Saturday 26th February

 

Didn’t get up until 11 am and then went off to Church to pack another 120 food bags. As I walked past the Coptic church there was a another wedding (there have been several over the past few weeks) the bridal car for after the service was a pink thunderbird! (phone photo)

It was my last chance to help with the food bags so I took some phone photos there as well.

As we finished Maddy and Geoff turned up and we walked to Link Dot  Net to get the paperwork sorted for the internet (the landlord had got together everything we needed very quickly). This went smoothly and all should be activated in about 3 days. After we wandered across the road to a Metro we hadn’t visited before. It was the best one so far. A good selection of food, fairly big for the shop in the basement of a block of flats and they sold Maynards Wine Gums! Maddy sometimes finds her chocolate allergy hard to deal with but these brightened her day.

Then we wandered back to Road 9 for more junk food (McDonalds), and an electric drill to put up curtain rails. Both accomplished successfully.

School tomorrow so ironing when I got home and lesson planning and we will all be up at 6am to be on our respective buses by 6:45 am!

Friday 25th February

 

I got this from Twitter yesterday, allegedly it’s a police car being burnt after the shooting. We went to look this morning, a 5 minute walk from our house, but there was nothing but a pile of ash on the road. There were 4 APV’s on the road as we walked there and a couple of small army trucks just to keep the peace, they were parked outside the police station to protect it yesterday.  Anyway we came back via the Metro where we bought 100g strawberries for 25p (2.25 LE) and Maddison has already eaten them! We will have to shop locally until Carrefour is refitted and Friday morning is a good time as many Egyptians sleep in (many shops have 14 hour days so they need to).

Dominos pizza delivery and cake for tea and then telly watching!

Thursday 24th February

 

An interesting day today! It started off with a trip down Road 9 with Liz and Brian who knew where there was a shop that sells curtain poles, but first we hit the book shops. Four book shops and a trip to the Coffee Bean (nice cakes and apparently nice coffee) later, I had the complete set of Narnia stories for Maddison. She is limited to reading 1 a day so they last, it will make a nice change from the Vampire Dairies she has taken to reading.

Anyway then on to the pole shop, anyone who has shopped in Egypt will know things can be a bit hit and miss, today was a hit! 1 adjustable black curtain pole complete with brackets and curtain rings for the main window and 1 brass coloured pole for over the arch complete with brackets and curtain rings all for 141 LE. It was reminiscent of shopping at B and Q only so much smaller, 1 man and two dozen poles to pick from!

Then on to church to pack 120 food bags, the process is starting to run like a smoothly oiled machine now. When I got back Maddy and I went over the road to pick up some essentials, before taking a small break before getting ready to go to home-group.

I should have known something was wrong when Geoff arrived home a little late with a story of a burnt out car and diversions round the back streets. Geoff got a text and phone call about 5:30pm to say a policeman had shot a mini bus driver and people were upset and focusing on the police stations at Port Said and Road 230. I phoned Liz to let her know so she cancelled home-group, along with the chicken curry we were going to have Then we got another text saying the British Embassy were advising people to stay indoors  (its not often we hear anything from them) so here we are sat inside watching TV (and listening to what sounds like gunfire). Who knows what tomorrow will bring !

Wednesday 23rd February

 

Cleaning day! With Geoff at work I get to do most of the house jobs so today I polished, hovered, mopped, . . . . and then ironed the curtains I made with Liz yesterday. I had bought the material in Boulaq several weeks ago and have finally got round to sorting it out. Liz sewed on her machine while I ironed hems and such, it took about 3 hours to make 6 curtains. There are 4 for the main window and 2 to hang over the arch when we find a curtain pole. The 4 at the window make the room look more homely and less Egyptian. We shall probably need a net curtain as well eventually so we can leave them open.

The only ‘cleaning’ job I don’t do is shutting the washing machine door. There is a knack to it I don’t have which leads to a large amount of water over the kitchen floor, so I load and Geoff shuts, usually before he goes to work and when he gets home!  

Tomorrow I am looking for curtain poles and packing food bags – and coffee at a coffee shop.

