Tuesday, January 29

As Seinfeld would say – “What is it with the mail?” Just a few days ago, we received a Christmas card that was sent in the States on the 14^th of December, others sent on the same date came just before Christmas! We wonder where this one was hiding.

The weather here has turned cold and rainy. The temperatures have been in the 40's at night and 50's during the daytime. Some of the students were telling Pat that people who do not have adequate shelter have been found dead in their "shelters". When we go for our walks we see these "shelters". There is one family who lives in a shelter made up of old boards and blankets nailed to each other and rags hanging for a doorway. (Eileen, do you remember walking by this place?) Most of the year we see small children sparsely clothed around the “house”. They have an electrical cord running into their shelter because we see the line dangling across the path. It is unlikely that they have any heat other than an open fire. These days must be very difficult for them. But it seems there are many families like this in Egypt (very, very poor) who struggle just to get by.

But to be fair, cold weather affects all Egyptians regardless of social class because there is no concept of central heating systems, furnaces or even the old oil burning stoves. People rely on portable space heaters and small room heaters that also double as AC units during warm weather. Buildings are not insulated as most are made from cement or stone blocks.

The elementary school is getting ready for our "100th day of school" celebration. It will be Feb. 10. The Pre-K 4 up to 6th Grade will all plan together to come up with activities. Pat continues to stay busy with grading, cutting, pasting, and anything else that is needed for the teachers. In the evenings, we have been getting a new online grading program ready for all the teachers. We will be transferring all of our student data to an online grading and reporting program. This will allow the staff to work from home or even Starbucks! The high school started the 2^nd semester this week; my class schedule has changed a little as I have two students doing advanced web design 3 days a week.

As you know, Egypt has been in the news worldwide with an ongoing border dispute near Gaza with Palestinians crossing over into Egypt. It is strange living in a county that is embroiled in a world news making event and most of what we can find out about it is on the Internet. Local news is very hard to come by here, especially in English. The school did receive a warning that Americans are not to travel anywhere in that area. Egypt is in a precarious position being an Arab country that is friendly to the US and on non-hostile diplomatic terms with Israel with several thousand Palestinians seeking refuge here. From an economic standpoint, the country cannot handle such an influx in population for any period of time.

Our head of school and his wife are over in Iowa recruiting staff for next year. From there, they will head to Boston for and 2^nd overseas recruiting fair. We have at least 10 positions to fill for next year. The market is very competitive but we hope they are successful in finding quality staff who are willing to make at least a two year commitment to the school.

Friday, January 18

It has been a sad week here at Schutz as family members of three local hire staff passed away. We attended the services for the father of one of the staff. In Muslim culture, burial takes place often within the same day of death. At the memorial services, the women are in one area or room and the men are in the other. In our case, the staff men who attended were permitted to go into the women’s area to pay our respects to the daughter (who was our staff person) before we went into the men’s tent. As people came, the men went to one area and greeted the male relatives while the women went to another area and greeted the female relatives. During this time, the Koran was read over a loud speaker. There were also waiters who brought around tea, coffee and water. There is no formal service for all that you would see in the states. We stayed approximately 30 minutes then left so that others who were coming would have a place to sit.

This year the elementary school is focusing on school pride. A component of school pride is keeping the campus clean. Signs and banners have been hung in various locations around the campus and new garbage containers have been distributed. In the US there are stiff penalties for littering and it seems that garbage collection and recycling has become almost second nature. But it is different here. There is a lot of trash and garbage, collections are sporadic and picking up after oneself is not commonplace. On our campus we are trying to make our students aware of keeping the school grounds and area neat and clean. On Thursday the staff presented a skit on campus cleanup. The “actors and actresses” did a wonderful job and everyone enjoyed the presentation. Now we will see if the students can follow through on what they saw.

Thursday evening, we went out to eat with another Iowa couple, Tony and Dellaine. We went to Chili’s – like most chains, this restaurant is very similar to ones in the states. The menus all almost identical although some may have an item or two unique to the Arab world (MacDonald’s for instance has a McArabia). Prices are usually less here than in the states for similar items. Unlike many local Egyptian restaurants where the serving size is smaller, Chili’s offers the same serving size as is in the states. We aren’t used the large sizes – but we managed to get it all down and even share a dessert! Service at these “American” style restaurants is Egyptian in nature. You are seated by the host or hostess (they do not ask to bring you your drinks), the waiter (usually men as few women work in these establishments) will come and take your drink and food order all at once. Once they bring you your order they will not come back unless you wave to them and will not bring you the check until you ask for it. We actually sat and played cards for probably an hour or more after we ate. As usual, Tony and I won – we smoked the ladies in Casino and 500!

