On Tuesday, Pat accompanied the First and Second Grade classes to a chocolate candy factory here in Alex. The factory is owned by one of the families who send their children to school here. There are no machines. All of the chocolate is hand wrapped and packaged by women dressed in pink with pink masks and pink hats. There was one man working at a single desk putting nuts in a tray before the chocolate was poured on. As we have mentioned before, labor is so plentiful and inexpensive here, there is little push to mechanize. This factory is famous throughout Egypt for their fine chocolate candies. Of course the children and staff were able to bring some samples home!
On Wednesday evening the residents (the foreign hire staff who live on campus) decorated the cafeteria for the Christmas holidays. The kitchen staff baked 3 dozen cookies for each resident and provided the frosting and decorations so we could decorate our cookies. They provided hot chocolate, popcorn and music while we decorated
The staff really goes above and beyond to make our stay here enjoyable. Last night when I came home from school, I was using some chap stick for my lips as I walked in the apartment building and Tony, the evening operator, asked what that was (he had not seen chap stick before). When I told him my lips were a bit chapped and this would soothe them he asked if he could call a doctor for me. Tony has worked at the school for many years – he is a very unique person. He is fluent in at least 4 languages (Arabic, English, French and Russian). One day when we wanted to go to the Carrefour (one of the large shopping areas) he wrote a note that we could give to the taxi driver to take us there safely and to charge Mr. Mark and Miss. Pat only a small amount because we are nice people!!.
Last night we went to the movie “Two for the Money” at San Steffano. It was one of 4 English speaking movies. The mall was packed, especially when the movie got out around 9:00 pm. Thursday evenings is similar to Friday in the states – it’s the beginning of the weekend and everyone is out on the town (or so it seems). The streets are very busy then as well. Sidewalks are usually up 12 to 15 inches above the streets. We have been told this is done so that cars don’t park on the sidewalks. In some areas where they are not so high, there will be cars parked on the sidewalk right next to the buildings.
My 5th and 6th grade students that I teach in InfoTech are doing an E-pal project with 5th grade students in West Des Moines and 6th grade students in East Buchanan. They are really enjoying the project and can’t wait to check their e-mail to learn more about what children their age do in the states. They always have many questions for me when they read the e-mail. We hope to continue this throughout the year.
