Lady of Leisure??????????????

Now with the makwaggy, the house help, and Matt's new found affinity for laundry, cooking and dishes I have become a lady of leisure - NOT!!!!

Our lives are busier than ever. Transitioning to a new culture and life-style is always a challenge. Our days are filled with hours of language learning and community time as well as repairing broken household items, laundry, laundry, laundry, walking to pick up children from their schools, meetings, meetings, meetings, and shopping for needed food and supplies without a Wal-Mart. To sum it up our days are filled with hours of how to make life work.

I just wanted to clarify so all will know that I am not sitting around being fanned with palm branches!!

Wonderful Culture of Egypt!

Everything in Egypt takes sooooo much more time than in the states BUT there are many great people to help get the work done for a small amount of money. Below are two of our helpers that we LOVE! This is Ali, the makwaggy (ironer). Since there are no clothes dryers most things need ironing. Ali comes to our door every other day and collects any clothes that we need ironed. He returns them in just a short time! Go Ali!!!!!

This is Sahar and she is our house helper. She comes 2 times a week and helps keep our kitchen, bathrooms and floors clean. This is a BIG job! She doesn't like to use anything electrical so she insists on cleaning ALL of our tile and hardwood on her hands and knees. It kills us to watch! We love her smile - it never stops. REMEMBER Sahar everytime you clean your floors.

Just Paying Rent!!

In the states we might hesitate going into a store named "Sxy's" but here it is where we pay our rent! Just thought everyone might need a laugh!

Magnificent View!

Meredith discovered this view from her bedroom balcony!
Doesn't it make you want to pray?

New Neighbors

Here are our new neighbors! They are such sweet people. Everytime we knock on their door they are ready with food and drinks for us. The hospitality here is unbelieveable!!!! Dalia, the mom, speaks great English and has visited the states many times. We had a GREAT CONVERSATION the other day. The lady in the first picture is Dalia and the others are her children and nieces.

Let My Muffins Go!!!!!

One of the many interesting things that has happened here almost became a culinary disaster! Four days after arriving we decided that we would break out the blueberry muffin mix from home and make muffins for breakfast. We knew our oven's handle was gone but we were still able to creatively open it. After a few minutes we were smelling the wonderful aroma of the familiar muffins from home- Then the disaster happened! The door to the oven would not open. Our entire family began to panic: "Oh no! What are we going to do? We are going to starve! This is going to be a waste of one of our precious muffin mixes from home! Quick, get something to get this door open!"

As many of you know, Matt is "Mr. Fix-it." He found a pair of pliers and two wooden spoons. We pulled as hard as we could on the door and Matt pulled the precious muffins out with the spoons and pliers. We all sighed a big sigh of relief and ate our muffins with joy. Needless to say we had to buy a new oven. The owner of the flat said, "They don't need an oven. They have the stove-top and the microwave." The first two pictures show Matt's creative idea for retrieving the first pan of muffins. The third picture below is Matt successfully pulling out another pan of blueberry muffins after our new stove arrived.

School Days!

Thought everyone might like to see Madison and Matthew Ray's school. .

They attend the school in the picture-Honey Bunny! They are slowly but surely getting used to their friends who speak a different language. Here they are on their first day of school. (FYI-they don't look this happy every morning!)

Madison told us yesterday that she was tired of not knowing what her new friends were saying. She said, "I say to the little girls, "What is your name?!? and they don't answer me!" We told her that they are probably asking her the same question in their language. That explanation didn't seem to help! A lot of people here call her Barbie! She is not impressed (yet!)

Stay tuned for the next blog of Meredith's school, activities and friends!

Laundry Balcony and Professional Laundry Man

Laundry is a different story here in Egypt! We have a washer but dryers are not common here at all. Our washer holds a VERY SMALL load of clothes and takes about 2 hours to wash. When the spin cycle begins it sounds like a bomb is going off in our bathroom. Then the washer begins to jump and dance until it makes it's way to the potty near by. When it is finished, we push the washer back to the wall and take out the clothes. Two days after we arrived our clothes got trapped in the washer for 3 days!

Here is the view from our laundry-drying balcony and here is the "now professional" laundry-hanger outer! It took Matt a while to get used to the cold air up here on the 5th floor!

Trip to the Pyramids!

Our first trip to the pyramids was 2 days after we arrived! (We were a little delirious.) We all rode camels and toured around the great pyramids and the Sphinx. The kids loved it! Here's Matt and Madison on their camel.

Airport Arrival

Well, we still don't have DSL but we were just dying to see if we could blog anything! This one picture took 10 minutes to download. So, we are just going to try to blog a few every few days to catch you up on life here. We wish we could blog everything! It has been an amazing ride to say the least. Life each day is a new adventure. All is well and CRAZY!!!

Here are the kids sitting on all of our luggage when we arrived here in the country. We think they look pretty refreshed after 22 hours of travel!