The drive home was most interesting. We were unable to get onto the street we would normally take (a horse drawn cart was blocking out way) so we tried to go “around the block”. Of course in Alex we should have known better – few standard blocks exist. So we ventured out into the unknown and soon were caught in a major traffic jam on a muddy street. It hadn’t rained for several days so we are not sure of the source of the water (but could only imagine where this water came from). The street was filled with the van taxis. It must have been a major beginning or ending point for many of these vans. The streets were filled with people – little shops open, men playing games and smoking shisha, food vendors and traffic (cars, bikes, donkey and horse drawn carts, vans) and pedestrians everywhere. With all of the high rises it is difficult to tell which way you are headed but somehow we found our way back.

Monday, January, 14

We enjoyed an nice evening out with several staff members Saturday. We went to the cinema at San Steffano. Some went to “Michael Clayton”, some to “Elizabeth” and Pat and I went to “American Gangster” starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. We enjoyed the movie but nearly froze to death watching it. They keep the theaters very cool and by intermission we were looking for some wood to build a fire! After the show, we all went to the Dragon House for Chinese. It is so much fun to get together with staff. Rarely do we ever discuss school – it is just a time to enjoy each other’s company.

The networking crew finished up on Saturday as well with the last few “tweaks” to our new switches and cabling. It has been a long time coming (we’ve been working on this since November 2006 when we isolated the problems). It is a relief to be finally done with it. The crew has a limited command of English and my Arabic is even more limited so at times it was a challenge to understand each other – but we got through it.

This week we begin working on “mid-term accreditation” reports. The staff will meet in small groups to discuss and evaluate how the school is doing in various areas – facilities, student life, curricular areas, etc. This is part of an ECIS study that is conducted on member schools. It is sort of like the NCA reports that are done in the states. In addition, we have various other committees that meet on a monthly basis that we attend (Education, Policy, Facilities, Finance, etc). Not a week goes by without some sort of committee meeting.

Over the past couple of weeks the workers have been sprucing up the campus. They have been trimming trees, replacing bricks, painting and hauling away old items. They do such a nice job of keeping the campus looking neat and tidy.

Wednesday January 09

School has begun back after the winter holiday break. All of our staff made it back safely to Alexandria although a few did encounter some travel problems (flight delays, cancellations, lost luggage) which is fairly typical. It is fun to see everyone and share travel adventures (Spain, Turkey, Greece, Jordan, Tanzania, England, the States, and Canada). The first day back to school is a time to catch up with the local staff and students as well. Everyone wants to find out how your holiday was and what sights you saw. I don’t know if it is a phenomenon of Egyptian culture or teaching internationally or perhaps a combination of both but everyone is so excited to hear about your holiday and welcome you back very warmly. Our local working staff react the same, they are so happy to see us come back and welcome us with open arms and friendly smiles.

The last few days of the break, we completed a major networking job that we have been working on for nearly a year. We replaced our network switches in each of our buildings which connect back via fiber optics to a new core switch. This has been quite an ordeal to get the switches, converters and fiber patch cables and then to get the technicians from Cisco lined up to do the job. Our network will now be able to keep up with the increasing demands that we place on it. The next few days will be critical as we test it out with all of out staff and students here.

We are reviewing our academic calendar for next year. This is quite different from the state side schools as we have to build around the Muslim calendar and that is all determined in Saudi Arabia (the location of Mecca). The Muslim calendar is based on the moon and holidays will vary from year to year. In addition, we have to consider the culture and traditions of Alexandria. Most people in Alex would prefer to start school in mid to late September as August and early September is a major holiday/vacation time for the people of Alex. So if they have children attending our school and children attending another school (as if often the case), they won’t be able to travel if we start in Mid-August. But with an American curriculum and an emphasis on AP classes, we need to start in August in order to cover the entire curriculum prior to the AP exams. So it can be quite a task to come up with a calendar that everyone is happy with.

Tuesday, January 01

Happy New Year! We hope you are enjoying this holiday season. We left for Italy on the 19^th. As we drove down Schutz Street, the sacrifice of the sheep had already begun (it was 7:30 AM). Men, women and children of all ages were lined up to watch. It was quite a site. Our trip to the airport was a little unusual in that there were roads and streets closed in Cairo for construction and unlike the states, there are no detour signs. Our driver had to stop several times to ask people on the street how to get to the airport, but we arrived in plenty of time. Our flights both to and from Italy were on time and went off without a hitch. We flew on Alitalia Airlines and the service was pretty good. Flights are pretty reasonable here and they still serve meals and refreshments (even on the short flights). We had a bit of a scare when we tried to land the first time in Rome – on final approach, the pilot pulled the plane back up and we circle before landing.

We met up with our son, Aaron at the airport in Rome – it was so nice to see a friendly face. The hotel we stayed in while in Rome was within walking distance from the main train/subway station as well as most of the historical sites we wanted to visit. While in Rome we visited the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, the Forum, the Catacombs, Circus Maximus, the Baths of Caraculla and the Vatican. These sites are truly amazing to see in person and to hear the stories of how they were created. It certainly reinforces one’s love for history when you can view these places first-hand.