Monday 21st February

 

Geoff has managed 2 days at school now without any mishap, he says most of the children are in and only one member of staff hasn’t made it back, mainly because her husband works for the American embassy and their daughter needs to stay at the school she is at now rather than changing around. He is still passing armoured personnel carriers at the roundabouts as he drives in on the bus, but they are gone from Maadi. El Alsson has not opened because of some of the parents putting pressure on the ministry – the director has put a very sharp letter about this on the web site (www.alsson.com) that is well worth a read. He is not happy about it.

Maddison came and packed food bags with me today, she ended up carrying them in the wheel barrow as we stacked them in the hall ready for collection tomorrow. It was just as well she came as there were only three of us to start with and we had to get it all sorted out by ourselves, then Cathy (the distributor) turned up with some people and we all happily bagged away. We managed 150 today until we ran out of pasta.   

It was my last time to lead worship at prayers today, Mark will lead tomorrow, and we had to finish at 6pm because the police are leaving the streets when it gets dark. The Pastor had been asked to mention this to us and say women should not be wandering around on their own after dark (so just like any other major city now). So things are not ‘normal’ yet for Cairo, but are about right for many other major cities.

Saturday 19th February

 

Bag packing at church today, another 160 were passed onto a lady called Cathy to distribute to the refuges. They come from Somalia.Iran and other countries and Cathy has had some problems with the distribution to the point she is now delivering to specific houses via a taxi. We are looking to put another 160 bags together on Monday, and Wendy is doing lunches then as well.

Maddison has returned home today from a visit to her friends, I hadn’t realised just how quiet the place is without her here, apart from Geoff’s need to watch Mama Mia this afternoon, which finally drove from the room to work in the bedroom. He was watching as he put together the cannons for the HMS Victory, an Airfix model that has travelled the world with us for the past 4 years and he is finally getting round to making.

  

Friday 18th February

 

As you may have gathered from previous blogs and the news, Friday is Sunday here in Egypt so we did Sunday type things today. After Church we walked to the Nile via LinkDSL, they are the internet providers for the flat and we are trying to set up an account with them. Unfortunately the previous tenant didn’t pay their bill (almost 1500 LE) and we can’t have account with them until either our landlord clears the debt or our he  provides them with a number of papers. He was not happy when the Link representative phoned him today to let him know what needed to be done. I am not hopeful about the situation but the man at Link seemed to think everything would get sorted so we will wait and see.

The weather today was glorious (sunny and 25 C) such a change from the dust storms we have been treated to over the past few days. The dust swirls around and gets everywhere, my next set of glasses need an anti-scratch coating I think, so the walk to the Nile was pleasant enough. Our aim was to visit the Alpha Market on the Corniche as our usual supermarket (Carrefour) was looted during the revolution and hasn’t re-opened yet. It’s a lot like going to the small Morrisons in Brough rather than the big ASDA in Hessle Road. We managed to pick up some bits (Sharwood’s Korma sauces amongst other things) but need to look out for some meat soon, probably from the Metro.

Maddison went to her friends yesterday to sleep over and has called to negotiate a second evening. She needs to come back tomorrow to see her Dad before he goes back to work on Sunday. The staff are back at MESC but it is optional for the students, although I think they are hoping the exam classes will turn up to be taught. The system seems a little crazy to me and makes it difficult to plan what to teach no doubt Geoff will tell me how it all went!

Thursday 17th February

 

So there’s still not much going on around here. Yesterday and today I played for the prayer meeting at 5pm, but nothing much besides that. Maddison has spent the day with her friend Louisa and is about to come home and pick up her stuff so she can sleep there.

The Education minister has said the schools must stay shut until the 27th so I have yet another week off! There really is no excuse for not getting everything done.

Tuesday 15th February

 

Bags, coffee and bikers were the order of the day today. Met up with Amy at the church 10 am this morning to help put together some bags of essentials to send via one of Amy’s contacts into the community. Each bag costs about 43 LE and contains a bag each of rice, sugar, flour and pasta, a bottle of oil, a litre of milk and some tea bags. There was enough stuff to pack 177 bags today. The people packing were Wendy (blue top), Pretty, me Brian, Margret and Amy. Simon helped too (top left) and Thomas wheeled his barrow to get the stuff out to Amy’s car, which can hold about 100 bags. Quite an exhausting morning!

