Jenyfer Matthews

So, the holidays are over and if all is well weather-wise, I should be on my way home today. It’s been a great couple of weeks seeing everyone and watching my children cavort in the snow. I enjoyed the holidays a little too much. Even all the snow-shoeing I’ve been doing hasn’t been enough to keep up. I never thought I would say this, but I’m almost looking forward to going back to Curves!

I hope to check in again in the next few days but just in case - Happy New Year!

We stayed the night at a hotel near Lake Qaroun, a large salt water lake. The salt content of this lake is higher than that of the Mediterranean.

Fishermen on Lake Qaroun at sunrise.

The location of the hotel was lovely, as you can see. Though it looked pretty good on the outside, the hotel was a dump. Our room was unusually large - it was apartment sized and we all had our own beds which I wasn’t expecting. We couldn’t enjoy it however because the room was so disgusting. The walls were crumbling and speckled with bug splats, the tub had dried up mouse turds in it, and one bathroom was missing a window pane which allowed swarms of mosquitoes to join us. The housekeeping couldn’t be bothered to tend to any of those problems, yet they left fresh bougainvillea blossoms on our pillows!

As an aside, having had experiences like this before in Egypt, I have a list of things I bring with me when I travel:

Flip flops
Wash cloth
baby wipes
hand sanitizer gel
bar of soap
mosquito repellent (not that they paid any attention this time!)

I may have to add sheets / sleeping bag to this list! Needless to say, none of us slept much at all.

On the second morning we headed out to Wadi Rayan where we were supposed to go and visit an open air museum where there are some 400 fossilized whale bones preserved from millions of years ago. It was in fact the main purpose of the trip.

This is as far as we were allowed to go. There was some mix-up between the bus company and the tour organizer and argue though she did, she was unable to convince them to drive our buses down the gravel road to get to the site. The drivers were concerned they would get stuck and disappointing as it was to miss the fossils I can’t really say I blame them.

The road the buses refused to travel…

While our tour organizer argued, we wandered in the sand near the bus and picked up fossilized sea shells.

So, instead of whale bones, we visited the waterfalls of Wadi Rayyan. They are formed by the overflow of Lake Qaroun flowing down into lower areas, forming two more smaller salt lakes. They aren’t particularly impressive until you realize that they are some of the only waterfalls in Egypt, period.



Close enough to Cairo for a day trip, this is a big picnic spot for Egyptians - and they certainly seem to be enjoying themselves!

The people in the countryside wear much more colorful scarves than the city





The last place we visited was this Greco-Roman temple, with the remains of the city of Dionysias








My son claimed he liked this last site best of all because we were able to climb on to the roof - though perhaps it was the danger of falling through the open pits into rooms below that thrilled him most. That or the bat we saw.

All in all, it was a good trip. We returned to Cairo on Friday evening, tired, mosquito bitten, and dirty. But there is nothing like a night in a crappy hotel to make you appreciate the comforts of home.

We spent our holiday traveling this year visiting an area of Egypt known as the Fayoum. I’m no expert on Egyptian history, but in a nutshell the Fayoum region is a desert depression into which the overflow of the yearly Nile Valley flooding used to flow. Due to this, the area is incredibly fertile. But it wasn’t until the Greco-Roman occupation of Egypt that reservoirs and canals were built to bring the waters of the Nile to the area on a controlled and regular basis, allowing people to farm there year round, at which time the area, though geographically small, became a very important area of Egypt.

Our first stop were the remains of a village called Karanis, on the edge of the Fayoum region. This was an agricultural village populated by ordinary people. Not much remains of the village because their homes were built of mud brick which has eroded over time.

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The remains of a mud brick wall in the village. The holes in the wall were where the palm log flooring fitted to make multiple story buildings.






The ruins of the village with the lush greenery of the Fayoum valley in the distance





It wasn’t all mud brick - this simply adorned temple still stands.





The primary god worshiped in this area was Sobek, the crocodile god. There were niches in this temple into which mummified crocodiles would have been placed.



