Happy Holidays!  They are beginning for everyone!  Ramadan, which starts about 10 days earlier each year, will begin either November 26th, 27th, or 28th.  Our school will start later and get out earlier, so the children and teachers can beat the terrible traffic. And it is terrible! A normally twenty-five or thirty minute drive will take about twice as long.  Everyone is trying to get home before sunset to break the fast! Our bus ride, which is around 50 minutes, is expected to last about and hour and a half.

Sunset at the Mosque in front of the Khan Al-Khalili

Another Halloween came and went, with our kids being as ghoulish and witchy as ever.  Barbara has a concert every year on Halloween Day.  This year the school and Barbara decided that the Kindergarten through 2nd grade should do the show.  There are always many more parents of the younger ones, who have dressed their children up to the nines and want to see them.  For a wonder, the parents were quite polite and not constantly at the front with cameras and videos.  The concert went quite well, and all the kids were as cute as could be. The show lasted a beautifully brief 45 minutes. 

Most of the faculty dressed in Halloween colors or costume.  Since she was the director of the show, Barbara dressed as a cat...

Barbara also helped a bit with the High School musical, "Little Shop of Horrors."  Seen here is Matt Koehler, one of the directors.  His roommate, Derek Smith, is in the tweed suit coat in back.  He is dating another of the directors, Summer Lopez.  He was drafted to help, because there were only two guys in the cast!

Election Day at AIS was an event in itself. The high school students in the month or so prior had been encouraged by the government teachers to campaign for the US candidates. Some were Gore campaigners, others were for Bush. Each of the camps was to make political banners and posters in which the benefits of voting for their candidate would be voiced. Needless to say, the school was more or less plastered with banners for Bush and Gore. Some looked like political cartoons, others like well-designed campaign ads. In addition to the banners and posters, students were encouraging others to "vote" for their candidate in the hallways. With Egypt being more of a parliamentary system, less a democracy, the political fight and campaign was, from an Egyptian point of view,  interesting to watch. The day of the election, then, the high school students voted in a mock election. Bush won, almost hands down. In the US, however, the vote was much closer. By the time to go to school (on Nov. 8 our time), the CNN projections were too close to call, with Florida and Oregon still not weighing in. Then, later that morning -- probably around 9:30 -- the secretary came over the intercom and announced the next US president had been declared as George Bush. That announcement brought cheers from the class of a fellow teacher. Unfortunately, that teacher was Andrew Dailey -- a Democrat, Tennesseean, and proud Gore supporter at that. He is said to have "gotten very emotional." The announcement, of course, was premature and later recanted by the secretary, who apologized and stated that the race was still considered too close to call. The news caused rejoicing (among Democrats) and consternation (among Republicans) throughout the day. Even now, as the decision looms in the US courts, teachers here are anxious and (dare I say) edgy about who the next president will be. Many here on both sides think the delays are stalling tactics. Our government teachers, however, have reminded us that the Electoral College and/or Congress has the final say -- and the EC doesn't meet until Dec. 18. 

The reason this letter was a week later than normal was that both of us have been fighting a cold/flu for most of the month.  We just haven't been doing much except going to work and sleeping at home! In October and November a lot of burning of trash and harvest fields goes on.  Barbara's allergies started going wacko and turned into a cold.  She hasn't felt well since November 4th or so.  Todd caught the flu as a result of the trash burning and bad air quality (Cairo has allegedly surpassed Mexico City as the most air polluted city in the world!), so both of us spent a couple days at home.  They say that here, when you get sick, it hangs on a long time.  We're having first-hand experience of that!  Finally this weekend, the sickness seems to be in its final stages.  Todd's cough is subsiding, but Barbara can't shake the tickly throat.

We were gluttons over the Thanksgiving weekend. Each day of our three-day weekend was spent eating turkey and dressing of some sort. On Thursday, friends of ours from church invited us to eat Thanksgiving dinner. They had a large turkey cooked, and served about twenty people with leftovers still hanging off that bird. Not realizing that we would be invited to this meal, we had purchased a turkey of our own (7 kg or about 14 lbs.), which was the smallest one we could find. It was put in the fridge, and left to thaw. Not wanting to waste the turkey (or the money we paid for it), Barbara spent Friday morning and early afternoon (with our house cleaner Hafez weaving in and out of the kitchen) cooking the bird. She even made low-carb stuffing out of her stash of pork rinds and some pork sausage. The turkey was tasty, juicier than expected given that the fat had been removed by the butcher. Because it was only us eating the turkey (it was too late to invite anyone else to join us), we have PLENTY of leftovers, which we will gorge ourselves on for quite a long time.  As if two turkey meals weren't enough, our friend Myra Taylor invited us for a Thanksgiving Meal on Saturday night. Never turning down free food, we gladly joined her, and several other friends from AIS, for the smorgasbord. And smorgasbord is the word: mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, biscuits, turkey, French bread with butter, corn, green beans, gravy ... and probably more. It was too good, and too much. We are even now (our bellies full, our minds at ease) thanking Myra.

The third of the Thanksgiving dinners, at Myra Taylor's apartment.

And now for just a few pictures of our blessings:

This is our pretty street here in Maadi.  We never had green like this in Heliopolis!

Road 251, and Barbara on the street corner.

The front of our building, 3B.

   And of course, the best reason to live here:

Way Out Sushi!  You just know we've GOT to get to Japan!

On a more somber note, we want to express our deepest and most sincere thanks to God for blessing us with safety, solace and pleasant new friends this year. God continues to bless us in our jobs, in our personal lives, and devotions. We are, of course, thankful for our many friends and family members in the States -- we love you very much and hope to see you again soon. We hope your holiday season (beginning the Christmas countdown) is joyous.

Until next month... Ma Salaama (Go with peace),

Todd & Barbara Thomas :-)