Sufi Dancers!

Christopher has seen just about everything.

Tonight, A, K, Mommy, and I went out into DownTown to see the Sufi dancers.  First we stopped in at the Khan el Khalili, of course, but we didn’t find much of anything.  We got a little bit lost trying to find the building where the dancers are.  It doesn’t really stand out of a crowd much.  We wound up going into the Old Khan, where Egyptians shop.  It was very neat.  There were no little pyramids or rugs that look like they’re made of real cow skins.  Just shirts and shoes and stuff normal people need to buy all the time.  It seems to be built right on top of a pipe full of Mommy-doesn’t-know-what, though, so we won’t be going back any time soon.

Finally we just doubled back and found the dancers.  Sufi dancers are more often called “Whirling Dervishes” in the States.  They practice a type of prayer that involves music played on drums, string instruments, and a wind instrument that is like an oboe.    While they play this music in prayer, they dance.  All of the dancers are men.  They move together as one.  As they drum, they kick up their feet and twirl from left to right and right to left.  Near the end of the night, one of the men puts on brightly colored skirts over his clothes and spins and spins and spins.  Sometimes he would touch his head and sometimes he would touch his heart.  He spun for so long Mommy almost couldn’t watch anymore.  We had a really nice time. 

Here are some more pictures.

  

Remembering the Rainbow

Christopher can’t decide whether he wants to be blue or indigo more.

The spring play was yesterday and everything went though without a hitch.  The kids were in their costumes on time.  The songs all looked good and sounded better.  All of the parents in the audience were quieter than we’ve ever heard them. 

The play was about how everyone needs to remember that it is the things that make us different that are valuable.  The kids learned that everyone has their own special gifts, and that each is as important as the next.  We dressed as a rainbow to show that everyone together, being him or herself, can make something wonderful.

The second graders were blue, representing honesty, and indigo, representing thankfulness.  Mommy didn’t get to see almost any of the play because she was busy and because it went by really fast.  After it was all over, everyone was really glad about how nice it was and about how now we can all go back to having class!

Next time I’ll tell you about Mommy’s Literary Magazine. 

Laters,

Chris

Theatre Practice Day

Christopher takes center stage!

Yesterday was our last Saturday lesson of the year.  We spent almost the whole day practicing for the Spring play.  Even the preschoolers and kindergarteners had to come in to practice with the big kids.  They got to go home early, though. 

We learned where we should come on stage, and where we are going to be in between the times when we are on stage.  Mommy calls it the Second Grade Dressing Room.  We want to bring the classroom rug and stools and some beanbag chairs down for the day of the play so the kids have comfortable places to sit.  Yesterday we all sat pretty much on the floor.  We played Spelling List Hot Potato. 

Besides the play, interesting things that have happened this week include the fact that lunch has been moved an hour later.  We finally had daylight savings time here in Egypt and that means that the prayers are now at different times, since they go by the sun and not by the clocks.  This means the lunch prayer is an hour later.  So now lunch is too.  Luckily, Mommy’s students have always tried to eat their entire lunch at snack-time anyway.  They are not especially hungry at the old lunch time.  Mommy and the other teachers are pretty much starving, though.  They get up earlier and make breakfast.

I’ve got to go eat my toast before the Suzuki comes to pick us up.  Until next time,

Chris

Ma’adi and 6th of October City

Christopher loves shopping.  His mommy love it somewhat less.

Yesterday we went to Ma’adi.  It’s the part of Cairo we used to live in before we moved to be nearer to the school.  Mommy and the other teachers like to visit there whenever they need to walk around.  Yesterday, we really wanted a burger.  Our favorite burger place is called Lucille’s.  We like to go to Lucille’s even though Ma’adi is very far away from New Cairo where we live.  There is only one place to get a burger in New Cairo and that is the McDonald’s.  Lucille’s burgers are a lot better than McDonald’s.  We also got to meet up with A and Mr. D, because they live super close to Lucille’s.   We had a lot of fun there.

