RAMADAN KAREEM
At the time of typing this, it is the evening of the first day of Ramadan here – I am pleased to say that I have 'survived' my first day of fasting in a very hot country. We had sahoor (the meal before dawn) at 3:30 am this morning (fool and bread plus lots of water) and then slept until Noor woke at 7am. Luckily after his bottle he did, after a little coaxing, go back to sleep in the bed with us and we slept until about 10 am. I took things pretty easy I must say, and did only light housework, which I stopped when the electricity went down (yes again!) though luckily it was only off for about an hour. While I was doing this, Reda had taken Noor out to see his cousins and then another friend, so it was nice and peaceful and when the electric went off and I started to feel too flippin' hot, I went and lay down on the bed. Not very long after this, at around 12 ish or so, Reda returned but he left Noor downstairs with this granny. However, I think she too was feeling the heat, as it were, and she brought him up after about half an hour or so; but luckily after playing for a while he seemed sleepy and sure enough after a little cuddle he fell asleep in my arms and I put him in his cot for a rest. Reda then went out to visit another cousin, while I put out the washing and then, I am pleased to say as I was feeling very hot, I relaxed and went to sleep myself. I slept for about 90 minutes, maybe more, before Noor woke us both up, and I felt very refreshed after that, as I hadn't slept too well during the night. After I woke, Reda took Noor downstairs to his gran, and I was able to read some Koran for a while, before she returned him. Then we took Noor up onto the roof to enjoy the cool air, before getting ready for Magrib time and breaking the fast. My mum in law, bless here, had prepared the meal and what a lovely meal it was. It was a 'simple' meal of chicken, with rice and beans, but it was delicious. We also had a drink made from soaking dates and for dessert we had kanaffa and grapes. Kanaffa is a strange kind of 'cake' if you can call it that – it is basically this kind of stringy stuff which is soaked in sugar water and then baked, but it is actually quite nice.
Well anyway, after we went outside into the street, where the children were setting off little 'bombs' – a kind of firework that they do here, and we bought some more fireworks for them to play with – relatively innocent ones, which you light and then throw onto the floor and they let of a stream of little bits of hot white fire; sounds dangerous, but as long as its an adult lighting it and throwing it safely to an area where no-one is, they are fine. Well of course there were whoops of delight all round; and even Noor who didn't really understand what was going on, enjoyed it.
I'm enjoying some quiet time on the PC while Reda is out again, he's taken Noor with him to visit a cousin in the nearby street who has a little girl Noor's age. I shall prepare what I can for Sahoor in the early hours of tomorrow morning, and enjoy doing the same again. The atmosphere here is very different from that in the UK during Ramadan, and so far – despite the heat and feeling very thirsty – I have positive vibes for an enjoyable Ramadan.
Over and out;
Stella xxxxx
Monday, September 1, 2008
Saturday, August 23, 2008
update, noor walking, cats etc
Apologies for yet again not updating my blog as regularly as I had anticipated when I started it. Unfortunately living in Egypt, I have discovered, can be a bit like living in the back of beyond. The electric goes off most days, sometimes for an hour and sometimes for 4 or 5 hours! Then when that's working and I go online, I find that the ****** server isn't working. Or the other day both were working but for some reason the yahoo site was down! Talk about frustrating! So it's good to finally have it all working and be able to post on here again.
I must confess I do feel a bit superstitious now about telling people anything we have planned to do, as whenever I do things seem to go pear shaped, but for our latest venture which I just said on email that I hope to have some good news for you, it went pear shaped anyway!!! It's a very long story and I am not going to bore you with all the details, but let's just say that we went into the 'minibus' business with my husband's brother-in-law, but unfortunately we learnt the hard way that Reda's brother-in-law is at best an idiot and at worst not to be trusted, and we ended up losing quite a lot of money and clearly we are no longer in the minibus business. In hindsight, we too were very naïve and too trusting, so it has taught us a lesson too. We have sold the minibus now, but of course although it was bought brand new it is now of course second hand, so the price we got for it was well short of what we paid for it. Still it could have been worse and we could have lost the lot, so in some respects we are counting our blessings.
To make matters worse, while all this was going on, my Father-in-Law was taken ill. He has had a bad cough for a long time, but now he was coughing up blood! He was taken into hospital and they did a lot of tests, because of course it could have been something very serious. However, in the end they just said it was the result of a very bad chest infection as all the other tests have come back negative, and they have given him the all clear and he has come back home. I am glad to say that he has given up smoking – at least for the time being – and I hope he is able to stay off it, as his chest really is in a very bad way, though I know that it is very, very difficult to give up and stay off the ciggies. Though I am concerned that in fact he does have something more serious, and either they didn’t find it, or he has decided he wants to keep it a secret from us, I just have this bad feeling about it all; though of course I hope that I am wrong.
Noor is Walking !
I am very happy to report that Noor has started to walk unaided. He really is a clever little soul, too clever by half in fact J !!
Reda has a cousin who has a little girl (Melek) who is 3 months older than Noor (Noor is now one year and one month) and he was quite upset to find that Noor had started to walk before his little girl. In fact I was quite surprised, as I was sure that Melek would be the first, as she is able to stand very well, unsupported, and even dances a little when music is played, but so far she can at best managed 2 or 3 little steps before falling down, or purposely getting down, so I think for some reason she doesn't have the confidence to walk further. Noor started with just a few steps of course, but he can now walk quite a bit on his own, his favourite situation is when there are several people around him and he can walk from one to the other, i.e. then hold on to the person he is with before setting off for the next person. His balance is still a little off, but he doesn't let that stop him and he has plopping down onto his bum when he's tired/off balance etc down to a fine art! (smiley)
Cats
We have a lot of cats around here which are domestic cats, but who are live 'feral' though they do come around for food and we feed them bits and pieces. One female cat that is a real darling has had a little of 6 kittens, the kittens have been kept on a nearby roof, but we discovered yesterday that she had moved them all into my mother-in-law's 'hen house'! Unfortunately my M-in-Law isn't the cat lover that I am, and she moved them all out – she says that if she left them in there, all the other female cats would start bringing their litters onto our roof too, as they would see it as a safe place to leave their kittens while they go out in search of food. She also insists that the kittens eat the chickens' food. Frankly I doubt it, though it is true that the cats here eat things that the cats back home wouldn't touch, like bread and pasta. I'm not sure if the cat will bring them back to our roof or not, will just have to wait and see I guess. I managed to hold one of the little darlings for a short while, they are much less trusting of humans than kittens are back home, but she was quite well behaved with me and I only put her down because everyone kept saying that she will bite me or scratch me and that as a 'wild' cat they carry diseases etc, and of course I wouldn't want to catch anything that I could pass onto Noor.
