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Merry Christmas From Egypt!

Here I am sitting in the sun streaming through the window of an elementary school in New Cairo, Egypt sending well wishes to friends and family. Truly a surreal activity! I hope you are all enjoying the festivities and peace and love of the holiday season.

What is Christmas like in Egypt? Well, there is little notice of it really although even Moslems observe the holiday with a family dinner since they revere Jesus as a prophet. Some stores have American holiday tunes in the background but most don’t. When we ride in taxis they play only the local music. Stores with Christmas decorations are few and far between but we have been finding them! There is a small cluster of Christmas items on one shelf in each grocery store. Honestly, half of me misses all the hoopla and hustle and bustle but half of me is glad to have one December free from all that craziness and focus on consumerism.

I have to say the Christmas decorations here range from pretty ordinary, to strange, to downright bizarre! You may find some round shiny ornaments, OR a Santa shaped tissue box holder (I think that’s what it was), to a wreath made of peacock feathers and purple sparkles or black feathers and gold sparkles. There are a few buildings decorated with lights here too. Very few. The lights are strung willy-nilly from the top of the buildings down to the street level and are always blinking and multi-colored. (many opportunities to use the adjective garish here) There were some actual live Christmas trees on a sidewalk I drove by one day. There were about 10 or so. They seemed to be in decent shape. In some stores I have seen fake trees but they look as though they were made with pipe cleaners (old, used, pipe cleaners) and they looked as if the tree making project was not finished . . . and then run over by a car! The string decorations are just lumped onto one branch as though someone forgot to spread them out, and then there are two randomly placed “ornaments”. These ornaments could be just about anything, an actual ornament or maybe a clock or maybe a hat. VERY flexible decoration ideas here! So, in my apartment I have cut a tree out of sparkly silver paper and decorated it with origami. Just fine by me. Of course, I have a small nativity scene from home on one table and a nice Egyptian style nativity scene painting that I just purchased at a holiday fair. It’s all good – very minimalist and each day the apartment feels a little more like home and cozy. Next week – vacation – will help me to get more into making this my home and then of course Russell will be arriving on the 29^th! And that will help make it feel like home too.

I do plan on baking. I just don’t know when. I have an oven in my new apartment that I have to get used to. It is a regular and convection oven combo. Unfortunately I cannot figure out the manual even though it is written in English! And one setting never gets warm for some reason . . . should be interesting!! I can use it to make toast though so that works for breakfast! Christmas cookies will be an adventure all around since it will not only include learning about the oven but will also require adventures in grocery shopping! I go from interested in exploring the stores to just wishing the whole grocery shopping thing was a lot easier! But can’t let it stop me from making Christmas cookies now can I?

I found a nice little Episcopal church in Ma’adi to attend on Christmas Eve – if I can stay up that late – midnight service! Actually, Alicia, another American teacher found it and got me to go – thank goodness! I felt completely at home there. The service is done by Paul, an American pastor in his 7^th year here, and almost all the congregants are from America, or other countries, although many of them lived abroad for many years. The church itself is a beautiful domed sanctuary with a few very small, but very beautiful, stained glass windows set into the stucco walls. Lovely. The other day I was driving by and saw three camels with men dressed as kings sitting on them on the patio entrance to the church. Taban!! There were also some sheep lined up eating hay! I guess if we had access to camels in Nantucket they would be invited to a Christmas pageant too! This church is interesting also because it serves 12 different languages each week! Amazing!

The little stained glass is from this church and is of the flight into Egypt. So beautiful. Follow this link if you want to learn more about the church (interesting!) and their little bit of info on Ma’adi is good. I learned that ma’adi is Arabic for ferry boat and that ma’adi was a major Nile crossover point for caravans. Wow! http://www.maadichurch.org/background.html

I went to the children’s service complete with the reenactment of the Nativity a week ago. They have this service so early in December because all the families of foreigners head out of Egypt so early. It was such a cute little service and it just amazed me to see the story told here in Egypt as I have seen it done so often at home – the same story – the same families – the same nervous Sunday school teachers . . . They had some nice twists – the narrator told us the holy family had to travel and were only slightly delayed by all the camels, traffic, and pollution! - Caesar Augustus was portrayed as a schmarmy business exec on a cell phone . “Yeah . . . I um, yeah, I um want to have a census . . . you know, like of all the people . . .” and best of all the “star” was worn on the back of a baby while his dad carried him to the front with the three wise men following. Cute!

