30 Nov, 2008
Posted by: blissfule In: Egypt
As my theme for NaBloPoMo, I am reflecting on thirty things I've learned during the past two years living in Egypt.
Since this is
National Blog Posting Month, I'm forced to consider... which nation?
I looked it up, and this is an American initiative.
Fortunately for me, the internet has no fixed borders.
Unfortunately for me, setting up a new internet connection in our Australian home will take a little while. Right now the technician is scheduled for the morning of 10 December, but the appointment is subject to change - later, I presume. Please be patient as we wait to be reconnected to the world wide web!
In the meantime - you can vote for the top three November posts you most enjoyed!
- Mums are Better Together
- Potty Training Really Is Possible
- Temporary Accommodation is Great for Mobility
- Having a Maid is Great
- Having a Maid can be Hard
- Home Remedies for Common Childhood Illnesses
- Missionaries are People, Too
- Children are Blessings
- The Art of Reciprocal Friendship
- Kids Believe What You Say About Them
- Some Ants Can Be Ignored
- Dirt Is Not Too Dirty
- Our Apartment Was Bugged
- Friends Who Keep In Touch Across the Globe
- Be Restrictive At First, Then Loosen Up - Not the Other Way Around
- Why I Am Here
- Don't Hesitate to Pray
- White Board = Better Communication
- 'God Willing' can be Taken Too Far
- Forms of Fasting
- Mail Forwarding Enables Global Internet Shopping
- The Story of Koshari
- Spelling is Optional
- Foot Washing is More Than Symbolic
- As You Like It
- Safety Rules, Unsafe Execution
- Faith Without Works is Dead
- Designing Furniture is Fun
- Greater Understanding of the World
29 Nov, 2008
Posted by: blissfule In: Egypt
As my theme for NaBloPoMo, I am reflecting on thirty things I've learned during the past two years living in Egypt. Shortly after moving to Egypt, I looked at the days ahead of me. In an apartment. With an infant for company.
I needed intellectual stimulation, and I preferred it didn't emanate from a flickering screen.
Ben bought me a subscription to the
Economist magazine. A well-written window on the world. Every article stretches me to think, to wonder, to try and understand. The information helps me to hold intelligent conversations with a wider range of people. Instead of atrophying, my mind is growing in new directions.
At the same time, I had the privilege of learning about the wider world first-hand. Through living in a culture very different than my own. Through travel within and outside of Egypt. Having been away, even traveling in the US was a cultural experience.
A common piece of advice for moms is to do something for themselves, which will in turn enable you to be a better parent. For me, reading the Economist and traveling, along with writing about what I do and think, are my indulgences. I hope I never stop exploring and learning about this world.
28 Nov, 2008
Posted by: blissfule In: Egypt
As my theme for NaBloPoMo, I am reflecting on thirty things I've learned during the past two years living in Egypt. Since I have recently revealed my
shopping checklist , you can hardly be surprised that when it comes to furniture, I want it to be just right. Ben and I sat on the floor of one of our Houston apartments for weeks before we finally found a sofa that met my exacting standards.
What a treat that in Egypt we could design our own! We think about what we would like, take some measurements, draw a diagram, and discuss our requirements with the furniture-maker. Then we wait and see how each piece turns out, knowing that we have only ourselves to blame if it's all wrong! I have blogged
here and
there about our various commissions, and now I have two more items to add.
My Valentines' gift to Ben was a stone-topped coffee table. He chose the stone, and I designed the table. (The long-awaited Houston sofa is the light-coloured one in the foreground.)
We also commissioned a set of long and low bunk beds - low enough to let us skip buying a toddler bed. These bunk beds are designed to be placed in the corner of a bedroom, but the height settings are adjustable, and they could also live quite happily next to each other or even in separate bedrooms. (The beds were finished just before we left Cairo, so we left them out in the living room, where they are pictured below.)
The knowledge we gained in designing our own furniture will probably make us even more demanding when we need to purchase ready-made items. Thankfully we already have a sofa, because I don't want to sit on the floor again!