Hot, Hot, Hot
No surprises, but boy is it flippin' hot here or what ?? The temperature indoors even with the fans on at full blast is up to 32.4 C and the temps out in the sun I don't even like to contemplate – in fact I popped the thermometer out there on a chair (fabric covered chair so should be a reasonably accurate reading) and it was just over 46 C !!! Phew!!!!!!! Most evenings it starts to cool down, around about 6:30 ish or so I go up onto the roof and make the most of the coolish breeze that usually starts up around that time of day. Mind you, some days it doesn't, which can be a bit disappointing, but that's what you get for living in Egypt I guess!!! (smiley)
I must confess I do feel a bit superstitious now about telling people anything we have planned to do, as whenever I do things seem to go pear shaped, but for our latest venture which I just said on email that I hope to have some good news for you, it went pear shaped anyway!!! It's a very long story and I am not going to bore you with all the details, but let's just say that we went into the 'minibus' business with my husband's brother-in-law, but unfortunately we learnt the hard way that Reda's brother-in-law is at best an idiot and at worst not to be trusted, and we ended up losing quite a lot of money and clearly we are no longer in the minibus business. In hindsight, we too were very naïve and too trusting, so it has taught us a lesson too. We have sold the minibus now, but of course although it was bought brand new it is now of course second hand, so the price we got for it was well short of what we paid for it. Still it could have been worse and we could have lost the lot, so in some respects we are counting our blessings.
To make matters worse, while all this was going on, my Father-in-Law was taken ill. He has had a bad cough for a long time, but now he was coughing up blood! He was taken into hospital and they did a lot of tests, because of course it could have been something very serious. However, in the end they just said it was the result of a very bad chest infection as all the other tests have come back negative, and they have given him the all clear and he has come back home. I am glad to say that he has given up smoking – at least for the time being – and I hope he is able to stay off it, as his chest really is in a very bad way, though I know that it is very, very difficult to give up and stay off the ciggies. Though I am concerned that in fact he does have something more serious, and either they didn’t find it, or he has decided he wants to keep it a secret from us, I just have this bad feeling about it all; though of course I hope that I am wrong.
Noor is Walking !
I am very happy to report that Noor has started to walk unaided. He really is a clever little soul, too clever by half in fact J !!
Reda has a cousin who has a little girl (Melek) who is 3 months older than Noor (Noor is now one year and one month) and he was quite upset to find that Noor had started to walk before his little girl. In fact I was quite surprised, as I was sure that Melek would be the first, as she is able to stand very well, unsupported, and even dances a little when music is played, but so far she can at best managed 2 or 3 little steps before falling down, or purposely getting down, so I think for some reason she doesn't have the confidence to walk further. Noor started with just a few steps of course, but he can now walk quite a bit on his own, his favourite situation is when there are several people around him and he can walk from one to the other, i.e. then hold on to the person he is with before setting off for the next person. His balance is still a little off, but he doesn't let that stop him and he has plopping down onto his bum when he's tired/off balance etc down to a fine art! (smiley)
Cats
We have a lot of cats around here which are domestic cats, but who are live 'feral' though they do come around for food and we feed them bits and pieces. One female cat that is a real darling has had a little of 6 kittens, the kittens have been kept on a nearby roof, but we discovered yesterday that she had moved them all into my mother-in-law's 'hen house'! Unfortunately my M-in-Law isn't the cat lover that I am, and she moved them all out – she says that if she left them in there, all the other female cats would start bringing their litters onto our roof too, as they would see it as a safe place to leave their kittens while they go out in search of food. She also insists that the kittens eat the chickens' food. Frankly I doubt it, though it is true that the cats here eat things that the cats back home wouldn't touch, like bread and pasta. I'm not sure if the cat will bring them back to our roof or not, will just have to wait and see I guess. I managed to hold one of the little darlings for a short while, they are much less trusting of humans than kittens are back home, but she was quite well behaved with me and I only put her down because everyone kept saying that she will bite me or scratch me and that as a 'wild' cat they carry diseases etc, and of course I wouldn't want to catch anything that I could pass onto Noor.
Hot, Hot, Hot
No surprises, but boy is it flippin' hot here or what ?? The temperature indoors even with the fans on at full blast is up to 32.4 C and the temps out in the sun I don't even like to contemplate – in fact I popped the thermometer out there on a chair (fabric covered chair so should be a reasonably accurate reading) and it was just over 46 C !!! Phew!!!!!!! Most evenings it starts to cool down, around about 6:30 ish or so I go up onto the roof and make the most of the coolish breeze that usually starts up around that time of day. Mind you, some days it doesn't, which can be a bit disappointing, but that's what you get for living in Egypt I guess!!! (smiley)
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Update - land bought
I can finally post that we eventually have gone ahead and bought some land. It cost us 300,000 egyptian pounds (about 29,000 UK pounds) and is large enough to build a good sized building on with a garden at the back. We had planned to build on it for ourselves, but another opportunity has arisen, so its on the backburner at the mo ............ will post on that other subject depending on what happens over the next few days. Interestingly, we have already had an offer of 350,000 egyptian pounds for our land!!! We have declined for now, but it at least makes me feel reasonably comfortable that its a good investment.
Should have some news on the potato investment in the next few weeks, certainly when I last spoken to our cousin on the subject, the price of potatos had risen sufficiently to cover our investment costs etc, so God willing the price has continued to rise and we will have made a healthy profit.
Noor had his first b'day party earlier this month - he didn't understand of course what was going on but he enjoyed the atmosphere, the company of all the other children and the fuss - though it was all too much for him in a way as later that night after I gave him his bottle before bedtime, he brought up a good amount of the cake he had eaten!!! Oh well.............
Well that's all for now folks. hope to be able to post again soon.
Take care all .................................
Love Stella x
Should have some news on the potato investment in the next few weeks, certainly when I last spoken to our cousin on the subject, the price of potatos had risen sufficiently to cover our investment costs etc, so God willing the price has continued to rise and we will have made a healthy profit.