The Pyramid at Hawara, built by Amenemhet III during the time of the Middle Kingdom. It doesn’t look like much now because the outer layer of limestone has been removed over time, exposing the much less durable mud brick structure below. But it is an impressive number of mud bricks! And apparently this pyramid has one of the most complicated internal passage systems, built in an attempt to thwart tomb robbers. Shortly after this period, pharaohs abandoned pyramids in favor of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings down in Luxor.






The entrance to the pyramid. There wasn’t much to see - the water table has risen so you could only go a few yards in before the floor of the tunnel was covered in water. It probably wouldn’t have stopped Indian Jones but the caretakers stopped us!



One of the many policeman that guarded us at the various sites we visited over the two day trip, a necessary precaution.



The decor at the rest stop where we ate lunch was certainly interesting!



Farmland



Pyramid at Lahun, built by King Senwosret II



One of several openings leading to the tombs of the princesses



This pyramid survived somewhat better than the previous pyramid because of the way in which is was built, incorporating the stone of the hillside in conjunction with the mud bricks.

Stay tuned, more pictures tomorrow…

I knew that this weekend would be busy, but I wasn’t expecting how exhausting it would be. It wasn’t as if I was the one doing all the sports!

Wine night on Thursday was so much fun. I put the kids to bed, put my husband on call, and kicked back with my friends. Only three of the ten who said they would come did actually attend but that just meant that there was more wine and food for us. And goodness was there food! One Indian lady who said she would come and then had to cancel due to illness sent her food on anyway - four DOZEN samosas! Between the samosas, the shrimp tray, the sushi, and the pie that another friend brought we had more than enough. I sent everyone home with a box of samosas and was still eating leftover party food all weekend.

My daughter’s weekend was not so good. The antibiotics the doctor prescribed for her were not the correct variety and so her fever persisted. She begged me to play her school tournament on Friday and I almost cracked - I love to watch her play as much as she loves to be out there. I was seriously wavering when a friend gave me a solid reason to say no: dehydration. So I was the mean mom and said no, much to her disappointment - and that of her school team / PE teacher.

Saturday we had to be at the soccer field and ready to play for my son’s tournament at 8AM. He had three rapid fire games, back to back. He played really hard but his team lost the first two games and won their third. They were knocked out of the tournament but ended on a high note (with cupcakes!) so were very happy.

My daughter’s team was scheduled to play at 10AM and I told her she could watch - she wanted to see her coach again and collect her participation trophy and since I had to be there anyway for team mom duties, I said yes. The other team did not show up so their team advanced by forfeit. No quick end as I had hoped. Next game at noon.

We hung around and they played at noon. And as I expected, daughter begged to play. Coach gave us puppy eyes. Other parents pleaded with us. Daughter was medicated and fever free. Hubby and I finally cracked and said she could play, but only defense since that doesn’t require so much running. She did a quarter on defense and we caved in and let her run. She was obviously not tip-top but still managed to score a goal for her team so she was elated.

Her team won that game and had to play another right away, which ended 0-0 and went to penalty kicks and in the end the other team won. Which was a mixed blessing - I would have loved to see them advance because even had they lost the next round they would have been fourth. But at the same time it was already 2PM and I was ready to go home!!

As it turns out, I was right to worry about the cupcakes because the mom I asked to bring them did not. However, because I am a neurotic control freak, I had bags of backup cookies in my bag which the children devoured. Our spread seemed a little paltry compared to some teams I saw who had elaborate cakes decorated with soccer balls. However, I saw many of those cakes being taken away hardly touched while there was very little left at the end of our party.

Daughter collapsed when she came home, fever returned. After a phone consultation with the doctor, her medication has been changed and she seems a bit perkier already. I am doing my best to not only get her well again, but also keep the rest of us healthy. It’s never a good time to get sick but this coming weekend we have an overnight trip scheduled as well as a tennis tournament and the following weekend the children and I fly to the US. I’m popping vitamins like candy.

And I’m oh-so-thankful that soccer season is finished!

I went shopping for coach gifts for my son’s soccer team on Tuesday, thinking that if there were any snags I’d still have time to rethink and do something else. Am I ever glad I did - there were more snags than anything else!

