A Toast

How was Egypt?

They will ask me

In a bar

In New England

Old wood floor – pungent with beer

Rolling under my feet

The Atlantic Ocean mingling in the air

And I will think of

The giant sail 

Of a felucca slapping on its mast as we relax on the Nile (On the Nile!)

And I will think of

The color beige absolutely everywhere

In the desert as far as the eye can see, 

on my shoes, and countertops

a colorful sunset, vibrant spring flowers, no less than miracles for the eyes

And I will think of

My many sudden and terror-summoned visions

of my sons marrying

Without me present!

As my taxi, Suzuki, Mercedes . . .

actually misses! 

The other vehicle, person, donkey

And I will think of

Seeing the pyramids in the distance (the pyramids!)

Framed in a blood-red sun

an African sun bigger than life

reminding me like never before that I live on a planet

and of the passage of time

And I will think of

Listening to the echoes of bird songs

Among giant temple columns

And I will think of

Arabic, hummus, Fayrooz

And pantomiming

And being brave

And a little scared (OK terrified) sometimes

And I will take a sip of my beer (beer!)

And not know what to say

To my fellow New Englander

How long a conversation will it take

To explain?

Such a distant place

Another planet!

no one really knows what happens in a chrysalis

And I will think

And start . . . 

“Let me tell you about the people,

The people I met.”

The power of the human heart, the monument, memory, artifact, lesson,

That will come home with me to stay

A universal lexicon

It is an awesome thing to know such simple things-

We are all the same – people are good

I will bring these friends, Egyptian and Western alike, in stories with me

And drink to them,

And Egypt

MaryAnn Bartlett Cairo, Egypt April 30, 2010

Teaching in Egypt . . .hmmmmm

Well, in case you haven't noticed I don't discuss my teaching much in this blog. Now THAT is a switch!! Usually I am quite strong in my positions about teaching, probably to my own detriment. And now, I am completely humble. I am not sure what exactly I have managed to accomplish here . . . recently I have collected mountains (OK, hills really) of paperwork in order to get ready to write reports and then hand it all to the kids to bring home. It is a LOT!!! I mean we have covered almost 3,000 years of human history in Social Studies alone! All in a second language which is a lot of work for the kids and the teacher! (Hey!, that's me!) This week all the students are finishing their fourth self-portrait studies with the help of our truly amazing art residents. I am pretty proud of that. The classroom looks and sounds like a studio when I walk in and they are all sketching away. Kids who say they could not possible manage a likeness of themselves are proud to show me their images. Thank God for all his help! And, we have written essays about ourselves. Looking at some I can point out significant progress and in others . . . well - fingernails on a chalkboard is all I can say. But - they are all displayed and I can't say I didn't try! I am sure the culture differences have a lot to do with it all. Managing the class and the 2 languages and how they interact with each other takes 90% of the time which leaves a frantic 10% for i-before-e-except-after-c kind of stuff. . . I just have to smile and wish them all well at this point.

Today started out strangely . . .first one girl said "Miss I have a surprise for you an I can't tell you about it. It's a cake and I got you a big card and we are all going to sign it and then eat the cake for dessert." All I could think to say was "Great! OK!" thinking - hmmm should I act surprised?? And how will we get things done??!

So they spent a good part of our time for writing and get things done working on this card and then at the end said . . . "Miss, miss! Surprise!!" It was cute and lots of lovely sentiments like "Love is in the air" were written on the envelope and in the card. I TOLD you they like their sugar here and their sentiments could NOT be more saccharin!

Well, it was all cute and adorable and the cake was tasty too. The girl who brought it got to give the pieces out to other teachers who let me know that they said, "We are celebrating that Mrs. MaryAnn is leaving." which I am not entirely sure was just an innocent type of  malaprop! The whole cake thing being slightly Egyptized by not have one single butter knife or the likes in the entire building until I scrounged a plastic one from the bottom of the plastic shopping bag used to bring the "washed" plastic utensils back and forth from the house across the street where our lunch is made and to school. Such a long search for that one utensil!! And then there were no napkins or paper towels except the the few I squirreled away the first week of school when a student had a birthday in my class and even that early on I could see that saving every scrap of anything was going to be important. (Of course, I forgot I did that and only knew about these napkins because I have begun to clean out a shelf here and there!) It's NEVER easy in Egypt!! but the date cake was delicious and very, very, sweet with it's coating of pure honey all over the top.

