Hyatt Cairo
Anita & Martin
The Cairo Gang
Our view from the felucca
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Felucca on the Nile
After our first hot day in Cairo, Martin suggested that we relax on a felucca and watch the sunset. It was a great idea. We went to the bank of the Nile River, jumped on a felucca, and relaxed sharing stories for an hour from our first day in this ancient city.
Hyatt Cairo
Anita & Martin
The Cairo Gang
Our view from the felucca
Hyatt Cairo
Anita & Martin
The Cairo Gang
Our view from the felucca
Monday, August 9, 2010
Islamic Cairo
We have been in Kenya for 6 months now! Amazing to think how long we have been here, also amazing to think how small 6 months is compared to the span of our lives. We have both grown so much during this time, being in a new part of the world, learning new languages, being around different people, and just experiencing life in a different way that Los Angeles can offer.
It has been strange living a more simpler life but is oddly normal for us now. We have noticed we don't need as many "things" as we did back home. We did not really figure this out until we went on a trip to Cairo, Egypt this past week.
We were told, before we came to Nairobi, that we'd have the month of August off for free time. We have been arranging a few trips during this month since we've been here and going to Cairo is the big adventure. We have both wanted to always see pyramids and figured if we're in this part of the world, why not.
While here we have met an American priest, Fr. Douglas who now lives in Nairobi. Prior to living here, he lived in Egypt for 20+_years. He has set up a handicapped home for people who need assistance. He helped us get a room there, showed us the area of Cairo on google maps prior to going, and couldn't have been more helpful.
Another person who helped us tremendously in getting to/being in Cairo is Ellen Jarvis Brooks. Ellen is one of Katie's swimming teammates from UCLA who has lived in Cairo for the past year. She was so helpful with us getting there and being the best tour guide. She had worked at the American University in Cairo and now has a new job in the bustling city of Cairo, a city that somehow holds 25 million. She has been able to learn Arabic (even though she swears she barely knows any), get anywhere in the city using an extremely dangerous taxi driver, order the best foods to eat, and live in an Islamic county which couldn't be more foreign to her native home of Baltimore. She was a savior for us and it was a lot of fun to hear the stories of her life in the HOT HOT country of Egypt.
We arrived in Cairo about 1am on a Saturday morning. We didn't get to the handicapped home until 2:30ish and we had to bang on the gate outside of the home for a good 15 minutes. We later learned that the gate keeper was asleep (which we understand, being 2:30am) and that he is also deaf which made it hard for him to know we were there. After waking everybody else up in the home, we made our way into the room, and caught a few hours of sleep.
The next morning we walked a bit, caught a taxi, viewed this amazing city for the first time during the ride, met up with Ellen, and she took us on a trip to Islamic Cairo.
We met Ellen at her apartment then walked through the area of Zamalek (a island city in the middle of the Nile River in Cairo). We ended up at the Cairo Marriott, which is a beautiful hotel, catching a taxi and started our day adventure.
Our first stop was at the Ibn Tulun mosque, which is open to all people. We learned not all mosques are allowed to foreigners, women, and non-Muslims. This one though was open to all, the building was just beautiful, very very old, enormous, and had a beautiful spiral minaret where the daily prayers are projected from.
This is a view of the center of the Ibn Tulun mosque. I feel bad not remembering all the "specifics" that Ellen taught us about Islam, mosques, and Cairo, but I do remember her teaching us that: legend tells how Ahmed Ibn Tulun was asked how he wanted it constructed, at the same time he was twirling paper around his finger, then looked at his finger and said "like this". This "paper around the finger" gave the idea to the spiral concept of this entire mosque.
Patrick and Anita
The rooftop view of Islamic Cairo from the top of the mosque we climbed. It displayed many other mosques in the area, smoggy smoggy air (that made LA look like Big Bear), cemented apartment building after building, and a sea of satellite tv dishes on top of every possible place that one could fit.
Anita with Islamic Cairo in the background.
...Cairo is HOT. It was at least 100 degrees Fahrenheit daily, extremely humid, and we walked a lot. I do recommend people to go to Cairo, just not in August (the hottest time of the year) like us smart Yanks.
