What to pack, what to pack

My cousin K is here visiting. It’s fun to be around someone with so much enthusiasm. We saw the Pyramids from a distance yesterday, and she was thrilled, and it was a reminder to cynical ole me that, yes, things are pretty nifty here in Egypt.

K is visiting the Pyramids and the Citadel today, which will make for a long, hot day, but a great adventure. She’s with a guide, which makes me feel a lot better about her being out and about in Cairo. Yes, she’s my cousin and she’s an adult, but she’s in college, and I feel some responsibility to make sure she’s okay.

The boys love having K here. Giggle in particular adores visitors (and their digital cameras), and he’s always excited to meet family (he’s actually only met two members of his new extended family, my mom and now our cousin K). Plus K is great with kids. She brought the boys Thomas sticker/coloring books, which proves she is a genius since she found a perfect gift that would also fit into her tiny backpack. I am also amazed at how little she’s packed for her month-long overseas adventure (we’re only part of it).

Speaking of packing light… the boys and I leave for the States in nine days (Giggle asks me every day, “Are we leaving tomorrow, Mommy? In two days, Mommy?” That boy is ready to go!). I’d like to pack as little as possible in part because we’re going to have a lot of stuff to bring back as I’ll attempt to anticipate everything we might want from the US in the next year. This is mostly clothes for my rapidly growing children. Actually, shoes take up the most room. And some clothes for me too.

So, I’m going to try to pack light. We’ll also have access to a washing machine most of the summer, which makes packing light even easier.

But how light is light? How many t-shirts and shorts should I bring for the boys? Actually, it’s shorts for Bug and pants for Giggle as Giggle really doesn’t like shorts for reasons he can’t quite explain and we haven’t figured out. I suspect it might be because no one really wore shorts in Ethiopia. Also, he loves jeans. And sweat pants. During the summer.

It’s harder to pack for myself because, well, it’s myself. And I have to pack for that conference in Seattle in August (though I’m feeling much better about it all now).

Still, I am determined to get the three of us into two or three checked bags, so that we’ll have at least three empty bags to fill with stuff this summer (with an allowance of two bags each for international flights).

Of course all of this means I have to actually start putting clothes into luggage soon. And, I also have to start putting everything else into boxes for the big move! Wish us luck.

The new flat

Mr. Four, Bug, Giggle, my cousin K (visiting from Texas), and I went to visit our new apartment tonight. Actually, it’s still someone else’s old apartment. The woman living there was super friendly and accommodating and was quite happy to have us pop over on the spur of the moment so we could see the place. She’s moving out by the end of June, so the house was apparently a bit chaotic (to parents of two little boys, it looked rather orderly).

Anyway, enough rambling. I am delighted with the new space! The flat occupies the ground floor of a building, and it has two patios, one on each end. The front of the apartment is one large room, the dining area and living room. The wall to the patio is actually all windows, so it lets in a good amount of light considering the patio outside is walled.

The kitchen is a decent size, a separate room, but at least with a window over the sink and a good amount of counter space and cupboards.

The flat has three bedrooms, all pretty big. The best part is that two of the bedrooms, on the back of the flat, also have walls of windows overlooking the second patio. And there’s enough privacy from the wall around the patio that we probably won’t need to close the curtains except for darkness. One of the bedrooms is the master (with its own bathroom!) and the other will be for the boys, with more space than their current room, which means they’ll have storage for books and some toys in there.

Also, the third bedroom is big enough to hold a double bed, which means you people can actually come visit now. Outside this bedroom is a second full bath, which is a great improvement over our current 1.5 baths.

Each bedroom has a real closet. And, here’s the real shocker: there’s a linen closet! And, a separate room just for the washing machine and storage!

Right outside the apartment door is a nice yard perfect for the kids and for the pup. Neither patio opens onto the yard. The patios are pretty big, as far as patios go. They are paved with square stones but the outside of each patio has a narrow garden, and the family has some lovely flowering trees and bushes that give some nice color. Actually, the walls are so high around the patios that the place is really private, especially for the ground floor.

