Thoughts on Cairo 4 three weeks in and some highlights

We have now lived in Egypt for 28 days yet it feels so much longer.  If I had to give living in Cairo a rating on a scale of 1 - 10 I'd probably give it a 6 at this point.  It's not bad and it's not great so that is probably a pretty standard rating.  

For reference Mark gave it a 6.5/10, Jared gave it a 7/10 and Lydia gave it 4/10.

In all honesty I have been slightly disappointed so far as I thought finally moving overseas would feel more fulfilling than it has.  We have been dreaming of living overseas with Jared and Lydia for over 10 years and now that we've made the move it just feels like a hassle.  I believe it will be more fulfilling in a few weeks, (but maybe longer) when the weather is more pleasant and we have established school routines, sort of once we start real life here. The ministry of Education announced that all schools under their jurisdiction (ours and most international schools) cannot start school until September 12th so we've been experiencing a never-ending, very hot, Summer.  

So, so far living in Cairo has mostly just been figuring out everyday stuff and that is ok.  It just takes time. Figuring out grocery stores, utilities, church, ingredients for cooking, our oven, money, transportation, trying to make friends, etc.  And painfully remembering how long it takes to do simple things here.  Even doing something as simple as making pancakes or muffins, things I did on a weekly basis in Virginia easily take double the time.  So in that regard it has been what I expected but that is not the most fun part about living somewhere new.  When I told people we were moving here most reacted that it would be so cool to live overseas and have that experience but I alway took the approach that it was going to be a lot like living in Virginia (or any state) than they would think.  Largely because we are moving here for an undetermined amount of time, it's not like going on a trip its making a home. It takes time to figure out how to live anywhere new but I do think it takes more time here. We have made good progress on these fronts but are eagerly looking forward to going out and experiencing a bit more. 

Last week I sat down and complied a list of activities I thought we would enjoy around Cairo. It felt amazing. Purposeful and exciting. In Charlottesville I had a perfect list of places and activities to do and could easily suggest multiple outings for people who just moved there.  I am so looking forward to figuring out what those things will be here.  Not just big or expensive tourist activities but things to replace kayaking, hiking and biking like we did at home.  Our activities will look very different here but we will figure them out. 

Transportation (Uber) has worked fine but I miss having our own car so much. It's not such a big deal for Mark as he sits in the front with AC and plenty of room but being in the back seat with Jared and Lydia is less than ideal especially on these hot days.  After one particularly annoying ride I decided that I would sit in the middle because it was way too annoying to listen to them bug each other.  Having a car here is expensive but I think it will be worth it especially if we really do plan to stay as long as possible. 

Of the 4 of us Lydia is missing Virginia the most.  She misses her friends, her stuffed animals and food. This is not too surprising.  We moved to Virginia when she was 2.5 so it is all she remembers and it was a good set up.  We loved it there.  She has told me that she just doesn't feel the same here.  We are giving her as much space and time to grieve as she wants and not pushing too many things on her.  There have been many times when she has said she likes Egypt and is getting to know more friends but she is just going to need time. Jared seems pretty content but he did recently mention missing Virginia which is one of the first times I have heard him say that.  Mark seems pretty good.  Less disappointed than me but anxious for better weather and opportunities to travel.  He will be teaching totally new classes which I would be stressing about but he is handling it very well. We are all looking forward to real life beginning with school and opportunities to go explore. We do feel pretty settled and know we have had many blessings given us and people placed in our paths who have helped us.  I hope that rating will get a little higher in bit more time. 

Highlights of last 3.5 weeks

Mark's 40th birthday.  We celebrated with birthday crepes and a day in Maadi where we used to live with lunch at an amazing bakery, birthday gelato and a birthday felucca ride on the Nile. 

Ratios Bakery. Not pictured, a warm turkey, cheddar sandwich which he loved. 

That is a cruffin with Lemon buttercream filing, it was amazing. 

Swimming at school pool:  We are very happy we can easily go to the pool whenever we want as it is so close.  We've pretty much had it to ourselves but now that all the teachers and their families are back we may need to sign up on a schedule.  We met up there with a new teacher and her family, who also has a 4th grader and also a returning teacher who has 2 boys who are going into 7th grade.  Just trying to have some familiar faces for Jared and Lydia once they start school. We have also gone over to the field to play on a few of the cooler evenings.  There haven't been many but they are coming! 

