A small diversion

I've been MIA for over a week, but for good reason...I spent the last week in Jordan!  With the office closed for Easter (a week later on this side of the world) and a few days of holidays left, I set off for Amman just over a week ago.  I spent the first 5 days with my mom's cousin's family who live in Amman.  It was great to be with family again, even if just for a few days.  The family meals and conversation around the table cause a few moments of feeling homesick but that was short lived and I had a great time.

Friday we went to Jonathan's baseball game in the afternoon and had homemade pizza for dinner.  Saturday I went out on my own to explore a bit of Amman.  I visited the ruins of the citadel and had a look at the roman theatre in town.  I didn't pay to go in since you could see most of it from the outside and after Turkey I've seen my fair share of roman theatres.  Sunday we all went down to the Jordan river which is now more like a creek which means I was close enough to Israel for my phone to send me a message saying 'Welcome to Israel" and went on out line the various roaming charges I might incur.  Next we headed over to the dead sea where Matt and the boys and I had a little float and gave our selves our own dead sea spa treatment.

Then it was back to Amman where a few of Matt and Robyn's friends came over had we had some amazing lamb for Easter dinner.

Monday I had booked myself onto a tour of a few sites north of Amman.  We stopped first at a place called Umm Qais with views of the sea of galilee and the golan heights.  Next was an old crusader castle called Ajlun, complete with guards dressed up in period clothing.  Finally we stopped at Jerash, again Roman ruins...on a side note I knew from history classes how big the Roman Empire was but when you get over here and at half the sites you've got a Hadrian's gate and a Roman theatre it really is amazing how much territory they controlled.

On Tuesday, since it was spring break, we all took the 3 1/2 hour drive down to the desert at Wadi Rum.  We stopped at a few points of interest and then spent the night sleeping under the stars.  Oh, and we had smores at the campfire while one of the bedouins played music.  The next morning I parted ways with everyone and set off to Petra.  While I went there on my own I ended up meeting and joining up with other travelers and it was a great two days.

While I was fortunate enough to fly from Cairo to Amman, I made the trip back over land which took 18 hours from getting on the bus in Petra at 7 am and getting off at 1 am at Ramses station in Cairo.  But I made it, and our bus managed to stay on the road coming through the Sinai peninsula which was a bit of a miracle in and of itself.  I do have a bit of a bruise on my forehead from banging it on the window when the bus took a sharp turn to get out of the way of oncoming traffic.

That's all for now, I'll be on my way back to Aswan this evening and back to the office tomorrow for the start of what's looking like a busy last month in Egypt.

Lights Out???

Okay so I know I get no sympathy from all of you back home where winter just won't leave and people are spending their weekends sandbagging but here in Aswan we just skipped spring and went right into summer. It's been about 40 C everyday for the past week and a half, and although someone tried to tell me it's going to cool off a bit, I don't believe them. It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to wear so much clothing whenever I leave my flat but this is Egypt so...

The one good thing about the timing of the current heat wave was that we had visitors from the MEDA office in Waterloo over the weekend a week a go, and their hotel had a great pool! So after after spending much of Thursday afternoon in an overcrowded, hot car making client visits we spent a good part of the day on Friday sitting by the pool.  We also went on the obligatory felucca ride at sunset, although this is getting more difficult to time correctly since the wind almost dies completely if you're out too late, and ended up having to get towed part of the way back.  The next day we walked through the market and then and got henna tattoos, something I haven't done since I got here.

Now another week has passed and it is still hot out so they really didn't know what they were talking about when they told me it would cool off a little.  I did spend my weekend...Thursday and Friday...in Cairo which is always 5-10 degrees cooler which was nice.  With only a couple months left before leaving for home the job search is on, but if all else fails it seems I could make a half decent living as an English tutor.  I've been helping out the two sons of the guy at the spice shop and this evening I spent some time with my boss's daughter.  They go to an English school so all the textbooks are in English but it seems that the teachers are teaching a lot of things in Arabic which doesn't really help.  In general the education system here is lacking and anyone who can has their kids going to tutors at least a few nights out of the week for help with any or all of the classes they're taking.

Outside my flat the construction continues.  I got back from Cairo to find they have now dug a trench down the middle of the street and are putting in new pipes...actually they're bigger than what I would call a pipe since it's the sewer they're working on, and it doesn't look like they'll be finishing any time soon.  On top of that there's a chance I'll have my electricity cut off soon.  I got an electricity bill and a notice from one of the security guys this afternoon.  It's in Arabic, obviously, so I took it with me to Dr. Mamdouh's house tonight.  The bill looks a little steep even though it should be for the past two months...I wasn't here at all in February...and the notice basically says because I haven't paid they will be cutting off the power.  It doesn't really make any sense...lots of things don't here...because I've been back since the beginning of March and no one has come to read the meter, but hopefully I don't end up in the dark tomorrow!  On the other hand, at the rate somethings tend to happen here I might have plenty of time before we reach that point, but you never know.

I'll end by wishing everyone back home a Happy Easter...we're a week behind over here so there's no sign of a holiday yet.  While I'm sure I'll be missing out on some great food, a recent trip to one of the upscale grocery stores in Cairo...where you can find lots of imported goodness...means I'll be cooking with a little more variety over the next week.  The store wasn't that big, but after months of buying whatever is available in the stores in Aswan, I felt a bit like a kid in a candy shop, overwhelmed by the possibilities and excited by the smallest of things like soy sauce and Campbell's mushroom soup!