Mickey

Mickey was fun! Omar had a blast! It was so American. He sat for almost the entire show, it was well organized, started on time and we had really good seats.
Omar did not want to go at first because he insisted Ella had to go with him. I tried to explain to him that Ella lives in America and we are in Egypt. He screamed and he cried.
Thinking about it, it makes sense as we are planning to go to Disney World later this year and I told him Ella and him might go see Mickey together.
The weather has gotten a lot better too, 80s during the day 60s at night, just wonderful!

Our situation is still the same, I wish I could tell you Ramy got the other job! We got a house! Our things are here in Cairo!
Maybe next week? I am still keeping my fingers crossed. The good thing is that we are here as a family, and although we have been cramped in a bedroom for two months, we are spending more time together as a family. Omar is very happy spending this much time with the both of us. It makes up for everything he misses back home.

I finally got skype today, I was so excited! There is high speed internet at the club and the program downloaded fairly quickly. Thirty minutes instead of 6 hours. The only problem was that nobody was on! We waited to talk to someone until the battery died. Omar was a bit disappointed but I told him we will try again tomorrow.

All three of us came down with another stomach bug. I woke up in the middle of the night with the worst pain, then the next day Ramy and Omar got it. I don’t know if it is something we ate or what but I can tell you, I am tired of having stomach aches! There hasn’t been a day that has gone by that my stomach has not hurt. Ramy however has never had a stomach ache here in Egypt so he was really miserable.

We’ve had a bit of bad luck here and there, just now when we got home, I went to feed the cats and Isis had a seizure. She was in the middle of eating and all of a sudden her front paw was straight up in the air. I have never seen such a thing, I didn’t think a paw could go that way. And as she was still eating I was just staring at first until she started staggering and shaking, I thought she was choking. I checked her, but could not see anything, she was spastic. I screamed for Ramy and we rushed her to his dad. I was freaking out, thought she was going to die as she had a very scary asthma episode a couple of days before we left to Egypt where she did almost die. I needed to go to an emergency vet right away!
Ramy’s dad did not know of a veterinarian here, and the one I had found on the net earlier this week was over an hour away.
Luckily she started to become normal again, and I called the vet in America who told me she had a seizure and to find a vet here as soon as possible. These things can be fatal.
So first thing tomorrow we are in the taxi, I hope it is nothing serious!

About two weeks ago Horus inhaled a couple of pieces of dry cat food that had gotten stuck together and almost choked to death. I swept his mouth, couldn’t reach the piece, held him upside down, shook him and did the heimlich until it came out. Very traumatic let me tell you. I honestly didn’t know what to do and Ramy didn’t really seem to care so I was trying anything I could think of. I figured if I didn’t he would die anyway. And yes, there is a heimlich for cats and dogs, I went online afterwards to read up on it and to prepare myself for future accidents. Unfortunately the vet here does not live around the corner like back home. In fact, a vet is hard to find here. Apparently, for the majority of the Egyptians dogs are considered dirty, and cats, well there are hundreds of them on the streets so why have them as a pet? The only people that have pets are Americans or Europeans that live here. In Holland four out of five households have a pet. The majority of the Europeans and Americans live in Maadi or Zamalek and that is where you will find a vet. One more reason to move closer, don’t you think?

Omar has had a couple of small accidents, some black eyes and nasty falls. The worst fall was at the mall. He was sitting on Ramy’s neck when he decided to jump off. As Ramy was distracted he grabbed him too late and Omar landed face first on the floor. It was such a smack I thought for sure he broke something, or lost a couple of teeth but he was okay! His left cheeck was all swollen and bruised and there was blood in his mouth, but that was the worst of it. Tough kid I tell you!

Heat wave

We have been hit by another heat wave. Yesterday we had a high of 106 degrees. It was absolutely scorching hot!
I tried getting a taxi with air conditioning but no luck.
Omar got really hot in the taxi, he was passing out which totally freaked me out. Ramy and I have been in disagreement over taking Omar into the hot weather. He claims thousands of kids go in the hot weather each day and it is no big deal.
But I think yesterday’s taxi ride may have changed his mind as Omar was really affected by the heat. I honestly think he was close to a heat stroke. It was a scary experience. He was really out of it for the rest of the day and didn’t really become his old self until he had a nice cool bath.
Today we are going to the Mickey Mouse show, luckily it is very close to the house so the ride shouldn’t be bad.
After yesterdays experience I am really starting to hate this place. I miss the convenience of my car, the central air conditioning of our previous home and the fresh air.
Now more than ever I want to move to our own place. For my son’s sake we need to live closer to the things we do everyday.
Heat wave come to an end!

Egypt anyone?

The last couple of days have been really warm here, so we were planning on taking Omar swimming today but looking out of the window now I see nothing but smog. I guess swimming is out of the question. The air smells like burning, it is very nasty.
Besides that, Omar woke up with a cold.
I am so bummed, I was looking forward to going to the club and the pool today. Anything to get us out of the house!

