Back again

Where has the time gone?? It was spring break 2010 when I last wrote a post and here we are at the end of January 2011.

In that time Dave and I had birthdays, Zeke turned 1, we traveled to the United States and gave grandma so quality time with Zeke, took a short trip to Istanbul and a long weekend in Alexandria (Egypt), I started and completed my first semester at university, we moved house, made new friends and said goodbye to others, Christmas came and went and we celebrated another wonderful year of marriage. Over the next couple of weeks I will attempt to expand on these events. If my skills extend that far, I will back date the posts to keep some sort of chronological order. If not, A LOT is going to happen in February2011.

As I write this significant events are going on in my 'backyard' as anti-government protests are going on in Egypt, inspired by the recent events in Tunisia. I will endeavour to include posts about this as well. Stay tuned.

Spring Break in Poland

For Spring Break 2010 we decided to head to Poland. I have been asked a few times why we chose Poland, and the answer is simple - it's an European, non-Muslim country that is not on the Euro, thereby making the holiday good for the belly and good for the wallet!! The worst part of the trip was actually the flight times. We had a 2am departure from Cairo early Thursday morning and arrived back at 1.30am early Tuesday morning. I was most concerned about how Ezekiel would cope with the flights, but he was a real trooper and slept heaps. The little tike is not even 8 months old yet, but has already set foot in 4 countries (well 5 if you count the airport in Prague) and on 4 continents.

Ezekiel and 'Spike' the sheep getting ready for take-off

breakfast Polish-style - mmmm pork

Spring in El Rehab

Every week I walk many, many miles around our housing estate, going to the supermarket, the souq (outdoor market area), taking Ezekiel to playgroup, etc. I enjoy our walks as El Rehab is, for the most part, quiet, reasonably clean, and has useable footpaths. El Rehab is, however, not very environmentally freindly. I say this because all around us is great swathes of grassed areas, loads of flower beds and hundreds of trees - all flourishing in the desert!!!

On one recent walk to the souq I was admiring the blossoming trees, when it suddenly dawned on me that I was looking at a Callistemon citrinus, a Crimson Bottlebrush, an Australian native plant that I absloutely love. Suddenly Australia didn't seem quite so far away.

Crimson bottlebrush in El Rehab

Rain

Last night it rained. So what, I hear you say ... well when you live in the desert rain is a big deal. Now it has rained before in the 3 years we have lived in Cairo, if you can call a light sprinkle here and there, rain. But nothing like the apocalyptic proportions of yesterday, with its thunder, lightning, torrential rain and even hail in some suburbs.

As you can imagine in a country that averages only 2 cms of rain per year normally, its citizens are not accustomed to driving in the wet, so there were many accidents and broken down vehicles yesterday. A friend wrote this on his Facebook page, to describe his trip home. "Took me 5 hours to get home from the airport. Cairo streets, including highways, dangerously flooded. Driver prayed out loud as we passed colonies of dead cars in 3-4 ft. deep water on the Autostrade. Prayers worked until we had to push our car out of a small lake."

And this is also a country that, for the most part, has no working drains, so there was major flooding all over Cairo. The photo below is from our housing area, and much of the collected rainwater was still there this morning.

Flooded street in El Rehab

Weird and Wonderful Egypt - pt.3

This was written on Facebook by my husband, David, and since it is so succinctly written I figured I'd repeat it here.

"Living in Egypt can be hard at times, but every now and again a suprise happens that makes living here enjoyable. Tonight, Michele, Zeke and I were waiting at a corner for a bus to go home at 9pm. A delivery driver for the Metro we were just shopping in, pulled up and gave us a ride home. Egyptian hospitality!"

One of the ubiquitous Metro supermarket delivery vans, nicknamed 'the Metro missile' by a neighbour of ours, because of the excessive speed with which they drive around our neighbourhood.

New Year, New Discovery

The new year has brought me a new culinary discovery - red carrots. I came across these courtesy of Emad, a private driver we hire occassionally (instead of a taxi). When driving me home recently, Emad stopped at a road side cart, and bought me a bag each of regular (orange) carrots and these amazing red carrots. Not exactly red, these unusual carrots are more of a purple, not unlike the colour of beets. They have a great flavour raw and are also fantastic roasted.

The red carrot - straight out of the ground

... and peeled

... and sliced.

First foods, first teeth and finding feet

Ezekiel has reached a couple of new developmental milestones recently. Firstly, he has started grabbing his feet and putting his toes into his mouth. I call this move the 'fergie', after the famous toe-sucking incident many years ago of Sarah Ferguson and the Texas oilman.

Zeke doing the 'fergie'

After about 2 months of drooling, the first of Zeke's little teeth finally broke through the gum on Sunday. It was a relatively painless affair, I think, as he fussed very little and had none of the usual 'symptoms' that I was expecting.

