Back and Busy

I arrived home over a week ago and jumped right back in to the rush of life. Lots going on at church in areas I am not normally involved in but because everyone else is gone it becomes my business. My big children's event One Wild Week is a week away and there is lots to do and get organized involving that. So far we have not had as many sign ups as usual and that worries me a bit, praying that we have at least 50-60 in order to have good energy and feel to the event. Wouldn't be a bad thing to have a small crowd but just different than years past and hard to plan for the unknown.
Caleb has settled in nicely, he got to take ownership of my old laptop and has turned into quite the little techie, teaching himself games and navigating around quite well. We have access to an amazing pool for the next week so that helps a great deal to get him out and playing and burning off some energy.
Pondering a possible move to a nicer bigger place. I would really like to have a guest room so that when people visit I don't have to sleep on the air mattress as well as extra bathroom so Caleb and I don't have to negotiate every time we arrive home and both have to pee. (He usually gets sent to pee in the yard since the option exists for him.) I love my little home though and my close knit community will be sad to let that go. Still pondering the issue.

St. Katrina and Mt. Sinai

Vacation 2011 is in its final days, we leave for Cairo tomorrow.

Currently I am sitting out on a rocky mound under a very blue sky with a cool chill in the air gazing at the mountains of Sinai. I have 4 out of 5 kids and they are reading to each other and being mellow, Andrew has volunteered for his first nap of the day curled up next to me. The others left at 1:30 am for an early morning hike up Sinai we will meet up with them in a bit at the monastery at the base of the mountain.

Yesterday we went on a beautiful hike up to a mulberry tree where we feasted on mulberrys and then treked back down into town for ice cream...doesn't get much better than that. In the photo it might be hard to tell but the town is right in the center of the picture and we hiked out of town and up the mountains.

We hung out for the afternoon kids playing some make believe game and the adults playing Settlers of Catan. We had planned on going into town for a grilled chicken dinner when our bedouin host showed up with 2 large fish to cook up for us bedouin style. Now for Sarah and I this was just fine being that we like fish but for the rest of the crew not so exciting and unfortunately there was no culturally correct way to wiggle out of an unwanted meal by a generous and very sweet host. His wife came along and made fresh bread over an open fire and showed the kids how to do it. The kids made a meal on the fresh bread and were perfectly content with that. Hopefully we have one more hike left in us before we head home tomorrow.

It has been a great 2 weeks and it will be hard to go back to just the 2 of us. Caleb has thrived in the company of all these kids and has really been a sweetie to be with. I am looking forward to getting back to Cafe Greco which may have had to lay off some help in my absence. I have not had a really good cup of coffee since we left.

Colored Canyon

Faces of Fun!

Egypt is always an adventure

So we have spent the last 2 days camping in bamboo huts on the shores of the Red Sea at a place called Basata. Saudi Arabia is quite visible across the sea and Jordan and Israel are just a few more miles up the coast. The place is quiet (with the exception of our 5 kiddos) and serene. The ssnorkeling is minimal but even so we had a close up show with a good size eel. The kids continue to enjoy the freedom and open space and we adults enjoy the freedom of sitting and watching with one eye while reading with the other. We had a couple of tourist spots we wanted to visit and in spite of the ease with which Lonely Planet described them we managed to find an encounter of the " Only in Egypt" kind. Yesterday we wanted to visit Salah El Din's castle which is on an island 5 minutes out to see. After a 30 minute argument at a police check point for not having our passports (which the hotel was keeping for the tourist police who check in there) we finally were allowed through only to arrive at the boat departure point and be told the boat is out of commission for 20 days. So we spent 5 dollars each on a soda and sat and stared at it for a while as Jonathan and GJ attempted to swim to it. We turned around and came home a bit disappointed but nothing that a dip in the sea couldn't resolve.

Today's adventure included driving out into the mountains in search of the colored canyons that I had visited a few years ago and deemed worthy of a hike. So we load up the car early this morning, passports in hand, and head out only to be stopped yet again by tourism police saying we had to have permission from the tourist police in town in order to travel down the necessary road. We turn around and head back to town argue a bit more and get a piece of scrap paper that gives us permission BUT we need to take a Bedouin guide with us to show us the way. Admittedly the guide was most helpful as it was quite the 4 wheel trek to get to the location and good practice for me. We had an awesome hike with minimal whining on the part of the kids and then topped off our great adventure with a Chinese meal in Nuweiba.

Now we are back atteh ea and everyone is cooling down and I am prepping to change a tire ( a close call!)

So we continue to enjoy our time away although home seems to catch up with us where ever we go. Protests continue in Tahrir and news abounds about tourist visas being denied. For me personally I am in a safer position with a work visa but for most of the teachers at Caleb's school and for the Turlan's who work as volunteers for a refugee school this is a critical issue. We all get nervous with the talk, but I am reminded again and again of my study of Ephesians and the reminder that really this is a spiritual battle that is taking place in spite of how it may appear as just a political one. God has called people here and I guess at times he has reasons to call them away. I know more than anything this is a reminder again f how desperately we need to be praying for Egypt. I think, on a positive note, that the Army has decided to postpone the parliamentary elections. I see this as a positive for 2 reasons.

