Sometimes people ask questions in the comments, and I never know whether to answer in the comments because who knows if people ever go back and re-read the comments? Anyway, for today I’m answering here:
Having a drink with the shop owner in the sook — in this culture it is traditional to sit and have a cup of tea while haggling over a big purchase. This knife wasn’t a big purchase, but in the past we bought a beautiful chess table from him and we go in and visit with him every time we go to the sook because he is from Syria and speaks Arabic with Josh so he always offers us a drink. Here the drink of choice is NesCafe (highly sweetened instant coffee) and the boys get Pepsis.
Have we figured out the allergy yet? Yes and no. Carter is doing better after being on Allegra for several days. After rugby practice on Sunday night he only has a few mild red patches, most of them old. Caleb is fine — even though I can see some redness around his ears, he doesn’t seem bothered by it. On the other hand, my mango mouth turned into mango eyes and for the past 4 days my eyelids have been itchy and swollen and have tiny blisters on them. It’s totally crazy. I also picked up another one of those crazy bugbites that swells up like I have elephantitis or something. I would take a picture of it if it were on my arm or somewhere photographable, but I’m not putting photos of my stomach on the internet. Take my word for it, the swelling covers an area the size of my hand.
I finally broke down and started taking Allegra today (medicine phobia, remember?) so hopefully I’ll be feeling better soon. Josh came home from work and thought I had been crying until he realized that my eyes just look that bad. I had to go to a parent meeting at school this morning and they probably all wondered what was up with the weepy-eyed lady. Oh well, we’re not here long enough for me to care.
Speaking of not being here that long, Egypt is up in arms again with protests and riots and marshal law . . . our friends who are back in Maadi are probably waiting on pins and needles to see if they’ll have to be evacuated again. I guess the ambassador has changed since we were there so who knows if he or she will be so quick to pull the trigger this time? I still miss it there, but I’m glad we don’t have to have bags at the ready, waiting for someone to decide if we get to stay or have to leave.
And for my dad: I totally don’t remember coming home and asking what F*@! meant, but I do remember hearing you explain it every year to the youth group in the legendary “Hix on Sex” series. Totally not embarrassing at all. I could have used you yesterday when Calvin came home and asked me what a “b*** j**” was. Yep, he’s getting quite the education. 30k worth.