Last week we started Zeke on solids, if you can call them solid. So far he has tried rice cereal with apple, with banana, with carrots and with peas. He really seems to be enjoying everything so far.

Zeke loves his carrots!!

Australia trip - pt. 3

While we were in Australia, my niece, Tahlia, took some photos of Ezekiel. She has a great 'eye' and I think she really captured something here.

Tahlia even took one photo and created a piece that went into her portfolio application to AFTRS (www.aftrs.edu.au). This is the piece she created - I just love it.

Australia trip - pt. 2

While in Australia, Ezekiel and I had the chance to catch up with a few old friends. Two friends from Melbourne were very gracious and flew up to see us. Though truth be told, I think they really just came to see Zeke!!!

Top Trudy - an old friend from our Hong Kong days and Sharon (below) - one of my oldest Aussie friends; both flew up from Melbourne to see us.

Zeke also met another one of my oldest friends, Gai. I have known Gai and her mother for somewhere in the vicinity of 30 years. I just hope Zeke can grow up to have good friends like that.

Zeke had a wonderful afternoon with Gai and her family.

Wendy is another friend from our Hong Kong days. We had a great day at Bondi, checking out the 'Sculpture By The Sea' exhibition and a lovely lunch overlooking the beach.

Wendy with Zeke.

Sculpture By The Sea (http://sculpturebythesea.com) is an annual exhibition whereby the Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk becomes a giant sculpture park. Over 100 sculptures by artists from Australia and overseas took part. It's really worth checking out the exhibit while enjoying some of the gorgeous Aussie coastline. Some of the artworks left us wondering "why", like the giant watch and the shoes .....

while these flags, on the hilltop looking over Bondi Beach, were just beautiful.

One very strange piece, entitled morpheus, moved so beautifully in the wind that I just had to capture it on video. Enjoy.

Australia trip - pt. 1

It's hard for me to believe it's already 6 weeks since my last post. Six weeks ago, in late October, I was stressing about getting Ezekiel's visa so that he and I could head 'down under' to visit my family. Now here we are in early December, our trip to Oz behind us and just a few short weeks till Christmas.

Zeke's first peek at the Opera House and Harbour Bridge.

Zeke and I had a great time in Australia, though the month just flew by. The main reason for our trip was to 'show off' Zeke to the Aussie family & friends, especially my mum. Mum is not in the best of health these days, so it was important we went ASAP.

With my sister and her family, and my mum.

With some of my cousins.

I must admit I was hoping for the best though prepared for the worst, for the plane trip, but our little man travelled well. My only real complaint for the trip out to Australia was that the rascal wouldn't sleep in the bassinette provided on the plane, so he was in my arms for the journey. The Singapore Airlines & Qantas employess were great though, and helped by holding him when I needed the bathroom. He was better on the return trip, using the bassinette and even sleeping most of the way from Singapore to Cairo. And Zeke managed to charm all and sundry on the flights with his wonderful smile and calm demeanour.

Ezekiel with one of the wonderful Qantas flight attendants.

One last hurdle

As with everything else in Cairo, getting Zeke's Egyptian visa was not as easy as it first appeared.

First I checked with the university office that helps us foreigners with local bureaucracy, asking specifically specifically what we needed to supply. The answer was 'just the passports' ie. mine, Dave's and Zeke's. I also double checked as to whether Dave would need to make and appearance at the government office, and was told 'no'. Dave took the passports in the very next day, and we also included his birth certificate and our marriage certificate, just for good measure. He was told it would take a week to 10 days.

A week goes by and I was wanting to book my tickets to Oz, but was concerned that we still didn't have the visa. Dave called the office and was told it wasn't ready because he needed to go to the government office!!!! Frustration level - about 5.

Dave does this on Tuesday, and they tell him it could be ready tomorrow. I call Thursday morning - not ready. Frustration level - 6, and rising. I stress that I'm wanting to get to Oz asap and I'm told to go ahead and book the ticket, and that proof of departure will speed up the process. Two hours later my tickets are booked for the following Monday and the proof of such is being faxed to wherever it needed to go. Knowing that the government office operates 6 days a week, it seemed a good bet it would be ready Saturday. Come Sunday morning and still no visa. Frustration level - 9 and I'm about ready to spit the dummy at someone.

A little while later Dave calls to tell me it will be ready after 2.30pm, but I have to go Downtown to pick it up, if I want it for our flight the next morning. So with less than 24 hours till our departure, Zeke and I are in Downtown Cairo, awaiting the all-important visa that will allow him to leave the country. Frustration level - 9.75. Finally the courier turns up. I do a quick check of the passport and see that AT LAST we have all that we need to depart as planned the next day.

Now all I had left to do was pack ........