When I have a moment of nothing to do, it really means I have nothing to do. Yesterday I found myself coloring in Omar’s coloring book, now talk about being bored!
Being here is so much different than home, at least when I think I have nothing to do, there is something to do like laundry, dishes, paying bills or just get on the internet.
How I miss the internet. It is so hard to get on these days, I never reply to any emails, so I am sorry for that. I can read them on my phone though but it is such a hassle to reply. Please keep sending me emails though they are much appreciated!!!!!
Once my blackberry starts working here it will be better. Apparently the Pearl is not out here yet so they can’t get my phone set up. Hopefully it will soon.

Lets talk about some of the Egyptian ways. It seems everyone here has a servant for something rather, one for cleaning, one for cooking, one for laundry, a nanny, a driver and if you can afford it, more servants for whatever you need.
When we go to the play garden I still have a hard time distinguishing the nanny from the mother, however, I have figured out that when the kid is extremely bratty and the caretaker just laughs about it, it is the nanny.
I feel it totally unnecessary to have all these servants.
Once our car comes I do think we need a driver because driving here is extremely dangerous, as there are not traffic rules or signs.

The trash gets collected by a boy or an old man on a cart being pulled by a mule. They announce at each building they are coming, but honestly, who is going to run down with the trash if you live on the 12th floor? I see them look up in anticipation and then at the door to see who comes out. When they get the trash and if there are two people on the cart, one will browse through it. I guess someones trash is someone else treasure?

There is such contrast between poor and rich. I need to get used to all this poorness around me, it breaks my heart.
The other day when we left the mall, there was a little boy begging for money, we were just getting in the taxi and he was desperate. I didn’t understand what he wanted as I was busy getting Omar and our bags in the car until I looked at his eyes. He was so hungry. He kept reaching for something and I noticed he wanted the bag from the restaurant where we ate. I gave it to him and he ran off.
I felt terrible in the taxi, he was only around 6 years old, I looked at my son and thought how blessed we are. I couldn’t help but cry.
Stuff like this happens every day, it breaks my heart.
Don’t even mention the amount of stray dogs and cats that live here. I sometimes cannot sleep from the noise they make. Especially when the dogs get in a fight and I hear one being killed. It goes through my spine.
The other day someone ran over a cat, the scream of that cat dying still haunts me.
It seems I am the only one being so sensitive to this because my husband doesn’t even look up for any of this.
Children here make it into a sport to torture the stray cats and dogs. It sickens me.
It has been hard just keeping my cats save. Besides Omar and I, I don’t think anyone else is happy they came.
When they are on the balcony the neighbors throw things at them. I am so sick of it, the next time I see them doing it I am going to throw the dirty cat litter back at them. Serves them right.

Alongside the poor come the very rich, I see teenage boys walking around with iphones and psp’s. Driving expensive Mercedes etc What’s up with that?

Now on the positive side, there is a fruit and vegetable stand on every corner, so you never run out of fresh produce. It is lovely.
There is also a supermarket on every street and a pharmacy on every block. The pharmacy is more like a doctor here without making the appointment. You go, describe your symptoms and they give you the medicine. No prescription needed.
Everything in the supermarket is surprisingly fresh, it has a date on when it was made and when it will expire.
The weather is nice year round. I don’t know why we bothered bringing our winter coats.
Certain things are extremely cheap here, then imported things are extremely over priced. A box of Egyptian made cheerios is less than two dollars where a box of imported cheerios is 9 dollars.

Not to mention the natural beauty of the country. You can’t see much of it here in the busy streets of Cairo, but when you go a bit outside of it, there are the Pyramids, and a ton of other interesting stuff. The views are incredibly amazing!

I love the little cafe’s and bakeries here. It really reminds me of Holland. Fresh pastries galore!
Not so sure if it is helpful for my waist line as I am currently not doing anything in regards of exercise, but thank God I haven’t gained any yet!
So I am a big fan of cafe’s, an afternoon cup of coffee or tea with some sort of freshly made pie always works for me.
Omar really likes it as well, he loves all the fruit drinks here which are all freshly made as well. His favorite is strawberry.

We finally found some normal diapers the other day. One of the moms pointed out that a special kind of pampers is not made out of plastic. It is two sizes smaller than what he usually wears but so far it is working. No leaks and no rashes!
I don’t see us in diapers much longer as he is really trying to use the bathroom. I am hoping and praying we will be in our own home by May so we can say goodbye to them for good and welcome the big boy underwear with open arms!

Fun stuff

We went to the movies last week and Omar had a blast. He could not stop talking about it.
We also finally met up with the kids from play group again. It has been hard getting together, but yesterday afternoon everyone was at the club and Omar absolutely loved it. He played so much that on the way home in the taxi he fell fast asleep, which was around 7pm, and didn’t wake up until this morning 6am. I had a night off!