Noor had his first b'day party earlier this month - he didn't understand of course what was going on but he enjoyed the atmosphere, the company of all the other children and the fuss - though it was all too much for him in a way as later that night after I gave him his bottle before bedtime, he brought up a good amount of the cake he had eaten!!! Oh well.............
Well that's all for now folks. hope to be able to post again soon.
Take care all .................................
Love Stella x
Friday, June 6, 2008
Help in posting pics
BTW - if anyone can give me any tips for posting pics quickly I would be eternally grateful, as the few pics that I have here have taken an ETERNITY to download . . . . . . . or can anyone recommend an alternative site for posting pics quickly ?????
Update - posted 6 June
30 May
Buying Land – The Saga Continues – Reda met briefly with the person contracted by the owner of the land to sell it on his behalf, and he wasn't even interested in our initial offer of 350,000 EGP. Reda, thanks to Ahmed Ismael, made a top offer of 400,000 EGP – so we shall just have to wait and see if that is accepted or not. I have seen the land and it certainly is in a prime location, I'm just not sure if I want us to spend a whole stack of money on it, as to really obtain its potential we need to have some money to use to build on it, then at least if we have – for example – two shops and flats there we will have rental income from it. We could of course just rent it out for parking or storage, but the income that would generate would be peanuts. The main purpose of buying the land of course is investment for the future, to maybe sell it in 15 or 20 years – in the same way as the person selling it now – he bought it 15 years ago for only 5,500 EGP – but we believe that there is still some potential there for more growth.
31 May
Potatoes / Kingfishers – We went this morning to the area where the potatoes are being pre-stored and partly 'dried' prior to being sorted, the bad potatoes and small potatoes removed and sold separately, and the good potatoes bagged up and moved to the 'fridge' for storage over the next 3 months. I know it sounds boring, but really it was quite interesting to watch and it was lovely to be out in the Egyptian countryside, under the shadow of the trees with a cool(ish) breeze blowing. We were right by the river too, and again I heard the noise of a bird which we hear a lot during the nighttime here, and I finally got to see them – they are kingfishers. They really are very beautiful birds, with gorgeous blue plumage and it was lovely to watch them 'in their natural habitat'. Also saw some white herons and there were a few small lizards about, all of which made the morning that bit more interesting.
On a more boring note, today we also painted the side of our flat – as now that the hotter weather is coming we do find that the side wall which catches the sun heats up during the day and then releases its heat during the evening/nighttime – right into our bedroom and the 2nd bedroom. Obviously this is the last thing we want! So earlier this year we asked my father-in-law to get the side wall plastered, which has helped some, but today we finished the job and had it painted white. In fact they are just finishing off the job now while I type this up. The following day I felt the inside walls and they were beautifully cool – a job well done!
2 June
Cairo Trip – Residency – We went to Cairo today, but not as tourists to enjoy ourselves (sadly). We went to the Government offices to input my request for Egyptian residency. We set off early morning, taking a 'micro-bus' to Tanta, and then another micro-bus from Tanta to Cairo. When we reached the outskirts of Cairo, the traffic was unbelievably busy, almost at standstill – the driver estimated it would probably take a further hour to reach the bus station, and from there we would need to take the underground or a taxi to get to central Cairo where the Government office is; to we alighted at that point by a metro station (the first on that line) which takes you right into central Cairo to the place we needed to be. That was an experience (a good one). We made good time and arrived outside the offices at around 10:30 am. Clearly it was going to be another hot day, as already the temperature was around 320 C, so in a way it was good to go into the offices which were cooler as there were like hundreds of fans all over the place…….. All went fine at first, the form was filled in and the chap behind the desk told us which documents he wanted us to make photocopies of etc etc. Then when he started to go through everything he made an issue of our family name of El Khenizy, which he said was not Egyptian as he had never come across it before! Frankly I could not see the issue anyway as he had both my husband's birth certificate and his Father's birth certificate, so even if the family name were not Egyptian what was the issue as clearly both my husband and his Father have been born in Egypt???!! As far as him never coming across the name before, well OK the name is probably most prominent here in the Delta and not in Cairo, and as far as we know no-one before my husband has married a non-Egyptian, so therefore no-one from the family would have been to that particular office to apply for residency for his wife. Not that that logic worked with this 'jobs worth'. Anyway, he told Reda to go to a Police station where they could print a birth certificate from the computer. Off poor Reda traipsed, leaving me in the cool office rather than having to traipse about with him in the heat. Well of course when he returned he had no birth certificate because – of course – his Grandfather was not on the computer system. I was not surprised as after all, why would they put someone born so long ago, who died quite some time ago, on the computer system? Anyway, after some argy bargy with this man in the office they agreed to process the application as much as possible, but 'hold' it for 7 days, for Reda to obtain his Grandfather's birth certificate and return with it to them within the 7 days. They also advised that if there was any difficulty in obtaining the birth certificate, they would accept the birth certificates of his Father's 2 eldest siblings. What a fiasco. But that's Egypt for you. It certainly does have its own unique way of handling red tape. Anyway, after that Reda then had to go to another part of the office to pay for the application, whereupon he was given 2 receipts, he then had to take these 2 receipts to another part of the office to obtain some official 'stamps' which he could then bring back to the man handling the application to stick onto the application! Finally, we were finished for the day, it was now around 1:30 pm, so we decided to go and get some lunch. There are quite a few 'fast food' outlets in Central Cairo, and as Reda absolutely adores KFC then that was where we went. Yes, KFC in Egypt. In fact, its all over in the major towns and cities of Egypt. Of course by Egyptian 'standards' it is rather costly – their meal deals are not the same as in the UK but they are similar – for example a £10.99 meal deal in the UK has an equivalent here which costs 98 Egyptian pounds – so pretty expensive! I had a wrap with fries, Reda had 2 pieces of chicken with fries, and we each had a coke and it cost us 45 Egyptian pounds. Of course if you look at it in English money, then it was reasonable, as that comes to about £4.30, but of course we are not on holiday now so we can't really go spending our money as if we were, but it was a nice treat and a bit of a 'one-off'. That said, food is more expensive here than it used to be but then the price of food has risen around the world substantially, and it was perhaps naïve of us to not realize that it would have gone up in Egypt too. Of course most things don’t cost as much as in the UK, but they are expensive given that many poorer people have to live on maybe just 400 EGP per month. That's one reason why most people in the villages raise their own chickens, as a bought chicken can cost around 30 pounds. A kilo of tomatoes costs around 2-3 pounds depending on the season and so on. So as I say in English money it's cheap (as the exchange rate is around 10 EGP to one English pound) but in comparison to the average wage, its quite pricey. That said, for us it's not too much of an issue. I certainly haven't budgeted for us to live on UK 'wages' as we would get through the money we brought with us far too quickly and of course I want it to last us, but at the same time we have more than simply/only 400 EGP to live on each month too, and hopefully if we manage to make some good investments we can continue to live life at a good level. God willing. And of course we don't have to worry about having a mortgage to pay here, or running a car, or car insurance and all the other related costs that we had in the UK which we don't have here – so certainly one can live on a lot less money here than in the UK and still enjoy life. Well I must stop blabbing on about the cost of living mustn't I????!!!! After we had our KFC, we took a leisurely walk to the metro and caught the underground to the main railway station, so that we could catch the train back to Tanta. We were very lucky with the timing of it, as we were able to catch a train after waiting only 10 minutes, and we got a 2nd class air-conditioned for only 10 pounds each, which I thought was quite a good deal. We were both very, very thirsty and the drinks on board were a tad pricey (e.g. a coke was five pounds, and bear in mind they make the coke sold in Egypt in Egypt, its not imported) but hey that's life. When we got to Tanta it’s a long way to the bus station, so we took a stroll around the shops first and then got a taxi, and we were again lucky as we got on a microbus and departed within 5 minutes of our arrival. It was nice to be out, but it was also nice to get home and relax.
