Summer Sweatshirt Weather & More Uke

It's been quite a warm February - warm and wet. It rained here off and on all day and now, sitting on my balcony, there's a damp chilly breeze that reminds me of sitting on the balcony with Aunt Millie on the 13th floor in Ocean City, bundled up in sweatshirts drinking chocolate cokes. It's a breeze-off-the-ocean type of breeze, without the salty smell of evening, moon, ocean, aloe vera, and sand.

Actually, the wind smells of nothing at all. Which is nice, too, since the orange salesman and his donkey were chilling for quite a long while under my balcony today and could have left some unpleasant-odor producing by-products.

This morning was an early one, a teacher at our school organized a 24-hour run for charity, teachers and students ran all through the night to raise money for Facing Africa, Operation Smile, local orphanages, and the Children's Cancer Hospital here in Cairo. The Felukuleles turned up to walk the next-to-last half hour as the kids' busses arrived, and PLAYED UKULELE as we WALKED AROUND THE TRACK. Then we "ran" about a half-lap, ukes in hand. This was our 3rd public performance: first for the kids at school, then at a local pub, now at a charity event!

It was great fun, though I don't think I hit a single correct note. A All-Star, whose husband S All-Star is our leader, had the music enlarged onto big sheets of paper and we stuck them to friends' backs to walk in front of us as we went around the track - but from the back of the group, I couldn't see much of the music while trying to look at my fingers (still not very good at this whole "playing an instrument" thing) and sing at the same time - and WALK! eek! The final count isn't in yet, but I know over $10,000 was raised for the charities.

Next, the teacher who organized the event, is going to do a 243 km foot-race across the Sahara (Marathon de Sables) to raise money for Facing Africa. If you are interested in sponsoring / supporting him, shoot me an email.

{update: about a half-hour after I posted this a huge thunderstorm rolled in, which has now been producing lightening, thunder, pouring rain, and even biggish hailstones for the last half-hour! It's AWESOME!}

Maadi

It's not often I take pictures around my neighborhood, in fact, I usually take my lovely little neighborhood for granted.

But this morning, waking up to the beautiful sunshine and warm weather, I just had to take my camera out when I joined my friends for our weekly coffee just down the way from my apartment.

The first thing that caught my eye was this scene next to the supermarket. I see it every day (yes, I go grocery shopping nearly every day - or at least get a coffee. Fruit, veg, and meats are all pretty organic here and the lack of hormones and preservatives means food doesn't last long - you cook and eat it or it goes bad pretty quickly.) Anyway, this pretty little walkway and seat are on a side street smack in the bustle of Road 9 - the major shopping thoroughfare in Maadi. I loved how the light and shade made the little scene seem so very tropical.




Next I ran in to the street sweepers kicking up quite a bit of dust in front of Beano's. The sweepers clean the trash and endless sand from the gutters BY HAND using a broom made of twigs and a plastic dustbin. They are usually assigned to the same areas, so you tend to get to know your local sweeper - even if it is just with a daily "SabaHr el Khir" - good morning - and a wave.





Finally, after T and I had wandered quite a bit down Rd 9 in search of a particular tiger print couch we had found for her new apartment (which sadly had been purchased by someone else), and had explored the local antique shop that was full of beautiful curiosities from the heyday of Cairo (including a full-size Victrola and a beautiful desk-top chiming clock in the art deco style), we noticed this little building and dove cote. Now, I've walked past this particular building hundreds of times, and I think never really noticed how beautiful it is - and also how peculiar - a as it is sitting right across the street from a Cinnabon!


I really hope this weather sticks around for the field trip I'm taking with my students on Sunday to Islamic Cairo! What a long blog post and lot of photos that will require to recount!