First Sandstorm

This past week I had my first taste of a sandstorm!  It had been warm for about two weeks prior to the storm; daily temperatures were ranging from 60 F in the morning to 72-75 F in the afternoons.  Come to find out, that was unseasonably warm for late January and early February.

The storm began Tuesday afternoon, the 10th.  It was warm for much of the school day, and the morning sky was clear.  Once I dismissed the last class of the day, I looked out the window and was a little surprised to see the sky and buildings looked yellow-orange outside.  I had seen colors similar to this on hazy days, so it didn’t occur to me that this was a sand storm…just another hazy day, I thought.  (But wait, weather in Egypt is not supposed to change this fast, is it?  I thought I left all that in Kentucky!)  We had a faculty meeting immediately following dismissal.  Once that was over and I packed up to go home, I saw the wind whipping trees and shrubs around on the school grounds.  I also noticed the canopy covers in the inner courtyard were flapping under a lot of wind.  Oh, so this must be what a sandstorm is like!  I went home and could hear the wind howling past the side of my apartment building the rest of the evening.

Wednesday afternoon
Before. Wednesday afternoon.

I wake up the next morning on Wednesday, come outside to wait for the bus, and the sky is still orange!  The air was also colder and heavier than I remembered.  Once at school, I saw the halls had lots of sand.  Very soon into the day, the teachers were told no one was to not go outside for recess.  Air quality was just too bad for physical activity outside.  It was decided after lunch time that after school activities would be cancelled for the day.  No Percussion Lab for my two enthusiastic drummers!  According to one of my Egyptian coworkers, this storm was the longest, most severe storm for Cairo in the past six years.  Calls had to be made to the parents, and the school bus schedules had to be rearranged to take everyone home by 3:15.  I found a news article mentioning the sandstorm had shutdown Cairo Airport to all arriving flights.  That’s when I took a photo of the sky outside my villa, and the landing just inside the main entrance.

20150212_164023I think one of my colleagues suggested that we close the main entrance door to the villa.  That would have been a smart idea, although sand would still have made its way through cracked windows in the stairwells.  At any rate, the floors and handrails were covered in sand when we came home.  On Thursday a friend found this Buzz Feed News article showing photos around Cairo during the sandstorm.  The video at the top of the article is from Aswan in May 2014 when a similarly severe storm hit the town.  The rest of what you see are buildings around Cairo and the Middle East affected by the storm of this past week.

20150212_163905

Ground floor landing
Ground floor landing

Thursday morning still had an orange sky and colder temps, but I was told the storm was supposed to clear out during the day.  And that it did!  Here is the same spot at the villa after coming home Thursday afternoon, one day after taking a photo of the sky during the storm.

20150212_164002
After. Thursday afternoon.

So now I have lots cleaning to do this weekend.  Even though I kept my doors and windows shut, sand was still able to leave its mark on every level surface.  But at this point, it will have to wait for tomorrow.  It’s now past 11:00 pm.

In other news, Spring Break plans have partially materialized!  My parents and one of my brothers are coming to Cairo in April!  We will spend a few days here, then we hope to go to Luxor in Upper Egypt where many ancient Egyptian temples and burial sites are located.  If it’s possible, we will also go to one or more of the monasteries of ancient Scetis, where most of the Desert Fathers lived and pioneered the monastic life for Christendom.  This area is in between Cairo and Alexandria, just about a 90 minute drive from downtown.  I’m excited!

 

First week back from Christmas

I’m back in Egypt after flying from home in America.  I had a wonderful time visiting family, friends, former coworkers, and students!  My trip took me first to Newark airport, then Munich, Germany, and finally to Cairo.  I saw some large, fascinating churches as we were circling and descending to land in Munich; I wasn’t able to get pictures of them because my seat was not near the window.

School started on Sunday the 11th.  Usually we will have a morning assembly on the soccer field, but it was cancelled because it was drizzling and abnormally cold: about 5 C, or low 40’s F.  It was also very cold inside the school.  Since Egypt does not have as much lumber resources in its arid climate, all the buildings have walls made of concrete and no insulation.  Pairing this with standard high ceilings makes them ideal for keeping relatively cool in the summer.  But with the winter temperatures we were having, the concrete walls having no insulation, and the high humidity, every room felt cold even with heaters going constantly.  Thankfully the moisture was mostly gone the next day, and temperatures warmed up by Wednesday.  In the last few days, temps have been ranging daily from 50-65 F, with forecasts of 55-75 later this week.  I’m not sure if the forecast is more normal seasonal weather, or just a warm spell, but I’ll take it!

It definitely would be nice to have the low 40’s back home, I’m sure!  But with living in any new country, there are trade-offs.  In America, and particularly in my home state, winter months are colder, sometimes as low as -15 C or 0 F.  But the houses are built with insulated walls and good heating systems, so the coldness only gets to you when you’re outside.  In Egypt, the winter nights are generally warmer– sometimes 5 Celsius, or the low- to mid-40’s F.  However, with the walls naturally being cool and having no way to retain heat, I sometimes have to go outside to get warm!  Thank goodness for flash water boilers and plenty of tea!

This week my school will have Monday off as a holiday since it is the Coptic feast day of Epiphany.  So I hope to go to the Egyptian National Museum then.  Then next week, we will have a Sunday off as a government holiday, making a longer weekend.  During that time I hope to go with a Coptic parish on a day-long retreat to the monasteries of St. Mina and St. Philopateer (Mercurius).  It will be the only three-day weekend until Palm Sunday in April; might as well take advantage of the breaks while I have them!

My New Home

This is quite a hiatus from posting!  It has been quite an adjustment since coming here.  I have a new home, new school with new colleagues, students, parents, new culture with a new language, church community, friendship circles, ways of getting around, food, and places to go and see.  After more than three months living in Egypt, I still haven’t found time to visit the Giza Pyramids yet!  Hopefully soon.

So here’s a little about where I live.  If you look on Google Maps at Cairo, you’ll notice a long road circling the city.  This is called “Ring Road.”  The Nile River separates the big city: on the east side of the river is Cairo city proper, and on the west side of the river is the city of Giza.  Both places are under different local government jurisdictions, called Cairo Governorate and Giza Governorate, respectively.  I think of Governorates as a loosely related term to State governments in the US, though I haven’t done any research to see if that is a correct way of thinking of things.

I live in a “suburb” called New Cairo.  There’s still at least a million people living there, and many consider it part of greater Cairo, so it’s not really a suburb.  Perhaps you could think of it like Manhattan or Brooklyn in relation to New York City.  New Cairo is just outside of Ring Road on the east side.  Another name used for this place is Tagammoa El Khames, in Arabic meaning “The Fifth Settlement.”  I’ll write in more detail about New Cairo later.  Now for some photos!

I live in an apartment building with eight other teachers from ISE.  Below are some pictures of my apartment:

Kitchen
My kitchen
Dining area
Dining area
Closet
Closet
Bedroom
Bedroom
Living room
Living room

And to the left out of view from the living room is a door out to a balcony.  And it’s the best part!

Apt Balcony Sm
It’s pretty awesome!

I later learned that the mosque in view of my balcony was the mosque ex-President Mohamed Morsi used to attend while he was in power.  Now he is in prison and his political party has been outlawed.  But taxi drivers still point out his mansion almost every time I ride past it; it’s hard to miss, and is located in a busy street not far from where I live.

I hope to make more posts about where I attend church, and about my school.  God willing, of course.  Right now we’re at the end of the first trimester at school, and gearing up for the Winter Show.  Next few weeks will be busy.  I miss you all!