Volume Five

Hello all,

This is the first actual Blog I have written. The others were cut and paste. Thanks to Emily who first suggested this idea and I have seen how this is beneficial. I will just make posts here and you can access them whenever you want.

So it's been a while since I have written and that is a direct result of my being so busy I will begin with my MUN trip and work forward. It may be a long read.

Wed. Sept. 15
I had to get a cab to come from Heliopolis to the School (which cost 5oL.E. that was later reimbursed) at 12:30 and I was supervising the Lobbying and Merging which took place at the school. This is where the delegates who have a position on the issues merge their resolutions to form submitters and they later support each other during the debates.

At around 5:30 we gathered in front of the school to take the busses to the airport. We left just after 6:00 for our 8:30 flight to Sharm El Sheikh. This place it turns out is like the European Cuba. We had a couple of snags at the airport in that one teacher's ticket did not have his name on it and that was frustrating. We arrived at our hotel at around 10:30 and basically forced the kids to stay in their rooms for the night.

Thursday

We awoke to our Egyptian breakfast buffet, which took ten minutes to walk to from our rooms. It was a little strange that many of the things that I'd been eating for dinner like Hummus and Falafels were breakfast fare. I ate fairly well and we had a boat trip on the Red Sea for the majority of the day.

We were on a two level boat with a full kitchen and indoor sitting room. I had opted to rent fins, snorkel and a mask (luckily). We took about two hours before we anchored and began swimming near a large uninhabited island. The snorkelling was incredible, Nemo is only an hour away! I saw needlefish, parrot fish and tons of coral. Paula and I are going to get our diving certificates. Apparently one student jumped from one boat to the other as we were leaving the dock and as it was dangerous it was decided to send him back to Cairo.

Thursday night we cut the kids loose and went to a local restaurant for Thai food. It was expensive compared to what we pay in Cairo but it was good nonetheless. We did our room checks at 11:30 and again a little while after then went to bed.

Friday

Friday marked the beginning of the conference for the students and they split into their separate General Assemblies to discuss the issues of the Sudan Darfur Conflict, the Israeli Wall, and UN Personnel overseas. They spent one day on one issue and the second on the other. They had to debate the resolutions as delegates of a country. I watched and gave input at times, it was all very interesting. That night we went out for dinner with all the Teachers at an Italian restaurant which was quite good. I had a calzone that I asked for them change by not getting mushrooms in it. Well actually asking the waiters to change stuff is usually not good because you will end up as I did, disappointed and picking out mushrooms. Mish Mushkella (No Problem).

Same sort of evening for me I stayed up to 1:30 to do the room check. Luckily for me I caught Survivor's season premiere at 12:30 so I got to watch it. Then I went to bed.

Saturday

I got up kinda late (8:30) and skipped breakfast and went straight to the conference. It was status quo and the debates are quite hands off for the teachers that are there so I took some time to pack up and get my stuff ready for the flight home. I had lunch with Paul, the Director of the MUN and then went swimming again.

The conference ended around 5:30 and we went out for dinner of Pizza again but somewhere different. There was only 3 teachers this time and we went shopping after in the local markets and some shops. I got a couple of shirts but it was pretty tourist oriented and I wasn't getting sucked in by the kitchy egyptian junk, Rubber Cleopatra fridge magnets for example.

We gathered together to go back at 9:00 and our flight was at 10:45. Egyptian time set in and we didn't take off until 11:10. This means we didn't touch down in Cairo until after 12:00 Sunday. (Sunday for those who don't know is Egypt's Monday) So I had to be up for school by 6:00 and I didn't get to my apartment door until 1:30AM. Suffice it to say some of the students weren't at school but I was. It was a long weekend but I had fun and got to got for next to nothing.

Volume Four

Hello to all,
I am currently sitting at school and I have spent my weekend camping at a place called Abu Sultan. (See attached map) It is located on the north end of a large sort of lake in the middle of the Suez Canal somewhat separated (though the same water) from the Red Sea. It is beautiful, warm clear salt-water, it felt like walking into a bath. Unbelieveable!