New "National Museum of Egyptian Civilization". This museum just opened earlier this Spring and is really well done.  So much less overwhelming than the Egyptian Museum downtown.  We especially loved the Mummy exhibit.  Mummies are creepy and gross but the set up is really nice.  You walk downstairs and it is designed to feel like you are walking into a huge temple in Upper Egypt. As you walk through the doorway you feel like you are going into a deep dark tomb.  Once inside there are dark hallways and small rooms branching off displaying the mummies. It feels very maze like. It was really cool.  There was just enough stuff for it to be interesting but not so much that you feel like you could never see it all. 

There was a lovely view of the Citadel not too far away

Looking down on entryway to mummy/tomb exhibit

School Welcome Felucca Ride

In one week we went on 2 felucca rides. It was nice to go and do some visiting with other new teachers.  I will be ok if we wait to go on another one when its cooler out but they are very fun and it does feel nice to be on the water.  This one was longer than Mark's birthday one and I prefer just one hour long sails.  This was almost 2 hours  but Jared and Lydia had a nice time. We had three boats attached to each other and they enjoyed going from one boat to the next. They do both love sailing on a felucca. 

It was still quite hot out when we started. 

Successful date night

Most of our date nights so far have just been going to different stores to figure out grocery shopping.  Not super exciting but necessary and more enjoyable without Jared and Lydia.  Ordering your groceries online and having them delivered is huge here but I am not quite on board with it.  For one, I don't know the Egyptian equivalents of things here and I want to pick out my own produce. At some point when I feel like I know what I am looking for more I may embrace it but not as this point. So we have gone to a couple of different stores to try to sort it out.  Food is proving to be more expensive than we hoped it would be and we are not even buying mostly American products.  Part of it is just trying stuff out and building up a pantry but it has been a big undertaking and I miss driving myself a lot. Compared to 2008 when we left there are a lot more American products available but the prices are still very very high for them.  We see American cereals like Reese Puffs and they are around 10 dollars for a box.  Too steep for us but maybe for a Christmas or birthday present? Lydia misses cereal so much. 

This week we had a more exciting date night.  We went over to Kattemeya Heights a neighborhood not too far from us and as we explored this mall downtown we came across a donut truck.  They sell fresh made, to order donuts and they taste like home.  They reminded us of Duck Donuts which are our favorite donuts at home.  They were just slightly smaller than ones at home but not by much.  We watched them get made and then selected our toppings. We picked, Nutella, Belgian chocolate and strawberry and then the owner who is normally not there gave us two extra donuts for free and we got pistachio and lemon.  I never had pistachio flavored things at home and it was better than I thought but I won't be ordering it regularly.  The lemon was amazing.  We paired it with the strawberry and loved it. He just opened his truck in January and we were so happy we stumbled upon it. 

Heliopolis and secret pork products

We knew coming here we would be eating less pork and were fine with that but we also heard that you could find it here so today we went to track some down. Before that thought we stopped for breakfast at an adorable French cafe called Paul's.  It was very French and very delicious.  We had a feast of yummy breads.  This cafe is in a fun neighborhood called Korba and it has some cool architecture so we went on a little walk after eating.  We will be back to Heliopolis to check out some other fun sites later on.  We stopped at Oscar grocery store and found the counter selling the pork and got some sausage and ham to add to some meals.  It was a good outing.  

These outings are really helpful.  We look forward to getting to explore more and finally starting school. I keep talking about October and all the fun things we have planned! Too much time in our apartment is not great for any of us.  In our building there are three teacher families. (Its not a huge building there are only 4 or 5 apartments.) One family besides us who work at AIS and one who work at another school.  These two families have a 10 year old boy (Sebastin) and a 10 year old girl (Imara) so Jared and Lydia have loved having friends to play with.  It is crazy that there ended up being kids so close in age in this building. They roam between our three apartments and seem to enjoy each other. Its been an adjustment for me but I am trying my best and am happy they have kids nearby to play with. 

We have been blessed to meet some really nice helpful people and look forward to getting to know them better.  

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!

Last week in Charlottesville and Covid test results stress

Saturday: birthday party for Parker Hendricks. A lot of people we regularly interact with were there so it was nice to have a gathering with them but not be the focus. I love seeing Jared and Parker together, they are such good friends and will miss each other. The Hendricks are such a fun family! 

Monday: Dickerson Beach with Hendrick/Lunch with CHE:  Monday morning we met the Hendricks for one last hangout at Dickerson Beach.  It was a little odd to drive by our house but not too bad.  Jared had a great time fishing with Parker, Beckett and Aiden, they caught three fish.  For Parker's birthday we got him an assortment of fishing supplies so it was cool to see him put them to use and enjoy them. Lydia and Reagan had fun in their made up world one more time together.  Christa is so easy to be around and such a great example to me.  I was glad we had a one on one visit together.  

