My first time at the school

Let's talk about my first time going to the school. Sorry this blog is really late.....buttt I have been really busy.

The teachers had to go in for meetings and classroom set up two weeks before the students were supposed to start. Of course, everyone was excited to get to go get to see the school and get to see their classrooms.

My experience was not the most pleasant. Here is how my day went.

We were served a catered breakfast by the school first thing in the morning. This was probably the best part of the day. It was odd though....a typical Egyptian breakfast. There was falafel sandwiches, foul sandwiches and pickled veggies.  Foul is mashed fava beans...tastes just like refried beans. I still ate up though because I was super hungry!

After breakfast, we had an all staff meeting. It was pretty basic. They went over a lot of the same things that I already knew.

Then I had a new staff orientation.....again, where they went over things that I already knew, like the dress code! I was kind of disappointed. I think I was hoping for more of like, "We are so happy you are joining our team" kind of meeting and it was nothing like that at all.

After the meetings were over, I got to go see my classroom....Here is where the fun begins.....or should have anyway....

My classroom was NOT ready AT ALL! They were supposed to be working on it over the summer. They clearly did not do ANYTHING in our rooms. This was the same for all of the Grade 1 and 2 classrooms. My classroom had a few tables in it that were pre-k sized tables and some storage shelves....that was it.

The classroom was missing:
-Floors (they were supposed to put hardwood down)
-Rugs
-Tables/Chairs for students
-Teacher desk/cupboard
-Computer
-Projector
-Cubbies
-Blinds
-Bulletin Boards
-AC!!!!!!!!!!!!

Literally my classroom had nothing and was not ANYWHERE near being ready for students. So the three hours that were allotted for me to spend setting up my classroom were now wasted. What was I to do for 3 hours until it was time to go home?! Sure, I could have worked on decorations for the classroom or planning things for the first week of school.....but our staff office was also not ready....which meant I had no place to work, no internet to use, and no printer to use.

This was such a frustrating day for me. It was my first time really feeling a clash with the different cultures. My whole day felt like a huge waste of time. Yes we had meetings in the morning, but I was frustrated with those also since they didn't even share any new information with me....

But as always in teaching, you go to sleep and wake up and head back the next day with a smile on your face. And that's what I did.........after I went out for a drink that night. ;)


Here are photos of what my classroom looked like on the second day after they had brought a few pieces of furniture in.

Our hallway

 

Day 3: Khan al Khalili (The Old Market)

On our final stop of our 3 day tour of Cairo, Sharif took us to the old market, Khan al Khalili. This place was huge and full of shops everywhere. This is a place where you name your own price. Sharif told us that they usually mark it up crazy prices and then you haggle for the price you want to pay. It was very interesting to see how many shops there was here. We walked around the shops for about an hour. Before we set off on our own Sharif gave us pointers on how much we should be charged for things and if they didn't like the price we wanted to walk away. So after our quick tutorial on "How To Haggle" Miranda and I set out to see what we wanted and to play name your own price.We had a lot of good luck with haggling and was able to get some really nice stuff.

One of the many alley ways of the market

Sharif giving us a quick lesson on how much we should pay for alabaster sets.

Another view down one of the alleys.

 After we walked around for about an hour and half we went back to go meet Sharif at a restaurant where the famous Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz wrote his book that won him the 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature. Mahfouz sat outside and watched the people of the Khan al Khalili and this is where he received his inspiration for his book. It was an amazing restaurant. We had falafels and shisha. Both were amazingly good. We sat with Sharif showing him what we got and made sure we didn't pay too much. Granted at this point it was too late, because all sales are final unless you buy at a mall. He told us we did a very good job, which was nice to here. One of Miranda's fellow teachers was not fairing as well as we did come to find out. She wasn't able to haggle as well, seeing that she is a blonde haired Westerner. She is learning to cope with that now. One of the other teachers literally tried losing her while shopping cause she got tired of the price going up every time the blonde haired teacher walked in haha. There was no history lesson about the market really from Sharif minus the restaurant and how much we should pay for stuff. We ended up spending the most amount of money here than any other place we had been Egypt. Below you can see what we got and it was for all less than $120.

Our set of alabaster tea lights. The middle one has an arabic saying on it which is "God is great"

This is the purse that Miranda got.