3/4 June
Birth Certificates etc – I am pleased to say that after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, Reda was able to get 2 birth certificates for his Father's eldest brothers, and the following day he went to Cairo and delivered them to the office. These will now be kept on file until the 2 years is up, whereupon Reda has to go back to Cairo to complete the residency application for me. He was told in the office in Tanta that he has to go to Tanta every 6 months to sign a document to confirm that we are still together, but in the office in Cairo they told him that he does not need to do that. Frankly I don't trust any of them, so I think we had better do some of our own research to find out what needs to be done, as if we don't sign anything every 6 months I don't want us to find in 2 years time that my application is turned down because of this. That would be typical. Or am I being a cynic?
5 June
Potatoes – One of my uncle's investors has pulled out, and he is short of cash to pay the potato farmers, so it would seem that we are to invest in buying a further 75 tonnes of potatoes after all. Lets hope the market goes up!! Inshallah. I have a hum dinger of a summer cold, but hey, at least its not raining! No news on the buying land front. We're not sure if he is playing hard to get or simply not interested in our offer. We are going to wait a bit longer and see, as we don't want him to think that we are especially keen, as he is bound to put the price up. Part of me thinks that maybe we should wait until the Autumn, as if there does end up being a world wide recession then if anything land prices should fall in the short-term, even here. We're going to play it by ear for now . . . . . . .
Buying Land – The Saga Continues – Reda met briefly with the person contracted by the owner of the land to sell it on his behalf, and he wasn't even interested in our initial offer of 350,000 EGP. Reda, thanks to Ahmed Ismael, made a top offer of 400,000 EGP – so we shall just have to wait and see if that is accepted or not. I have seen the land and it certainly is in a prime location, I'm just not sure if I want us to spend a whole stack of money on it, as to really obtain its potential we need to have some money to use to build on it, then at least if we have – for example – two shops and flats there we will have rental income from it. We could of course just rent it out for parking or storage, but the income that would generate would be peanuts. The main purpose of buying the land of course is investment for the future, to maybe sell it in 15 or 20 years – in the same way as the person selling it now – he bought it 15 years ago for only 5,500 EGP – but we believe that there is still some potential there for more growth.
31 May
Potatoes / Kingfishers – We went this morning to the area where the potatoes are being pre-stored and partly 'dried' prior to being sorted, the bad potatoes and small potatoes removed and sold separately, and the good potatoes bagged up and moved to the 'fridge' for storage over the next 3 months. I know it sounds boring, but really it was quite interesting to watch and it was lovely to be out in the Egyptian countryside, under the shadow of the trees with a cool(ish) breeze blowing. We were right by the river too, and again I heard the noise of a bird which we hear a lot during the nighttime here, and I finally got to see them – they are kingfishers. They really are very beautiful birds, with gorgeous blue plumage and it was lovely to watch them 'in their natural habitat'. Also saw some white herons and there were a few small lizards about, all of which made the morning that bit more interesting.
On a more boring note, today we also painted the side of our flat – as now that the hotter weather is coming we do find that the side wall which catches the sun heats up during the day and then releases its heat during the evening/nighttime – right into our bedroom and the 2nd bedroom. Obviously this is the last thing we want! So earlier this year we asked my father-in-law to get the side wall plastered, which has helped some, but today we finished the job and had it painted white. In fact they are just finishing off the job now while I type this up. The following day I felt the inside walls and they were beautifully cool – a job well done!