The head coach recently became ill from eating out so a restaurant certificate as an idea, an old standby, was immediately thrown out. Though she is a recent arrival to Egypt I decided against buying her any arts / handicrafts because tastes vary so much with that sort of thing. In the end I decided to get a gift certificate to a local clothing store than sells a nice selection of items made from Egyptian cotton. Everyone agreed it sounded like a great idea.

Only when I got there, they don’t sell gift certificates. In fact, I had to explain what a gift certificate was.

So I made a few phone calls and it was decided that I should go to another shop in the neighborhood, one that sells arts/ handicrafts, and see if I could get a gift certificate there. They not only knew what I was talking about but had pre-printed cards ready. One down, one to go.

After a quick consultation with the assistant coach’s wife, I went to his favorite shop at the mall. They don’t sell gift certificates (Attention Egyptian retailers - you’re really missing the boat on that one!) I then went to a club to which he belongs, planning to get him a restaurant voucher there. Closed.

Keep in mind I was walking everywhere to do this stuff. I was certainly well exercised as I was defeated at every turn.

As it turns out, it seems what he would really like is a case of Corona beer so guess what he’ll be getting? Though he’ll have to pick it up - I’m not schlepping that to the field!

With coach gifts sorted I thought I was home free. Not quite. My daughter, soccer star extraordinaire, child with not one but *two* days of tournaments scheduled this weekend, is sick with a fever and throat infection. There’s something going around our building so I called the doctor at the first signs of illness (He came to us within an hour! Cheaper and easier than an office visit!) Fingers crossed the meds he prescribed will kick in by tomorrow. She’s determined to play for her respective teams. (And I’m more grateful than ever I went out and got the coach presents early!) I hope she recovers quickly because it wouldn’t be nearly so much fun to be out at the field all day Saturday for my team mom duties if my own child wasn’t even well enough to participate!

At present, I’m just determined to remain well enough myself to enjoy wine night tonight!

Since we don’t have a car, I get around mostly on foot. I don’t normally mind walking - in a safe and orderly place. Walking in Cairo is anything but safe and orderly. In fact, pedestrians are considered just one more hazard in the road.

It’s become even more tricky to walk lately since the one decent sidewalk that existed in our neighborhood has recently been torn up. It looks as if they are intending to improve it a bit which would be great:

However, they tore it up with much more speed and enthusiasm than they seem to be reconstructing it. I haven’t seen anyone working on it in a week.

And it seems to be tree trimming season in my neighborhood. It all started when a large tree limb broke and fell onto that sidewalk pictured above. Not only did no one clear it, but it seemed to give people ideas and everyone in the vicinity started adding their own tree trimmings (and other misc trash0 to the pile. That enormous pile has been cleared away to make way for the sidewalk destruction but there are similar piles springing up all over the neighborhood.

I could go on like this all day! It’s kind of fascinating in a way, though it does make it hard to walk along when your path is suddenly blocked by a big pile of tree limbs. And the poor trees! We aren’t talking about precision pruning here either - think a barefoot guy up a tree with a blunt axe, cutting off anything he can reach until all that is left are a few leafy sprigs. It’s a wonder than anything survives.

Only three weeks until we leave for our Christmas holidays in the US. Maybe when we get back, the sidewalk will be fixed…

It’s no secret to anyone who’s been reading for a while that I adore pomegranate seeds. Last year I was drinking a lot of pomegranate juice and eating the seeds by the handful. This year we’ve gotten a little crazy with them and have been adding them to all sorts of things.

They are fantastic sprinkled on hummus - in fact, it’s my new favorite lunch. They’re also wonderful with goat cheese on a cracker. And tucked into a pita pocket with halloumi cheese (they roll off the cracker when paired with a harder cheese!) I added some pomegranate seeds to a fruit salad I made the other day with great success and used them for decoration on a pineapple upside down cake I made my son for his birthday (instead of maraschino cherries, which none of us like) I’m thinking that they would be nice coupled with brie too but I haven’t tried that variation yet.

Like apples, they can be stored for a long time and supposedly improve with age. I’m going to have to stock up before the season ends!