27 Nov, 2008
Posted by: blissfule In: Egypt
As my theme for NaBloPoMo, I am reflecting on thirty things I've learned during the past two years living in Egypt.
Several times these past two years I have taken a step of faith as I obey God's still, small voice. Some of the promptings don't make sense to me, and for most the importance is not nearly as clear as it is in the example below. But if I take the time to question, I miss the moment. Anyone who says the Christian life is dull hasn't tried it in Egypt!
We were packing up our Cairo apartment when my friend sent me a text message,
We r going 2 the
prison 2 visit women +
bring baby stuff. Do u
hav any newborn stuff
u culd give?
I didn't want to reply. I had already sold and donated quite a few baby items and had only kept back the most beautiful and special little outfits from Nikki and Michael's earliest days. Couldn't I say that I had already given some stuff to the church? Wasn't that enough?
Then I heard the Holy Spirit whisper, "What you have done for the least of these, you have done for me."
And I called my friend, "When can you come pick some things up?" I hope those soft and oh-so-cute outfits keep their new little owners warm in the cells they will share with their mothers this winter.
26 Nov, 2008
Posted by: blissfule In: Egypt
As my theme for NaBloPoMo, I am reflecting on thirty things I've learned during the past two years living in Egypt. Traffic in Cairo is appalling . More than four million cars, and no palpable traffic law enforcement.
Brent has written about his
adventures riding in some of Cairo's estimated 80,000 taxis , many of which are 40 years old. Nadia came in to work one day and announced, "I just saw 12 people die" in a minibus crash.
Sesame Street has pitched in to try to stem the tide of death.
New laws have recently been passed .
Awareness is increasing, but the results are perhaps not quite as intended, as we witnessed while driving on the Ring Road one day:
We saw a driver putting on his seat belt. He used both hands to pull the safety belt around him. That meant he had both hands off the steering wheel as he accelerated away from the curb across eight lanes of traffic.
A motorcyclist strapped on his helmet using both hands. He chose to do this while entering the freeway and simultaneously balancing a briefcase on his lap as he accelerated.
Ben spoke to an Egyptian colleague who said that nothing will really change until the fathers change their own driving style and teach road safety to their children. Maybe instead of Sesame Street, safety progams should be broadcast during football halftime?
25 Nov, 2008
Posted by: blissfule In: Egypt
As my theme for NaBloPoMo, I am reflecting on thirty things I've learned during the past two years living in Egypt. As anti-smoking legislation in the US, UK, and Australia becomes more stringent, smokers looking for a warm welcome need look no further than Egypt.
When we visited
El-Borg , we wanted to eat at the fully-enclosed restaurant near the top of the tower. I circled the premises to find a non-smoking table.
Every table had an ashtray, so I asked a waiter.
He replied, "Sure, any table you like. Smoking or non-smoking. You don't have to smoke. Here at our restaurant, it is as you like it!"
24 Nov, 2008
Posted by: blissfule In: Egypt
As my theme for NaBloPoMo, I am reflecting on thirty things I've learned during the past two years living in Egypt.
Culture Shock! Egypt says that it is incredibly rude to display the soles of your feet to another person. I dutifully memorised this fact before arriving.
Once I had walked the streets of Egypt, I needed no prompting! Nothing prepared me for the grime that accumulates when I wear sandals on my walks around Maadi.
Jesus washed his disciples' filthy feet. That moment in history means a lot more to me now.
23 Nov, 2008
Posted by: blissfule In: Egypt
As my theme for NaBloPoMo, I am reflecting on thirty things I've learned during the past two years living in Egypt. Arabic is a fascinating language. Spoken Arabic in one Arabic-speaking country is different from the Arabic spoken in any other Arabic-speaking country. Often, people from two such countries will speak to each other in a second language, such as English, in order to communicate.
Written Arabic is static. It is the language of the Koran and anyone who reads Arabic in one country can read it in another. Arabic symbols are unlike the characters we use in the West, and they are also read in the opposite direction - from right to left.