After Lucille’s, Mrs. M and Mommy and I went shopping.  We looked into every store ever on the whole of Road 9.  Road 9 is a really neat shopping district.  It’s only one street, but you can find almost everything there.  Mrs. M is getting a silver necklace with her name written on it in Arabic.  Mommy found some pretty black coasters in an alabaster store.  We can’t wait to serve somebody coffee on them. 

Today we went to the Dandy Mall in 6th of October City to hang out with F, the art teacher.  It was a long ride, but we got to do some more shopping.  We found a really nice little book shop.  If I hadn’t dragged her away, Mommy would still be there right now!  She bought a bunch of books for the kids at school, including a dictionary for the classroom.

I almost forgot!  The Science Fair was on Friday and it turned out to be a lot of fun.  Mommy had to judge the 4th and 5th grade projects.  Her favorites included an experiment to see if video games were useless, and the best amounts of baking soda and vinegar to make a giant fantastic mess of a volcano eruption.  We will announce the winners on Sunday or Monday at school.

The month of May is the time Mommy has set aside to work on the school’s literary magazine.  It should be very interesting.  Wish her luck!

Chris

The Beginning of the End

Christopher is looking forward to the Spring Play

Hello everyone!  Happy Wednesday.  First I want to say sorry because I forgot to tell about Earth Day in my last post.  Well, I didn’t really forget.  Mommy was sick so I don’t know anything about how Earth Day went at the school.  Mommy is finally feeling better though, and we are back at school bright and early each morning.

This week we have been mostly working on two things:  making science fair posters, and props for the school play!  The posters are really swell.  The second graders did them all by themselves.  The older kids made posters, too.  But they can type and stuff, so they look neater than ours :(.   Look at these things!   It’s lucky for us that the second graders will only be judged against each other.  They made some great projects, including floating eggs, and discovering the best way to make tasty yogurt!  I’ll tell you a secret, though- the yogurt scared Mommy, just a little.  She doesn’t like milk a whole lot.

The props for the play are looking really good.  Ms. K. works very hard getting them ready.  The kids do part of it, but she’s the one who puts them all together.  If you see your art teacher today, you should thank him or her for all the work they do.  Here are some of the props:

Lastly, I wanted to post about Mrs. M.  She is heading back to the States soon.  We will all miss her here.  She’s an awesome reading teacher, but she’s going to work for a library!  I love libraries!

Saturday will be the day after the Science Fair.  I will try and post some pictures from the day for you guys.

Until then,

Chris

Three Day Weekend

Christopher is going to party every night!

Sunday this week is an Egyptian national holiday- Sinai Liberation Day.  It is the day that Egyptians celebrate when the last of the armies from other countries left the Sinai Peninsula and it was recognized all over as being part of Egypt.  What it means for us today, though, is that there is no school. 

Our whole house is empty.  K had visitors.  Mr. D’s brothers came too.  A went on a field trip with the fifth graders.  Mommy and M had big plans, too, but at the last moment, they both decided to stay home and take it easy.  It’s been a nice couple of days.  It’s even nicer because there’s no school tomorrow. 

Shadow week ended and  we are very glad.  Everything goes back to normal, except that it’s a short week.  But play practice is going to start taking over our lives very soon. 

There will be a boring post for Tuesday, probably.  I’ll try and take pictures of something cool to make up for it, okay?

‘Til then,

Chris

Shadow Week

Christopher is pretending you aren’t here.

Our second week back from break is Shadow week.  It’s a whole week where parents can come in and act like shadows, following their children around the school.  We’ve had parents in the classroom pretty much every day.  It’s really hard to find someplace to put them, though, since our classroom is so small.  Mommy was kind of hoping the kids would be nicer to each other when their parents were in the room, but it’s not happening. 

On the other hand, we’re getting ready for the Science Fair at the end of the week.  All the second graders have projects to show.  And Thursday before that is Earth Day.  The kindergarteners are going to come and sing a recycling song for us and then we are going to do some street cleaning.  I’ll tell you how it went on Saturday.

