Good news and bad news

The good news is that Ramy got the job! We are very excited, and as soon as he finishes his paperwork he will start his training and then we will find out which office he will be working from.
They have six offices in Cairo, I am hoping it will be the one in 6th of October as that is the nicest area to live in.
So for now we still have to be patient and wait to move until we find out where he will be working.

As for the not so good news, apparently our shipment, which arrived over two weeks ago is being held at National Security. The reason for it being there is Ramy’s sword and knife collection.
They claim it is a national threat and it looks like Ramy is planning a war. Yeah right! With the couple of swords that old and in that kind of shape. Outrageous let me tell you. They are planning on confiscating it all, so Ramy is working really hard on getting this solved at the moment.
Besides that, they now say we need to pay 30% on each item we bring into the country
which is also a big load of crap, where are we supposed to get that kind of money from?
And that is certainly not what they told us when we were moving!
I don’t know why the little bit of good news always has to be overshadowed with a lot of bad news.
Will things ever go our way or at least go as planned?

Pyramids and horses

Isis seems to be a bit better now. I took her to a vet the day before yesterday. It was very hard to find and with traffic it took us an hour and a half. There was no sign on the building or on the door of the office which was so strange. Isis got really hot in the taxi and was barely breathing, it was quite scary.
At the vet she did great, I think she was just too sick to put up a fight. The vet here is something you probably cannot even imagine if you are used to the ones in the US or Europe for that matter.
We walked in and it was small and dirty looking. It had 5 billion pictures of dogs on the wall and not a single reference to any other animal. Then a woman took us to a side room that looked a bit more like a medical room. The doctor was standing behind the examining table with a cigarette in one hand and a lighter and cell phone in the other. He seemed annoyed we disturbed him.
He asked me what seemed to be the problem, I told him my cat had a seizure yesterday and after consulting with the vet back home we came to check her out.
He lit up his cigarette, then told me to put the cage on the table. He then asked me if it was a cat or a dog. Hello? Didn’t I just say it was a cat and can’t you see she is right in front of you?
He then asked me again, what seems to be the problem? I was really annoyed at that point.
I got her out of the cage, as his assistant was scared of the cat. He then took her temperature and gave her a bunch of medicines for fever and parasites. He never even looked at her or checked her, nothing.
Her fever is gone now but she is still a bit out of it. I am not taking her back there though, the guy was rude. I asked him what he gave her and he refused to tell me. He got really annoyed and kind of yelled at me that if I take her in for the next three days he will write me a report.
Whatever. At least he didn’t kill her.


Ramy took us horseback riding at the pyramids yesterday. It was a surprise and Omar and I were very excited!
When we were almost there, some guy jumped into our taxi and told us his stables are the best. So we went there. We got two horses and Omar was really excited. I got on the horse and he wanted to get on too, so I put him on with me. My saddle had a big metal ring sticking up in front so we were really cramped and I decided to give Omar to Ramy as he had a normal saddle.
We then rode off. Omar was so happy, he was petting the horse while we were trotting, saying good boy and he was laughing the whole time.
It took us about fourty five minutes to get to the pyramids. Omar was in awe. He couldn’t stop talking about how big the rocks were. He went for a little ride on the horse all by himself there. He loved it and I am very proud of him!

There was a guy there with his camel and he tried to get Omar on it but Omar was too busy with his horse and had no interest in riding the camel.
I then took him on the pyramid with me, it was hard to climb as the big square rocks were the same size as him.

When we were saddling up to ride to the sphinx, our guide got into a fight with the tourist police that was at the pyramids. As we had gone ahead, we heard screaming and then he came riding up behind us fast. My horse got scared and started galloping which scared me as we were descending a big slab of rock. I got him to slow and then the police had ran after our guide and were trying to pull him off the horse. They were very angry at him and were trying to beat him and arrest him. They got close to Omar and his horse got scared which in turn made me panic and started yelling at them. Ramy also yelled at them and finally they let him go.
Apparently, they wanted 50 pounds as they were the tourist police and they can demand whatever they want. Our guy refused and made them very angry.
It was pretty scary! While descending to the sphinx a group of wild looking horses came by and got Ramy’s horse a bit out of control, but luckily Ramy handled it well and him and Omar were fine. I am so glad I put Omar with Ramy as I am not a good rider and we both would have gotten hurt.
Omar then got excited to see the Sphinx, he recognized it from one of his Little Einstein shows.
We chose not to go in it as we had rode for an hour and a half and we were all very tired.
It was a great family outing!

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!

