Started with a great breakfast buffet at the Shepheard Hotel...omeletes, pancakes, waffles, other assorted pastries. Good stuff. Some other stuff that didn't look so good. Took a raincheck.
Shuttle took us to beautiful all-boys christian school complex where we kicked off the opening ceremonies for Kids Games Cairo. Several bounce houses, a human foosball court, four square, dodge ball, bounce house basketball, bounce house rock climbing, all-you-can-eat HoHo's (oh yeah!), and so much more. That's Brennan Bassett enjoying the bouncy house. Isn't he adorable???
School is out for summer so they are doing some classroom repairs and painting. Visited this classroom and found a 12-year-old painting desks while smoking a cigarette. There are No Smoking signs posted all over the school. Found that odd that they have to post that. We don't see those signs in American school buildings.
The complex is a massive structure with large paved courtyards (no grass anywhere) that was probably built several hundred years ago, to our best guess. See photos here and post your guess.
This and the next couple are views from the school's rooftop.
Okay so Blogger isn't letting me add photos for some reason so in the interest of my sanity and sleep deprivation prevention, I'm moving on with copy only. Sorry folks!
We arrived at the Kids Games this morning about 8:30 and stayed through 6:00 p.m., spending much of the day in the hot sun on the paved play areas. I admit I found refuge in some shady spots for a good part of the day. One has to do what one has to do for self preservation! On one of my shady adventures I made a cultural observation. I was sitting in the auditorium on an aisle in the back and when the kids were leaving the auditorium they all seem to enjoy getting a glimpse of an American. It's fun to connect with so many kids for that very brief moment, and they always move on with a big smile after a simple wave, wink, or high five. These are kids ranging from as young as 3 or 4 years old up to early teenagers.
Lunch was delivered to us from a local sandwich shop called Smiley's. I wasn't a fan of the sandwich. Others were. I'm not terribly adventurous where food is concerned. Oh, when you get a local sandwich you have to be sure to pull the lettuce and tomato off. Those are high risks for causing the diarrhea cause they are usually washed in local water. Rule is, if you can't peel it, don't eat it, unless it has been thoroughly cooked.
This afternoon while sitting on a bench in the shade with a nice breeze (while my fellow missionaries worked hard in the hot sun) I found myself reconnecting with several of the local counselors who worked at the camp last year while we were there... Andy, Nader, Rana, Mish Mish (apricot in English), Daniel. It was fun to catch up. One of them remembered a really bad and really long joke I told them about pink and purple polka dotted ping pong balls. I'll spare you that one.
At the end of the day we headed back to the hotel for a quick shower so we could make the 7:00 service at our partner church, Casa El Dobara. It's really nice church with sevices very similar to ours at Lake Pointe, though translated into Arabic. We had headphones to translate for us, which was good, especially during the points when we were not all dozed off. Yes, several of us had a really hard time retaining consciousness, not because of the service but because of residual jet lag and long hot day in the sun and the nice and cool air conditioning in the church. It was a very nice service.
Then, we were off on the dinner cruise on the Nile we'd all been looking forward to! Yes, we have all cruised the Nile. Together. Wasn't exactly what we were expecting. Nice big yacht of some kind with a long table and linen table cloths, maybe a 4 or 5 course meal. Nope, it was much more intimate than that. We sat hip to hip around a small table in the middle of a large dingy with a sail and ate takeout Egyptian meat and pickle burritos with Apple Farouz Soda. I actually give the burrito a thumbs up. I'll try to post a photo of the boat if Blogger will cut me a break.
In the morning I'm heading out on a reconnaisance side trip with Brad and Brennan to Upper Egypt, which is actually the southern part of the country and the poorest part as well. Seems Lake Pointe is planning to adopt a small village where we'll do compassion missions several times a year and our job is to go scope out a couple of villages and the logistics of accessing them. We are leaving at 7:00am, catching a three-hour train ride, to the region, then shuttling around with two members of Kasir El Dobara church in Cairo.
Never a dull moment in Egypt! Rest of the gang is marching on with the sightseeing itinerary... 5,000 years of Egyptian history, Pyramids, ride camels, buy souvenirs, etc...
I'll post again Sunday night. Enjoy your weekend!
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