So, church will be an activity in the coming week! I hope I stay awake late enough to attend the Christmas Eve Service. My midnight will be Nantucket’s 5PM so I will imagine everyone down on Main Street at the drawing!

Meanwhile, this week is the last week of school. Last day December 17. Then 4 of the teachers go home! (sniff!) for vacation and three of us will be left banging around in the residence. Before they leave we have to figure out what to tip our Bowab or houseman. He lives in an empty apartment and keeps and eye on things. He comes out to greet us every time we arrive or depart and makes sure strangers do not come in the building. He has very few possessions but is considered very lucky to have a job and live in a finished building. Many bowabs’ live with their whole families including young children in unfinished shells of buildings. We can see their fires and silhouettes as we drive by the endless construction at night. They light these fires in old metal cans on the first floors of the buildings. During the day we see their laundry draped over the half-built brick walls. I cannot describe the feeling I have when I see the little baby clothes among them. I wonder what it is like to grow up in such a situation, camping in an unfinished building. And, of course, we Americans complain when we have no hot water or electricity . . . . It is all strange here. I cannot think about it all too much as I know I am powerless. This mindset must take over all the Egyptian psyches as well, and this must explain much of what we see as the cultural differences between us.

So next week we will make do and enjoy the quiet – and try to go out and about to a movie or such as well! I am sure I will find some baking and writing to entertain myself. Not to mention reviving my study of the Arabic language which has stopped completely. Last night we were sitting around and decided that perhaps watching Sesame Street might help. It comes on around 4PM so coincides nicely with cocktail hour!

There are lots of things to miss from home – baked goods, gatherings with friends, finding all the family ornaments and reminiscing while decorating and all the beautiful scenery but I know it all waits for me in 2010 and that will be soon enough! For now I am content to see images from home via the internet. There is a blizzard on the East coast today - it is warm and sunny here!

I will have to update this blog in January with the adventures Russell and I will have! Can’t wait! He arrives on Dec 29. We’ll take it easy for a couple days (visit Ma’adi and go for a felucca ride/out to dinner day one and visit the pyramids day 2) and then we fly early on Jan 1, 2010 to Aswan and get on a cruise ship for a 3-day 2-night tour of all the ancient sites! Awesome! I cannot wait! We are lucky to be joining a first rate cruise ship. It will have a tour group from Sienna college on board! I am so psyched that Russell will not spend the time with retirees as I was worried we would! He’ll come to school with me a couple days and then I hope we make it to the Sinai for a Bedouin experience too! insh’Allah we will be there for his 20^th birthday!!Mrs. L. wants to take us to dinner and I hope we get in to see the Sufi dancers too. Wow! Russell is a sophomore at Emerson this year and enjoying all it has to offer. He joined a fraternity and is a beat boxer in an a capella group in addition to working on the occasional film set and  . . .oh yeah! Studies!

Casey has been working for IBM since he graduated from Boston University in May. And he just recently got accepted into BU’s doctoral program as a teaching fellow. So, right now he is busy apartment hunting and making the move from Connecticut. We are so proud of him!

Teaching here started out very challenging but has smoothed out somewhat and for that I am grateful. Some days I shake my head quite a bit! I hope to comment on the whole experience and may be able to do so as this vacation will give me some distance and therefore perspective. My students are wonderful and they amaze me every day with how smart they are! They speak English and Arabic and also take French here. I am learning a lot about teaching and a lot about myself which makes this all worth it.

Here is a little donkey eating his lunch on the side of a very busy street. We passed by as we went into Ma'adi yesterday to do a little shopping. This sight is so common I almost did not bother to take a photo. But he reminded me, on this warm sunny day, of the beast of burden that the holy family may have used to travel here so many many years ago. It was a different time then but in essence much of all we know is exactly the same.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!