Negotiation

It seems that everywhere you go here, you have to negotiate on something. If you are an Egyptian it seems like a way of life maybe, but to me, a foreigner I am still getting used to it.
I know the prices for things where we regularly go and what we regularly buy but doing it by myself is more difficult. They try to get me for as much as possible. Luckily I do know what things are supposed to cost so I need to just stand up for myself.
Yesterday was the first time I took a taxi alone. My father in law tried to get me a taxi from someone he knows but it didn’t work out so I just had to do it alone.
The ride was uneventful, the guy tried to make conversation but his English vocabulary only consisted out of a handful of words.
Going to the club from our house costs 20 pounds. If there is quite a lot of traffic you give 5 pounds more.
When we got to the club the guy got out right away and stood next to my door. I thought it to be a bit odd as he didn’t even open the door for me or anything. I gave him 22 pounds and he started yelling at me he wanted 55. I was stunned, was he kidding me? I might be blonde but I know better than that! I told him no and turned around to get my stuff out of the car, and he kept yelling he wanted 55 pounds. I got nervous but at the same time upset and yelled back at him no and 22 was more than enough.
I walked off and he left me alone. I was really upset about it. My first experience didn’t go so smooth.
Got to the club, and because Ramy wasn’t with me I just decided to pay the 30 pounds at the door. The girls from play group told me they let foreigners in on a day pass for 30 pounds.
I got out the money and the guy tells me 80 pounds. I was still kind of worked up about the previous incident so I was like, here we go again.
I said no, it is 30, he goes no it is 60. I said 30 quite loud and was really starting to get angry. Then another door man looked at me and said yes 30 pounds. The first guy was upset the other one interfered but I was relieved and walked up to the other guy gave him my 30 pounds and walked off.

Talking to the girls later they told me they will try to get whatever they can get, especially from foreigners.
Omar did not want to participate in soccer, he wanted to go to the play ground. I finally managed to get him to stay there for the hour before heading to the play ground with the group. I’ve decided I am going to wait with enrolling him into soccer until he is three. I think he might be too young for it now, he cannot last in class for an hour and follow directions the whole time without running off.
He had a blast at the play ground, he played more with the kids from the group this time, they are starting to accept him now as a new friend. Before leaving we sat down with one of the moms and had pizza. She has a three year old girl named Layla. Layla came over to give Omar a hug and then Omar went and gave her a hug and a kiss back. I thought it was very sweet.
I was actually procrastinating on getting a taxi back, but of course we had to go home at one point! Mindy, the mom told me to find a decent, big taxi and if they gave me any hassle to just give 5 pounds more and walk off.
Five taxi’s stopped before I actually decided to take one that looked ok to me. I told him in my broken arabic where I was headed and off we went. Omar fell asleep on the way home, as it took a bit longer with all the traffic.
I recognized the streets and was able to tell him in arabic where to go. I think that made him believe I was living here because he didn’t give me any hassle when I gave him 25 pounds. He even offered me a cigarette.
I was so relieved!
I think today we will just hang around the house for a bit as Omar was up close to midnight and woke up at 5am!

I discovered there are times in Egypt when it is quiet on the streets.
At 4.30am the call for prayer starts, which is very loud. It is supposed to be loud so all of Cairo can hear and people get up to pray. As we woke up at 5am it was quiet. All I heard was birds chirping. For a moment I thought I was back in Maryland. I got up and opened the balcony door and sure enough, there was silence. No cars honking, no guys yelling about tomatoes or trash collecting.
Just silence and chirping. It was lovely!
Thanks Omar for giving me a bit of home at 5am.

House hunting

This has been harder than I thought. It is not that there are no spaces available, it is hard finding the right one in the right location. First of all, it seems 90% of the population lives in flats. With a city of 18 million people, this seems like the best way to go.
For me this is not an easy thing to accept as I am used to my beautiful home in the US with lots of space and a garden all around.
At the moment we are on the 11th floor of a 12 story building. The whole street is flats, and the next street and so on.
There are places where you can buy a house with a garden but it is not close to the center of town.

Initially the distance wasn't that big of a deal but with the polution and heavy traffic a few people pointed out that it is better for Omar to live relatively close to his school and activities.
The school is in Maadi, the club is in Zamalek and we currently live in Nasr City.
Maadi and Zamalek are outrageously expensive. Sure we can get something there but it would be very small.
We have until the end of April, which is when our things arrive from the US.
I like Nasr City, as the mall and the big park are right here. But I really hate the amount of traffic.
I love Zamalek, as it is right on the Nile and there is lots to do and everything is relatively close.
I also like Maadi, but all I have seen so far is Omar's school.

If you look at the pictures you can see it is a lot different than what I am used to. This is the view out of the dining room window. It is the street we live on. As you can see there are a ton of cars, the sidewalks are crap, it is impossible to walk on them with a stroller. The middle section of the street where the grass and trees are have a little sidewalk too which is a bit better but every couple of meters is a street lantern planted right in the middle of it so you can't walk on there with a stroller either!
The worst is probably the constant honking, Egyptians like the sound of their horn. It is ridiculous really. Every few seconds that horn has to honk, can you imagine all these cars and all that honking? And this lasts throughout the night, it goes on 24/7.

