Yeah...we know, we know. The Chronicle is later in the coming than usual, and we KNOW you've been holding your breath all month!  So why the delay? Our external disk drive went kaput (forcing us to find another way to load our digital pictures). We have also been waiting for news about our next teaching position. 

February was both a cause for celebration, and jangled nerves.  

We had our first chance to ride camels on Barbara's birthday.  Believe it or not, we had never tried it when we had the chance...until now.  Barbara saw an organized day-trip called "The Camel Caravan" in the Maadi Community Services Administration (CSA) magazine, and begged to go. The days had been getting warmer, with the evenings and early mornings still nippy. Thinking that wearing a sweater would suffice, we walked a whole ten minutes (which here is nothing!) to the CSA, where we boarded an Amenophis Tours bus. Both of us grabbed a front seat, because of Barbara's motion sickness, and traveled to stables just outside the Giza pyramid grounds.  Our ride began within ten minutes of our arrival. 

Now, camels are funny creatures.  They look funny. They have indentations behind their eyes, making their eyes seem to pop out of their heads -- almost like some cartoon characters -- and long oval skulls. Their ears are small, probably about as big as a basketball player's thumb. Their lips and mouths are shaped in such a way that you don't know if they're smiling, or if they just thought of a funny camel joke. Their skin is rough, almost feeling like highly chapped leather and 60 count sandpaper combined. Now, back to the story.  

There were about 30 foreigners in the group, of all ages.  Our camels seemed to choose us. Todd's camel was pretty docile, but Barbara's kept making funny lip sounds.  Our two camels were tied together with a rope. Todd's camel was attached to the rear pommel of Barbara's saddle, with Barbara's camel being led in front by a "camel puller" -- and Egyptian man of middle age.  It became very clear that we would not be able to take digital pictures while the camel was in motion!  Every attempt Barbara made was either lopsided or blurry beyond recognition.  As opposed to a horse, a camel walks along with a rolling gait.  For the kids out there, it's a lot like riding on one of those horsie rides outside of Wal-Mart. The difference is, the Wal-Mart ride is a lot smoother (and lasts a lot less time). It's a little hard on the lower back, but our rear-ends were not at all sore.  We saw people passing on Arabian horses, and it looked like one lady's horse was going to take off at any moment, with or without her!  Arabian horses are quite high strung, but watching them gallop across the desert sand near the pyramids is thrilling beyond description. Think -- "Laurence of Arabia," "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "The Black Stallion" rolled into one and you'll get the idea.  We rode for about a half hour until the top of a dune, where we had a nice view of the three Giza pyramids together.  Our camel puller unhooked our camels so that we could each take photos of the other in front of the pyramids.  Then we made the journey back as the sun was setting.  By the time we reached the dune, we realized our sweaters would not be enough to keep us warm this night. We bucked ourselves up, and gritted our teeth hoping for the best. One of the delights on the dune was being able to see both ancient Cairo and modern Cairo in one left to right sweep of the head. To our left -- the ancient pyramids. To the right -- the towers and high rises of modern  Cairo. Both, breathtakingly gorgeous in their own ways. 

Upon our return to the stables, we were invited to watch a Bedouin "dancing horse" demonstration.  Traditionally, the man who could control his horse best received great honor within the Bedouin, or desert dwelling, tribes.  For carnival goers and state fair aficionados, the dancing steps of the horse here were much more graceful than expected -- it did look a lot like dancing.  We ended the evening with an Egyptian meal on the roof of the stables.  By the time the food was served, it had gotten so chilly that Barbara felt obliged to order tea -- anything to keep her body warm.  Needless to say, we were glad to get back on the warm bus.  All in all, a lovely afternoon and evening.