The rest of the day consisted of sitting in a nice air conditioned restaurant, enjoying some traditional Egyptian dishes, walking around the town more, checking out more mosques, drinking lots and lots of water, taking the train a few stops down to a very very old Orthodox Christian church, seeing a small Jewish temple connected to the Orthodox Church (where supposedly Moses was found in the basket on the Nile). Of course the temped hasn't always been there if the Nile used to be there but since the canals were built, the river doesn't flood any more, which would not allow water to be there.
It was an amazing day, HOT, but amazing to see something so different not only from back home but also Nairobi. We just talked at the end of the day how blessed and lucky we are to be able to see another part of the world and experience something new, again.
It has been strange living a more simpler life but is oddly normal for us now. We have noticed we don't need as many "things" as we did back home. We did not really figure this out until we went on a trip to Cairo, Egypt this past week.
We were told, before we came to Nairobi, that we'd have the month of August off for free time. We have been arranging a few trips during this month since we've been here and going to Cairo is the big adventure. We have both wanted to always see pyramids and figured if we're in this part of the world, why not.
While here we have met an American priest, Fr. Douglas who now lives in Nairobi. Prior to living here, he lived in Egypt for 20+_years. He has set up a handicapped home for people who need assistance. He helped us get a room there, showed us the area of Cairo on google maps prior to going, and couldn't have been more helpful.
Another person who helped us tremendously in getting to/being in Cairo is Ellen Jarvis Brooks. Ellen is one of Katie's swimming teammates from UCLA who has lived in Cairo for the past year. She was so helpful with us getting there and being the best tour guide. She had worked at the American University in Cairo and now has a new job in the bustling city of Cairo, a city that somehow holds 25 million. She has been able to learn Arabic (even though she swears she barely knows any), get anywhere in the city using an extremely dangerous taxi driver, order the best foods to eat, and live in an Islamic county which couldn't be more foreign to her native home of Baltimore. She was a savior for us and it was a lot of fun to hear the stories of her life in the HOT HOT country of Egypt.
We arrived in Cairo about 1am on a Saturday morning. We didn't get to the handicapped home until 2:30ish and we had to bang on the gate outside of the home for a good 15 minutes. We later learned that the gate keeper was asleep (which we understand, being 2:30am) and that he is also deaf which made it hard for him to know we were there. After waking everybody else up in the home, we made our way into the room, and caught a few hours of sleep.
The next morning we walked a bit, caught a taxi, viewed this amazing city for the first time during the ride, met up with Ellen, and she took us on a trip to Islamic Cairo.
We met Ellen at her apartment then walked through the area of Zamalek (a island city in the middle of the Nile River in Cairo). We ended up at the Cairo Marriott, which is a beautiful hotel, catching a taxi and started our day adventure.
Our first stop was at the Ibn Tulun mosque, which is open to all people. We learned not all mosques are allowed to foreigners, women, and non-Muslims. This one though was open to all, the building was just beautiful, very very old, enormous, and had a beautiful spiral minaret where the daily prayers are projected from.
This is a view of the center of the Ibn Tulun mosque. I feel bad not remembering all the "specifics" that Ellen taught us about Islam, mosques, and Cairo, but I do remember her teaching us that: legend tells how Ahmed Ibn Tulun was asked how he wanted it constructed, at the same time he was twirling paper around his finger, then looked at his finger and said "like this". This "paper around the finger" gave the idea to the spiral concept of this entire mosque.
Patrick and Anita
The rooftop view of Islamic Cairo from the top of the mosque we climbed. It displayed many other mosques in the area, smoggy smoggy air (that made LA look like Big Bear), cemented apartment building after building, and a sea of satellite tv dishes on top of every possible place that one could fit.
Anita with Islamic Cairo in the background.
...Cairo is HOT. It was at least 100 degrees Fahrenheit daily, extremely humid, and we walked a lot. I do recommend people to go to Cairo, just not in August (the hottest time of the year) like us smart Yanks.
The rest of the day consisted of sitting in a nice air conditioned restaurant, enjoying some traditional Egyptian dishes, walking around the town more, checking out more mosques, drinking lots and lots of water, taking the train a few stops down to a very very old Orthodox Christian church, seeing a small Jewish temple connected to the Orthodox Church (where supposedly Moses was found in the basket on the Nile). Of course the temped hasn't always been there if the Nile used to be there but since the canals were built, the river doesn't flood any more, which would not allow water to be there.