It was always a dream of mine to visit these sites after teaching about the Roman Empire. We received a walking tour of the Colosseum. It held nearly 80,000 people and was usually filled to capacity every day. I had forgotten that they built a “retractable roof” over it to keep the sun and rain off the spectators. The Colosseum had a highly developed and complicated system of lifts to bring the animals and scenery onto the main floor of battle. At times they filled the arena with water and had ship battles on it! Not much remains of the Palatine Hill and Forum. Many of buildings have crumbled and only the foundations and some pillars remain. Probably the least preserved of all was the Circus Maximus (the large race track) which once held over 200,000 spectators for the chariot races.

We viewed the Catacombs and Baths of Caraculla separately from the other historical sites as they are along the Appian Way (a major road leading into Rome). The Baths were a major attraction for Romans in the day. They would be similar to a “sporting club”. Upper class citizens spend their afternoons relaxing here or working out. The Catacombs we visited were located a ways out in the country. These were intricate underground burial chambers for many of the people (especially Christians in later years). We were able to go underground throughout a portion of the tunnels. It seemed like it would have been very easy to have gotten lost down there.

The Vatican is indeed an impressive site. It sits right in the heart of Rome with a large wall surrounding it. We visited the Museum first. Everywhere you turned; there was another beautiful painting, fresco or statue. They have quite a collection of Egyptian artifacts as well. I’ve never seen so much marble anywhere else. The Sistine Chapel was a sight to behold – and to think that Michelangelo was responsible for the ceiling, what a genius he must have been. The chapel was very crowded and there were signs prohibiting taking pictures and the guards would announce that cameras could not be used but anyone with a camera disregarded them. We climbed to the very top of St. Peter’s Basilica. The view from there was spectacular although it was a little scary to be up that high. The grounds are beautiful. Throughout the grounds, the elite Swiss Guard stand watch.

One of the main warnings in Rome is to be wary of pickpockets and purse-snatchers and wouldn’t you know it, the first time on the subway, headed for the Vatican, someone tried to pick my pocket as soon as we got on the train. It was very crowded and I thought it was Aaron behind me just kind of hanging on to stay close and I reached down and saw a hand trying to work my wallet up from my jeans just before the train stopped next. I hit it off and the guy jumped off at the next stop without success. No doubt he got back on and tried again with someone else.

Meals were very tasty throughout our trip – the pizza was especially good! During lunch time many stores will close from noon to after 2:00 for lunch. In Palermo, the restaurants were only open during meal time (noon to 2:00 in the afternoon and after 7:00 in the evening). Pastry shops, wine bars, coffee shops and ice cream shops were all that would usually be open from 2:00 pm until 7:00 pm.

After Rome, we traveled to Sorrento (along the southwestern coast). Sorrento is an interesting little city centered around the inlaid wood industry. Some friends recommended it as a place to stay to escape the hustle and bustle of Rome. There were not many tourists in Sorrento at this time. It was interesting to see so many residents out walking around and conversing. It seemed as if on Christmas day, people got dressed up in their new clothes they received for Christmas and came out to show what they got. We attended a mass in one of the old churches in Sorrento on Christmas day.

Sorrento is also in close proximity of Pompeii and Ercolano – two cities that were covered when Vesuvius erupted. Pompeii was covered by volcanic ash while Ercolano was covered by volcanic lava. Pompeii is quite a bit larger but both cities provide quite a glimpse of what life must have been like back before the eruptions in 79 AD. The government is fearful that Vesuvius will erupt again and is offering residents around 35,000 Euro to relocate but the project has not been well received.

We traveled by train while in Italy. The trains were pretty efficient and clean although there is a lot of “graffiti artists” at work in Italy. The train cars themselves and public walls around the stations are filled with unique drawings.

After Sorrento, we head back to Rome for one more day with Aaron before he left for the states. If he tires of teaching, I think he will have a calling as a tour organizer as he carefully planned our itinerary for Rome and Sorrento. After he left, we traveled to Palermo, Sicily to visit the sites and try to catch of glimpse of the Mafia. Palermo is home to several palaces and churches that date back to the 10^th to 12^th century. They are in the process of restoring some while others are still in the original condition. Traffic in Palermo is a little like Egypt. Signs are only suggestions but the drivers are pretty patient with each other. Crosswalks are often in the middle of the street (without any lights) and traffic stops when someone crosses. Many of the sites were at one time controlled by the Arabs so it was interesting to see the differences in styles as East definitely met West here. While we didn’t meet any “family” members, we did see a theatre where the final scene to one of the Godfather movies was shot.

While it is great to be able to visit all of these sites, it is nice to come back to Schutz. We have about a week now before school starts back up to get caught up some little jobs that we haven’t had time to get to, get a few books read and view some bowl games