Arrival in Cairo - first week

Dulles to Frankfurt.  This was a long flight, 8 hours and none of us really slept.  Mark and I tried to but were mostly unsuccessful.  Jared and Lydia did fine but were both more than ready to get off the plane when we landed.  Once we got to the terminal we stopped by Heberer's Traditional Bakery to get some breakfast as we were starving.  Our next stop was the customer care area to see if we could print Jared's Covid results as Egypt required printed results.  They had a printer available which was such a relief.  We printed his test and as we looked at it we noticed that it looked different than the rest of ours.  We walked to our terminal holding our breath that his results would be accepted.  We sat down and Jared immediately laid down and fell asleep.  Lydia followed shortly after.  Mark went up to the desk to get our documents cleared and waited nervously as the agent looked over everything. She was very thorough and finally she gave us the all clear so we just had to wait until it was time to board.  The flight to Cairo was 4 hours and everyone slept except me.   

SO tired. My eyes! 

After landing in Cairo we waited in line to show our COVID test results one more time.  We were admittedly nervous since Jared's looked so different but since the Luftansa agent cleared us we figured we would be ok.  The agent commented that the results were missing an official stamp/seal from the lab who ran the results.  We weren't sure what to do about that but he said, "Do you have the email with the notification?" Fortunately my phone connected to the Internet and once he saw the email he passed us through.  We were so grateful. 

We met the representative from the hotel and he quickly got us our visas, moved us through customs and helped us collect our bags.  I mentioned how many we had and he said, "This is too much, it is a new record."   I mentioned this a teacher who has been here a few years and she said "I came with 23."  I am thankful to have every bag we brought and so glad we were cleared and nothing got lost.  

They dropped us off at the hotel (Sunday afternoon about 4:00) and we met one of the directors of the school and she passed on our settling in allotment and our housing stipend for the next 2 months. She helped us coordinate a school bus pickup to help us move our luggage to our new apartment Tuesday morning and then she was done.  So we had all 11 bags brought up to our room and then got an Uber to Cairo Festival City, a huge mall nearby to get some dinner.  Their food court was crazy busy and we hope to never eat there again but we were starving.  After dinner we headed back to the hotel, showered and went to bed. Besides the horrible stress of Jared's COVID results our flights went well, all our luggage arrived and we met up with who we needed to so in the end it worked out pretty well. 

Jet Lag

All of us had some serious jet lag but I easily took the longest time to get over it.  The first night we were so tired that we slept pretty solidly.  The second night we were all up around 2:00 am so we squished into one of the very small double beds and watched the last episode of season 2 of The Chosen.  That helped everyone settle and we all slept till about 10:00 am.  We made it to breakfast just in time and were not disappointed. The following night I was up from 2:00 - 7:00 am (I read a whole book in the bathroom) and once Jared was up we left the room and went to the pool.  For the next few nights I woke up around 3:30 and was up for an hour or 2 and then slept a few hours.  Everyone had random awake times and I was really impressed with how well Lydia and Jared handled it. 

Hotel We loved the hotel breakfast and did enjoy the pool.  I am not a lay out at the pool kind of person but I was happy it was there and Lydia and Jared could enjoy it.  We did not enjoy the very small, very hard beds in our room.  The school set you up for 4 nights at the hotel but since we already had our apartment we bailed after three.  We were very ready to be in our own space.  When Mark and I came to Cairo in 2006 we stayed in the grossest hotel the first night or two and I vowed that if I ever moved to a new country again my first 2 nights would be in a very nice place and this was that.  Even though we had our apartment we were encouraged to take the nights at the hotel and we are glad we started there. 

Apartment:  We are very happy with our apartment.  It has a great layout and is nice and open.  We coordinated with the previous teachers who lived here and bought all their stuff from them and it was so nice to walk in and have everything set up.  It was not cheap but since we were selling all our stuff it evened out. They did a nice job clearing out their stuff but there was still a good amount of stuff left in desk drawers and they had way more kitchen stuff then I could handle.  I do not like clutter so I went through all the drawers and storage containers and gave way a lot of stuff, it felt great.  They had a wonderful housekeeper, Amelia and she was willing to stay on and switch to us and she is great.  Since the apartment was empty for 7 weeks or so once they moved she came over each week to check on things and make sure our shady boab (doorman) wasn't trying to get away with anything.  This gave me a lot of peace of mind and we are grateful Tyler and Malie were so helpful in answering questions and setting us up so well.  We really are across the street from the school, it will take us 4 minutes or less to get there each day and I don't think that can be beat.  I do miss the walkability of Maadi, but having the school facilities and an easy way to get to school will be great. 

A lot of the first week was spent going to different stores to find a few things we needed and reorganizing the apartment to our tastes.  We were really well set up but did want some new linens and to let Lydia and Jared pick out things for their rooms.  We took a quick tour of the school and while the main building feels the same the courtyard has changed quite a bit and they built the pool, gymnasium, moved the playgrounds, and built a separate wing for 4th and 5th graders.  One night we went over to Maadi to visit with the Penrods.  Once there we sadly learned that they are leaving a year early and going to Northern Virginia.  We are so disappointed.  We would have loved to have this year in Cairo with them.  We took a quick tour of our old neighborhood in Degla and it looks exactly the same as it did 13 years ago.  Friday we went to church and it felt so nice.  It will be a very small group which will be an adjustment but we are looking forward to getting to know the branch. I don't think we will be as close as were were last time simply because we are 30 minutes away from all the members but I am hopeful we will get to know people.  There are only 2 other young men for Jared and Lydia somehow managed to arrive here the same time as 4 other 9 -10 year old girls so she is set.  Mark is speaking tomorrow, our second Friday at church and I am sure we will have callings in no time. 

We found our old building in Degla on Road 232

We also happened to arrive in the middle of a heat wave, every day was 100 - 108.  It was miserably hot but it looks better the next 10 days.  So, so far so good!