The daily grind

I just received an email from Nancy with a few questions so I thought that I would answer them in the blog because I assume more people are wondering the same things. I will take you through a day in my life.

7:40 am: I wake up in the morning after hitting the alarm clock about 5 times and wake up generally 20 minutes before school starts. I get dressed, go over lesson plans for the day and if the wind isn't blowing too hard and if I have enough money on my internet USB than I check my email.

7:59 am: I generally start the walk to school. By then most of the kids have arrived and unlocked the classrooms. Each period is 45 minutes which can seem really long or short depending on how much I have prepared for class. I always have 6th grade first, then 3rd and generally 12th is next except on Sundays where I have individual tutoring with one student.

10:15 am: We have our first break. We, the teachers, grab the food trays from the kitchen along with serving utensils and head out to meet 6th and 3rd grade at one of the tables in the main hut. We all sit down on the ground around the table and one or two of the teachers serve up the food and pass out bread. This is generally when we get visits from many of the cats hoping to score some food but the boys generally tend to lick their plates clean.

Pregnant Julie on a Bedouin rug in the main hut.

10:45 am: We resume class once again for another two and a quarter hours. I generally have a break at some point during this time unless it is Tuesday and then I have a double dose of project class. Currently in project class we are gearing up for the end of year performance. I've just started doing acting and improv games with the kids which they really seem to like. We are writing our own original score for the play as well. If anyone has any interesting game ideas I would love to hear them. If I do have a break I generally dedicate it to lesson planning or reading as well as a much needed cup of coffee.

1:00 pm: Lunch time! Again we go to the main hut to eat. Every student has one meal time a week where they are in charge of cleaning the table. We generally have water to drink but Tuesday is the ever so exciting juice box day so we are able to each take a juice box from the hostel refrigerator.

1:45 pm: Many times 3rd grade finishes before lunch and 6th grade is done most days by this time as well so most classes in the afternoon are dedicated to the 12th grade girls. We never have class after lunch on Thursdays. Lately they have been making coffee which helps them stay motivated as well as their thankful teachers (Mady and me).

3:15 pm: School is done for the day! I generally get some exercise after school that all started the week after I arrived. For two weeks we had two men, Samr and Ahmed here doing Tai Chi, chi gong and Capoeira with our student, Sohaila, Mady and me. This was really fun and they were really excellent teachers. After this, a German man, by the name of Martin, also did some Capoeira with us at Rock Sea camp which is about a 15-minute drive and also where one of our students, Roxy, lives (this is her parents camp).

I now do yoga every other day with Katrin, a fellow teacher and mother of two students and my neighbor. We generally do this at her chalet because she has a nice outside area with plenty of space. This week two of the students, Sohaila and Sarah, Mady and I have started Billy Blake's Boot Camp work out videos. We use one of the unoccupied huts and bring a laptop to follow along and laugh at the ridiculously things we are asked to do. If you don't know who Billy Blake is I suggest you look the man up.

There are two kinds of places to stay here at Basata, the chalet and the hut. We technically live in a chalet but ours is smaller than most. The biggest perk is having your own bathroom and of course, electricity. These buildings are a little further back from the water but still get an excellent view of the Red Sea. The huts are where most guests stay and many of the workers as well. They are made of bambo and have no electricity but they are right on the sea's edge. There are two bathrooms on either side of camp that have solar showers for all of the guests in the huts.

7:00 pm: If we decide to eat dinner, it is served at 7 pm in the main hut. Lately there have been 1-2 tables filled and this is when we can mingle with the guests if we so choose. Most guests are Egyptian or German (or German/Egyptian) but sometimes we get guests from other European countries and even the States.

Evening: Mady and I are pretty good at keeping ourselves busy in the evenings either with school work, reading or making future plans. I also spend some time on the phone with Matt, who calls the Mady's cell phone through Skype or chatting online (if the internet is working).

It isn’t too hot here yet but we have heard that in the summer it gets so hot that you cannot stand on the sand. A woman once burned her feet on the sand causing blisters to form on her soles. It has been a little cold at night but the day is always sunny. When I first arrived it was quite windy during the day but now it is really only windy late at night. There was talk of a sand storm but that never happened.