My employer usually keeps the furniture in the same apartments unless major repairs are needed. So we checked out the new pieces, and I actually kinda like it. Our current furniture is pretty functional but not especially attractive. The stuff in our new flat is old enough that it actually seems kinda cool. A bit funky almost.

Oh, and did I mention the marble fireplace? I’m not sure we’ll use it, but it’s pretty. And not nearly as fancy as that sounds.

Anyway, I realize the details aren’t essential and probably don’t make much sense. The whole place is probably somewhere around 1500 square feet or so. The big gains for us are the outside space plus more storage space. And the layout seems to work well. And the location really is fantastic.

In sum: hurray!

Moving and other news

We have a moving timeline! Our new apartment will be empty in late June, and so my employer, with help from our housekeeper/nanny, will move our stuff soon after that.

How fabulous is it to have a housekeeper? As fantastic as you might imagine. Even better when it turns out she can help facilitate moving our stuff while we’re in the States.

My employer owns the furniture, which will stay behind at our old apartment, and we’ll have a different set of stuff in the new place, so moving involves kitchen stuff, linens, books, and clothes, but not bookcases and beds.

And how fantastic is it that we’ll be out of town when it happens? We will have to pack our stuff. It’s not a total breeze. But pretty close to it.

The boys don’t know yet. We will miss some of the folks here in the neighborhood, especially some kids my kids have befriended, but this looks like a great opportunity for the Fours.

On the move

I just learned some great news: the Four family will be moving to a ground-floor flat at Choice B. This is the building with a small yard and a great location. I had heard the ground-floor apartment was small, but found out it has three bedrooms, which is plenty of space for us (the boys share a room). Plus instead of a balcony, we’ll have a small, private, walled outdoor patio, and, because we’re on the ground floor, we’ll have easy access to the shared yard outside.

So this is great for Mr. Four’s knees, great for the boys to play and get to school, great for me for commuting, and since it’s been a hassle to house train a pup from the seventh floor, great for Archie and his long-term residence with the Fours.

Of course, we haven’t actually seen this place. We might consider asking the current tenant if we could stop by, but she’s a widow whose husband worked for my employer until last November. Seems a tad insensitive to ask to check out her house. Right?

We’re not sure when we’ll move. The housing office is waiting to hear when the apartment will be empty, and they’ll want us to move as soon as possible after that. As always, I will keep you posted.

Meanwhile, I’m still very interesting in your feedback on Bug’s lungs.

Young lungs

This spring we met a family here in Cairo who has been here since last summer, the same as us. They have a young baby who was born in the US but has lived here most of his life. Just recently, on their annual leave back the States, their American pediatrician confirmed what the parents had suspected: their baby has asthma, clearly exacerbated (if not caused) by Cairo’s polluted air.

The baby is now on hardcore steroids while they try to get his breathing under control and while they’re back in Cairo. For folks who don’t know–steroids can stunt a child’s growth, so my understanding is that they’re only prescribed to children in extreme situations.

The family was expecting to stay here another year, but their employer won’t allow them to, given the baby’s health concerns. The problem is two-fold: first, being here makes the baby’s asthma worse, and, second, the medical care here is such that the employer isn’t confident the baby can be treated locally in an emergency. Basically, Cairo makes the asthma worse, and the health care system isn’t up to par.

So, the mom and two kids are being moved back to the States while the dad is sent to a pretty awful place (like, what’s the last place in the world you’d want to live right now? bingo!) for the next year. They don’t have much choice or maybe any choice.

I’m sad to see this nice family leave and even sadder given the circumstances.