It was an amazing day, HOT, but amazing to see something so different not only from back home but also Nairobi. We just talked at the end of the day how blessed and lucky we are to be able to see another part of the world and experience something new, again.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Martin & Anita Out of Africa
The adventure started with the small eight seater Cessna tin can of an airplane that bounced around the sky on route to our Safari into the plains of the Masai Mara. We landed on a crude dirt airstrip and were whisked away via Land Cruiser to our destination known as Little Kicheche Camp. Our driver was dressed in the traditional tribal tartan dress of the Masai people and within minutes we were stopped along the Mara River to see a dozen hippos beached for an early afternoon snooze. Quite a beginning to our adventure.
The main characters in this story are the lovely and fetching Anita (pictured below) and the rugged, untidy bear Martin
Along the way to our camp we saw hundreds of wildebeest's grazing and several varieties of antelope. Our collective necks were getting quite a workout, and this was just the beginning. When we arrived at the camp we were greeted by our hosts and escorted to our tent that was situated on a ridge that looked out over a valley, simply beautiful (the view and the tent). This was nowhere near typical camping and I fear that we are both spoiled for life.
Our days were filled with "game drives" across the plains of the Mara and our guide was a wonder of a man whose name was Mika. His knowledge, his passion and his eloquence are difficult to put into words but maybe most impressive was his vision. He could see animals at distances that boggled the mind, we have never witnessed this before and might never again. Over the course of our days we saw many things...groups of giraffe's running the plains, hundreds...no thousands of wildebeest herds grazing, running, fighting...(hide the kids eyes warning!!) mating lions (twice...love was in the air), hyena families, elephant packs, cheetah's and their young...more lions and cubs. enormous croc's and hippo's, incredible birds, buffalo, many varieties of antelope...more lions. We both had lions walk within 3 feet from us at different times but they could care less. Once again words are not enough.
The picture below shows what is considered one of the great natural wonders of the world and that is the crossing of the wildebeest from one side of the Mara river to the other. The scene at the crossing is one of death, excitement, adventure and hope. In the waters of the river croc's and hippos wait for the "beest's" to cross, dead half eaten corpses of the beast lie stagnant in the water...along the banks of the river are maybe 200 vultures waiting to benefit from the work of the croc's and on one side of the river is the gathering of the beast's and zebra's...everyone waiting. Without any reason or logic the beast's decide to cross the river and it is a stampede of epic proportions, the sound of the herd, the rushing water only add to the drama. Watching this is all at once horrific, amazing, exhilarating and moving.
The acacia tree of Africa.
The very adorable but soon to be lethal hyena cubs.
This guy had a nice scar on his left cheek...reminded me of "The Lion King" guy.
Our experience was glorious, there truly are not enough superlatives to describe it from the camp, it's hosts, our guide to the beauty and grandeur of the Mara and it's inhabitants.
Pat and Katie are thriving and look like movie stars...we are humbled by them and what they have been doing and thank them for all they have done for us.
-Anita and Martin
The main characters in this story are the lovely and fetching Anita (pictured below) and the rugged, untidy bear Martin
Along the way to our camp we saw hundreds of wildebeest's grazing and several varieties of antelope. Our collective necks were getting quite a workout, and this was just the beginning. When we arrived at the camp we were greeted by our hosts and escorted to our tent that was situated on a ridge that looked out over a valley, simply beautiful (the view and the tent). This was nowhere near typical camping and I fear that we are both spoiled for life.
Our days were filled with "game drives" across the plains of the Mara and our guide was a wonder of a man whose name was Mika. His knowledge, his passion and his eloquence are difficult to put into words but maybe most impressive was his vision. He could see animals at distances that boggled the mind, we have never witnessed this before and might never again. Over the course of our days we saw many things...groups of giraffe's running the plains, hundreds...no thousands of wildebeest herds grazing, running, fighting...(hide the kids eyes warning!!) mating lions (twice...love was in the air), hyena families, elephant packs, cheetah's and their young...more lions and cubs. enormous croc's and hippo's, incredible birds, buffalo, many varieties of antelope...more lions. We both had lions walk within 3 feet from us at different times but they could care less. Once again words are not enough.