What's in a name

Within the last year or so, 5 babies have been born to the expat faculty at American University in Cairo. The funny thing is that they are ALL boys. Even funnier still, we all chose Bible names, and mostly Old Testament names. We have Joseph, Abraham, Noah and of course, our boy Ezekiel. The fifth child is Andrew. And including some other, older faculty kids we have Elisha, Elijah and the lone female with a Bible name - Martha.

Passport

I was very happy yesterday to receive a phone call from the Australian consulate here in Cairo, telling me that Ezekiel's passport was ready. I was hoping and praying it would be, but hardly let myself believe it could actually happen. After all we only submitted the paperwork 10 calendar days previous, and there was a public holiday in the midst of that time.
At any rate, we rushed out the door. After all, it was already 1pm when they rang, the office closed at 4pm, and it would take us easily 1 - 1 1/2 hours to get there.

After encountering some typical horrid Egyptian traffic, we walked into the consulate office at 3.30pm. We walked out again, passport in hand, at 3.40pm, thankful that we were able to get it today.

Dave's job now is to deliver all our passports, and associated documents, to the business support office at the university. They will handle getting Zeke's Egyptian visa, to prove that he is legally in the country. Without this we aren't going anywhere. With this, we hope to still be able to head to Australia within a few weeks.

Ezekiel's Australian passport

Becoming an Aussie

This past week I began the process of establishing Ezekiel's Aussie citizenship and getting him a passport. As he was born overseas this meant I had to fill in a form proving he was eligible to be an Aussie (ie. because his mother is), get an official English translation of his Arabic birth certificate, have his identity 'verified' and, of course, pay a fee. None of this was especially difficult, just time consuming. In the end we received his Citizenship Certificate which meant we were then able to apply for a passport.

Ezekiel's Citizenship by Descent certificate

As I write this his passport is in processing, and then the next step will be to deal with the local authorities and get an Egyptian visa. As soon as possible after that, we will be on a plane to Australia to see the family.

The hardest part of this whole process was probably getting the photo. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to get a photo of a baby's face where they are awake, looking at the camera, eyes open, no pacifier/dummy, and nobody holding their head straight and still????? Thank God for digital cameras. We took a gazillion photos and finally got one that fit all the criteria.

Ezekiel's passport photo - he has already changed so much since this was taken 2 weeks ago.

MCD & MCN

With the birth of Ezekiel I have become aware of, and "seduced by" the counter-cultural world of MCD. But don't worry - there is no need for an intervention. MCD simply stands for modern cloth diapers. In Australia it's MCN (modern cloth nappies), but it all means the same thing - an alternative to the gazillions of plastic, disposable baby buttwrappers that end up as land-fill.

The first company I came across, Eenee Designs (http://www.eenee.com/), make the Eenee Eco nappy which consists of a washable fabric cover and plastic liner, into which go a cloth or 100% biodegradeable nappy insert. I am proud to say this is an Australian company, from 'tree-hugger central', AKA Tasmania. Some years ago the company founders took their product to the ultimate land of consumerism, United States of America. In America these amazing nappies are called gDiapers, and they have some very dedicated followers, including me and Zeke. Users call themselves gMums and gDads, have a yahoo group to talk about the product and swap ideas, and post photos of their babies wearing the diapers. And this is just the tip of the MCD iceberg.

Ezekiel wearing his 'good vibe stripe' gDiaper

When you begin to delve into this 'world', you soon learn there is a whole other vocab going on here - liners, boosters, AIO's, AI2's, pockets, flats and prefolds - just to name a few. And then there are the company's - bumGenius (http://www.bumgenius.com/), Fuzzi Bunz (http://www.fuzzibunz.com/), Tots Bots (http://www.totsbots.com/), Happy Heiny's (http://www.happyheinys.com/), Monkey Doodlez (http://www.monkeydoodlez.com/), Pea Pods (http://www.peapods.com.au/), plus many, many, MANY more.

Recently I found out that some bumGenius diapers (which MCD-er's rave about) are made here in Egypt, so now I going to procure some of these direct from the factory and give them a try.

the gold standard in MCD's - bumGenius

Mena House Hotel

One issue you face when your child is born in a foreign country is establishing his/her citizenship and getting a passport. This is a multi-step process for either US or Australian citizenship - both of which Ezekiel qualifies for. As we are still in the midst of the paperwork, we were not able to travel to another country for the 5 day Eid break, celebrating the end of Ramadan.

Instead, we found a wonderful hotel deal and booked two nights at the 100+ year old, 5 star Mena House. This hotel has one feature no other hotel can claim - it backs right onto the pyramids at Giza. From the balcony of our room we looked onto the hotel's garden and pool, and the Great Pyramid. From the tranquility of the hotel, we could also see the poor sods on their organized tours getting on & off buses, and battling the heat & crowds.

The view from our balcony.

We enjoyed the chance to do very little, and spent time paddling in the pool, reading by the pool, having leisurely meals and we each booked a massage.