It also has me, a hypochondriac on behalf of my children, even more concerned about the poor air quality here (and I don’t mean LA bad; think Beijing bad). Bug had a really rotten cough for a long time this winter, which finally cleared up during the week we spent in Dahab. But now his cough is back, with hardly any cold symptoms. It’s just… a cough. A really bad cough.

There’s a scientifically established link between pollution and asthma. How long can we stay here before the kids suffer permanent lung damage? Our lifestyle here isn’t worth sacrificing the boys’ health.

This is a great question to bring to a a doctor, but we haven’t really established a relationship with a pediatrician here. My employer has a clinic for routine stuff, but I wouldn’t bring my kids to them for something unless it was urgent.

So I’m tempted to schedule an appointment with a doctor in the US, either our old pediatrician or perhaps a specialist… are there pulmonary pediatricians? Fortunately, College Town has a vast array of medical facilities so I can probably find someone.

I’m not sure exactly what I’d ask, but I think it’d go something like this: Doc, can my kid make it through several more months in Cairo without compromising his long term health?

And how about you readers? What would you do?

Oh, happy day

We interrupt this hiatus to wish you a very happy Mother’s Day… from we Fours to you, especially Grammie JJ, Aunt A, Nana, Graeme, Aunt Ci, Aunt Ch, and Aunt M.

It turns out I had a very nice Mother’s Day, even given that it’s a work day here in Egypt (as are all Sundays). Mr. Four and I had haircuts scheduled with a new friend and stylist, a British expat who used to own his own shop in England but sold it to follow his wife around the world. He came over this afternoon, and I hope my haircut looks as good on me as Mr. Four’s does on him.

I knew my present was to be delivered at 6:30pm. I figured it was a plant. A big plant, tree-like, but a plant all the same. So imagine my surprise when, at the end of my haircut, in walks a masseuse, there to give me a massage.

It was unexpected and wonderful. Very relaxing, even though Bug kept coming in the room to “help,” by rubbing my arm until Mr. Four chased him out. Both boys insist we’ve somehow been cheated, though, because the masseuse didn’t leave a present. They were looking for something to unwrap.

I’m not usually one for holidays (except my birthday, which, as a consequence, is often a disappointment), but this Mother’s Day had me reflecting on my first Mother’s Day as a mom, two years ago. Mr. Four and I arrived in Ethiopia on Mother’s Day, and we met little Bug for the first time the very next day. We were expecting a slow transition, but he ended up relaxing with us during the day (when he met us, first he cried, and then he fell asleep in my arms), so we took him back to our guest house with us, and he’s been with us ever since. A day or two later, Mr. Four gave Bug a little box to give to me, and the box held a charm necklace called a “mommy tag,” a silver chain with a charm bearing Bug’s name. It was very sweet. I wore it just about every day for ages. (Now I have other jewelry from Ethiopia that I also wear.)

I don’t remember Mother’s Day last year. It was a chaotic time: we were in the midst of awaiting news from Egypt about a job offer and, much more importantly, news from Ethiopia about a court date to process our adoption of Giggle. Both came through around the same time, a week or two after Mother’s Day, which is perhaps why the day itself is a blur.

So here I am in Egypt, spoiled silly and feeling neo-colonial with all this pampering, but also loving Mr. Four and my wonderful boys.

Moving moving moving

I am loving all the comments about our possible move! I particularly enjoyed the suspicion that I was keeping back something good about Choice A.

Yesterday was Labor Day here in Egypt, but the boys still had school, and Mr. Four and I had the holiday (after a grueling two-day work week), so, we did some errands and stopped by Choice B. Turns out Mr. Four hadn’t realized just how close it was to Giggle’s fall school and the neighborhood market. And the yard, small though it is, was bigger than he had imagined (and bike-able, for the kids). We also found out that his new employer’s shuttle makes a stop about one door down from that building, so it’d be convenient for all of us, not just Giggle and me.