I dropped Jared and Lydia off at the Leavitt's house where we were house sitting and drove down to UVA one last time.  They ordered pizza and it was nice to visit with them in the office.  I loved working there so much and miss it a lot. I got to visit with a few professors I had not seen for awhile since we were all working form home and loved getting to have a real goodbye with Jennifer, Jen and Ricky. 

Tuesday/Wednesday: Drop Jared off for camp, walk at UVA Research Park, library and errands with Lydia, last minute prep for moving Saturday, swim at Forest Lakes Pool,  cook extra food to have for dinners, pick Leavitts up from airport, stress about Covid PCR tests.  I made sure to take some time to fit in some last walks at the places I walked/ran the most by our house.  It was good to be take that time for myself and reflect on living in Charlottesville.  Lydia really wanted to have Dippin Dots together and I thought I had maybe seen them or something similar sold at a grocery store in town.  She tried them for the first time at Niagara Falls and loved them. I also remembering loving them all through middle school and high school. We sadly could not find them. I did see an off brand at Kroger and am guessing that is what I saw them originally but they only had cotton candy flavor which did not sound good so we passed.  Lydia and I went swimming Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning.  Lydia loves swimming and was so happy to have time there.  One day she saw a friend from school and had fun playing with her.  I also ran into some new members of our ward and it was nice to chat with them. I hope they love Charlottesville. 

Research Park View

Thursday: PCR test at MedExpress, Duck Donuts, last library visit, lunch with Jessie and Dash Charles. This test was actually the first time Lydia and I had to get tested for COVID.  Requirements for entering Egypt are very strict.  They only accept PCR tests and you only have a 96 hour window for sample to be valid.  The earliest we could take the test and have it valid was Thursday morning and the turnaround for the test was 1-3 days.  I feel like the requirements and testing availability in our area kind of set you up to fail. I could not find a 24 hour test site anywhere near Charlottesville. I called so many CVS and Walgreens and searched online for hours.  There were a million places to get a rapid or antigen test but neither of those would be accepted for Cairo. We got to MedExpress just before it opened at 8:00.  You cannot make appointments and just have to sit in your car and keep calling until you get through.  Around 8:35 we got through to front desk person so we could be checked in.  It was so inefficient.  There were at least 20 people in parking lot all calling trying to get though.  When I talked to them earlier in the week they told me samples were picked up before 10:00 and around 4:00 so as it got closer and closer to 10:00 I began panicking that we would not be tested in time to get in the first pick up and we really needed to be to get results in time. We were able to go in to be tested around 9:00 and the test was not nearly as bad as everyone made it out to be.  It didn't feel good but was really just not a big deal so that was nice.  The nurse was really encouraging about timeline, the doctor not so much.  As we were dealing with the wait in Charlottesville Mark and Jared walked right into the testing site in Christainburg near camp, also a MedExpress.  They were done in minutes and went out to Ihop for breakfast.  We texted and did some Marco Polos as it was the first time Mark had service since he got to camp Monday. It was nice to catch up and know they were able to get tested and things were going well.  

After that Lydia and I enjoyed donuts at Duck Donuts and visiting the library.  My dear friend Jessie invited us over to have homemade soft pretzels for lunch. Dashiell and Lydia are the same age and while they are not close they do enjoy being together when our families get together.  All of Jessie's family were at camp so the 4 of us enjoyed delicious pretzels, chatting and had a mini jam session at their house which was unexpected and fun.  Jessie is quite musical and she and Dash played the guitar together which was adorable.  Dash also treated us to a piano concert.  It was a little surprising that Dash and Lydia stayed with Jessie and I. I would have loved a little one on one visit with Jessie but they are nice kids and it was a nice afternoon. 

Lydia had a lot of fun playing with the Leavitt's that afternoon.  They are a really nice family and we are sad their return ended up being the same as our departure.  It was nice to have some time with them before we left. Lydia had a lot of fun with James and Claire.  James is also the same age as Lydia and they were just fun together. Mark and Jared got home around 8:45 and we were happy to be reunited again.  

Friday: laundry and packing/final bag check, lunch at Bodo's, Jared last hangout with Tyler Shaw, Lydia movie date with Leavitt's, bank, store for travel snacks, Moo Thru, pizza dinner with Shaw's at Chris Greene Lake, visiting with Leavitt's, so much stress about flights and PCR test. 