Then it was off to the CSA for coffee with Liz and Brian, Geoff and Maddy. Maddy was not well yesterday which culminated in her being in the bath at 3am (her choice, not ours) and being sick, Geoff dealt with the plaintive cry. It did mean she didn’t feel like staying long at the CSA over coffee so we came back quite quickly.  I was back there for 3pm for a House group coffee, and then on to church. Mark still isn’t well so I had offered to play tonight, I am trying to put the music together that matches the book to make it easier to find the songs.

As I did all this walking through Maadi it was amazing to see groups of Egyptians cleaning up the streets, apparently they had arranged it through Facebook. Lets hope they can keep it up.   

Monday 14th February

Valentines day, with cake and flowers. It took Geoff a lot of effort to get the flowers, he needed a bodyguard so Maddy went with him and when they got back I realised we didn’t have anything to use as a vase except an old sauce jar. so there they sit on the table in the jar!

Not much on the revolution front from our perspective. The shops are open and the taxis are driving round looking for customers.  We wandered down to Volume 1 (a stationary shop) and picked up some ink cartridges for Maddy’s pen but that was about it.

Mark is ill so I played again tonight, I’m trying to sort out my folder so it matches up with the song book the church has chosen, so that will keep me busy for a couple of days.

Sunday 13th February

 

What a disappointment  . . . . . we’d managed to get Maddy out of bed before noon and dressed with shoes and all the way to the Grand Mall and the tanks had gone! Utter disaster – it was probably due to all the negative vibes Maddy was putting out about why she should have her photo taken with a tank . . she was not happy about the idea.

The cash machine is now giving out 2000 LE each time. Geoff took advantage of this, and our supply of ready cash is slowly building up ready for rent day!

We moved onto Vodafone to recharge the dongles and Maddy’s phone and then onto the Metro, strawberries, mini croissants and the usual boring bits and pieces. Geoff and Maddy opted for delivered KFC for their lunch, you can get anything delivered here, while I pigged out on 20 mini croissants.

The prayer meeting has been moved to 5 pm now and Mark Jaffrey (worship leader) couldn’t make it today so I stood in for him and played a few songs. My fingers hurt now, I haven’t played that much for about 10 months. It was much more low key than when Mark plays and tons more mistakes. I ended up playing a song that wasn’t in book . . . .  maybe Mark will be back tomorrow!

Saturday 12th February

 

Not the worlds most exciting day, church, shop for food, lunch, read book, eat tea, blog, and there you have it! A President has fallen, there is great jubilation on the streets and we didn’t do anything.

The best TV images of today were the ones of the protestors cleaning up after themselves. Egyptians are wonderful people.

The tanks were still at the Grand Mall as we went past on the way to the cash machine, there were families having their picture taken next to and on it, so Maddison is going for a little walk tomorrow! We managed to get 1000LE out of the machine so we can afford to recharge (top up) the phone and internet access.

We have problems using Skype here. Sometimes there is a connection and sometimes there isn’t, so today I used a UK IP address and Geoff’s mum managed to get through and chat for about 20 minutes without any issues. This supports our theory that Vodafone or somebody blocks Egyptian IP addresses.

Because many people have go back to work tomorrow prayers have been moved to 5pm. . . . . I wonder if they will continue after the ‘crisis’ ends?

Photos tomorrow maybe . . . . . . . . ?

Friday 11th February

 

Last night was an anti climax, we were waiting for Mubarak to resign and he didn’t! Feelings of disappointment all over Cairo and Egypt, but at 5:30pm today everything changed with the announcement of his resignation. There had been reports earlier in the day that his military helicopter had been seen at Sharm el Sheikh (holiday resort at the tip of Sinai) and then Omar Suleiman (Vice President) came on TV and announced that Mubarak had stepped down and control had now passed to the army council. Jubilation on the streets of Cairo was how one report put it.

So what will happen now? I am hoping life will start returning to normal, that protestors will trust the army (as most Egyptians seem to – ‘The army and the People are one’ is one of the rallying cries we hear on the news) and will return to their jobs (those that have them). State TV needs to reassure the people that all is well, elections need to take place soon. I think one of the news reports earlier in the troubles said they needed to take place within 60 days of the President stepping down, but I will wait and see. During the last elections in November people voted on a Sunday so the school was shut for two extra days (I do find the lack of time in school annoying, since September I have only taught for 59 days!). The army council needs to make a statement of what it would like to happen and how it intends to achieve these goals to put peoples minds at rest and the tourists need to come back to help restore the economy!

