Thursday - Back to Cairo

The plan was for Melanie and Kaja to play squash at 11 AM this morning and for the rest of us to do other activities including a walk on the beach in Port Said. Well the best laid plans oft go other ways. Today the plans did that as well. Instead we headed back to Cairo much earlier than we had planned. Not sure what the changes were but about 1 PM off we went. The trip was pretty uneventful except for the stop at the hyper market where we had lunch. When we arrived in Cairo one car went back to the house and the other went on to other activities. At the house was Nana, Ezzat, Susan, and myself. On to other activities was Bonnie, Ephraim, Kaja, Melanie, and Megan. Among other things one of the activities was bowling. Megan was the winner. Back at the house we were supposed to be resting but no one really did. Nana laid down for a bit but don't think she really rested.

At about 8:50 PM we were off to the church for the rehearsal. This was pretty standard even in the U.S. Practiced walking down the aisle got instructions on where to sit and stand. The music as selected and then we were done. Took about an hour. The wedding is Saturday at 2 PM. Looking forward to it.

After the rehearsal Bonnie, Ephraim, Kaja, and I (the four) went back to the house. Ezzat, Susan, Nana, Melanie, and Megan went to Nana's house to do some more work getting it ready. I think the four had a much better time than the others. We certainly spent some quality time with Ephraim and Kaja and got to know them better. They are a delightful couple and we are very glad to know them. We now have a great reason to go to Poland as well. We are looking forward to more time together. While we were chatting some laundry was done and hung out to dry. About 2 AM we finally got ourselves to bed. Looking forward to Friday.

Wednesday - On to Port Said

 
Another day with a late start, off we go to Port Said. It's about a four hour trip from Cairo to Port Said, Port Fouad though my brother Ezzat and his son Ephraim with tell you that it's about 3 at the most. About 50 km out of Cairo we stopped at a new Hyper-Market A hyper-mall is like a WalMart super store on steroids. I mean this place was huge and you could I think get everything under the sun though I didn't see a lumber yard but then I wasn't looking for that. Unlike super stores in the U.S. there are employees all over the place to help you find things even if they don't speak English. I'm sure they do much better than most Americans would helping a foreigner find things at Fred Meyer.

After the hyper store it was the long haul to Port Said for a party for Nana. Since she is not getting married in her home town she wanted to have a party for the people that would not be able to attend the wedding. We were able to renew some old acquaintances and made some new ones while we were there. Nana's brides maids all lined up and introduced themselves to me and I promptly forgot all of their names except the last young lady. Her name is Maggie and I told her I got that one. The rest of the names were more difficult. The party was fun. We ate, talked, ate, and talked some more and a good time was had by all.

Bonnie and I were both surprised by one young man we met when we were here seven years ago. His name is Ravey. He was just a little kid running around and annoying his brother and now he is in high school and seems to be smart-as-a-whip. He speaks English amazingly well, obviously taking after his brother. He is a very pleasant young man and I look forward to the next time we will see him. I was hoping to see his brother Andrew but it looks like we will miss him. We spent a lot of time together the last time we were in Egypt.

After this party, Bonnie and I went back to the house in Port Fouad. The others went onto another surprise party for Nana. She was really surprised and all had a great time. I spent much of the evening both at the party and when we got back home talking with David Milad Beniameen. We played table soccer for a couple of hours the last time I was here and had a great time. We had a wonderful reunion as well.  He is at University now studying computer science so we have a natural discussion platform.

The weather was cooler by the Mediterranean Sea than in Cairo so we had a nice respite from the heat. Another late night so will sign off for now.