2 June
Cairo Trip – Residency – We went to Cairo today, but not as tourists to enjoy ourselves (sadly). We went to the Government offices to input my request for Egyptian residency. We set off early morning, taking a 'micro-bus' to Tanta, and then another micro-bus from Tanta to Cairo. When we reached the outskirts of Cairo, the traffic was unbelievably busy, almost at standstill – the driver estimated it would probably take a further hour to reach the bus station, and from there we would need to take the underground or a taxi to get to central Cairo where the Government office is; to we alighted at that point by a metro station (the first on that line) which takes you right into central Cairo to the place we needed to be. That was an experience (a good one). We made good time and arrived outside the offices at around 10:30 am. Clearly it was going to be another hot day, as already the temperature was around 320 C, so in a way it was good to go into the offices which were cooler as there were like hundreds of fans all over the place…….. All went fine at first, the form was filled in and the chap behind the desk told us which documents he wanted us to make photocopies of etc etc. Then when he started to go through everything he made an issue of our family name of El Khenizy, which he said was not Egyptian as he had never come across it before! Frankly I could not see the issue anyway as he had both my husband's birth certificate and his Father's birth certificate, so even if the family name were not Egyptian what was the issue as clearly both my husband and his Father have been born in Egypt???!! As far as him never coming across the name before, well OK the name is probably most prominent here in the Delta and not in Cairo, and as far as we know no-one before my husband has married a non-Egyptian, so therefore no-one from the family would have been to that particular office to apply for residency for his wife. Not that that logic worked with this 'jobs worth'. Anyway, he told Reda to go to a Police station where they could print a birth certificate from the computer. Off poor Reda traipsed, leaving me in the cool office rather than having to traipse about with him in the heat. Well of course when he returned he had no birth certificate because – of course – his Grandfather was not on the computer system. I was not surprised as after all, why would they put someone born so long ago, who died quite some time ago, on the computer system? Anyway, after some argy bargy with this man in the office they agreed to process the application as much as possible, but 'hold' it for 7 days, for Reda to obtain his Grandfather's birth certificate and return with it to them within the 7 days. They also advised that if there was any difficulty in obtaining the birth certificate, they would accept the birth certificates of his Father's 2 eldest siblings. What a fiasco. But that's Egypt for you. It certainly does have its own unique way of handling red tape. Anyway, after that Reda then had to go to another part of the office to pay for the application, whereupon he was given 2 receipts, he then had to take these 2 receipts to another part of the office to obtain some official 'stamps' which he could then bring back to the man handling the application to stick onto the application! Finally, we were finished for the day, it was now around 1:30 pm, so we decided to go and get some lunch. There are quite a few 'fast food' outlets in Central Cairo, and as Reda absolutely adores KFC then that was where we went. Yes, KFC in Egypt. In fact, its all over in the major towns and cities of Egypt. Of course by Egyptian 'standards' it is rather costly – their meal deals are not the same as in the UK but they are similar – for example a £10.99 meal deal in the UK has an equivalent here which costs 98 Egyptian pounds – so pretty expensive! I had a wrap with fries, Reda had 2 pieces of chicken with fries, and we each had a coke and it cost us 45 Egyptian pounds. Of course if you look at it in English money, then it was reasonable, as that comes to about £4.30, but of course we are not on holiday now so we can't really go spending our money as if we were, but it was a nice treat and a bit of a 'one-off'. That said, food is more expensive here than it used to be but then the price of food has risen around the world substantially, and it was perhaps naïve of us to not realize that it would have gone up in Egypt too. Of course most things don’t cost as much as in the UK, but they are expensive given that many poorer people have to live on maybe just 400 EGP per month. That's one reason why most people in the villages raise their own chickens, as a bought chicken can cost around 30 pounds. A kilo of tomatoes costs around 2-3 pounds depending on the season and so on. So as I say in English money it's cheap (as the exchange rate is around 10 EGP to one English pound) but in comparison to the average wage, its quite pricey. That said, for us it's not too much of an issue. I certainly haven't budgeted for us to live on UK 'wages' as we would get through the money we brought with us far too quickly and of course I want it to last us, but at the same time we have more than simply/only 400 EGP to live on each month too, and hopefully if we manage to make some good investments we can continue to live life at a good level. God willing. And of course we don't have to worry about having a mortgage to pay here, or running a car, or car insurance and all the other related costs that we had in the UK which we don't have here – so certainly one can live on a lot less money here than in the UK and still enjoy life. Well I must stop blabbing on about the cost of living mustn't I????!!!! After we had our KFC, we took a leisurely walk to the metro and caught the underground to the main railway station, so that we could catch the train back to Tanta. We were very lucky with the timing of it, as we were able to catch a train after waiting only 10 minutes, and we got a 2nd class air-conditioned for only 10 pounds each, which I thought was quite a good deal. We were both very, very thirsty and the drinks on board were a tad pricey (e.g. a coke was five pounds, and bear in mind they make the coke sold in Egypt in Egypt, its not imported) but hey that's life. When we got to Tanta it’s a long way to the bus station, so we took a stroll around the shops first and then got a taxi, and we were again lucky as we got on a microbus and departed within 5 minutes of our arrival. It was nice to be out, but it was also nice to get home and relax.
3/4 June
Birth Certificates etc – I am pleased to say that after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, Reda was able to get 2 birth certificates for his Father's eldest brothers, and the following day he went to Cairo and delivered them to the office. These will now be kept on file until the 2 years is up, whereupon Reda has to go back to Cairo to complete the residency application for me. He was told in the office in Tanta that he has to go to Tanta every 6 months to sign a document to confirm that we are still together, but in the office in Cairo they told him that he does not need to do that. Frankly I don't trust any of them, so I think we had better do some of our own research to find out what needs to be done, as if we don't sign anything every 6 months I don't want us to find in 2 years time that my application is turned down because of this. That would be typical. Or am I being a cynic?
5 June
Potatoes – One of my uncle's investors has pulled out, and he is short of cash to pay the potato farmers, so it would seem that we are to invest in buying a further 75 tonnes of potatoes after all. Lets hope the market goes up!! Inshallah. I have a hum dinger of a summer cold, but hey, at least its not raining! No news on the buying land front. We're not sure if he is playing hard to get or simply not interested in our offer. We are going to wait a bit longer and see, as we don't want him to think that we are especially keen, as he is bound to put the price up. Part of me thinks that maybe we should wait until the Autumn, as if there does end up being a world wide recession then if anything land prices should fall in the short-term, even here. We're going to play it by ear for now . . . . . . .
Thursday, May 29, 2008
A summary of Life in Egypt so far . . . . .
3 May
Flew from Heathrow to Cairo – business class! We were 'chauffeured' from Bristol to Heathrow by Reda's friend – Chris – which was a great help. We set off just after 9am and arrived just before 12pm. At Heathrow we were treated very well, of course, being business class. As BC customers, we were treated to the luxury of going into the first class lounge, which was great, and once on the flight of course the extra leg room etc was very helpful. On the flight were a famous actress and a famous singer (Egyptian) which was nice to tell the family when we landed. We were very lucky at the checkpoint where we show our passports/visas, as a son of a neighbor who works there saw us and instead of waiting in line, he sorted everything out for us, and we did not have to get visas to enter. We did not have too long a wait for our baggage, and we went through customs quickly (helped again) and of course the family were there ready and waiting for us. Our things were taken outside and put into the minibus for our trip to Ibyar. We had a pleasant trip home to Ibyar and of course when we arrived, Reda's Mum was waiting for us and she was pleased to see not only us of course, but at long last her grandson Noor. We had a bit of a chat over a cup of tea, and then made our way upstairs to bed and to sleep. It was of course difficult to sleep and the noise of the cockerels, people in other houses round about etc etc is going to take some getting used to.