Dave and Ezekiel in the pool.

At times it all just got too much for Zeke.

Zeke crashed out by the pool.

While we were at Mena House Ezekiel had his 1 month birthday!! We celebrated on his behalf with a bottle of German sparkling wine, given to us by an AUC friend, Moshira.

Happy 1 month birthday Ezekiel.

A child is born

We returned from our vacation at the end of July, and proceeded to wait out the next few weeks until our little guy arrived. Dave went back to work and I 'nested' at home.

On Tuesday Aug. 18th we were at our scheduled dr's appointment when he asked us when we wanted to have the baby - on Thursday or Friday?!?! A few phone calls later, lining up the anesthesiologist, operating room, etc. and we were set for Thursday. Ah, the beauty of a planned C-section. The next two nights at home were interesting, realising it was probably the last time (for a long time anyway) that it would be just the two of us. Last minute packing was done, family and friends notified, our ride to the hospital organized, and we were as ready as we were ever going to be.

The morning of Thursday Aug. 20th we left home around 7.30am and were in our hospital room by about 8.15am. My doctor came by around 9am and then I was prepped and we 'got the show on the road'. I had a lovely female anesthesiologist who took her time finding the right spot for the epidural and made me feel at ease during the procedure. Once that was done and I was numb/ready, the fun began. This was my first ever experience on the operating table and it is a weird sensation, being awake and knowing what is going on, but not being able to feel anything. The time went by very fast and before I knew it I had my first look at, and hold of, my son - Ezekiel. While I was being stitched up, Zeke was taken to the nursery and his anxious father. Soon afterwards we all met up in my room.

First day of life. Ezekiel David Wlodarski - born August 20, 2009

The one thing I was unprepared for in this whole experience was the next morning and feeling like I had gone 10 rounds with Mike Tyson - and lost! Thank God for pain meds. The hospital staff were good, but the problem with doing this in a foreign country is, of course, the language barrier. Some staff had a little English, but most had none. Somehow though we muddled through. I am very thankful that is was an uncomplicated birth. By Saturday we were more than ready to get home, so once my doctor gave us the all clear, we packed our bags, paid our bill and left.

Our doctor, Youssef Simaika, sharing a glass of wine with us after the birth.

It has now been almost 3 weeks and everyday I give thanks for our little boy who is happy and healthy and doing so well.

5 days old.

Miami and 'Burn Notice'

Today we met up with a friend in downtown Miami. Julie is a friend from our Oklahoma days and we try and catch up each time we are in Florida. Today we saw Julie 'at work' - she was working as an extra on the set of one of our favourite TV shows, Burn Notice. Filming was taking place in one of Miami's top hotels, the Fontainebleau.


The lobby of the Fontainebleau Hotel.

Unfortunately the filming of the pool scenes that Julie was in wrapped up early and they were already done by the time we arrived at the hotel, but we could see them still filming on the balcony of one of the rooms high up in the hotel.


Filming 'Burn Notice' at the Fontainebleau Hotel

And while there, we decided to enjoy some time soaking up the atmosphere and people watching by the pool.

A sign of the (swine flu) times

One part of life in Egypt that never ceases to amaze and amuse me is what I call "metro-shopping". The train system here is called the Metro, and on any given journey at least one fellow traveller will come through the carriage selling some product or another. Usually it's pocket-sized packs of tissues, but I've also seen colouring book, earrings, pony-tail elastics, superglue, lifesaver-type mints, and even socks. Most of these items can be had for just 1 or 2 Egyptian pounds, about 20 - 40 cents!!!
Yesterday, the product du jour was a sign of the mass hysteria sweeping the city - face masks, and the woman selling them was doing a brisk trade.
If only the population would put as much effort into observing sensible hygiene practices and educating themselves on the truth about swine flu, the city would be a lot better off.

Swine Flu

Swine flu has finally hit us a bit close to home. Two students at the American University in Cairo have been diagnosed with this dreaded flu strain. They both live in the university's dormitory in central Cairo, which has effectively gone into 'lock-down' for 24 hours.

This is the article from Associated Press.

2 swine flu cases at American University in Cairo

Mon Jun 8, 3:59 am ET

CAIRO – The American University in Cairo says a dorm building housing foreigners is being quarantined for 24 hours after two American students were diagnosed with swine flu.

Rehab Saad from the university's public relations office said Monday the two cases were discovered Sunday night along with a third suspected case. All three have been hospitalized.

The dorm in the Zamalek area of Cairo houses about 100 students.

It was not known where the students contracted the disease.

Egypt announced its first confirmed swine flu case June 2 after an Egyptian-American girl arriving in the country tested positive.

Egypt's government has come under criticism for its decision to slaughter the nation's pigs in response to the swine flu problem.

An Egyptian police stands guard next to a barrier at an entrance to the dormitory of American University in Cairo