We’ve decided to request to move to Choice B. I know of a few families moving out, but I’m not sure which apartment we’ll move into… except that one place opening up is a ground floor flat, with a slightly smaller floor plan but a large, private, enclosed patio (well, large for a patio, that is, and much bigger than our current balcony). And, the boys could go out our front door into the yard. So we’ll request to move into that flat in particular, but if we end up on another floor, with more space, that’s fine too.

Thanks again for all the comments! I’ll let you know what we find out from the housing office.

Another move opportunity

You all were terribly helpful the last time we were considering a move, so I’m taking a break from the Dahab travelogue to get your input.

We have the opportunity to move within our community. Our current place is fine, nicely finished if not exactly our style, but we have no outside space except for a little grassy postage stamp that even the puppy finds boring. My employer owns a few buildings in our neighborhood that have some outdoor space along with some other perks like free internet and bike storage (both of which we’d love to have). We also feel a bit isolated from the rest of our expat community here, so moving into one of these buildings would be way to connect with folks more easily.

So, there are two buildings we’ve had in mind. One that might be open, but isn’t right now, is further from the boys’ current school and Giggle’s fall school. It’s not a great location for the market either. But the apartments are nice, the yard is gigantic (the building sits on a double lot and the outside space includes lots of lawn and a playground), and there are tons of kids in the building. We know and like some of the families there. To get to both boys’ school, we’d have a walk of about 15-20 minutes through a busy-ish traffic area. I’d also have a similar walk to get to my shuttle bus for the work commute. An apartment might open soon, but this has not been confirmed.

The building we can definitely move into is right next to Giggle’s school, where he’ll start in August, and right at a stop for my work shuttle bus. The outside space is much smaller, though still a huge improvement from what we have now, with some swings and sandbox; the other end of the long and narrow yard has an outside grill. It’d be a very comfortable place to sit outside when the weather is right. Rumor is that these apartments are also bigger and nicer than the ones in the other building. The location is very convenient for shopping and most everything we do, much better than our current place and the other building. I don’t know that many families in the building, but there are kids, and the people I know I like.

Both yards are nicely maintained and landscaped and particularly nice right now with a lot of flowers in bloom.

We could stay put, of course, though Mr. Four and I would both really like to have at least some outside space, so the move would probably be worth it in either case (and I should note that while we’d have to pack our stuff, my employer would coordinate the move).

So, should we go for choice A, with a giant yard, pack of little boys, and a worse location, or choice B, with a great location, smallish yard, and bigger apartment? Complicating this decision is the immediate availability of choice B (we’d move in a month or so, but could confirm it all now).

Mr. Four is leaning one way and I am leaning another. What would you do? And what do you think we should do?

Back in Cairo

We’re back from a fantastic vacation. I left off blogging right before our trip to St. Catherine’s Monastery, which was great. The church itself is awe-inspiring, really old and dramatic and lovely. And on a hot day, the mountains were a nice cool break from the beach. Though of course we dove into the pool about two minutes after getting back to our hotel.

I’ll blog more about our trip once I get the photos loaded (which will probably take forever, as always; it’s not the downloading but the organizing and uploading which kills me). But the rest of the week also included lots of snorkeling with some colorful fish along with some pool side adventures. The kids ended up playing with some new friends from the UK, Germany, and France (including the kids of someone prominent enough to have a Wikipedia entry, which of course I didn’t know but only suspected until I got home and googled him).

Today is Easter here in Egypt, for Coptic Christians. It’s also Easter for Ethiopian Orthodox and Greek Orthodox Christians. So Happy Easter to you easterners.

Tomorrow, Monday, is Shem El Nessim, the Egyptian spring celebration. I’ll learn more about it and then pass along my wisdom to you. But it does mean I have tomorrow off, so I’ll go to the kennel and retrieve the pup, who, as the boys have been saying, has been on vacation with other dogs (okay, that’s what I told them). I hope he hasn’t been too traumatized by it all.

On Tuesday, Mr. Four starts his new job!