7 May
Reda Goes to Cairo – Reda went to Cairo today with the documents needed to register Noor's birth. He also took my passport etc and went to Tanta on the way back, to arrange my visa and ask about applying for permanent residency.
12 May
Toot Fruit – Went out this evening for a walk into the countryside, to have some 'toot' fruit. Basically, there are quite a few toot fruit trees growing on the side of the farms, which the farmers are happy for anyone passing by to collect fruit from. We went with Sammy and his children and Ahmed Ismail came too. The fruit comes in 2 forms, the white (which is actually pink) and the black. We went to a 'pink' tree first – 3 of us held out a sheet while the 4th person went up into the tree and shook the branches, so that the ripe fruit would fall down. We all ate from what we collected, and took some back for Sammy's wife (who could not come as they have a young baby at home). Later we went to a black tree, the juice of which stains the tongue, the hands or basically anything it comes into contact with. The fruit is delicious. I have never seen anything like it before and it is not something which I have ever seen sold in England – and would be unlikely too as its best eaten ripe, and does not travel well – they don't even bother selling it in the shops in Egypt as it goes bad so quickly! The fruit is very sweet. Too look at it does remind me a little of a loganberry – but it is a tree it grows on rather than a bush. Anyway we had a very pleasant afternoon/early evening. We had a nice gentle stroll back and stopped briefly for a 'sugar cane' drink before returning home.
13 May
Noor Has Egyptian Status.
Reda went to Cairo to collect Noor's Egyptian birth certificate.
14 May
Noor Circumcised.
Ahmed's daughter (Runna) was born in the early hours of today. Later this evening we went to the Doctor's clinic to have Noor circumcised. (ouch!)
20 May
Potato farmers meeting. My husband's uncle runs a business as an 'intermediary' – supplying seed potatoes to the farmers, and at the end of the 2 seasons, buying potatoes from the farmers, storing them and selling them a few months later at a (hopefully) higher price. Anyway, there were representatives from a Scottish seed potato supplier coming for a meeting with the farmers, to see the seed potato trials which were now coming up for harvest and as we were English we were invited along for 'fun'. Two of the chaps were from the London office (where the potatoes are shipped out from), and 2 from the company in Scotland (where the seed potato is grown/ trialed etc etc).
23 May
Buying Property. We discovered that the 'house' 2 doors down for us is for sale. Similar in design to our building, the building is made up of 2 flats. The woman who owns the building used to live in the ground floor flat, but she moved to Alexandria, and her son still lives in the first floor flat. She is asking 200,000 Egyptian pounds, though our friend who lives in the next building thinks we might be able to get it for about 160,000 EGP, as he's heard someone has offered 140,000 EGP for it. We were concerned about if there might be problems with the son, but we later discovered that in fact he wants to sell too, as he will get half and he wants to use that money to buy his own place. We have asked our friend to initially do some 'spying' for us to see truly how much has been offered and what sort of money they might settle at etc etc.
22 May
Artist at Work – We made a tape today of Reda painting a scene of mountains, lake and trees as a demo/promo for a possible TV program we want to suggest to
24 May
Noor's First Haircut/Potato Opportunity Noor's hair has grown quite long (and still curly!) but we've noticed that he does scratch his head quite a lot, which given the heat is only to be expected I guess, so decided that we should really help him to be more comfortable and cut his hair. Of course it was difficult, as Noor didn't want to stay still (I held him and Reda wielded the scissors!) but bit by bit we managed to 'shear' him OK. My 'little Lord Fauntleroy is no more ! He was really cute with his curly locks and now they are gone. He looks even more like a little boy now and not a baby.
We were asked if we might like to consider going into the 'potato stock market' business (as it were). My husband's uncle, as well as investing his own money each season also has investors from Alexandria and Cairo, who like him buy potatoes and store it – he acts as the 'manager' and he charges commission and shares the profit. As we are 'family' he asked if we would be interested in investing too, and though he would still potentially do very well out of it by sharing in 50% of the profit, he would waive the commission. We initially looked at buying about 30 or 40 tonnes, but due to connected expenses, the potential profit would be quite small and not really any better than the interest the bank would pay. Therefore we agreed to buy 150 tonnes of potatoes! After further discussion, I wanted to buy 200 tonnes, but Reda was concerned about investing so much money in case the price does not rise, or rises only slightly, as the cost of storage etc also needs to be taken into consideration, so we ended up sticking at 150 tonnes.
25 May
We are in the Potato Business/I have a Visa/Visited Friends. Today we went to Tanta to get money from the bank and to get my visa. Because we wanted to draw so much money out of the bank, and the notes they had were small, they suggested we go to complete our business with the visa and return in an hour or so to collect the money so that they could have it ready in larger notes (ended up being some 20's but also 100 pound notes, and the biggest were 200 pound notes). The visa place was interesting, as they are 'refurbishing' and so part of the office was outside! I guess its only in a hot country that this can be done. Anyway, I now have a 3 year visa to stay in Egypt, which is great. We need to look at applying for residency now, but have been told at the office in Tanta that we will need to go to Cairo for this. Basically, I needed the 3 year visa to apply for residency anyway, we then need to go to Cairo to apply for residency which will take 2 years to come through. During this 2 years, Reda will need to go back to the office in Tanta every 6 months to sign that we are living together. What a performance! Mind you, that having been said it is easier than applying for 'permission to remain' and then applying to be British, as you have to pass a test for that, and since Reda did it, its got even harder as you have to take more tests and show you can read and write English. I'd be stuck if I had to read and write Arabic, that's for sure!
Later that evening, we went to visit a friend of Reda's (Ali) and his wife and baby. They really are a lovely family and we were treated like royalty. The wife spoke a tiny bit of English and she really tried hard to make me welcome and to talk to me – she showed me her album from her wedding and was really very nice to me – as were their family (like most Egyptians, they live with the husband's parents) and we all got along 'like a house on fire'. It really was a lovely evening. Ali returns to Sharm El Sheikh tomorrow for work, but we have made tentative arrangements for them to visit us when he is next on holiday from Sharm (in about a month). Their little boy is a cutie – he is 6 months old but he seems much younger as he is so small (I would have put him at about 3 months at the most). It turns out he was premature, she had to have an emergency caesarean because of high blood pressure and he weighed only 1 kilo and 300 grams when born! So he still has some catching up to do.