Still Waiting!!!

We are still waiting on DSL so we can blog some pictures of our life here. As soon as we get it we will blog away!!! Just to catch you up on life-REPAIRS, REPAIRS, REPAIRS!!!!!!!!!!! Kitchen sink (top and bottom), both potties, washing machine, rotten floor issue, and today we had to buy a new stove!!! The next thing will be to find paint, window treatments, and cover the existing couch. At the rate we are going we should have this place fixed up by the time we are ready to come home for a visit!! (Ha!)

We just wanted you to know that we will be blogging pictures and stories soon! Don't give up-we really want you to keep checking the blog.

Christmas Morning Fun!!!

Matthew Ray checks out the crumbs and milk stained glass that Santa left!!!! He said, "Boy, he was hungry!"



Meredith waits patiently to open her gifts! She knew they were all fun things to do on the plane ride!



Madison guesses that the big present is a Barbie computer-She was right!

BATH-TISM????

We have a praise! Meredith gave her life to the Father just a few weeks ago while we were in training. This truly is an answer to prayer! Because of policy we were not allowed for her to "have a swim" during training. While traveling back to see family we stopped at the Stonewall Jackson Hotel to spend the night. We found out that the hotel had wireless internet so we organized our skpye with our home "fellowship" back in Pensacola. We were able to do the "bath-tism" in the hotel bathtub while our "family" in Pensacola watched and listened througth skype! It was such a special moment!!!! (Madison and Matthew Ray watched while sitting on the back of the potty!) Here's Meredith just before the big event!

Pictures of our New Apartment!!!!

We received an email with pictures of our apartment. We are so blessed to have such a great place. We just wanted to share them with you. It won't be long- We will be there soon!!

View from the balcony!



Master Bedroom!!!! Isn't it cool?


View of Living Room from the front door-


Meredith's Room-


Kitchen-


Madison and Matthew's Room

We Have Great Friends!!!!

Are you ever just grateful for great friends? We are!!! Eric, Amber and Caleb flew a long way to see us this weekend. It really was a timely visit. We needed some "home people" if you know what I mean! The only thing missing was Mariah and Micah. They had to stay back in Pensacola. (Thanks, Mariah for letting us borrow the rest of your family for a couple of days!) The kids just picked up where they left off with playing together, Matt and Eric caught up on solving the issues of the world and Stacey just sat back and enjoyed all having a great time.

Here's Matt and Eric sitting in our "oh, so comfy" living room.



After visiting for a while, we decided it would be fun to eat sushi and habatchi at a wonderful local Japanese restaurant. It was a great time of fellowship and entertainment.



FRIENDS FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Meredith, Amber, Caleb, Madison and Matthew Ray had an exciting afternoon playing on the playground. It was just like old times!


At the end of the evening we really tried something new!!! Stacey took a haircutting class this week at camp so she would have the skills if she needed them overseas. So, Eric allowed Stacey to "practice" on Caleb and Amber. We didn't catch a picture of Caleb but here is Amber sporting her new-do. The plan was just to trim a little but Stacey made a slight mistake. So, Amber now has a very cute, shorter cut! She said, "Hey, it's like Meredith's hair!" (Sorry, Mariah!)

MATTHEW RAY HAS MASTERED THE SQUATTY POTTY!

We have a squatty potty here! Matthew Ray is the only one in the family that really enjoys using it!!! Here he is with one of his new friends after trying it for the first time. Maybe there's a rabbit in that hole!?!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU.....

Stacey, Madison and Matthew Ray had their birthday party at Stacey's brother and sister-in-laws house. It was so much fun! We had a wonderful time eating non-cafeteria food and sitting in a real living room. Thanks Phillip, Mary, Holly, Phil, and Jake!!!! We love you !!!





Meredith even got a present from Uncle Phillip and Aunt Mary and it wasn't even her birthday!

All worn out, but still holding the toys they received! (a guitar and a Baby Alive)

THE EMOTIONAL PHASES OF CAMP!!!

Here's Stacey showing one of the many emotional phases she has gone through!!!


Phase two!!!


Phase three! I'm really okay, mom!!!!

MAPPING CEREMONY

This was a very neat time here at camp. It was amazing to see the end result after eveyone got to put their picture on the map!

WE ARE STILL ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey,everyone! Yes, we are still alive but barely!!!! Our lives have become quite busy here at camp. We have been taking pictures but we have not had time to download them to add to the blog. Hopefully, we will find a moment soon. One experienced person here said that we won't be this busy when we move to our destination.

Madison, Matthew Ray, and Stacey have their Birthday's this week. It should be a fun time. We are having a Bob the Builder and Princess party at Stacey's brother's house. We are so excited to see family in the midst of all of this craziness!!!

Be looking for a new blog with pictures!! Thanks for logging in-it means you haven't forgotten us!!! We love you!