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I see this chair every week when I go to my yoga class - look closely and you’ll see it’s chained to the landing on the stairwell. Why?? By the looks of it, it wasn’t terribly valuable even in its prime and now even the duct-tape re-upholstery job has seen better days. I will give it credit for being sturdy - I sat in it briefly while waiting for the instructor to arrive and open the studio - but really, is that thick chain really necessary?

Or perhaps the owner is afraid the chair will escape…

Halloween was a a weekend-long event in my part of the world, kicking off with a Halloween party at the children’s school on Thursday night. Why Thursday? Because Thursday is our “Friday”, the last day of the work/school week, and also because the big American school in our neighborhood did their Halloween extravaganza on Friday night.

The costumes came out really well, if I say so myself. The ninja hood is made from a plain white tshirt with the sleeves stitched behind the head! I got tons of compliments on my pirate costume too. Do you think it was the eye patch or the fact that I actually had on some mascara for a change?!

Halloween itself was pretty quiet - at least in our part of the neighborhood. Apparently there was some trouble around the American school after their Halloween fair. My son’s soccer coach, who lives quite close by the school, told me that there were hundreds of teenagers milling around on her street throwing eggs and tomatoes at cars, buildings, and people - including the policemen that were there! - and that they knocked down a power pole as well! Someone else told me that last year the “revelry” included overturning a car. The Halloween fair at the American school is a closed event - students and family only - and from reports I’ve heard, the troublemakers were mostly Egyptian adolescents who knew that the fair was going on and just came to hang around. One Scottish acquaintance I have said that it happens every year and she thought that the bad behavior / “tricks” was just an “American thing”. I hastily denied that! Sure, there is some mischief that gets done on Halloween, but I’ve never seen or been part of a mob scene like that in America! And I’m sure if anything like that developed, the police would do more than just shield themselves from the egg-throwing.

Saturday afternoon, all the people in my building got together and had a party in our shared garden followed by trick-or-treating after dark. This time my daughter was the ninja warrior - a blue belt, the most dreaded of all! (she claimed the black belt was too small) My son couldn’t be bothered to go and change out of his soccer uniform from his game in the morning so he claimed he was dressed up as a soccer player - which in fact he was!

All in all, I’m happy that October is finished. I’m hoping that November might be a tad less hectic. But if you haven’t had enough of Halloween and have a few hours to kill, check out this Halloween bowling game. Don’t blame me if you don’t get anything else done today…

I live in an average sort of apartment building in what was once considered the one of the most upscale neighborhoods in Cairo. Once upon a time, the housing primarily consisted of single family “villas” and everyone had yards.

Those days are all but gone. Today, land is at a premium and landowners would rather knock down the old homes to put up ugly apartment buildings (like the one pictured below) where they can charge rent to as many families as they can fit into the space. Few have any yard space to speak of. Some buildings are nicer than others of course, but there are a whole lot that look like this on the outside.

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There are still a few of the lovely old villas left here and there, like this one

or this one, which was recently restored

or this one, which isn’t looking as carefully maintained but is still pretty

There are even more magnificent examples downtown where the French influence is quite obvious. But many of the villas are just falling down. From what I understand, it costs a fortune to maintain them (and to rent them) and many landowners would prefer to tear down the existing building and build something cheaper, collecting rent from many families rather than try to rent a single space for more.

It seems a shame to tear down these lovely old buildings, some of which must be close to 200 years old, to put up an ugly concrete apartment building. But I suppose that in a place where their own history is so rich, a couple hundred years just doesn’t really signify when other historical sites are thousands of years old.

I was out walking the other day when I saw a new apartment building being constructed, overshadowing the villa standing next to it. The buildings here are often built very close together, but this seemed ridiculous.

Not sure I’d like being overlooked that way myself.

But wait - it sure would be handy if you needed to borrow some sugar or your TV was on the fritz. Just lean step out onto your balcony and lean across!

I can’t help but wonder what they were thinking when they started this project. Does the same guy own all the land and this is his idea of a compromise? Or are there two different land owners? Is the owner of the apartment building simply trying to force the villa owner to back down by making living in / renting out the villa totally impossible? It doesn’t look as if anyone is living in either place at present, but I’m going to keep my eye on this one.

Just fascinating!