Our job fair was in Washington D.C.  from Feb. 21-25. We had saved all year long to go, and it was nice to be on U.S. soil at least for a few days.  There were piles of boxes waiting for us in Maryland, which we attacked with abandon on Wednesday night. All the Christmas gifts and internet orders of months gone by did not fail to thrill us.  And even better...they all fit in our duffle bags!  We had also frantically tried to reach the headmaster for the school in Japan that wanted to interview us.  No luck.  So Thursday morning, we checked into the Grand Hyatt hotel.  We left yet another message in his room.  He called us back to say he had hired another couple at the fair a few days before ours.  We had been hoping that he would wait to see us before that happened.  But, many people have experienced the same situation.  A lot of job hunting is being in the right place at the right time.  When interviews were scheduled Friday morning, we only signed up with three schools.  We had decided to be very selective.  The schools had to meet these criteria: 1) Have a job opening for both of us, 2) Be in Europe or Asia, 3) Pay a salary high enough to continue to pay off bills back home, 4) Have modern technology and high quality medical care, and 5) Be a truly international school, with a mix of host country nationals and foreigners.  This was a tall order - but seriously important to us.  So after interviewing, we felt best about two schools. We waited, and waited.  We came back to Egypt, and waited some more.  By now, we were getting pretty depressed about our chances.  About half of the people with whom we traveled to the job fair received job offers before leaving.  Finally, we received word from a school in Korea that they filled the positions from within the school.  And then a school in Rome replied saying - "no decision yet."  And that's where we stand.  No jobs yet.  Please keep us in your prayers that the right job will come through.  We will continue to look for overseas positions until the end of this school year.  We do have applications in with the Department of Defense, and there is always home sweet home. 

While our nerves had been jangled (and continue to tingle) about our job prospects, a smaller shock to our system came in the form of the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha, on Monday, March 5th.  

WARNING: Do Not Read This Before Dinner!

All devout Muslims sacrifice animals (camels, sheep, goats, etc.) and feast on them in the evening. It is a big family gathering and celebration.  Last year, we were in Singapore during the feast, so we didn't experience the spectacle.  This year, we decided to hole up in the apartment, buy all our needed groceries ahead of time, etc., and wait it out.  After all, the slaughtering was supposed to take place in the streets or at the mosques!  Even with all our planning, imagine our surprise when we ordered Chinese food to be delivered on Sunday for lunch. When Barbara opened the door, the delivery man was tactfully trying to avoid the live sheep (YES!) tied up next to our door!  Our neighbors across the hall were keeping it close by, I guess, perhaps even inspecting it from time to time and mulling over which part would be the tastiest.  Barbara burst into nervous laughter and we quickly took a picture. Even our neighbors, startled by Barbara's outburst, joined us in the laughter.  The hilarity, however, didn't last long.  As the day and night went on, the sounds of the sheep's coughing and the smells of its waste were hard to ignore. Even Nigel, our cat, was sniffing near the door, wondering about the barn smells.  In an effort to save some of our sanity, we decided to go out that night. Getting out of the door was the easy part. Navigating past the sheep was another. Todd carefully rounded the corner, being watched by the sheep every step of the way. Barbara was not so graceful. She slammed the apartment door shut, and raced down the stairs, passing Todd, NOT looking at the feces all around the soon-to-be sacrificed animal, bolted down the four flights of stairs before her husband could recover his senses, and breathed the fresh air of the apartment's courtyard.  Todd joined her a few moments later, laughing of course, at his wife's determined avoidance of the poor sheep. By Monday afternoon, of course, the animal was gone.  Though they didn't slaughter the animal right on our doorstep, Todd heard the sounds of the cleaver they used, chopping its body into pieces. A peek out of the door's security hole revealed that the butchers had done their duty on a ladder and a metal board. Our neighbors had washed away any blood before that evening, when we first dared venture outside.  A friend of ours declared it the second-worst story she had heard about the Eid.  The worst?  The neighbors above a friend of hers slaughtered their animal on the balcony above hers, and the blood dripped downward...  Okay, enough of the horror stories.  ;-)

In a few weeks, Barbara's sister and her husband will be visiting for about a week.  It will be nice to have company again.  We'll tell you all about it in the next Chronicle.

Eid Mubarak (Happy Feast - hee hee)!

Todd and Barbara Thomas

Pictures:

Our Camel Caravan

A slightly lopsided picture taken from camelback

Barbara and the Giza pyramids

The Bedouin dancing horse demonstration

Barbara in her interview suit at the fair

The poor sheep outside our doorway - see how little room it had?