The Louis Vuitton wallet Miranda got.

And we are beginning to become avid collectors of papyrus paintings.

One of two shirts Miranda bought

After all the fun we loaded on to the bus and headed for home. The three days of touring Cairo was not only amazing, but it was also very enlightening on the history of the people and everything around us. It's crazy to think that we now live somewhere where they have 7000+ years of history and buildings that stand that are 5000+ years old. This is truly an experience of a lifetime living here and to think this was only week 2 in Cairo. To think we have two years here to see even more. We still have the whole southern half of the country and even many, many other things to learn and see. The final thing about these 3 days I would like to talk about is our amazing tour guide Sharif. He was an awesome guide, none of us were too keen to the idea of a tour guide but after spending 3 days with him I am glad Miranda's school paid for him to come and do it. We feel that our knowledge for Egypt is so much better then we thought. We did a lot of research to move here, the thing is we did no research on the history. It is amazing the wealth of knowledge and history you can learn here. From Ancient Egypt to the biblical history that is inside the walls of the buildings around us. Truly amazing!

Sharif, The Egyptian Encyclopedia, and our guide!! He was giving us a history lesson of the Mohamed Ali Mosque.

Day 3: The Mosque Of Mohamed Ali

On our final day, Sharif took us too The Citadel and The Mosque of Mohamed Ali, also know as the Alabaster Mosque. We had seen a lot of mosques in the short time we had been here but this one I was most excited about. I had found it online and wanted to see it after our tours. But Sharif decided to include this in the tour so I was super excited. This is the mosque below in the picture. It is an amazing site to see in person. The architecture, the history and the amazing detail in everything was breath taking. We had seen a lot up to the third day but this is one of most favorite. This is what we have been looking forward to, a nose dive into their culture, their religion and their way of life.

Now for some history on the mosque that we learned. The mosque began construction in 1830 AD and was completed in 1857 AD. The mosque was built for Mohamed Ali, he actually never got to see it completed because he died in 1849 AD and his predecessor had it finished. Mohamed Ali's tomb is inside of the mosque which we did not see. We entered in through the court yard of the mosque, also rightfully called the Alabaster Mosque. The were columns going all around it and in the center was the cleansing area. In the Islamic religion, you must cleanse yourself before prayer.

The cleansing area.

Entering the courtyard.

The ceiling inside the cleansing area.

The eastern section of the mosque is the part that was dedicated to prayer. It is square in shape, each side measure 41m, and has a roof with a central dome (52m in height) resting on four large arches supported by massive piers. Surrounding the big central dome there are four half domes, while there are four more small domes covering the corners. The marble mihrab is covered by a half-dome at the lower level. The domes are pointed and covered with medallions and other motifs. The interior dome is impressive because of its size and shape, similar to the Mosques of Istanbul. There are 6 medallions around the dome, which include the names of Allah (God) and Mohamed (the Prophet), as well as the names of the four rightly guided Caliphs, namely Abou Bakr, Omar, Othman, and Ali. 

Alabaster columns inside the mosque

The two lower medallions in the picture are Allah (God) and Mohamed (The Prophet)

Here is four of the medallions in the ceiling the names here are Abou Bakr, Omar, Othman, and Ali.

In the center is the minbar (or pulpit) they use now and behind is a solid marble minbar which they used before the new one.

The original minbar

There was huge walls built around the Citadel where the mosque is at. This I don't remember when or why it was built. Also, about 5 miles away, there is a watch tower that was built to watch for intruders. They used fire to let someone in the Citadel know if there was an unknown coming.

The watch tower

One of the towers in the wall surrounding the Citadel

This was a truly an amazing thing to be able to see. We were able to get information on their past and Sharif even gave us a small introduction to the history of the Islamic religion. When we entered the mosque, out of respect, you are required to remove your shoes. When you sat down on the carpet you placed your shoes soles facing each other so they were not on the carpet. Again it is out of respect for the culture and religion we are living in now. It was very informative to learn the history of the Islamic religion, especially since it gets tainted by many around the world. But it was great to be given such an informative, precise breakdown of the Islamic religion from Sharif, a well-educated Muslim man. In closing, here is another picture of the mosque I wanted to throw up for good measure.