There are a good many animals including cats, dogs, geckos, camels and many ants, large and small. I think the camels are my favorite. Last week we visited the camp of one of our students and I got to meet his camel and see one of the cats, Lotfi, we ousted from Basata a few weeks prior. Last week I sat down in the main hut to read. After about 2 minutes I felt a pinch, then another, then another. I looked down and realized that a guest had left some crumbs on the ground which attracted the small, biting ants and they were crawling all up my legs. I quickly got up and brushed them off my legs but I didn’t feel any better so I ran all the way back home, threw off my clothes and jumped into a cold shower. You can bet I will look down before I sit in the main hut from now on.
We have no TVs here, Mady and I share her cell phone that doesn’t always work, and we have slow but reasonably consistent internet. We have USB internet sticks that we pay for based on how many KB are transferred back and forth, though we are working on trying to pay an unlimited monthly bill instead. The whole camp is run on gas-powered generators that are turned off at various points during the day.




On the weekend, which is Friday and Saturday, I work on lesson plans for the week, study for the GMAT, wash my clothes all by hand and attempt to learn some Arabic. Arabic is quite a difficult language so we'll see how far I get in three months.

This is my life in Sinai. I love it. If anyone has any questions feel free to email or ask on the blog.

Food at last

I have now been here for a month and I haven't shared my food situation yet. Astonishing, I know. Mady and I have all three meals provided with the exception of breakfast and lunch on Friday and Saturday (the weekend). We have fool and gibna almost every day for breakfast with government subsidized flat bread. Fool reminds me a little of refried beans but with more spices and gibna is the Arabic word for cheese. The gibna we are served is a spreadable cheese which also has herbs, green bell peppers and tomatoes. There is also Halawa, which is a really sweet pasty substance. I don't exactly know what it is but many of the kids don't like it and apparently foreigners have trouble getting used to the sweetness but I liked it from the start. I think its because I have a sweet tooth that is larger than the average person’s. Very rarely but always welcomed are very thin pancakes served with jam. On these days we inevitably hear one of the Bedouin boys repeat, “Put me much, put me very much!”

Lunch varies but normally includes rice and a salad of green bell pepper, onion and tomatoes. We have a vegetable stew a lot of the time. Macaroni and cheese and chicken are both served once a week generally.

Dinner is eaten with all of the guests at the hostel. Because lunch and breakfast tend to be pretty heavy and because we are not always in the mood to socialize or tell the story of what we are doing here again and again, we don't have dinner often. Dinner is generally a feast though and very good. Dinner switches between a vegetarian meal or fish which the Bedouins in the area catch and sell to Basata. Bedouins are the only people allowed to fish in the waters here and do a lot of fishing with big nets. We eat a lot of eggplant and zucchini but the fried cauliflower might just be my favorite. And of course most meals are served with tahini.
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Two weeks ago Mady's friends Hythem and Salem joined us from Cairo for the weekend.



[Side note: Egypt is called Masr in Arabic which means . Sometimes people will also call Cairo is also called Masr.] Anyway, there is a castle up the road from Basata that is known for its delicious meals and the fact that they serve alcohol. They prepare food the traditional way so the preparation takes a few hours. You must place your order by phone earlier in the day so when you arrive it will be ready. We called too late in the day for meat but ordered two fish plates and two seafood plates though we really had no idea what we were getting into.

The castle is about a 3 minute drive and is located on a hill overlooking the sea. It was build by a man by the name of Henny (at least this is how it is pronounced). The food was amazing and a nice change from the typical fare we usually eat. We had a white fish though I can't remember the name along with prawns, crab and octopus that was cut like a pineapple. .

We also had salad and rice that were amazing.

I obviously had a little trouble with the crab...

and Mady with the octopus.

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Our next adventure in food was attempting to make Becky's delicious Eggplant Parmesean. After receiving the recipe from Becky, we decided to go shopping for the more difficult ingredients to find, Mozzerella and Parmesean cheese, in Taba Heights, a resort town nearby with a store containing many imports. To our dismay, they didn't have either cheese nor a good substitute for them but we had already promised our friends Hussein and Reem that we would make dinner. We ended up making quite a delicious casserole with eggplant and zucchini with homemade tomato sauce and Egyptian cheese (the stuff the baker uses for the Basata pizzas that are baked daily). It turned out incredibly greasy and delicious.

