Whhaaaatttt?!? They’re back?!?

I know…it’s incredible…it’s unbelievable…WE’RE BACK!!!

So we’ve been in Egypt for almost 6 months and boy-oh-boy has it been busy. Both Danielle and I have been working hard to keep up with the packed timetable of an international school. Between writing constant reports, parent/teacher meetings, football tournaments, special events (Eg. International Day), after-school activities (squash, golf, rugby, loom bands club etc), professional development courses (First aid, curriculum etc) and a minimum of a 1.5 hour bus drive to-and-from school each day…where do you find the time to teach, let alone BREATHE?

Mind you, not that I’m complaining too much. It has been a very exciting 6 months away from the old republic. Here are some of the highlights:

1.) August to October was crazy hot, with temperatures reaching         into the 40’s quite easily. Luckily it was a very dry heat, but             regardless, the A/C remained on. November was pleasant,           and just before the Christmas break we noticed a change in           the air. January/February has swayed between typical sunny         winter days in Durban (24-26’C), and pretty chilly days (Max –      14’C, Min – 7’C). Needless to say that Danielle and I dress up         pretty warmly for school these days.

2.) For those of you who don’t yet know, we became parents…to         two gorgeous little balls of fluff. We adopted a brother and             sister persian kitties. A ginger (Tyson – “You gotta be tough to       survive as a ginger”) and a white and brown munchkin                   (Smudge – “Always with dirty eyes and nose because of her            curiosity”). They are growing so big and fluffy and we just              love them to bits!!!

3.) Also, for those of you who didn’t know, we were able to fly my      mommy out here at the end of the first term. We took her to see      all of the sites around Cairo for a couple of days. The three of        us then flew to the black forest in southern Germany to spend        a week over Christmas playing in the snow. At first it wasn’t            too cold and all the fields were green and the skies blue. But        by the time we got to Christmas Day…everything was white!!!        From there my mom took a train north to visit family for another      week or so and Danielle and I took a train North East to Paris.      We spent four nights there and celebrated New Years with            James and Liezl (our Durban friends) who happened to be            there at the same time!!

I’ll try write again with more news soon…

Much love to you all!!!

The Henry’s

Workshops and learning the ropes…

Workshops worshops wshpops….wow, were they exhausting! Especially the primary school ones for poor old Danielle…

We were picked up by a school (mini)bus at 7:45am on our first Sunday morning in Egypt and whisked away to school. Day after day for the entire week we endured meetings. So much so that I began to feel rather WoOzY in my stomach (although that might have been from something I ate). It got to the stage where I acquainted the throne so many times that I took the last day of the school week off (Thursday) to recuperate at home.

Danielle on the other hand, needed to attend so many meetings that by the time she managed to enter her classroom for the first time, she was only left with about two days to do an ‘Extreme Makeover – Classroom Edition”. With the help of her amazing TA (Teacher Assistant) they managed to complete everything by late on the final day of the week…SHEW!!!

We managed to head out to Carrefour(?) on Friday afternoon and do some shopping at the equivalent of a Checkers Hyper. A highlight of the shopping centre trip was locating a Starbucks…WOOP WOOP!!! We also learnt how to sign up to a couple of important home-delivery services, for example: Drinkies – order your alcoholic drinks online and they will be at your door in a little over an hour. Gourmet Egypt – order quality frozen meats and other imported items for the kitchen. And finally, OTLOB…through which you can have meals delivered from ANY restaurant/fast food place in your area, practically for free. GOOD TIMES!!! 🙂

We also hit MCC (Maadi Community Church) on the Friday evening. It was a fantastic worship service with a challenging message about ‘The Kingdom of God’. We have contacted the church and hope to be joining/hosting a young adults home group soon.

Anyway, that’s all for now…will tell you all about how our first week went sometime later this week. Trust that you are all keeping well.

Later days…

 

Welcome To Egypt!!!

So a few people have been asking me, “when are you going to start blogging about your travels?”

LET’S START AT THE BEGINNING…

Danielle and I flew into Egypt on Tuesday the 19th of August. It was a typically sweltering day in Cairo and the coolness of our ride’s A/C was much appreciated. The flights had been rather uneventful (not that we were complaining), and we were more than ready to be whisked off to our 5-star hotel on the Corniche (the road alongside the Nile River).

The first two days were a blur, filled with meeting LOTS of new staff members, unpacking our flat, finding the closest shops to our flat and some serious napping!!

On Thursday the 21st of August we were bused into school for our first day of meetings in a staff room with no A/C. Not a problem usually…when temperatures aren’t breaking the 40’C barrier…SHEW!!! The highlight of this day of meetings was receiving our computers from the IT department. I had been looking forward to getting my MacBook Pro for AGES and the time had finally come…or NOT… Somewhere along the line a mistake had been made, and although I had 8 secondary classes and only 2 primary classes, I had been classified as a primary school teacher…a little disappointing, but two weeks later and I have just picked up my MacBook this morning!!! YAY!!! Danielle also got a surprise during the IT meeting, receiving not only her iPad but also a Dell laptop…YAY!!!

The first few days in Egypt all the new staff were treated to some local pleasures: dinner at an authentic Egyptian restaurant, a Faluka (boat) ride on the Nile etc. Needless to say that by the time Danielle and I reached our first weekend, we just crashed in our flat.

Other highlights included: sleeping on a blow up mattress for the first eight nights while we ordered and waited for delivery of our mattress. Finding out that our main bathroom’s toilet leaked like a sieve whenever it was flushed. Hanging washing off of our 3rd balcony for all the world to see. Learning how to direct a taxi driver in Arabic AND know where exactly we were going (THANK YOU Google Maps!!!). Eating out in some amazing foreign restaurants (Latin American, Italian and Lebanese). And the list goes on…

Well, I’ll post this now and will write again soon about our first week of meetings and our first week of school. We miss everyone back home but we are both having an INCREDIBLE time over here and loving working at our new school.

Later Days 🙂