The picture below shows what is considered one of the great natural wonders of the world and that is the crossing of the wildebeest from one side of the Mara river to the other. The scene at the crossing is one of death, excitement, adventure and hope. In the waters of the river croc's and hippos wait for the "beest's" to cross, dead half eaten corpses of the beast lie stagnant in the water...along the banks of the river are maybe 200 vultures waiting to benefit from the work of the croc's and on one side of the river is the gathering of the beast's and zebra's...everyone waiting. Without any reason or logic the beast's decide to cross the river and it is a stampede of epic proportions, the sound of the herd, the rushing water only add to the drama. Watching this is all at once horrific, amazing, exhilarating and moving.
The acacia tree of Africa.
The very adorable but soon to be lethal hyena cubs.
This guy had a nice scar on his left cheek...reminded me of "The Lion King" guy.
Our experience was glorious, there truly are not enough superlatives to describe it from the camp, it's hosts, our guide to the beauty and grandeur of the Mara and it's inhabitants.
Pat and Katie are thriving and look like movie stars...we are humbled by them and what they have been doing and thank them for all they have done for us.
-Anita and Martin
Friday, July 30, 2010
Eric's Pictures
We have a good little buddy at Bosco Boys named Eric. He has a small book full of drawings and we decided to post some of them. Hope you like them
An owl being a dentist to a bear.
Two men fighting over a woman.
Yesu
A boy dreaming about an angel.
An owl being a dentist to a bear.
Two men fighting over a woman.
Yesu
A boy dreaming about an angel.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Day in Nairobi
In front of the old US embassy in Kenya that was bombed years ago. The man on the right is a Jesuit Brother who works at Bosco Boys named John Kenedy.
The background is down town Nairobi.
We went to a restaurant named CARNIVORE, much like the restaurant in the states called FOGO De CHAO, where we ate pork, chicken, beef, turkey, ostrich, crocodile, camel, and of course, ox testicles. BUT not to top our favorite dish of the night "African Sausage" which literally tastes like, "going to a farm, walking over to an area of hay on the ground where goats/cows/birds have taken a poop/urinated, cupped your hand, scooped a big pile of that goodness, wrapped it into some sort of wrapping (which would allow it to look like sausage), cook it, and voila!" African Sausage...
The man between Katie and Anita is Daniel. Daniel is a former Bosco Boy, when the center started. He is very successful now and has become one of our good friends here in Nairobi. He drove us around for the day and helped us bargain at a city market. To the right of Martin, once again, is the President, John Kenedy.
The background is down town Nairobi.
We went to a restaurant named CARNIVORE, much like the restaurant in the states called FOGO De CHAO, where we ate pork, chicken, beef, turkey, ostrich, crocodile, camel, and of course, ox testicles. BUT not to top our favorite dish of the night "African Sausage" which literally tastes like, "going to a farm, walking over to an area of hay on the ground where goats/cows/birds have taken a poop/urinated, cupped your hand, scooped a big pile of that goodness, wrapped it into some sort of wrapping (which would allow it to look like sausage), cook it, and voila!" African Sausage...
The man between Katie and Anita is Daniel. Daniel is a former Bosco Boy, when the center started. He is very successful now and has become one of our good friends here in Nairobi. He drove us around for the day and helped us bargain at a city market. To the right of Martin, once again, is the President, John Kenedy.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Sentence Pictures
These are pictures/sentences from another class 4 lesson. This day in class we taught the children what a noun, an adjective, a verb, and an adverb is. We then had them write their own sentences which includes each of the four things we taught them. Some of the children even circled the particular words and described which part of speech it is. After they wrote the sentences, we had them draw pictures to describe what they wrote about.
ONSOPONATIAM, is the first part of this story. The children are not the best at spelling but their thoughts and ideas are there. Onsoponatiam = Once upon a time
We thought this was really funny when we saw it spelled this way BUT I'm sure when we write things in Kiswahili or pronounce Kiswahili words, the children find it funny.
ONSOPONATIAM, is the first part of this story. The children are not the best at spelling but their thoughts and ideas are there. Onsoponatiam = Once upon a time
We thought this was really funny when we saw it spelled this way BUT I'm sure when we write things in Kiswahili or pronounce Kiswahili words, the children find it funny.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Martin & Anita!
They are here! They arrived safely last night and we got back to Bosco Boys around 11PM on July 23rd.
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