We had around 40 Scouts from 10-17 years old and there is a senior patrol that is supposed to organize the rest, which they do for the most part. I am designated as their Assistant Scoutmaster. After working with the little guys at school it is a refreshing change. They cooked in Dutch Ovens (Cast Iron Pots with charcoal above and below) I forgot my camera and was remiss about it when we saw the Blue-tailed Skink. This country continues to surprise. The Scouts were essentially set up on the lawn of a Villa which has a waterfront.

We had an inflatable motorboat and 5 canoes. The Scouts were working on their Canoeing and Motorboating 'Merit Badges.' Naturally I volunteered to instruct the Canoeing however I actually had never instructed Solo canoeing which was really fun. I personally ran 9 new scouts through the entire water program. I have been away from the youth too long it seems. They had a canoe race, beach campfire, and an ‘In and Out’ race on my suggestion. (Kids race their canoes but have to jump out and back into canoes on a whistle) The whole thing was great.
The mind-blowing part of the weekend was the fact that throughout the day we could look out into the middle of the water and see Oil Rigs, Cargo ships and Oil Tankers, and one Supertanker - you know the mile long ships. Absolutely amazing.

Coming back on the bus I realized that other than the terrain Scouting here is just like Scouting back home and I am having a blast.

SCHOOL NEWS!

I am now working the middle three days of the week at another campus of the school. I get a smaller bus to Heliopolis to work with 2 students who are developmentally delayed. One is 9 the other 10 and they both function around the level of a 6 year old. They are good boys, excitable and talkative and I think that working in this will be more interesting than waiting for someone to fall ill. Also I get good experience with Special Ed, and this should allow me to pick my job for next year. I want to go to the High-School and I want English and History (AT LONG LAST!).
On Wednesday night I am flying to Sharm-El-Sheikh with the Model United Nations. There are 79 High School Students who are going to have a mock conference. I'll tell you about that next week.

Tonight is the first game of the Fall Softball league and I am both playing a game and scoring a game.

Busy Busy BUSY!

Talk more later,

Grant

Volume Three

Hello All,
In Cairo there are lots of roads, lots of people and lots of cars. The roads have lines painted on them and the largest are three lanes wide. Most roads in Maadi are smaller two lanes or less. There are road signs like at home like One Way and Do Not Enter and cars parked up and down the smaller streets.

However there are NO RULES that are absolutely obeyed here! This place is nuts for driving, I thought I knew what it would be like.....no way. I've seen cars pass each other in places I thought only one car would fit while I was in it. I think with no doubt that you could make a NASCAR driver our of any taxi driver in Cairo. We've driven down those supposed three lane highways at 80km/hr in our Mercedes school bus zig-zagging in and out of dump trucks, other buses, cars, small trucks and usually they are four and sometimes even FIVE wide on a road that is worse than the 401. Imagine honking to others and they actually move over a little for you to get by.

In town they go fairly slow 30-50km. No one speeds excessively because of all the speed bumps.I have complete faith that these guys are capable but sometimes when you are edging into oncoming traffic or going around a midan (round-about) it gets a little crazy. I have my 'Taxi-Arabic' down pretty well and can get around Maadi if I know where I am going. Outside Maadi is a little hairier, less English and they expect more money.

Paula and I are enjoying ourselves and booked a trip to Turkey in November. We are going to Capadocia and Istanbul over four days and there are 6 teachers going altogether. School is in full swing now with most kids back and the beginning of our first full week here.

Hope everything is good at home,

Grant

Volume Two

Hello All,

Let me preface this with NO I have not yet ridden a camel, maybe after reading this you'll understand why.

So last Friday there was the option of going to the Pyramids on the School's buses, they are comfy with A/C and free so I of course went. I had heard and read that there are 'persistent entrepreneurs' who rent camels and horses. Well this is how a typical exchange would go:

Camel Guy: Hello my friend where you from?