WE tried to get money out of the atm today while Friday prayers were on but HSBC had shut down the machines again. Hopefully they will be open soon, as there is currently a 2000 LE limit on withdrawals and we need to get out the rent money (5000 LE) which will take 3 trips/days.

Keep up the prayers for wisdom in the decisions the new people in power will have to make, safety for the people here and a restoration of the economy.

Thursday 10th February

 

So all was quite and peaceful here, in a relative way here in Cairo until about 2:30pm. I had been to church and the prayer meeting then afterwards Maddison had gone to lunch with the youth leader Amy. Then, about 2:30pm, while she was still out  I got a text saying the curfew had been moved back to 3pm, then I got one saying it hadn’t. So I phoned Amira, one of the maths staff who speaks Arabic, to see what was happening. She said there had been nothing on State TV but she was getting calls from her friends saying she should stay in. So we put on the television, phoned Maddy to find she was on her way home, and settled in to watch the developments. I talked to Liz and Brian as the home group were supposed to be meeting for coffee at 4pm at the CSA and decided to to cancel, from what was being reported it looked like the Army were getting ready to make a statement of some description and as we weren’t sure what it was, it was better to be safe than sorry. The church service tomorrow has been cancelled, probably at the request of the police, I gave them some of the donut type things we ate after prayers today, but I’m sure that didn’t influence their decision!

There was a call for 20 million to protest tomorrow so now we are waiting to see what will happen tonight at 8 pm GMT when Mubarak addresses the nation. There are all sorts of rumours and speculation from various sources, that are totally unconfirmed,on Aljazeera and the BBC. My favourites are that he spent yesterday packing and he is in Sharm El Sheik (top holiday spot apart from the shark attack last December) already. He probably had to sort out his bank accounts as well . . . . . . . but this too is speculation.

Geoff was suggesting this morning we should visit Tahrir Square next week as we are still on holiday (without the camera) but I keep turning him down and probably will until all is calm.  

Tomorrow could herald a new era for Egypt we will wait and pray . . . .

Wednesday 9th February

Time flows on around us.It seems strange that the biggest protest yet was held yesterday and yet it was just another item on the BBC world news. Now we have to watch Aljazeera (not sure if this is how you spell it) to be kept up to date with what is happening all around.

Maddison was out of bed in time to walk with us to church this morning (so 11:25), she says she wants to get up earlier tomorrow so i will arrange this for her! She also wants to go down to Road 9 and buy another book to read, she got one today she has nearly finished already.

The ministry for Education has asked that schools remain shut until the 20th, so I guess I won’t be going back to work on Sunday after all. It does mean I can keep going to the prayer meetings – which I am very pleased about, and I can contribute on Sunday to the meal packages for Monday by making ‘sloppy Joe’s’ ! (mince basically in a very thick sauce) if Kyle has a recipe he can send that would be good. I could also do with the recipe for St. Helena tomato paste that they make their sandwiches out of which is very cheap and tasty too (Maureen!).

Liz and Brian came for supper/tea (depending on where you live) today. Liz was a hairdresser at what point in her life so Maddy and I both had trims. It was fajitas for tea (hence the peppers) and when Liz asked what was for pudding I sent Geoff, Brian and Maddy to the Mall for, yes you’ve guessed it . . . . .CAKE! It was quite exciting  as there are now 2 tanks stationed there, one at either end! I shall go look tomorrow when I shall encourage Geoff to try his atm card.

 

Another exciting instalment tomorrow . . . .

Tuesday 8th February

Another non eventful day for us. Geoff walked me to the pray meeting and left me there and at the end there was a call for people to help make sandwiches and pass them out to passing taxi drivers to start with. There are people loosing their jobs due to lack of tourists or just being laid off because their employers can’t afford to pay them at the moment and the church is trying to do something to help. My contribution today was to bring home 30 eggs to boil ready for tomorrows efforts.

