Month: January 2011

Today is Police Day, the Egyptian national holiday celebrating Egypt’s police force. And in an awesome ironic twist, the way Egyptians are celebrating Police Day is by staging protests so the police are out in full force with riot gear, etc. Happy Police Day — now please report to work for your extra long shift!

We’ve been advised to stay home today, which means stay in Maadi, away from downtown. We had a fun morning at Maadi house. I had self defense class, then we had lunch with friends, the kids played all morning and afternoon with friends who had the day off from school, and now we’re home and Josh is supporting the Egyptian uprising by smoking ribs out on our balcony.

Josh has been keeping his eye on things via the internet and TV all day. Interestingly enough, the Egyptian news isn’t reporting anything — they were showing an old black and white Egyptian movie this afternoon instead of actual news. It would be the same as CNN preempting their news with a showing of “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

Most recently Josh read reports of cops firing tear gas into the crowds and that the beatings were starting, but now Egypt is blocking access to Twitter, so we can only guess that as it’s getting dark outside that things are starting to happen.

Earlier today there were reports of people being arrested because they were going to go protest — I have no idea how the police knew they were going to be involved in the protest, but it doesn’t matter here. In a police state, they can arrest first and ask questions later.

These protests are related to the whole Tunisia uprising. People who are tired of being poor and unemployed and tired of corrupt “elections” and wanting change. They are calling for the Egyptian president to step down. They saw the “success” of the riots last week in Tunisia that resulted in the president fleeing the country and they are hoping for a similar result.

So happy Police Day — watch out for flying nightsticks!

As I’ve mentioned before, while the kids are at Tae Kwon Do, Josh and I hang out downstairs and have a latte. They also have free WiFi so I’m typing this right now as I wait for them to finish class. They go 2xs a week, but Monday nights are my favorite because the barista who works on Mondays is a coffee artist. Literally. He draws designs in my latte foam just like those people you see in latte art competitions.

Yes, they really have those. I swear, I saw one on Food Network one time. Anyway, I’d never seen it before in real life until my first Monday night latte. It was a heart. I couldn’t believe I didn’t have my camera with me.

Tonight he gave me a fern pattern. Isn’t it pretty? And as you sip the coffee, the foam stays on top so the design lasts until the very end. I think it made him happy when he saw me take a picture of it. Either that, or he thinks I’m a nut.

Not only is it beautiful, it is delicious. Best. Latte. Ever. It’s a good thing I don’t know what other days he works or I might find myself over there a little too often. Then he really would think I’m a nut.

If you want to see more examples of latte art, look here: pretty lattes

My three white belts — getting excited for their first test. I think they’ll be ready to test on Saturday. Too bad I won’t get to have my special latte as a celebratory drink that night. The Saturday night guy is fine, but he’s no artist.

it’s otlob.com to the rescue. Long day, getting late, no one knows what they want to eat. In comes Otlob. The ability to browse menus from all different restaurants and then have any or all of it arrive at your door for pennies? It’s like manna from heaven, only you get to pick the food that rains down every night. It’s only our desire to leave Egypt wearing the same size clothes that we wore over here that keeps us from ordering from Otlob every night.

Tonight was a Chicken Tikka night. Spicy grilled chicken, basmati rice, and steamed veggies. Throw in a few kabob and koftas (basically beef or lamb chunks and ground lamb meatballs grilled on a skewer) and some flatbread and everybody’s happy.

Sometimes things get lost in translation, like the category labeled “Fasting food.” I was trying to figure out if it was special food for Ramadan until I clicked on the link and saw that all the options listed qualified as fast food. Ah, that makes more sense. Another option that sparked my curiosity tonight was the Grilled Viagra sandwich. I don’t know if they think a sandwich of crab and shrimp has the same magical qualities as a little blue pill or if they meant something entirely different, but I don’t think I’m going to be trying that one out. 

After dinner Carter, always wanting to keep the good times rolling, suggested we order our otlob signature dessert of Chocolate Madness (chocolate ice cream, chocolate syrup and crushed chocolate cookies . . . mmmm), but we’ll have to save that for another night. Maybe tomorrow . . .