Today I finally ventured out by myself. As Ramy is out of town I really had no choice but to go out and go to the grocery store alone. I had put it off for a day but could no longer. All morning I was nervous getting ready for 'my big outing'. I know, it sounds crazy but I was scared!
Foreigners get looked at, whistled and honked at all the time, and it is only worse when Ramy is not with me.
So anyway, we got out and it was nice and warm out. I tried my best to stay on the sidewalk as much as possible. The supermarket is at the end of the street which is like walking to the Bloom supermarket from my old house in the states. About 15-20 minutes?
After some honking and stares later we arrived at the supermarket right as they were closing. I forgot it was Friday prayer! Ahhh. We had to wait an hour for them to reopen.
We then walked over to the park across the street to waste some time there but Omar was not in the mood. He wanted to go home. After a while he fell asleep and I stood and waited in front of the store until they reopened. It was lovely there too, people stopped and stared like I was a white ghost or something. After dropping half the things on the floor while pushing a sleeping Omar around I managed to get to the cash register. He told me I owed him 4 and 5 in Arabic. Did this mean 45 pounds or 54 as the Arabic writing is reversed. I couldn't really tell so I showed him my money and he took what he needed. Maybe not the smartest thing to do but I just needed to get out of there! Looking at the receipt which was all in Arabic wasn't much help either.
I was just glad to make it back to the building, overall not too bad of an experience I guess.
I do need to try to make it out more as Omar and I are extremely bored here in the house. He hardly has any toys here and I have nothing to do but try to entertain him.
The one planned activity we have is soccer on Sunday. This will be the first time I take a taxi on my own. I am already nervous!

Pre-school and new friends

We’ve been here almost two weeks now. It feels like we’ve only been here a couple of days though.
Time has gone by fast, at times I feel like I have done absolutely nothing and then at times I am so busy it wears me out.

Most of our time we have been spending at the club, as Ramy does his Taekwondo there. Doing things here take much longer than at home. We don’t have our car here so our only means of transportation is the taxi. Most things are on the other side of town which requires us to spend about an hour in the taxi each way. Rather than going back and forth we just decide to stay at the end of town for the whole day.

On Monday we had an appointment at a German pre-school for Omar. Ramy wants Omar to go to a German school, as he went to a German school here in Egypt and it really is the best education here.
Getting there wasn’t too bad I thought, we arrived in Maadi within half an hour. The trick was finding the street. The taxi driver couldn’t find it, not even with the directions given directly on the cell phone. We spent another 30-40 minutes before finally arriving. This didn’t give me a very good feeling. If the taxi driver couldn’t find it with arabic directions, what would make him find it with just me and Omar in the car speaking only English?

The school was European looking. The owner, Frau Yasmine was really nice. They also had a garden outside with a sand box which Omar loved. He is supposed to start on April 1st. Classes are 5 days a week from 9am-2pm.
They only are allowed to speak German in school. They are pretty strict about it.
Omar doesn’t speak any German which obviously concerns me. Ramy thinks he will do fine, and the teacher said it will take about three weeks for him to adjust.
The reason Ramy wants him in this particular school is that it is one of two pre schools that prepares the kids for the actual German school which starts at age 4. This is the school Ramy went to and it is very hard to get into. Of the 300 kids that apply each year only 50 get accepted. Each child is required to take a test. Now, acing the test doesn’t guarantee you getting in. Children with German parents or children born in Germany, parents with a German back ground or children speaking German all have priority.
Omar is required to take this test in 2010. The teacher feels Omar will have enough time to master the German language by that time.
We will see, if he doesn’t like it after two months or if he doesn’t excel I will pull him out. Pre school is supposed to be fun not military school. This place looks like a lot of fun though, and the teachers are very nice. At least that part puts me a bit at ease.
For his first day we are only going to go for an hour and I get to stay with him, then slowly we increase the hours. So it won’t be totally shocking to him.
Will keep you posted on the whole school thing!

Yesterday we were invited to a birthday party for Ramy’s friends daughter who was turning three.
When we got there the house was full of little children and toys, Omar couldn’t believe his eyes. He was shy for about two minutes before getting into the crowd and forgetting about me.
He made instant friends with another two year old boy named Aly. The party lasted four hours which is very normal here. Most birthday parties last all day! So I have something to look forward to when it is Omar’s turn. At the party I met most of the moms, they were all part of a baby group, like the play group we have back home. I met about 9 or 10 and most are foreigners married to Egyptians. They told me they meet twice a week for play group and then twice a week for soccer.
After the party we went to the club as it was right around the corner. Omar took a nap in the stroller for about an hour before we headed to the soccer field. At the party some of the moms told me that they hired a private coach to teach their kids soccer. Normal soccer classes start at age four and because most of the kids are around age three they decided to get a private coach and split the cost.
Omar was just waking up when the class started so he watched for the first half hour. He then went over and participated for a little bit. He was pretty shy but was happy to see his friend Aly.
After soccer we walked over to the children’s area and Omar had lots of fun playing. He actually was laughing and having fun with the kids. Finally I saw the old Omar emerge. We stayed until it got dark and then went home for dinner. Omar was exhausted but happy and took a mini nap on the ride home.

For most of the afternoon I talked with Heather from Texas, another woman from the US and Mariam, Aly’s mom who is Egyptian but has a French back ground and speaks only French with her kids.
I finally feel a bit happy and not so lost after yesterday’s day out. I am glad I made new friends and am part of a play group again.
Being at the play ground with all the new kids made me miss the kids from Omar’s old play group. They all seemed so comfortable with each other, playing, and hugging. It made me so sad as this is how Omar was with his old friends.
I know everything takes time and we are one step in the right direction!