THEN! just to make the morning weirder the next door teacher came to my class ON TIME to ask what the 5th grade should bring and then proceeded to supervise their transition from her room to mine!! First time ever!! I thought I was on candid camera truly. Usually they are told to go to my room and left completely unsupervised in the hall basically acting like zoo animals. And of course, when they came in the were dressed like this and I HAD to take a picture!

I took the the picture told them that they were all now called Erckle and to sit down. Did I ask "Why" (or Lei??) no I did not. In Egypt you don't ask - you just take a picture and keep moving.

So, that was my weird morning. I have two more Thursdays left. We are all getting pretty tired of the whole scene and reflected on the past present and future after work at my place. Complete with a delicious new hors'deouvre oreos with peanut butter and honey! Did I mention that I need to knock off the sugar a bit? Oh, and did I mention gin and tonics?? AND! Did I mention we are still finishing off the ORIGINAL gin I purchased on the plane out here 8 months ago and had to hide in the house of the Muslim woman I stayed with since I didn't know before that that even having it in the house was so bad! Ughhh - it was all fun though and I am not the only one counting the days. I feel pretty guilty leaving early but it can't be helped . . .

Of course, after all the shenanigans I am left with serious reflection and I do worry for these kids. On the one hand they are very wealthy and could be illiterate and lead a fine life full of all the material possessions they could want but on the other hand . . . They do need a school like this to prepare them for a world outside of their little insulated and very spoiled clubs. It is disconcerting to think about. I know that I was here at the beginning and gave it my best shot. At least held the door open for a bit. What comes next . . . who knows? I just have to look at all those Erckles . . . and laugh!

Bulldozers Mosques and Beaches

Oh the view from my balcony. Here is the gorgeous mosque - Fatma Sharbotlee. It is the only landmark around. We actually get our Chinese food and Pizzas delivered here, not to mention the taxis meet us here. We look out our balconies and if we see the take-out food delivery motorcycle, or the taxi ,we run across the street and meet them. It always makes for an amusing broken Arabic conversation when we tell them "We live in the mosque". If ONLY there were street names and numbers in this brand new city. Notice the buildings in the background, yes, they are completely unfinished as are ALLLLL the buildings within site of mine. There are some lived in but none that I can see close to me. Regardless, every Friday this mosque is jam packed. Friday is the only day of the week that Muslims must pray in the mosque. All the other days they can pray virtually anywhere - in an office - in a restaurant - in a clothing store - anywhere. It is VERY quiet at the moment in the photo. All the people visible are standing and praying and the mosque is full too. What you cannot see is that on the left side of the photo is a rotary where even more groups of people are praying together, always shoulder to shoulder. And, under the palm tree that is in the foreground. I see these groups of people praying on construction sites together. It is always a beautiful moment of peace. Of course, as soon as it breaks the Cairo chaos resumes but . . . for  a bit of each Friday it is quite the site.

The unfinished buildings explain the literal PARADE of bulldozers and construction vehicles that drive by my home all day every day!! On a short 10 minute walk recently no less than 15 bulldozers went by us. They have the most obnoxious horns which have to be used every time they go by us. So friendly . . . .

I am making my final observations here. I have three weeks left. Due to fly out on May 17 which seems incredibly soon all of a sudden. But I know it is time to go. This, as I have said before, is a harsh existence. It is one that I could make the best of if I was forced to but since I know that I have the glorious beauty of Nantucket waiting for me I have little motivation or desire to continue making the best of it. I just appreciate the mosque and all that it reminds me of about hummanity's quest for meaning and peace and the complications that humans can make for themselves. I am counting the days until I am home and I wonder what, if anything, will I miss? The call to prayer? The exotic sites? As soon as I see a sunset over one of our gorgeous beaches I have serious doubts I will long for anything Egypt other than the people I have met. My experiences have been invaluable but their benefits of them will exist in me in the ways I have changed as a person and my newly evolving perception of the world. I'll be glad to observing it all from the little island in the North Atlantic