Moving from Arabic to written English, a complication arises - spelling. Vowel sounds are often not explicit in written Arabic. Instead, vowels are inferred from the surrounding consonants. Thus, to use the example in my
previous post , koshari can also be spelled koshary or kushari or kushary. Koran is also written,
Qur'an .
The confusion extends to road signs - we learned quickly that our English-language
Cairo A-Z was only really useful for foreign language road names, like "Avenue de las Americas." You could even find several different spellings for the same city as you passed different signs on the same road. For instance: Kattameya and Qattameya.
Early in his stint in Egypt, Ben had a discussion with an Egyptian colleague about how to spell the colleague's Arabic name in English. It's a good question. Arabic letters
'A' 'M' 'R' could be spelled Amhar, Amro, or just Amr (difficult for a native English speaker).
I think the ambivalence over spelling is part of the 'mafeesh mushkela' (no problem) culture. Eef you kan understend whut I rite, dus it metter how I spel it?
22 Nov, 2008
Posted by: blissfule In: Egypt
As my theme for NaBloPoMo, I am reflecting on thirty things I've learned during the past two years living in Egypt. Koshari is an Egyptian national dish - a tasty and filling combination of rice, chickpeas, lentils, and elbow macaroni, garnished with crispy fried onions, garlic sauce, and/or chili sauce.
The dish is also incredibly inexpensive. A
high end restaurant will charge
20 EGP , and
Arzak , a fast-food restaurant, charges
5.5 EGP . Downtown Cairo, at a hole-in-the-wall place, you might be asked to pay only
2 or
3 EGP for a steaming hot bowl of food that will fill a grown man.
You can see why some
people are addicted !
Although I have found
several recipes online , nowhere have I been able to locate the story of how the dish came to be. So we'll just have to go with what Ben's Egyptian friend Atef told him shortly before we left.
Imagine a poor Egyptian woman with a big bowl. She knocks on her neighbor's door and asks if her neighbor has anything left after her meal. 'A scoop of rice,' is the reply. It goes in the bowl. The Egyptian woman knocks on the next door and adds chickpeas to her bowl. Then lentils. Some macaroni. The bowl is full now and the woman returns to her own house, where she makes flavorful sauces from garlic, onions, chilis, amd tomatoes. The leftovers are transformed into a tasty dish which fills her family.
Voila -
koshari !
21 Nov, 2008
Posted by: blissfule In: Egypt
As my theme for NaBloPoMo, I am reflecting on thirty things I've learned during the past two years living in Egypt. To me, shopping is a science. My goal is to find the best possible item that will meet the current and future foreseeable need.
If the item will be around a while, I expect it to pass a number of rigorous tests:
- Does it do exactly what I want it to?
- Does it look good?
- Is it low-maintenance and easy to clean?
- Will it last as long as I need it to?
- Does anything about the item annoy me?
- If I am only seeing one option, is there a similar item from a competitor? Which of the competing items is better?
The internet makes it easy to see all the available options, view others' recommendations based on real-life experiences with the item, and - once my top pick is selected - makes it easy to comparison shop to find the best price, taking shipping into account.
America is home to the savviest, most demanding and price sensitive consumers - and thus the very best shopping - on the planet. I am so glad that even though I do not live in the US at the moment, I can still shop there any time I want - online! Two items enable an overseas shopper to access the US market:
- US shipping address (required in most cases)
For a monthly fee, an overseas customer can acquire a US mail forwarding address from a company that will provide a US mailing address, accept your US mail on your behalf, repackage it, and then ship it onward to your overseas address. Fortunately, this has become a competitive market and the options are even better today than when I first started using mail forwarding services two years ago.
- US billing address (not as essential, but very helpful)
Many US websites will allow customers to use an overseas billing address, but some require a US address for both shipping and billing. If this is the case, you will need a US credit card with a US billing address. I have just kept my American credit cards (holding credit cards long term is also beneficial to credit rating scores). My impression is that the
Patriot Act has made it difficult to open a new financial account in the US from overseas, in that case some mail forwarding companies offer a service whereby the forwarding company completes online purchases for you.
Happy shopping!!