26 May
Buying Land – Reda is excited about an opportunity to buy land on the main road. There is a long stretch of land right on the main road for sale. Next to it (beside it at the back but not on the main road) is a smaller plot of land also for sale. In front of the land behind (i.e. next to the long piece of land for sale) are 2 small 'shops' (in a poor state of repair) which are not currently for sale. He has heard that the man selling the long piece of land is looking for around 280,000 EGP for it. Reda feels that we could really do well if we could buy all 3 pieces of land, as we could then 'join them' as it were – and then either leave the land and sell at some point in the future, or even consider building on the land – e.g. putting a row of up to 4 shops on the front (which we could then rent out and be getting some money back on our investment in the meantime before selling it at some point in the future). Maybe even building flats on top and behind the shops to extend the potential. I can certainly see the potential here, but I am concerned about just how much money the entire 3 plots of land will cost us, how much it would cost to build on that plot, and frankly I can see that it would cost most, if not all, of the rest of the savings that we have. Ahmed Ismail (my husbands cousin) is to try to contact the person who owns the land to find out more details.
28 May
Buying Land (continued) - Sammy (our friend and neighbor) took Reda to see some land for sale which is near where he has some land. Reda feels that it is too far 'off the beaten track' in that it is between land currently being used for growing vegetables, and of course doesn't have planning permission. It doesn't look like a place which is likely to get permission to build for a long, long time. In the meantime, Ahmed Ismail has been able to contact the man who owns the land on the main street, and he will be ringing us later this afternoon/early evening; which he did. It transpires that Reda was too trusting in believing the man who told him the land was going for around 280,000 EGP – the man is actually asking for about 560,000 EGP !!! Ahmed said that of course this would come down with negotiation, but as there was land that recently sold on the street for 2,000 EGP per metre recently, we would still be looking well in excess of 400,000 EGP when all is said and done. And that's before looking at the other 2 pieces of land that are for sale! After discussion, we are thinking of putting in an offer for the land and if we can get it at a halfway reasonable price, building on that land only and forgetting about the land to the side of it, as we definitely cannot afford all 3 pieces of land – let alone have any money left to build on it! Whereas we might be able to manage the one piece of land and have money to build – it would use most of our money up – but we would then have rental income from the shops, plus of course we have money to come back from the potato investment. As of course we need to have some money to live on in the meantime !!!!! We are going to think about if some more … . . . . . . . . . . Of course we are both keen to invest now, as the village has a high percentage of people working abroad in Italy, and they will soon be coming back to Ibyar for their Summer holidays – and they look to invest in land – which puts the prices up, so if we can invest now before those prices go up, it would be much better really.
Flew from Heathrow to Cairo – business class! We were 'chauffeured' from Bristol to Heathrow by Reda's friend – Chris – which was a great help. We set off just after 9am and arrived just before 12pm. At Heathrow we were treated very well, of course, being business class. As BC customers, we were treated to the luxury of going into the first class lounge, which was great, and once on the flight of course the extra leg room etc was very helpful. On the flight were a famous actress and a famous singer (Egyptian) which was nice to tell the family when we landed. We were very lucky at the checkpoint where we show our passports/visas, as a son of a neighbor who works there saw us and instead of waiting in line, he sorted everything out for us, and we did not have to get visas to enter. We did not have too long a wait for our baggage, and we went through customs quickly (helped again) and of course the family were there ready and waiting for us. Our things were taken outside and put into the minibus for our trip to Ibyar. We had a pleasant trip home to Ibyar and of course when we arrived, Reda's Mum was waiting for us and she was pleased to see not only us of course, but at long last her grandson Noor. We had a bit of a chat over a cup of tea, and then made our way upstairs to bed and to sleep. It was of course difficult to sleep and the noise of the cockerels, people in other houses round about etc etc is going to take some getting used to.
7 May
Reda Goes to Cairo – Reda went to Cairo today with the documents needed to register Noor's birth. He also took my passport etc and went to Tanta on the way back, to arrange my visa and ask about applying for permanent residency.
12 May
Toot Fruit – Went out this evening for a walk into the countryside, to have some 'toot' fruit. Basically, there are quite a few toot fruit trees growing on the side of the farms, which the farmers are happy for anyone passing by to collect fruit from. We went with Sammy and his children and Ahmed Ismail came too. The fruit comes in 2 forms, the white (which is actually pink) and the black. We went to a 'pink' tree first – 3 of us held out a sheet while the 4th person went up into the tree and shook the branches, so that the ripe fruit would fall down. We all ate from what we collected, and took some back for Sammy's wife (who could not come as they have a young baby at home). Later we went to a black tree, the juice of which stains the tongue, the hands or basically anything it comes into contact with. The fruit is delicious. I have never seen anything like it before and it is not something which I have ever seen sold in England – and would be unlikely too as its best eaten ripe, and does not travel well – they don't even bother selling it in the shops in Egypt as it goes bad so quickly! The fruit is very sweet. Too look at it does remind me a little of a loganberry – but it is a tree it grows on rather than a bush. Anyway we had a very pleasant afternoon/early evening. We had a nice gentle stroll back and stopped briefly for a 'sugar cane' drink before returning home.
13 May
Noor Has Egyptian Status.
Reda went to Cairo to collect Noor's Egyptian birth certificate.
14 May
Noor Circumcised.
Ahmed's daughter (Runna) was born in the early hours of today. Later this evening we went to the Doctor's clinic to have Noor circumcised. (ouch!)
20 May
Potato farmers meeting. My husband's uncle runs a business as an 'intermediary' – supplying seed potatoes to the farmers, and at the end of the 2 seasons, buying potatoes from the farmers, storing them and selling them a few months later at a (hopefully) higher price. Anyway, there were representatives from a Scottish seed potato supplier coming for a meeting with the farmers, to see the seed potato trials which were now coming up for harvest and as we were English we were invited along for 'fun'. Two of the chaps were from the London office (where the potatoes are shipped out from), and 2 from the company in Scotland (where the seed potato is grown/ trialed etc etc).
23 May
Buying Property. We discovered that the 'house' 2 doors down for us is for sale. Similar in design to our building, the building is made up of 2 flats. The woman who owns the building used to live in the ground floor flat, but she moved to Alexandria, and her son still lives in the first floor flat. She is asking 200,000 Egyptian pounds, though our friend who lives in the next building thinks we might be able to get it for about 160,000 EGP, as he's heard someone has offered 140,000 EGP for it. We were concerned about if there might be problems with the son, but we later discovered that in fact he wants to sell too, as he will get half and he wants to use that money to buy his own place. We have asked our friend to initially do some 'spying' for us to see truly how much has been offered and what sort of money they might settle at etc etc.