We got as much packed and organized as we could that morning and then went to Bodo's one last time for lunch.  The Leavitt's kindly invited Lydia to go watch a movie with them and Jared had a full afternoon of time with Tyler.  He and Tyler have a great friendship and it was so nice of Julie to have Jared over multiple times the last weeks so they could hang out as much as possible. While Jared and Lydia were having fun Mark and I went to the bank to make sure we were all set up.  Jared and Lydia each had a jar of loose coins that we needed to do something about.  We had them sort the coins before they went off to have fun but when we got to the bank Mark and I were stuck rolling them all up.  It was pretty annoying.  Jared had 30 dollars in quarters! Once we got that done Mark and I went on one last date to Moo Thur at Dairy Market for ice cream.  

We stopped by Costco to grab pizza for dinner and then picked Lydia up from the Leavitt's and met Julie, Tyler and Jared at Chris Greene. It was so nice to have time with them at the lake.  It was simple and a good last outing.  We spent a lot of time at Chris Greene and it was nice to spend time there. The Shaw's are such good people, so kind to Jared and Lydia and always willing to help us out if we needed anything.  We are so lucky we had them in Charlottesville.  They moved there a year after us and we just connected quickly and easily with Jared and Tyler's friendship.  We actually view things quite differently but it never got in the way of being together. After dinner we moved over to the lake and Jared fished with Tyler for a little bit.  We enjoyed the sunset and are glad to have one last outing with them.

Mark also got his covid results this day.  We were confused as to why he got his but Jared did not get his since they tested right after each other. This proved to be THE most stressful thing about our move. 

Saturday: load up the Leavitt's van, stress about COVID results, lunch at Chick Fil A, drop car off to Jessie and airport to fly out. 

Pretty early on in the day Lydia and I got our COVID test results back so now 3/4 of us were cleared to go to Egypt. Julie printed off our results for us and Jared and Tyler had a quick last goodbye. It was hard to say goodbye to Julie and see the boys say goodbye.  We were outside when they got there and Tyler came out of car and then just as quickly went back to car I think he was too upset about Jared leaving. We had planned to go eat at Chick Fil A one last time and just have a quiet morning as our flight did not leave until 3:30 but this was not the case. Instead we wasted our last few hours in Charlottesville so stressed out.  It was such a rotten way to have our last day there. Mark called the MedExpress numerous times trying to figure out where Jared's results were. After lunch (which neither Mark or I could eat we felt so sick to our stomachs), we stopped by the airport to ask them what we should do.  Would they even let us on flight without Jared's results?  Mark talked to a few people at CHO and also a representative at United.  They said as long as we could show we had taken the test and were waiting results we could at least fly to Dulles our first stop.   So that is what we went with praying along with may of our closest friends and family members that we would get results in time.  I think we were were only allowed on flight out of CHO because Mark had worked there and knew desk agents.  An unseen blessing of working at the airport all those years.  We got all our bags checked which took a good amount of time as we had 11 huge duffel bags. All the bags were about 50 - 51 pounds except one which was at 52 so we had to move a few items around.  We just added them to my carryon and it worked well. 

Even after security we could not relax.  It was just too crazy not having his results.  The people at the Christianburg MedExpress were so helpful and patient but things were just not happening.  We sat down near our gate and looked over to the next gate and saw our friends the Player's waiting for their flight.  They had been out of town the last 2.5 weeks so we hadn't had time to say goodbye to them and it was really nice to see them at airport.  We told them our situation and they added their prayers to ours.  We had so many people praying for us.  Even one of the new teachers from AIS who I had been talking with the last months was in on it.  We boarded our flight and just kept praying we would have results when we landed. 

Liz Player, Mark, April and Dan Player

25 minutes later we landed and did not have Jared's results!  When we got to our next gate the desk agent freaked out that we did not have his results and quickly pulled our bags from the plane.  We could do nothing except sit and wait and hope.  Jared and Lydia handed this experience amazingly well. Mark and I were beyond stressed and overwhelmed and snappish and they just quietly waited and entertained themselves.  Finally, 40 minutes before boarding we got Jared's results.  It was exhausting.  We got the all important red "Docs Ok" stamp and got in line to board our flight.  It was amazing that it worked out. What was so hard was that there was nothing we could have done to make this smoother.  We could not take the test before Thursday morning and have it be valid in Egypt when we landed Sunday due to layover and time changes.  Thus my belief that this particular requirement just sets you up to fail.  I am so grateful our prayers were answered and I hope we never have to experience that again. 