I don’t know if Egypt is becoming more normal or if I’m just getting used to it, but I’m seeing much less strange stuff to photograph and blog about. But then again, I have been home for much of the week both recovering and encouraging (somewhat futilely) baby sleep. That does cut down on quite a bit of the potential for crazy.I was sitting in church last night and there were a few stray cats roaming up and down the aisles and under the seats, so I guess that qualifies as strange. I was watching one cat weaving in and out of the chair legs and I realized, “Oh wait, this is not normal.” You see cats everywhere you look so you stop noticing them after a while. Another crazy thing here is the prejudice against headlights. Yep. Those little shiny things you have on the front of your car. About 50% of the people here drive without their headlights on because it is considered “rude” and they don’t want to “blind their Muslim brother.” (Quote from a friend who lived over here before us.) Another 25% have replaced their lights with these super dim things that barely let out a yellow glow. I don’t know if you can buy bulbs with that low of wattage or if they salvage bulbs that are on the verge of burning out, but they can’t possibly provide any visibility for the driver. Of course we are using our headlights cause, hello! The streets are narrow, the roads have potholes and speed bumps, there aren’t many streetlights or other ambient light, and people walk into the street wearing black robes without any care for oncoming cars. I know Egyptians don’t want to blind their Muslim brothers, but they don’t care about running them over?

When we drive at night we have people constantly flashing their headlights at us, like we’re brighting them. Then Josh flashes his brights to show them that indeed, we are not. There is even a special hand signal to tell people that their lights are too bright: hold your hand up, palm out and make a strobe-like motion at the offender. Josh was driving one night and the dude ahead of him kept turning back and giving him the hand signal, wanting him to turn off his headlights. Josh ignored him so the dude pulled over and let Josh drive in front of him. We can’t figure out if they don’t know how to adjust the rear-view mirror so that the lights don’t shine in their eyes or what. I promise you that it’s not that people have just let their headlights burn out. It’s an actual thing, an unwritten rule. One of the only rules here that I know of other than the one that says if your bumper is in front of the other dude’s bumper (by any amount, even inches) you have the right of way – including cutting in front of 4 lanes of traffic from the right lane to make a left turn. Oh, the other rule that seems to be followed religiously is the rule of the cement blocks. People will double and triple park here, but there are people that will set these parking spot placeholders on the street that are coffee cans filled with cement with a piece of re-bar sticking out of them. Then they move them around to create and block off parking spaces. It would be super easy to scooch one over and create a space for yourself, especially when parking is at a premium, but everybody honors the cement blocks. Go figure.The other night when Josh was driving down a narrow street, an oncoming car (without headlights on) was zipping toward him, frantically flashing his headlights at Josh, signaling that he was being blinded by his headlights. After they passed each other Josh heard this horrible scraping sound and turned to see the dude, because he was driving in the dark, had inadvertently run over one of the cement blocks and it was wedged up underneath his car. And that is why you always use your headlights! (Arrested Development reference)

Because everything is better with baby pictures, here are a few of our chub-chub from today. She’s 7 months old now!

I’m joining the land of the living today. We’re headed to church soon and then later tonight, Josh and I are going out salsa dancing. At Maadi house they are having lessons followed by dancing.

We are getting a babysitter, but realistically, if Camille is upset while I’m gone, she’s only going to want Calvin once she figures out that I’m not there. She’s happier with him anyway. She’ll be totally fine — happy and playing and then I’ll walk in the room and she’ll start whimpering and crying like a crackhead jonesing for her next fix.

And when it’s time to put her down for a nap who has the magic touch? Calvin. He even has a special playlist on his ipod touch that he titled, “Camille’s Nap Music.” He will sit and pat her back in rhythm to the music. He perches his ipod on her back so she can hear the music, but not mess with it. His system works.

The other two boys are also pretty good at getting her to sleep. Last night she was fussing so Caleb climbed in bed with her and started singing “Away In the Manger” and patting her back. He would have been successful except each time she turned her head away from him he would climb over her and switch sides so he could sing right into her face. Not so sleep inducing.

Basically, if I want her to sleep, I have to turn her over to one of the individuals in this house with a non-functioning chest. It doesn’t keep her asleep, but it’s a start. All of them like to take over for me once I’ve given up and then a few minutes later, emerge from her room with a big grin that says, “Victory!” *sigh*

So, mama’s going out tonight and leaving the baby in good hands. Six of them.