See you then!

Chris

Back to school

Christopher needs a vacation from our vacation.

We had the best time over the break.  Mommy and I and our new friends went just about everywhere in Egypt that there is to go on a week’s vacation.  We’ve all got to come back and do the Luxor/Aswan tour some time in the future.  But that’s for another day.

After our day in Ma’adi, we went to the museum in Cairo and took a tour of Coptic Cairo.  Unfortunately, it was a holiday, so they closed up the sanctuary where it is said that the holy family hid in Egypt from the Romans.  We were very sad about that.  But since our tour ended early, we got to go the the bazaar!  A bazaar is a really big outdoor market with lots of neat stuff for sale. 

The next day we went to see the Pyramids.  I’ll write more about them in another post.  They are huge!  We rode on camels in the desert.  Then we went to see the papyrus museum, where they showed us how ancient Egyptians made paper from the papyrus plant.  Mommy bought some for us to make paintings on.  While I type, Mommy is thinking of ways to put a plant like papyrus into the book she’s writing.   

That very same night, we got on the public bus to go to Dahab.  Dahab is on the Sinai Peninsula and it is a nine hour drive from Cairo, where we live.  We all got squeezed into the last seats at the very back of the bus.  Mommy was still a bit sick so she slept the entire drive.  I looked out the window, but we didn’t leave the station until after midnight so there wasn’t much to see.

When we got to Dahab, it was a sunny new day.  Everyone was really tired, but we were so excited that nobody wanted to go to sleep.  We had breakfast and looked into the shops all day long.  Every morning and every night we would eat at Bedouin-style restaurants, which mainly meant that we sat on the floor on pillows.  It was very relaxing.  One day we went scuba-diving and snorkeling, too.  That was very exciting, though I didn’t get to go since I don’t have a swim suit and they don’t make oxygen tanks in my size.

Then we came back to Cairo and it was time for everybody to pack up.  Mommy and I were all by ourselves again on Saturday.  It was sad not to have six other people in the house anymore, even if it was much less crowded.  We are glad to have met our new friends and we are looking forward to meeting up with them again.

Day Late. Oops.

Christopher walked all over Ma’adi today. 

Sorry I’m a day late with my update.  Mommy caught a cold from the kids at her school and spent all day in bed.  I had to take care of her. 

It is officially spring break.  Zach and his friends from Bulgaria have come to spend it with us.  Mommy and I are trying to give them the full Cairo experience.  We went to the City Stars Mall first, so they could see how many stores can be stuffed into one building.  Dinner was at Fuddrucker’s.  The day Mommy was sick, Zach and Company went to Alexandria on a tour.  They had a great time.  They got to see the library and the Roman Amphitheatre and eat an awesome fish lunch.  Mommy felt better enough by the evening  to make dinner so they didn’t go to bed hungry afterwards. 

Today we met up with Zoe on Road 9 in Ma’adi and went out to lunch at a place called Gad.  It was very tasty.  Then we got to ride the metro to Zamelek.  It was the first time Mommy and I had ridden the train.  We had a good time.  There was a really neat  bookstore that we are going to go back to soon. 

We ate dinner at Mommy’s favorite Thai restaurant.  And on the way home we had a really nice cab driver who drove very safely.  Now we’re all going to sleep safe and sound.

OH!  I almost forgot.  Happy Easter to everyone who celebrates it!  Cairo is so busy all the time, it is easy to forget when it is a holiday, especially when not everyone is celebrating that holiday. 

Something seems to have happened to my punctuation.  Periods are appearing at the beginning of lines.  I am not sure at all why.  Maybe I’m just too tired.  I guess I’ll go to bed now.  It is way late here in Cairo.  It is 11 o’clock. 

Sleep tight.

Chris

Tomorrow is the Beginning of Spring Break

Christopher is excited to get out and play.