And since Thursday is the Egyptian Labor Day, I only have two days of work this week. Not bad for the first week back after a vacation.

We did get some sad news tonight: our old cat, the Jekyll/Hyde kitty, who has been living with my mom since last summer, died yesterday. By all accounts, she had become mostly a Hyde kitty and had left her biting, grouchy ways behind, and my mom, previously an avowed cat-disliker, really fell for her. My poor mom–over the past few years, she’s taken in three pets from my sister and me and overseen the death of two (who were old; my mom is not a pet serial killer).

A year ago Mr. Four and I had had five pets, three dogs and two cats. Both cats and one dog died from July to yesterday. They were all old and sick, but still.

The other two dogs are with other folks now (including one with my mom) and seemingly in good health for now.

We’ve also managed to lose a cat (and I don’t mean through death) here in Egypt. Maybe we’re bad news for animals.

Anyway, I’m not sure if I’ll even tell the boys about the Jekyll/Hyde kitty. Of course they both know her and remember her well. But Bug in particular has been extra attentive to death issues lately. When we went to St. Catherine’s, Giggle and Bug expressed an interest in playing with Moses (probably because I described him as an original super hero). We said they couldn’t play with Moses (or “Noses,” according to Bug), because he wasn’t there, he died a long time ago. So all day we heard “Noses died.” This is the same as happened after Iggy the cat died here in Egypt. And the same with after the Hound died last summer. Any advice on this one, folks?

Meantime, I have apparently resumed my night owl ways now that I’m back in Cairo. More soon, I promise. Now I need to go to bed and sleep off this vacation.

Dahab

We’re in Dahab! As I write this, at 8:30pm, Mr. Four and the boys are konked out in our hotel room. During so-called naptime today, I was the only one who actually slept, so here I am, enjoying the the free internet while my family slumbers.

We arrived at 10am (after leaving our house at 5am… and eventually realizing that driving wouldn’t have taken much longer than flying). The hotel is perfect. Intended for divers, it also has a small pool (with water the children insist is near freezing), a kiddie wading pool with caves and waterfalls (!), and a playground. The hotel sports Nubian-inspired architecture: our two large beds are tucked under domed white ceilings. And, as Mr. Four observed, here we have the most bed space of any hotel we’ve patronized in Egypt; usually Giggle is on the spare cot and Bug is smushed in between Mr. Four and me.

Our room lacks a TV, which isn’t really a lack actually, and we’re enjoying ocean breezes as there’s no a/c. This place is way more than we expected, which was a compromise between backpacker’s rugged and resort $$. And did I mention we’re right on the sea, staring across the Gulf of Aqaba at Saudi Arabia?

So today we rested and swam and explored and decided that our first impression is that Dahab is the nicest tourist area we’ve visited in Egypt, since usually we’re stuck on some resort with one or two overpriced restaurants. Here we have an entire village of overpriced restaurants, along with stores overflowing with Bedouin crafts made in China. Actually, Dahab exudes charm. A pedestrian walkway (the corniche) lines the sea, and comfortable restaurants with over stuffed pillows and low tables evoke the Bedouin-meets-hippie atmosphere.

Dahab is certainly the most laid-back place we’ve been in Egypt. The dress code is European resort (well, except for the topless part), a refreshing change of pace from downtown Cairo, where exposed ankles can seem scandalous. Now I understand why some expats return here time and time again.

Tomorrow Mr. Four is diving, getting re-certified and then doing a check-out dive. The reefs here at the Sinai Peninsula were a major selling point for Mr. Four in the move-to-Egypt decision (before the job offer, I thought of Egypt as Pyramids and desert and other old stuff, but not a diver’s paradise), so it’s great he’s finally getting underwater.

And while I considered taking the boys on an adventure to the water parks of Sharm, which is a few hours south of us, instead tomorrow we’re going to stick around Dahab for a relaxed day of swimming and wading and reading and playing.