Dawn Chorus

Awoken at 5am (30 June) by the normal dawn chorus - one of the advantages of living in a Cairo suburb where the trees mingle among the towering apartment blocks.  The soothing noise is soon to be broken by the planes landing at the international airport - with fewer passengers than those planes leaving,  the metro train horn becoming more prominent as a warning to those crossing the track on foot, and soon the voices of the street hawkers calling out above the general noise of this hectic city.  From our 1st floor balcony I notice a solitary policeman in his gleaming white summer uniform walking towards the metro station - I hope it is as clean  this evening when he returns home.  Overnight the opposing political crowds have been gathering - both protests have been relatively peaceful but when they come into contact with each other what will be the reaction?  Both sides have planned peaceful protests but in reality this rarely happens.  I am reminded of a Graham Kendrick song: 'Go do something beautiful...' - just like our little 'warbler' friend. P

Top Score - 8

Travelling around Cairo can be extremely slow and boring so car games help to pass the time.  We often travel with another family and in the endless queues the children sometimes wave to people to see who can get the most responses.  There are many other car games that I'm sure you know but I think that points for number of passengers on the next motor-bike would be boring in most countries.  Being a motor-cyclist for many years I can't imagine how this guy manages to ride like this, especially if you take into account the chaotic surrounding traffic.  Not sure what he will do as the children grow older or if he has another child! P

Back to the Future

Memories of doing our homework in the late 1970's by candlelight come to mind during our regular power cuts.  The electricity supply in Egypt is being cut because the electricity companies can't produce enough power at peak times so everybody has been buying re-chargeable lights so perhaps there is a conspiracy with the light companies.  'The Winter of Discontent' - the reason for the power cuts in the UK - was the title of a film we recently saw at a local church during their arts festival.  The film was about the discontent in Egypt 2 years ago which was a little bit more restless than the industrial disputes in the UK!

Unequal teams

Being a football fan I was disappointed to see the state of the Deaf School's table football.  The dust and small stones add authenticity to the pitch but there is a problem with one of the teams.
Q Can you spot it?
A The yellow team has 13 players however the red team has only 12, and two of the red team don't have any legs, which is a big disadvantage in table football.
My cunning plan is to use plenty of WD40  (you can imagine the rust because it is kept outdoors) and a screwdriver to remove the two injured red players and two of the yellow players and then transfer one of the yellow players to the red team.
I'd better get permission before I make any improvements because the disadvantaged red team has probably been like it for many years and there might be a complicated scoring system in place which allows the teams to play on equal terms - although I doubt this very much. Pete

A typical Sunday afternoon

We are still adjusting to the weekends in Cairo because Friday is church day.  We finish our working week on Thursday and before we know it we are travelling to the Cathedral early on Friday morning.  But there are occasions when it really does feel like a Sunday - when we can relax in the afternoon with a nice cup of coffee (we have finally found a shop that sells cafetieres and ground coffee), a Bach CD courtesy of BBC music magazine, and an old copy of the Sunday Times.  We have to haggle with the newspaper street vendors depending on the date of the newspaper, how many sections are missing and how dusty it is.  Today been especially dusty because of the khamaseen wind which carries sand and dust from the desert.  It means  the air quality is poorer than normal and visibility restricted which means the views of the skyscrapers are restricted.  So this afternoon is a perfect day to spend having a traditional Sunday afternoon although there is no log fire or roast beef dinner.    

Six Nations Champions

The old lady selling vegetables outside the metro station had a chuckle when I gave her my request.  I usually get confused when she tells me the final price which is normally said so quickly and with such a strong accent that I get the amount completely wrong.  But on this occasion after successfully ordering potatoes, onions, peas, chilli and courgettes I asked her for a kilo of shoes - gazar not gazma! 
The vegetable stew was especially good and as I am always willing to help Jane with her Arabic homework (you'll appreciate what a great help I can be) and because she has just got back from a girls weekend away I should now have enough brownie points to have an evening out next Saturday to watch England win the rugby Six Nations Grand Slam. Pete

Exploding Brains

We are starting to explore other places in which we could help.   One such place is the Diocese of Egypt Deaf Unit in Old Cairo, where we will be able to use TESOL training in a new environment.
The Unit includes a school for about 80 children aged from 5 years old.  It is amazing how much of communication is non-verbal, a deaf Egyptian child can find many ways to communicate with a British adult with little Arabic and no sign language.  The most uplifting part of the morning is the warm handshake and smile from each of the children. 
Our overstretched brains are going to have to find room for not only Arabic but also sign language for English letters - Arabic sign language would probably cause our heads to explode with too much information.