Hussein and Reem gave it their approval too!

The Vote

Egyptians eagerly went to the polls yesterday to decide the fate of their constitution. The vote was an important yet simple decision for most of the staff at Basata. The answer was “no,” the changes made to the constitution thus far are not enough. They want a new constitution, a new set of laws for a new and proud Egypt.

I constantly ask questions, curious to know what the Egyptian people want and who is currently governing the country. Who is making these important decisions? I have been informed that the military has assembled a super team of 100 (this may not be an exact number) economists, religious leaders and the like to consult on the future of the country including changing or creating a new constitution. What an amazing time to be an expert in your field and be chosen to make decisions that will effect you country for decades to come.

It’s an exciting time to be here to witness Egyptians engaging in friendly debates about what they believe should be the next steps in the people’s Egypt and what these changes will mean for them. While some people are certain that the outcome will be an overwhelming “no,” some are worried that television propaganda will sway those less educated to voting “yes” with those big wig station owners who received their millions thanks to the Mubarek’s regime.

All of our Egyptian friends came back from neighboring towns proudly showing off their red thumbs, evidence they were fingerprinted at the polls. Now we wait. Our friends wait. And the country waits on a decision that not only symbolizes the beginning of a democracy but a new age free from the humiliation and oppression they suffered for the last 30 years.

….

The people have spoken. 77% of the votes told those in charge that the current amendments are enough to get started working on their new government, to elect a new president. While many may disagree with the decision, it was a democratic decision and at least 44% of eligible voters finally had their voices heard. The nine amendments are now agreed upon. What will happen next? Time will only tell…

My New Home

Basata is a camp on the coast of the Sinai Peninsula. On this map you can see the town of Neweiba. Basata is located a few kilometers north.










This is the sign as you come up the road. We are located right off the one road that goes up and down the coast.













The view of our cottage from behind.













This is the front of the cottage from the front.














This is the view from the window. We can see Saudi Arabia as long as there isn't too much dust in the air.














View of the pigeon house and barn area where the sheep, goats and donkeys are kept.
side note: The donkeys lovingly defecated all over our front porch yesterday which we had to clean up with a shovel. I guess they didn't like their new names.














This is the school. There are four classrooms. One for each grade, 3rd, 6th and 12th, and one for individual lessons. Mady and I live about 30 seconds from school.

Encounters of the Animal Kind

CATS
"There are just too many of them" is the reason I hear for the removal. Yes, that's right, the cats are moving! The first to go was Lutfee, an orange and white cat. I can't really say I was sad to see her go. I didn't really get to know her. She was moving to Elyam's camp a few kilometers up the road where I am sure she will have a long fulfilling life of eating fish and reproducing or be killed the next time they put poison out for the animals to keep the population down. All of the boys gathered around to see Lutfee off. They forcefully stuffed her in a box (no worries, she could breathe. I think) and waved her away as Elyam suffered many scratches keeping the restless cat in the box.
The boys have built a few contraptions to catch the cats, though they aren't really necessary because the cats will just come up to you and demand attention. But the traps are a fun and time consuming diversion. They caught the second cat two days later though I don't really know what happened to that cat. He probably moved as well but I am not certain of the location.
My first day here, Katrin was talking about one of the cats and I just couldn't tell what she was saying when she said his name. It sounds oddly like "Dickfatbroda." Mady and I cannot stop laughing when anyone says this cat's name and whenever we ask can't really get a better answer to what his name is or means. I know what you are thinking because I thought this cat must be Dickfat's brother too. But no, we are wrong. I don't think I will ever understand "Dickfatbroda" but it's rather hilarious when a kid comes up to you, bats his eyelashes and says he can't find Dickfatbroda.
DONKEYS
I was on my way to school when I saw the donkeys by the trash bins so I grabbed my camera to take a picture. I didn’t think much of it until the grey donkey, whom I recently named “Badonk-a-donk,” came right up to me and stared me in the eyes as well as an animal with eyes on the side of his head could stare at me. Then the white one, who I named Mao, came and stood with Badonk-a-donk. Neither would let me touch him and when I tried to walk away Mao just kept following. It was really quite strange. Finally the caretaker called to them in German and they left me alone. I haven’t seen them since then so I have no pictures but they will come soon. Though now I am a little nervous to pull out my camera near them.

