18 hole Kids

Last weekend due to a few of the regular golfers being away Young T and J got to go with the "professionals" on the 18 hole championship course. They both did well, scoring just over 100 whilst pops had his best round under 100! Mrs T took some pictures from the back garden as we passed and then came to watch us putt out on the 18th green - bless her.

Do not smoke whilst in a petrol station......

the remains of the COOP petrol station in Heliopolis.....

Good progress at the Orphanage

Today I went to see how the building work had been progressing at the Careso orphanage in Heliopolis. It was a complete transformation to the outside area, very bright and clean and 5 brand spanking new classrooms for 1- 1 tuition. Looks really good and they are thrilled with it. Also the Jacuzzi therapy room is coming along and will not be too long to be finished. All in all very good progress, its nice to see how things are changing for the better and you can feel the positive atmosphere from the renovations. Here are some photos of the visit.

A feast in the heart of Cairo

Ahmed Da Driver (ADD) had invited us to his home for a meal with his new family and this week we were able to arrange everyone being available so made a date. We headed down into the depths of Cairos western suburbs crossing the 6th October Bridge, going through Dokki and Mohandeseen, where you get a sense of ever increasing dense living. We turned into Ardebaya, according to ADD called China by the locals cos its sooooo crowded.

The place was overflowing with people and tuk-tuks, cars, horses and carts and cycles. This is real working class Cairo, and you get a sense of feeling out of place, not very many, if any white faces venture into these narrow streets.

We drove on winding out way through crowded thoroughfares and turned down a narrow dirt track between two blocks of apartments that must have been less that a few metres apart. Parking up by a donkey tied to a tree with some sheep being herded we realised were were not in Kattameya anymore. We walked back to Ahmeds apartment, a small first floor one in one of the numerous apartment blocks being built over the city. Inside it was a pleasant apartment, a living room, two bedrooms, a kitchen and restroom. Small by western standards, not far off the size of our house in Witnesham, but this is how a lot of Cairennes live. Makes our mansion in New Cairo all the bigger and we discussed what ADD must think when he sees our house, it was quite humbling. The apartment was nicely decorated with furniture from Ahmed the furniture maker in Damietta. ADD told us the apartment comes as a brick box - you put in everything from the windows, floor tiles, plaster on the walls.

We met Mrs ADD, mother of ADD and mother in law of ADD. Arabic and Egyptian culture says you have to force feed your guess to splitting point and then beyond with copious amounts of food and although I had told Ahmed we were not big eaters his cultural instinct cut in and we were faced with a tablefull of taste Egyptian food, including delicacies like stuffed pigeon (they eat a lot of pigeon here, they love it, Mrs T eyes popped when ADD put two on her plate to start!) T enjoyed his but J is suspicious of anything new and would not touch his!

We also had platefuls of marshi (stuffed cabbage leaves resembling the stuffed vine leaves of greek cooking), rice, meat and tomatoes, potatoes, a green herb/plant mashed up with oil and eaten as a dip, gouslash - not the stew but a puff pastry pizza with meat in it.

A real feast and everything really tasty. The mothers then came out of the kitchen and force fed young T bananas. The ladies seems to take a real shine to young T it seems they appreciate a growing boy who can pack away his food. J on the other hand they were worried about for not eating his own weight in food and eventually tempted him with an ice cream.

So a truly memorable evening with ADD and his family seeing a part of Cairo and life we would not normally see - a real eye opener.

Boats, women, books and wine...

an explosive mix I think you will agree. Mrs T and 11 cohorts of the female persuasion spent a lovely windy evening tacking and weaving across the Nile in a felucca laden down with grape juice and nibbles. The tenuous reason for this was the launch (pardon the pun) of the book club. Not much reading was done on the first night Im sure......but a good time was had by all.

Phew, What a Scorcher!!

44 oC.

Hot Hot Hot

The Egyptian sunshine has been absolutely fab the last few weeks, 25-30 oC, nice breeze. However Ahmad Da Driver (ADD) forewarned us, "hot this weekend Madame" and boy was he correct. Yesterday was hottest day of the year, thermo in the car said 43 oC and it felt like it was getting up to Oman temps. Knowing this we all went to play tennis at 8.30am in the morning but even then we had loads of waterbreaks and did not play the full hour. P and J went to the golf range in the afternoon and roasted and P has an early morning 18 hole tee time with the guys on Sat for 8am and its already 26 oC. ADD tells us it will be cooler next week, phew!

Saying all this we did get the firepit going one night!!!!! J wanted to build a fire (thing he had been watching Bear Grylls or Survivor or something) and we have managed to locate a stash of wood so J in true little boy style got stuck into finding anything around the garden that would burn. Of course this was on the pretence of cleaning the place up. Still the fire went well (everything is soooo dry) and it was nice to watch the flames even if it was in the mid 20s, drinking a bottle of vino. The only disappointment was we had no marshmellows.

Meanwhile young T had a paintball party. Apparently paintball the best thing ever invented (forget the wheel, penecillin, the silicon chip). He said he was a little sweaty running around in clothes and jumpsuit, helmet etc in 40oC but he lost a few pounds - perhaps Ill suggest it for the mums charity committee event!

Sat we went down to Ramasis square near the train station in town and found the wicker garden furniture makers we had been told about. Now Im not a expert on fire safety but im pretty sure this place would have been called a fire hazard in the UK, wicker chairs were stacked high whichever way we looked (pity I forgot the camera). We selected a style to be made, spent a good 40mins negotiating the price, it should be ready in 8 days, if the place does not get burnt down!

El Badayah

Today Mrs T and a posse of expat wives visited one of the charities they support, El Badayah a preschool in a very poor area of Cairo. The families here make do on little more than 30 english pounds a month - for the whole family. The wives, or Madames as Ahmed Da Driver calls them (accurately it so happens, a few of them are "Madames") help out, runs some games, crafts, play, sing and generally have a good time with the little Cairennes. Mrs T had to buy 40 pots of yoghurt as a snack on the way there (shop keeper obviously thought she had the nibbles) and they passed them out to the kids as a snack. Many of the grateful kids did not know what to do with such an alien thing as a yoghurt pot, a complete novelty. Goes to show things we take for granted as basic and everyday are complete luxuries out of reach to many of the worlds poor.