the lawnmower renewed it and so I thought I'd share ;)

Back to schoolwork......unless Sara S sees something shiney ;) Or Teri yells Squirrel or..... ;)

LOVE TO YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ps - first day of school is Sun! :-) I think I now have the vocabulary of a 3 yr old! ;)

A glimpse at corporate worship in Maadi

Oh Happy Day!! (with oodles of pics)

"Oh Happy Day! Happy Day! Jesus Washed My Sins Away!" singin and singin! praisin and praisin! JOIN ME PLEASE!!

Oh to hear the scripture again...telling us the truth of God's story...of the story we can all be part of......just THRILLING!! HUMBLING!!!! Makes me feel bigger and smaller at the same time somehow ;)

Took the kids to the Maadi Sports Club this morning, grabbed pizza's, cheesecakes, McD's and Lewis' (well they grabbed us technically) and headed to the Nile! Enjoyed a 2.5 hr cruise. Soft breeze, only 86 today - VERY nice!!! The falooca captain let the kids work with him, he was pilot/babysitter! lol

Here's a few fun pics!




the church w/ the 3 crosses - is a church built on where records show Joseph leaving Egypt with Mary and boy Jesus.

Zachary and Davy...you need to pool efforts to find a way to bring Jasmine back to you both....you had a 50/50 chance..now you've got only like 33%...you see, she's smitten now with Jorge (Georgie) who is a tender, brilliant boy who speaks TWO languages fluently and is EVEN BETTER THAN ME in a 3rd! (Arabic) Smitten...you must work to get her back to the US ;)

do you see the desert "wall" beyond the city skyline? I never stop being in awe of that or the pyramids - tho we didn't see those today - saw those on the way to Anas' house last night tho :-)











Not only did we sing praise to Jesus in English...but in a language of S Africa as well!! Rob took some pics, we've been wanting to show you our Church Body - 6 continents of "origination" as first generations and on...gathered here for one purpose
PRAISE THE RISEN SAVIOR!

drat, they're on Rob's chip....and it's not available to me right now.....I promise to show you our church :-)

Syrian and Egyptian Cuisine...

Lots of Laughter

Oodles of good friendship building

Electric Guitars

and oh did I mention the food? ;) not sure which I enjoyed more...the laughs....or the food! ALL WONDERFUL!!

Eman - our chef and hostess, hilarious, beautiful, easy to love
Anas, the husband, you know we think a LOT of him already ;)
Omnaya - daughter age 14, shy, beautiful inside and out, eager to learn, very creative
Merwan - son, age 19, guitarist (Metallica, etc), intelligent, musical, hilarious

Easter Egg Hunt 2010

You will see pics of new and wonderful friends we're making. Some thru church, some thru homeschool group, some of Lewis' kids. Afterwards, 3 of us homeschool families when to CSA, that's where the girls were racing.

The egg hunt was about a 12 min walk away, it was at a villa for General Dynamics. Now that I've seen a villa, it has completely cleared up the difference between a "flat" and a villa. For starters, it's more than 100 sq feet! ha! Well it had multiple levels, etc, it was quite unique really! All had a great time! We're heading to eat some Egyptian food at our Egyptians friends home....I'm a little uncertain if we say "Happy Easter" to them or what!?! It is a Pharaonic Holiday in Egypt right now - you all may enjoy that bit of history ;)

They celebrate "spring" and it's from the beginning of recorded history. Sham el Niseem. Celebration of spring basically :-) This is a 3 day "holy" weekend. How that holiday from Pharaonic pagan holiday became a monotheistic HOLY day is beyond my understanding? I realize Christians celebrate pagan holidays such as Halloween, but...it's not considered "holy" so anyway, interesting!














This photo is from Good Friday service.

Someone told Jasmine her baby in the baby carrier was SO cute and can my adoptive friends imagine her response?

WHAT BABY CARRIER? WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

That's my girl!! She only knows the Hangul word! HA! cute cute! She was so confused! ha! Tho our Korean friends were THRILLED to hear her say some of her heritage words!
:-)

Well they're Korean Americans, 2nd generation in America...their 3rd in Egypt ;) Quite the explorers!