We recently encountered a new kitten that some of the kids are taking care of. I forget the name in Arabic but it means "baby pigeon." Here she is:

First day of school

My first day of school was a little rough but I made it to the other side. I had every class that I teach and was completely unprepared for all of them. So for those who don’t know, I teach 3^rd, 6^th and 12^th grade English, 6^th and 12^th grade Spanish, 12^th grade psychology and one period of individual English tutoring. About half of the kids didn’t show up so that took a little pressure off and Mady and I combined our 6^th and 3^rd grade for the first period. I met Djamal and Fares, “Foozy” who are in the 6^th grade as well as Elyian who is in the 3^rd grade and Faris who I had already met.

Faris and I had 3^rd grade English alone so I asked him to show me around. He took me to see the sheep and goats. He told me that one of the sheep was just put down because she had given birth and was very ill after. They later found out there were two babies and one just never came out causing the mother to be ill and ultimately suffer so much she was put down. There are also two donkeys who just roam free during the day all over the beach which is a pretty funny sight.

Karim and I also had an individual lesson. He led me to the top of a hill to overlook the whole camp of Basata. It is very beautiful and Karim did a wonderful job of explaining where people live, how things work and who the Bedouins are. Many of the children who come to school in Basata are Bedouins and somehow or another are all related. Karim also showed me the pigeon house . Pigeons come and hang out,(many of the camps have them). Pigeons lay eggs and do other pigeon things. I have no idea why we have this thing. I was told there used to be chickens but they all had to be killed due to the Avian flu. Apparently, Egypt did a pretty poor job controlling that flu and had high rates of death.

I somehow made it through both Spanish classes and psychology by getting to know each student and getting the kids talk about themselves which wasn't too hard. I survived the first day. I think it's going to be a great three months!

I promise pictures on the next posting.

Arrival!

I arrived in Cairo at 9:30pm and had pleasant experience at the airport. My visa was easy to obtain for the small cost of $15 US, there was no customs and Mady and her friend were waiting for me at the gate. After all the pleasantries we had to hurry to get to her friends house by midnight or we would be detained at a checkpoint for being out after curfew. We took a little detour to drive by Tahrir Square, where the protests were most significant and then he drove like a madman (though that seems to be normal in Cairo) and we arrived with minutes to spare.

I was surprised by how westernized Cairo seems to be in comparison to many parts of South America. The radio was in English and there was a Mcdonalds, Carl’s Jr, and even a Cinnabon that I spotted as we drove through the city.

The following day, after running a few errands we headed to Basata in the school van. The trip is around 6 hours and we were stopped at about 10 check points where we had to present our passports before we finally made it. At one checkpoint the guard pulled out my laptop and asked me what it was. He asked this in Arabic so I could not reply. The driver told him it was a computer (obvious) and then he asked if anything was on it duh. It's a computer.

The drive to Basata is a vast dessert with little towns spread out along the way. Once we arrived on the coast we could see Israel, Jordan and finally Saudi Arabia beyond the crystal clear water. I was told that there are many resorts along the coast that serve as their own local communities as well as vacation spots for tourists. Basata is one of those. Many of them that catered to Isreali tourists have been abandon due to some terrorist activity which I will research and post later. I don't have all the details yet. Basata is an eco hostel with several people living there full time mainly Egyptians, Germans and Bedouins, a bakery, greenhouse, animals (sheep, goats, donkeys who roam around as they please and several cats) and a school for local children and youth.

We arrived just in time for dinner so we took our seats on the floor around the table and I met the many people with whom I will be living for the next three months. There is Sherrif and Maria who are the owners of the hostel and are in charge of just about everything that goes on. Katrin and Mohamed and their two boys Faris and Karim who live in Germany but have taken a year off to live in Egypt. Katrin and Mohamed also teach at the school. I also met Sarah who is one of the 12^th grade students at the school.

I was incredibly jet lagged and my mind was boggled being at a table where everyone can speak not only English but Arabic and German are the main languages. Mady’s Arabic abilities are incredibly already and I hope to catch up as quickly as I can. School starts tomorrow and though I am completely unprepared, I cannot wait to meet the kids and get started.

For those interested this is where I am. Come visit! Basata.com