22 May
Artist at Work – We made a tape today of Reda painting a scene of mountains, lake and trees as a demo/promo for a possible TV program we want to suggest to
24 May
Noor's First Haircut/Potato Opportunity Noor's hair has grown quite long (and still curly!) but we've noticed that he does scratch his head quite a lot, which given the heat is only to be expected I guess, so decided that we should really help him to be more comfortable and cut his hair. Of course it was difficult, as Noor didn't want to stay still (I held him and Reda wielded the scissors!) but bit by bit we managed to 'shear' him OK. My 'little Lord Fauntleroy is no more ! He was really cute with his curly locks and now they are gone. He looks even more like a little boy now and not a baby.
We were asked if we might like to consider going into the 'potato stock market' business (as it were). My husband's uncle, as well as investing his own money each season also has investors from Alexandria and Cairo, who like him buy potatoes and store it – he acts as the 'manager' and he charges commission and shares the profit. As we are 'family' he asked if we would be interested in investing too, and though he would still potentially do very well out of it by sharing in 50% of the profit, he would waive the commission. We initially looked at buying about 30 or 40 tonnes, but due to connected expenses, the potential profit would be quite small and not really any better than the interest the bank would pay. Therefore we agreed to buy 150 tonnes of potatoes! After further discussion, I wanted to buy 200 tonnes, but Reda was concerned about investing so much money in case the price does not rise, or rises only slightly, as the cost of storage etc also needs to be taken into consideration, so we ended up sticking at 150 tonnes.
25 May
We are in the Potato Business/I have a Visa/Visited Friends. Today we went to Tanta to get money from the bank and to get my visa. Because we wanted to draw so much money out of the bank, and the notes they had were small, they suggested we go to complete our business with the visa and return in an hour or so to collect the money so that they could have it ready in larger notes (ended up being some 20's but also 100 pound notes, and the biggest were 200 pound notes). The visa place was interesting, as they are 'refurbishing' and so part of the office was outside! I guess its only in a hot country that this can be done. Anyway, I now have a 3 year visa to stay in Egypt, which is great. We need to look at applying for residency now, but have been told at the office in Tanta that we will need to go to Cairo for this. Basically, I needed the 3 year visa to apply for residency anyway, we then need to go to Cairo to apply for residency which will take 2 years to come through. During this 2 years, Reda will need to go back to the office in Tanta every 6 months to sign that we are living together. What a performance! Mind you, that having been said it is easier than applying for 'permission to remain' and then applying to be British, as you have to pass a test for that, and since Reda did it, its got even harder as you have to take more tests and show you can read and write English. I'd be stuck if I had to read and write Arabic, that's for sure!
Later that evening, we went to visit a friend of Reda's (Ali) and his wife and baby. They really are a lovely family and we were treated like royalty. The wife spoke a tiny bit of English and she really tried hard to make me welcome and to talk to me – she showed me her album from her wedding and was really very nice to me – as were their family (like most Egyptians, they live with the husband's parents) and we all got along 'like a house on fire'. It really was a lovely evening. Ali returns to Sharm El Sheikh tomorrow for work, but we have made tentative arrangements for them to visit us when he is next on holiday from Sharm (in about a month). Their little boy is a cutie – he is 6 months old but he seems much younger as he is so small (I would have put him at about 3 months at the most). It turns out he was premature, she had to have an emergency caesarean because of high blood pressure and he weighed only 1 kilo and 300 grams when born! So he still has some catching up to do.
26 May
Buying Land – Reda is excited about an opportunity to buy land on the main road. There is a long stretch of land right on the main road for sale. Next to it (beside it at the back but not on the main road) is a smaller plot of land also for sale. In front of the land behind (i.e. next to the long piece of land for sale) are 2 small 'shops' (in a poor state of repair) which are not currently for sale. He has heard that the man selling the long piece of land is looking for around 280,000 EGP for it. Reda feels that we could really do well if we could buy all 3 pieces of land, as we could then 'join them' as it were – and then either leave the land and sell at some point in the future, or even consider building on the land – e.g. putting a row of up to 4 shops on the front (which we could then rent out and be getting some money back on our investment in the meantime before selling it at some point in the future). Maybe even building flats on top and behind the shops to extend the potential. I can certainly see the potential here, but I am concerned about just how much money the entire 3 plots of land will cost us, how much it would cost to build on that plot, and frankly I can see that it would cost most, if not all, of the rest of the savings that we have. Ahmed Ismail (my husbands cousin) is to try to contact the person who owns the land to find out more details.
28 May
Buying Land (continued) - Sammy (our friend and neighbor) took Reda to see some land for sale which is near where he has some land. Reda feels that it is too far 'off the beaten track' in that it is between land currently being used for growing vegetables, and of course doesn't have planning permission. It doesn't look like a place which is likely to get permission to build for a long, long time. In the meantime, Ahmed Ismail has been able to contact the man who owns the land on the main street, and he will be ringing us later this afternoon/early evening; which he did. It transpires that Reda was too trusting in believing the man who told him the land was going for around 280,000 EGP – the man is actually asking for about 560,000 EGP !!! Ahmed said that of course this would come down with negotiation, but as there was land that recently sold on the street for 2,000 EGP per metre recently, we would still be looking well in excess of 400,000 EGP when all is said and done. And that's before looking at the other 2 pieces of land that are for sale! After discussion, we are thinking of putting in an offer for the land and if we can get it at a halfway reasonable price, building on that land only and forgetting about the land to the side of it, as we definitely cannot afford all 3 pieces of land – let alone have any money left to build on it! Whereas we might be able to manage the one piece of land and have money to build – it would use most of our money up – but we would then have rental income from the shops, plus of course we have money to come back from the potato investment. As of course we need to have some money to live on in the meantime !!!!! We are going to think about if some more … . . . . . . . . . . Of course we are both keen to invest now, as the village has a high percentage of people working abroad in Italy, and they will soon be coming back to Ibyar for their Summer holidays – and they look to invest in land – which puts the prices up, so if we can invest now before those prices go up, it would be much better really.
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