So Mickey is coming to Cairo at the end of April and a couple of days ago I got tickets!
They had a booth at the club and a couple of people from play group wanted to go as well.
I waited for my turn, and when I was trying to get the tickets, some woman butted in front of me and bought the whole middle section! I was so mad, because there were only 6 tickets left and thus the guy had to get more tickets which meant I had to wait three more hours.
I hate this mentality here in Egypt. People just butt in, and pretend they don’t know they did it. UGH
To end a long story short, I got the tickets and we are going to see Mickey on the 24th!
I also found playhouse Disney on the tv, Omar was delighted. He got to see Tigger and Pooh in English.

We are still looking for a house. We did find a couple of places but did not make a definite yet as Ramy got another job offer which, if the salary is good, means we might move to Sharm el Sheikh which is a big beach resort on the Red Sea.
It sounds very exciting, but we won’t know until next week and then we have to make a decision.
I am finally starting to feel more comfortable here, made some friends and connections, school for Omar etc and then to leave again.. I don’t know, we will see next week.

I got a really bad stomach bug last week too which is finally starting to get a bit better. Unfortunately Omar has gotten it too.
He also got the biggest mosquito bites, they are the size of mini golf balls, it is crazy. I got some ointment for it but it doesn’t seem to be working very well.

Omar went for his first hair cut here the other day. Ramy recommended the guy that cuts his hair so that is where we went. When Omar saw the place he had a fit. He was absolutely hysterical. I sat in the chair with him and the guy started. He was an old guy and apparently not used to cutting kids hair, especially screaming ones. He took forever! I had told him, number two clippers on the bottom and scissors on top. But no, he didn’t listen of course. He did a very poor job, some parts he didn’t even get to. When we got up, I noticed a small crowd had formed at the door, it was quite embarrassing. They must’ve thought foreigners are crazy?

All I know is that I am going to cut Omar’s hair from now on until I find a decent kids place.
There is a place here somewhere where the kids sit in race cars while getting their hair cut. I just don’t know where it is. Cairo is a big city!

Small update

It has been a while since my last post, lots of things have happened which makes me not sure where to start.
We got news that our things are scheduled to arrive on the 15th. To me this is great news as I am seriously depressed at the moment and in dire need of something that feels like home.
Omar and I have been here a little over a month now, but it still feels like we are on a long vacation. You know that feeling when you have been gone too long and you are just ready to go home? It’s that, a vacation that is just dragging on.

I have come to the conclusion that without Ramy I am totally lost when it comes to doing anything here in Egypt alone.
I have lost all sense of independence, which is very depressing to me. I am trying to keep my head up but it does get to me. There are days that I just want to sit and cry but I have to be strong for my son. I am just not used to living in such a small place with little privacy and being inside for most of the day without anything to do.
I know things will improve once we move to our own place and we actually get to settle down and start living our lives the way we want to and start getting back in some kind of routine.

Looking back to when I first arrived in the States by myself, the first couple of months were very hard. Of course I was much younger then, 18 and ready for an adventure. I do remember being very homesick in the beginning too.

Omar has decided the vacation needs to come to an end because he wants to go home. He tells me everyday he wants to go to Omar’s house. I am a bit worried what he will think once he sees all of our furniture in a new home.
Obviously I am not trying to make anyone worry about us, and I usually don’t write anything that is not upbeat on here, but this is what it is.

There are positive things that happen too of course. Omar’s gotten really good with the alphabet, he recognizes a lot of words and he counts up to 20. He colors really well, almost in the lines. He also knows when to switch languages, he will speak in Arabic to Egyptians while speaking to me in Dutch and to Ramy in English.
He has also started to show interest in potty training which I am not taking up until we actually are in our own house. I hope he does not lose interest once we do though, but I don’t think I have to worry about it as the diapers here are horrible and he is very uncomfortable in them.

We went to a ceramic café last week with some of the play group. It was really nice, Omar picked out a plate and a mug to paint. He did really well, didn’t make a mess at all which really surprised me.
He had a great time painting and then playing with the kids.
I am excited to see how it turned out when we get to pick them up next week. He told me this will be his break fast cup and plate.

We have been spending a lot of time at the club, some nights have been late as we stay with Ramy at Taekwondo which does not end until 10.30pm. Omar loves it though, he will fall asleep on me around 9pm and I just hang out until it is over. I try to go home earlier sometimes but Omar insists we need to stay at Taekwondo with Papi. He loves it so much, he wants to be just like his daddy. He also loves to talk to the girls there, the other day he said to one of them: Ah, you are so pretty!
I was floored this came out of my two year old’s mouth.
Omar also loves to go play at Magic Galaxy in the mall. It covers two floors, and his favorite thing of course is the train ride. The airplanes are his next favorite thing.
He also loves the Rain Forest Café which is right next to it, so whenever we leave he asks to go to the Jungle.

This week we are going to the movies to the see Doctor Seus’ Horton hears a who?
It will be Omar’s first time at the movies, I hope he enjoys it!