Tomorrow is the last day of school before spring break starts.  There are a lot of holidays before we come back, including the Egyptian Spring’s Festival, Sham el Nessim.  It is the day celebrating the beginning of spring and always falls on the Monday after the Coptic Easter celebration.  The Copts are what Egyptian Christians are called, where Copt is an old word meaning Egyptian!  The Easter that we celebrate in the States is the week after Coptic Easter this year, but both holidays are what are called “Moveable Feasts,” which means they follow the calendar set by the moon, rather than the sun, and so are on different days each year. 

Spring break is especially exciting for me and Mommy this year because Mommy’s best friend Zach is coming to visit us.  He is bringing some friends with him and we are going to have a blast.  I will post pictures here and to Mommy’s Facebook page.  We are going to the pyramids and to visit the Library at Alexandria, and we’ll ride on a boat where they will feed us dinner!  It is so exciting!

‘Til next time,

Chris

Field Day!

Christopher is a good sport.

Field day was on Friday, and even though all the teachers were grumbly about going in to school when we should have been asleep, it was a lot of fun.  Mommy was in charge of the Obstacle Course.  You had to run through each obstacle the right way, or Mommy made you go back and do it again.  Whee!  It was fun to watch.  Some of the other teachers did it, too, but not Mommy.  She had the timer.  She looked very official.  It was her job to remind all the kids which obstacle was which. 

Here’s me and Mommy dressed to play.

We cheered for everyone equally, but I had really been hoping for Blue team to win.  At the end of the day, though, the White team had the most points.  We clapped for them and they got their picture taken with a giant trophy.  All the Blue team teachers got together for a picture, too.  They made ‘L’s with their fingers and instead of saying ‘cheese,’ all said ‘Losers!’  Losing’s not so bad if you have fun people to lose with, I think.  Next time there is a competition, though, we’re going to give our best for the Blue team and maybe we’ll win.

We had to stop early because most of the students and parents had to go to prayer.  But that was okay, because everyone was pretty tired by then, anyway.

Until next time.

Chris

Tuesday is the new Wednesday

Christopher is very tired.

We took the bus to the Wadi Degla protectorate park on Sunday to go and study the rock formations there.  Most of the rock is limestone, which is whitish and has holes in it.  When you kick it or blow on it, it seems like sand comes off of it.  The kids all thought it was sandstone because of all the sand, but it is rougher to the touch than sandstone.

We ate lunch and then went on a scavenger hunt.  The kids had to find and describe 3 different types of rocks, make observations about the soil, and find things that did not belong in the park. 

We found lots of stuff that should not have been there.  Some people had not been following the rules of the park.  They were littering!  There were plastic bottles and glass pieces and chips bags.  We talked about the consequences of littering and what we can do to help protect the environment.

I’ll put up some pictures next week because Mommy forgot her camera.  I’ll have to get some from K. 

Also we’ll have Sports Day (field day) on Friday.  Mommy’s not happy to have to get up early on her day off, but we’ll be in charge of the obstacle course.  Everyone should help cheer for the blue team, because I don’t think Mommy’s going to be awake enough to cheer.

 

See you next time.

Chris

Christopher Returns!

I (and Mommy, too) have not been posting here as often as I (we) should have.  But all that is going to change.  Mommy and I are back online.

Since you last heard from us, we have moved two times.  Our new apartment is in 5th Settlement in New Cairo, nearer to the school.  This means Mommy gets to sleep in later. 

As far as school goes, it is very tiring.  This week is the week of field trips.  We visited a bird farm and fed some geese.  Mommy’s camera ran out of charge after only 3 pictures.  The kids all said it was boring.  Sunday we will go to Wadi Degla.  Mommy planned this trip herself and she hopes the kids will like it better.  Here is some more information about the park:  http://www.egyptheritage.com/pub_brochure.html

We are going to try and make a regular update schedule out of Saturdays and Tuesdays.  Tuesday in Egypt is the middle of the week, because we start on Sundays instead of Mondays!  This is because Friday is the holy day here, so we never ever have school.

See you on Tuesday!