Surprisingly, Maddison came down to church to meet me on the promise of McDonalds for lunch. So the eggs came to Road 9 and McDonalds for double cheeseburgers and a Mac Arabia (burger in a flatbread), to the book shop, to the Metro for some veg and then back to the house to be boiled (hence the picture!). Geoff made a droll remark about having all my eggs in the same pan, I just pointed out it was another first for us, we had never cooked 30 eggs all at one time! (At yesterday’s home group we discussed how your relationship with your family needs re-inventing every few years as your roles change. Geoff is looking forward to sleeping with a Granny!).

Monday 7th February

Phil, my ‘little’ brother

I’ve just realised it was Phil’s birthday yesterday, so happy birthday! No you won’t be getting an E card.

There, with that out of the way I can tell you how non eventful today actually was. Geoff and I were soooo lazy we didn’t get up until gone 10 and then quickly popped across to the shop to grab some bread and tuna for the Home group lunch we were having at Liz’s after the prayer meeting. Their gas bottle has run out so there wasn’t  any chance of anything hot apart from the delicious bread Liz had made in her bread maker. By the time we got back from the shop Brian was waiting outside to collect me and the guitar so I grabbed what I needed and went.

The prayer meetings are still going strong and today the worship leader turned up, which was good as I think plan B was I was playing! I got back from home group at about 4pm and have decided to start on the next module of work for year 7, I am trying to give the various topic areas a ‘Pam touch’ and a functional maths project to go with them. I may be wasting my time if the new UK government decide that functional maths is no longer  the focus and it truly wants to go back to rote learning, but the kids in year 7 enjoy it so I will probably keep it in as we are not so tied to the curriculum here.

The queue at the bank was big this morning and Ruth tells me she could only take out 2000 LE when she went. By the time I got back this afternoon it had died down to maybe half a dozen people so we may try to access Geoff’s money tomorrow as his dongle (the thing you stick in your laptop to connect to the internet via Vodafone) has stopped working even though he has unlimited download and it isn’t due to be topped up (they say recharge here) until the 15th. We would access it via the landline but the last tenant didn’t pay the bill so the phone company want a letter from the landlord saying he will act as guarantor, easier said than done!

More tomorrow . . . . 

Sunday 6th February

 

I thought I’d do a day by day update until i go back to school, so here is what today has brought.

When they say the banks are open it means queue at a cash machine and they will work until the money runs out, at least that’s what’s happened at the HSBC at the Grand Mall. We were fortunate (or God timed it well for us) in that I had emptied my account on Thursday the 27th after school and have had no need to worry, we even managed to pay the January rent when Mohamed came to collect it.

Shops are definitely coming back to life, we wandered around the Grand Mall this afternoon to see many shops (clothes mainly) opening and others putting their stock back. So it looks like life will carry on around the protests.

Taxis are back on the streets in force honking their horns at you to see if you need a lift.

Maadi Grand Mall – 5 floors of shops, a little like the Prospect Centre in Hull.

We are still meeting on a daily basis at the Church to pray and Geoff is still escorting me there and back. The uniformed police were back outside the church today, on Saturday it was just 3 of the non-uniformed (secret) police, you can tell who they are from the side-arms they carry. It is nice to see them back, another sign things are returning to normal. Foreigners are considered honoured guests in Egypt and although it may seem strange to have police outside the church it is part of looking after their guests and keeping them safe.

Keep up the prays please, they are really working. The church has put out the following pray requests:

• Praise the Lord for the relative safety of the last couple days here in Cairo
• Pray for Egypt. Pray that the Lord will work His perfect plan for this country.
• Pray the the Lord will do His work within each one of us individually - that we will all grow closer to Him during this time.
• Pray for the MCC council and staff as we seek the Lord's guidance in light of the recent events.
• Pray that the Lord will meet our needs as we go through a time of a significantly smaller church.
• Pray for many of our church family who are traveling to/from Egypt.

More tomorrow . . . . . . . .

Saturday 5th February

 

Thank God yesterdays protest was peaceful! Egyptians are much encouraged by this fact and life is trying to return normal. Geoff and Maddy walked to Road 9 while I was at church and reported back that the book shops were open and so was Pizza Hut. It was on the BBC news that the banks are due to reopen tomorrow so I guess I’ll be back to school soon.