Looking at these pictures and writing all this makes me a little sad.  We had such a good thing going in Charlottesville, we were so happy there. While all of this was happening we were also dealing with having our deck stairs redone at our house.  The movers who brought in all the tenants stuff broke our stairs!  So our property manager had to rush to find someone to replace them as it was a safety issue.  As they worked on stairs they found more issues with deck and had to replace a lot of wood.  It was a an added stress and huge expense.  Our property manager called to update us on Saturday and was asking questions about what other spots we wanted to work on and I was like "I am sorry but I cannot talk about his right now! We are still waiting on test results for Jared and I do not care about future repairs on this deck." I think that was when I was the most snappish and I felt bad as she is so nice and just doing her job, looking out for us but I could not think about our deck at that moment. The stairs are done and safe and we will figure out next steps closer to next Summer.  More reasons I so wish we just sold our house! I am sure we need to get these stained to protect them from Winter and Spring weather but that will have to wait till next month as this project was quite expensive and unexpected! 

Aaronic Priesthood Camp July 26 - 29

 

Parker Hendricks, Jared and Sam Shaw

Camp sendoff

Jared loved youth camp so much.  When we first heard the dates announced for camp we figured he would not be able to attend because it was scheduled for the last week of July and we were flying out July 31st.  But when our renters asked if they could move in before August 01st and we agreed to July 15th we realized that since our house would be taken care of he could actually attend camp.  We decided he could attend Tuesday - Thursday and Mark would go with him so he could bring him home Thursday night. He was so happy he could attend.  He loved all the activities, archery, rifle shooting, knife making, blacksmithing, and waterfront (lake activities).  He came home with a crazy knife that I promptly put into a small container our friends the Leavitt's said we could keep at their house.  We will move it over to our attic next Summer when we have access to it. He was disappointed he was not grouped with his good friend Parker and didn't love the meals but was hungry enough that he ate.

Mark originally was planning to attend as just an on site helper but quickly got asked to be on the food committee.  He reluctantly agreed and it turned out to be a really good thing for the camp that he did. The person in charge of the food was more scatterbrained and needed a lot of help.  He did a lot of prep work but by the time everyone was at camp he just kind of checked out.  So Mark stepped in and did a really great job. He did not love it and was more than ready to come back to Charlottesville by Thursday but he did it.  One big problem was that the leader did not buy enough food for each of the meals. Like for sandwiches he didn't have enough bread so there were many last minute trips to town to buy more food and generally they got enough but it was tight. It was hot but not as bad as feared and a really good experience over all.  

Jared ended up with a tent all to himself which he thought was great and I don't know that he interacted much with the boys in his group.  We had hoped he and Parker would get to experience camp together as sort of a last hangout before we moved but no luck.  Parker did not come home until Saturday and we were already on a plane so they had a hasty goodbye at camp but maybe that was easier?  He did ride up to Waynesboro with Parker and his Dad and Sam Shaw but after that they barely saw each other.  The Hendricks kindly let Jared borrow one of their kids bikes as we had already sold Jared's.  He also borrowed a sleeping bag and camping chair all things we have had for years but got rid of once we left our house. One day Jared was riding the bike to the lake and had a pretty bad crash.  There was a doctor at camp and Mark had actually interacted with him quite a bit as they camped in the leader site together. Mark heard there was a crash but not who had crashed and after hearing the story a few times finally learned it was Jared.  Jared was not phased by it, he seemed more irritated he had to see doctor at all but it was funny Mark was there and not notified.  

Mark borrowed a hammock from the Shaw's and he and Chris set them up next to each other.  When Mark got ready to leave on Thursday it was a hard goodbye with Chris and Louie Charles who drove Jared and Mark back to the car.  Louie was in charge of the whole camp and had a crazy busy stressful week and it was really kind of him to take the time to drop Jared and Mark off.  Those were hard goodbyes for Mark, he really likes Chris and Louie and will miss them.   

COVID worries:  I am not sure how I missed this important detail but all campers who were not vaccinated were required to be tested for COVID before coming to camp. Since Jared is not old enough to be vaccinated this included him. This was a really good plan and I am not sure how I missed this information.  Luckily I learned about it a week or so before camp so we had time to make appointment and get it done.  Around the same time I learned that all 4 of us would need to be tested with a PCR test before traveling to Egypt and I realized what a bad idea it was to send Jared to camp.  I was incredibly stressed all week and felt so foolish that I did not know this before sending Jared.  How I missed the fact that these tests would be needed is still beyond me.  Just too much going on I guess.  Perhaps it was meant to be that I didn't know because camp was a great experience for Jared and I likely would not have let him go if I did know ahead of time. We were so fortunate that we could get his camp test in time and that Mark was at camp with Jared so they could drive out to get tested one morning.  

We are glad Jared got to experience camp and will do our best to be back in Virigina for camp next year.