Nantucket to Cairo Egypt!: Mother's Day in Egypt and Trip to Wadi Degla

Got a few layers of dirt off just now in the shower. When I put my hands in my hair it felt like a wig it was soooo filled with sand and clay. Where from?? A hike in Wadi Degla of course!!

Thanks to a couple of girls in the class this heart rock was pointed out to me. Every time I see one (and this was BIG!) I think of home. Walking along a virtual wasteland with fossilized sea shells and lots and lots of wind does too. My fellow teacher A and I agree that neither will live so far from the sea ever again.

Wadi is the word for valley and Degla is a section of Ma'adi. One minute you are driving in the congested city and the next you are turning down behind some buildings and pulling into a non-descript dirt parking lot with an entranceway. Off we went walking through a very narrow valley between two tall walls of sedimentary rock. 4th and 5th grades were there to notice the desert ecosystem especially the plants with their specially adapted spiky leaves. They were also there to collect sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks. Mostly we were there to walk and be outside and notice nature. It finally hit me, these are city kids!! Even though they are wealthy kids with access to so many things they are still, couch potato, city slickers and this was a brand new experience for all of them. Every tiny, tiny scrape was a HUGE deal!! There were tears every time someone tripped and lots of complaints about the heat, walking etc.. It was all coming together for me just how pampered these kids are. I found out one 5th grader does not know how to tie his shoes even!! No wonder the responsibility to get your own book and pen overwhelms the vast majority! We should have gone on this trip sooner!!

They all did soooo well and had so much fun! All their complaining turned to exclaiming of how far we walked and how high a high we climbed. It was VERY cool when they found a batch of sea shells left there from 60 million years ago when it was all the bottom of the sea. Wow!! Little shells that at home we call moon snails. That was cool. It WAS scary on the shale sided hill though! They are all very brave.

A good day for all. And on top of that Mother's Day in Egypt which is this HUGE celebration and basically every teacher at school was showered with gifts like Christmas - cool.