Just to see if this return to normal was happening over at the Grand Mall we popped across to find the cake shop was open. Hurrah it was, so we had cake ( a little Marie Antoinette given the circumstances but Hey! . . ). 

Tomorrow we are going to look and see if McDonalds is open!

School have asked us to put work on the OLE (Online Learning Environment), so I’ve left some work on there for the classes I teach, they will be so happy. At present our return date is 13th Feb, with one day off for the prophet’s birthday, and the week after should be half term. It will be interesting to see if we get the break as many staff have booked to go away.

Friday 4th February

We set off for the church this morning for a 12 noon service only to find that due to the expected unrest today the police had advised that it should be postponed until tomorrow, so we carried on to Road 9 to the Metro (a shop not a place to catch trains) to buy food. Not that we don’t have any, but it’s nice to keep topped up with bread, fruit and veg. All of which are in the shops at the moment.

On the way we walked through Port Siad Square (more of a roundabout than a square) where there is police station and took the tank photo on my phone. Listening to the problems some journalists are having with their equipment I am not keen on taking out my proper camera, so you are stuck with this at the moment.

There is a police station here and the tanks (4) and 2 armoured personal carriers are looking after it. It was nice to see the police again, their presence on the streets is sadly lacking. Occasionally they drive past in their vans, but they are generally out of sight. Before the protests there would be 2 or 3 outside the embassies as we walked around, but they are not there any more!

So we are sat waiting (watching the BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera and the inflammatory Iranian Press TV), listening to the army helicopter flying overhead, to see what will happen in Tahrir Square and the impact it will have . . . . .

An interesting time in Cairo!

 

Tuesday 25th January was Police day and a day off school, this was when the first organised protest started. After this they arranged to meet on Friday after prays, from there the protests have gone from strength to strength. They are calling for President Mubarak to resign after 30 years in power because they are fed up with the corruption, poverty  and unemployment.

Shops, banks, phones and the internet have all been closed over the past week. What did we do before mobile phones and the internet? We have shopped where and when we can, stocking up on basics. We had managed to shop at Carrefour (equivalent to Asda) on the Friday morning and stocked up on tinned goods and pasta, and the day before we had been to the bank and withdrawn all the money in my account so we were fine for money and food. As other shops have opened and closed we have picked up other bits and bobs and loo rolls (when these run out we are on the next flight out of here). The Grand Mall is closed and protected by the shop keepers from looters. They sit at the entrance and stop any looting. They have also painted some of the windows white.

At the end of the streets the doormen and some of the residents have put roadblocks up to deter the looters, this is all very good natured, even the ones that check your cars and adds to a secure feeling within the community.

The other impact on day to day life has been the curfew than came into effect on Friday the 28th. I was sat at church at the time when they announced there was a 6pm to 8 am curfew being put into place, as it was 5:50pm at the time I walked very quickly. Geoff and I had been discussing what the next moves might be on the way down to church and this was one of the options we had come up with! (Sorry to disappoint you Nick, but he walks me there and then comes back and picks me up afterwards, he did wait outside once but the police asked him to move on!). The protestors ignored this curfew so it was brought forward to 4pm and then 3 pm and they still ignored it. Thankfully, today (Wednesday 2nd), it has moved once again this time to 5pm.

We can also hear the sound of the army helicopter circling the city, reminiscent of being on Bransholme, and gunshots during the curfew. When the F16’s flew over the protestors we heard that too as we were in their turning circle.

Yesterday Maadi Community Church started a daily pray meeting at 12 noon, which Geoff escorts me too and then waits until it finishes to walk me back! We went to a school meeting first today where the Director gave his opinion on what was happening and added some background to the characters involved in the political changes that are happening. He also came with some money for those people that needed some.

Today the internet has been restored, thank you to everyone who sent a message, I think I’ve managed to reply to you all now. Some of the banks are now open and shops are restocking their shelves with local goods. The protestors are still in the square and are planning for another day of protests on Friday. we shall have to wait and see what happens then.

Please pray for calm during this time of transition, the safety of all God’s children out here and that He will be glorified in all that happens.

It’s messy but His hand is in everything.