1. it allows for more time for other political parties to organize and participate in a process that up until this point appears headed for a Brotherhood sweep.
2. hopefully in the delays there will be a change in order and we are hoping that the constitution will be written by a selected committee rather than by a Brotherhood led Parliament.

Anyhow the real issue isn't so much to understand all the political ramifications as much as to be prompted to pray. So Pray!!!

Kids played a diving game endlessly with Jonathan.

The best milkshake in town for my little snorkler who conquered his fear.









3 pools Reef and Myself, Jonathan and GJ post dive. It was quite exciting to be back under again after all these years. I got a bit nervous when we were reviewing the rules etc... but once we descended it all came back quite naturally. I must say I feel my age though when it comes to carrying all that equipment!



Sandcastle in the making which turned out to be a sand turtle

Reasons to Come Visit

View from the back of our Dahab hotel










































Turlan's at Dinner

Basata Paradise

After 5 wonderful days at Dahab we have moved south to a remote location on the beach called Basata. It is run by an Egyptian/German couple who are true
environmentalist. Everything out here is hand made from local sources. They have a kitchen so you can cook for yourself (and clean up for yourself) and then at night they do a community style dinner. We are staying in cute huts facing the sea, cozier then one might imagine but hot. We will be here for 3 nights and then move onto St. Katherine (Mt. Sinai) for our last leg of the vacation. I expect my computer to run out of battery here and not be able to recharge for a few days so will likely drop out of cyber connection.

The pic of the night time skyline is Dahab's boardwalk by night.

Vaca Part two and three

Our campsite and view
After 3 fantastic nights in Sharm enjoying all the perks and pleasures of 5 star living we moved on to the other extreme of camping in utter and beautiful isolation. The scenery above the water was barren and simple and absolutely untouched and under the water an explosion of creativity on God's part; abounding in color and variety and thick with fish. We camped right on the shore and our Bedouin hosts prepared all our meals and a campfire for us every evening. The adults loved it I am not sure if the kids were as enthused or appreciative of the experience.

Next we drove about an hour and half down the coast to Dahab a left over hippie town with a totally different vibe to it than the more touristy and glitzy Sharm. The place I normally stay at here seemed to lose our reservation but this turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We found a MUCH nicer much better located hotel with a much better pool so everyone is happy on all counts. So far we have contented ourselves with snorkeling but tomorrow GJ and Jonathan and I will go diving. I have not dived in years so hopefully it will come back to me easily. Caleb has really gained confidence in both his swimming and snorkeling, he is working on overcoming his fear of the fish when they swim near. Everyone but me saw an octopus today.

The first pit stop on our 8 hour long journey. Kids really did great and the time went quickly. We stopped at Moses Spring and told them the story from the Bible.

Big Catch Up

Finally on VACATION and man is it good! Today is the last day of a 3 day visit to Sharm. We managed a great all inclusive package (drinks, alcohol,3 buffet meals a day, afternoon ice cream, water slides) and we are soaking up every ounce of it. We check out in a few hours and the kids are down in the pool with Jonathan for a snorkling lesson before we head to the beach to go camping for 3 days. Caleb has loved the pool, not as enthusiastic about the beach but hopefully when he learns how to snorkel he will be a bit more excited.

He has really been learning to overcome fear these last few weeks starting with a trip to a water park at the end of school. He went down a small slide and enjoyed it but wasn't willing to try a bigger one. Here at the hotel they have a bigger one and after a day of stalling he agreed and went down with me and LOVED it. He was quite proud of himself and eager to share his accomplishment with anyone willing to listen.

Sadly Sharm is very quiet as tourists have obviously made other summer plans, but I am sure if anyone is willing they can find some great deals and some beach solitude. I just heard rumor that protesters closed teh road that we had traveled here on. Glad we made it through when we did. I know big protests are planned for July 8 so keep praying that real wisdom and peace will prevail. I don't think there is any real concern for our safety but rather it is about the future of the country. I do think a positive that comes from some of these protests is that the protesters (many of them at least) are the educated and wiser voices and it is a chance for their voice to be heard by the uneducated populace which is a much greater number. The masses will follow religion if no other reasonable argument is made, protest is a form of a reasonable argument so we ought not view it as all bad I don't think.

On an interesting note we drove in right past the hospital here Mubarak is being held, it is under significant police protection, makes me wonder how an emergency victim would gain entrance.

Just finished one of my holiday books the Happiness Project. Now two more to finish and then I can start some new ones. Not sure what my internet abilities will be while camping so this may be it for a few more days.