Me: Canada

CG: Canada, Canada Dry ha ha ha

Me: ...

CG: Would you like Camel?

Me: No thank you.

CG: My friend I give you really good price...

Me: No it's OK I'll walk.

Then as you begin walking away they follow you.

CG: How about later my friend, good price.

Me: No thanks.

They follow you around for 500m doing this every so often then a new guy starts in on you....

New Camel Guy: Hello my friend, where you from?

Me: Canada

NCG: Canada, Canada Dry ha ha ha.

So its HOT sunny and these guys are pestering you to ride the camel, or horse, or give them something to remember you by ie: cash, sunglasses etc.

I was awestruck by these goliath monuments and the fact that they are thousands of years old. If you followed the link to shutterfly you can see the pictures. We were kinda rushed in that we only had about 1 1/2 hours there and I was with 2 teachers and their 2 kids. I didn't really have the money to go inside and Paula wasn't there so I didn't really feel like it. I think the best thing is to go with someone who visits and see the whole thing in cooler weather.

All in all it has been fun to this point, I don't know if things will change here but they could. The students are coming tomorrow Sept. 1st and everyone is abuzz.

Hope things are well with you,

Paula and Grant

Volume One

Hello all,
It seems a lifetime ago that I was home. In this whirlwind of stuff that is going on Paula and I are having a great time. Nelly (our cat from Canada for those who don't know) is good although he's a little weirded out it seems. We live in a fifth floor apartment and we are one of two apartments on the top floor. Our kitchen has a walk-out terrace which we just bought some really comfortable chairs for and sat and relaxed last night. The school and the people are great and Paula and I are settling in slowly.

Our terrace looks to the north and we want to have something made to create shade (a hot commodity) for comfort's sake. I say we can see the pyramids from it however that depends on smog conditions. We live in a city of approximately 20 million or roughly 2/3 the population of Canada. WOW! We take taxis to most places for 3 pounds (or 50 cents US) and we live in a suburb called Ma'adi. It is a very english-speaking part of Cairo although there is no mistaking that you are in Egypt. If Ma'adi is roughly a circle it is about 3km across and we do try to walk places however with no stop signs, traffic lights or street signs, getting lost is easy (as we can testify from experience).

There are what they calll Midans or roundabouts which can be insane to cross with the cars trucks and buses all honking at you and eachother for usually no particular reason. Cairo is somewhat comical in that respect and you get used to it quickly. Taxis are everywhere except when you need one or are late....murphys law I guess.

Our flight from Canada to Frankfurt, Germany was nice although flying out of a sunset and into the sunrise was odd to say the least. We spent just over two hours in the Airport before our flight to Egypt. After a slightly rough and nauseating landing we could feel nothing but heat in the plane. It was a mere 32 degrees C and that is relatively low for August. Today is 38C, HOT!
We were awake approximately 27-28 hours from Canada to our hotel rooms in Ma'adi but that helped us get over our Jet Lag to some extent. On the Friday Paula and I went out on a nice air-conditioned bus with about 14 or so people to look for apartments. After roughly 8 hours of apartment shopping and 15 apartments we found ours. We love it and so does Paula's friend Yvonne.
Although I will try to send e-mails often, recieving and reading responses from everyone I send to might be difficult. I think the next Volume of my Pyramid post will detail a trip to the Pyramids hopefully and maybe someone will ask a question that will lead to a funny story.
If you want to mail something to Paula or myself this is the address:
Grant Welsh (or Paula Welsh)
c/o The American International School in Egypt
P.O. Box 8090 Masaken Nasr City 11371
Cairo, Egypt
F.Y.I. If it is something big check first as duty here can be hefty, like 200 US Dollars to get a shirt and 2 books. The Flatter the better! We can't recieve mail at our apartment as it is unreliable.

Looking forward to school,

Talk to you later,

Grant and Paula