After the party......
What a whirlwind couple of days! On Saturday we went to the "shebka" party of my husbands maternal aunt's daughter. His cousin. Got that? They invited the entire family and I have to say, I've been a little nervous about going. So Saturday after the tutor left, the girls and I went to Cairo, so that we could leave with the brother who has the 5 girls. They had asked us to come for dinner. For some reason, the downstairs BIL wasn't going......so I had to make arrangements to follow someone else to the wedding.
On the way to Cairo in the car, we started talking about food. My girls were saying that they hoped she made molokhia, rice, chicken and something in a red sauce. And surprise, surprise....that's EXACTLY what she made. Of course, I had said something totally different.....I was hoping that she'd made liver and macaroni. LOL!! So we had a great dinner and sat around for awhile until it was time to go.
The girls got dressed to go.....and I was so pleased with them. My two oldest daughters had decided to wear fancy black abaya's......so did one daughter of the 5 girls.......and then another girl from the family wore one as well. So basically, all the older girls in the family were dressed very conservatively.....rather than the whole fancy wedding stuff. I was nervous about the troublesome SIL......and had decided that when I arrived at the wedding, that I would not say salaam to her. It would be impossible to judge what she'd do.....so I'd rather leave it alone.
When we arrived.....her husband was outside and saw us coming....and ran inside to alert the authorities...HAHA! We walked in.....found a table and sat down. Two tables away from them. Her two daughters were dressed up so fancy....makeup....spanish scarves....and they looked at us with our girls, and started snickering. Sigh. At one point, when my daughter passed by one of those girls in the wedding, the girl jumped back, like she had been burned. Burned by goodness, I suspect.
In fact, with all the girls in the family dressing conservatively, it made their own two girls not look so good. Can you imagine that those two girls are 24 + 26?
Well, nothing much happened.....they left us alone and we just enjoyed ourselves. All our girls walked over to their table and said salaam to the family....but they excluded the SIL and her two daughters. They said that they just couldn't handle the pressure of it. I let it go.
By the time the party was over, it was 12 midnight....so I called hubby and told him I would sleep over in Cairo.....couldn't see me arriving back home at 1 am. The girls all jumped for joy! YAY! So we get back to Cairo....and my SIL decides to make something to eat....most of the girls were hungry.....and surprise, surprise....she makes liver. LOLOL!!! So I stood there and told her....you've made all our wishes come true today.......alhamdulillah.
Amazingly, I slept very fitfully when I was there.....and we had breakfast the next day and left to get on our way.
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So my oldest needed a new school shirt, so since we were closeby, I decided to go to this very busy street that I know, where they have lots of clothes. No luck for us on the shirt....but something good came of the delay.....I noticed a couple of stores selling fruit and veggies. I parked the car, and walked over. What a surprise....I found that it was an entire market.....like a maze inside. I went back and got my 11 yr old to come in with me...cuz she loves going to places like that. We got broccoli, red and yellow peppers, hot red peppers, zuchinni and cucumbers. And I don't know what else. But the prices were so much better than my city. What an amazing find.
Then across the street they had a bakery...and I went to get submarine buns....called fino....and OMG...they were huge!! Just like a true submarine bun!! And I noticed that the same person had loaves of bread...which is another surprise.....so I bought two loaves....one white and one brown. Oh happy day!
Well, we have an apt in the family bldg. We haven't finished it yet. But I"m really thinking that when the villa gets done, for me to get hubby to start working on this apt. It'd be really nice to go there in the summer for a couple of weeks. I'll keep it in mind.
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I've been thinking last couple of days.....oh yes....always thinking. LOL! So I'm going to write out a list of expectations....yes, I still do possess some......and basically....when hubby comes to live in Egypt again...insha Allah, I'll prolly give this to him. What do you guys think of that? I've much to say on this issue....but let me gather my thoughts and make it a seperate post.......
posted by Safa at 2:56 AM
7 Comments:
Asalamalaykom Safa,
GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FU-UN! OH-OH, GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE...THEY JUST WANNA! THEY JUST WANNA-A-A! OH-OH GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN!
Had to send you a little 80s music to accompany that montage of memories :)
You might as well enjoy the good times :) And alhumdullah, it sounds like you did!
6:07 AM
I think that it is only fair to write out your expectations and give them to him. Although we would think that our men could and should know what is right and expected, we can't assume that!
8:46 AM
I'm working on that list...and it's not easy to write without sounding whiney......
10:14 AM
safa.. i have a question for you..since you raised kids in egypt and in canada as well,
where do you find its cheaper to do so? where do you think the 'societal pressure' is less?
and where do you feel its most convenient to do so?
like is shopping w/ kids in egypt for instance easier? or going out with them in general?
ofcourse, by 'kids' here , i mean under 5 years of age.
i mean it seems like you really enjoy living in egypt , and i'd like to know what it is that makes it so.
what do stay at home moms do all day in egypt?
i live in virginia and sometimes i can tell you its fun, but other times being a stay at home mom can get to you, yur bored. and especially if you start going back to school, there's a part of you that starts to poke you into putting your child in day care and start working. (i have no problems with moms working if they need to or they felt thats the best decision for them but i do feel that staying at home is the ideal for my family and thats the light in which im asking these questions).
hope yu'll be able to address that without too much trouble :-)
burgundy
10:53 AM
If you are coming to Egypt, and you already have money....you'll find living here the expenses are much less. A family of 5 could prolly live off about $2000 LE per month comfortably.....that would be just over $300 US per month.
There is social pressure here, but it's about different things.....no social pressure to have premarital sex in Egypt...(at least next to none).....but social pressure to dress good......
Shopping with kids in Egypt under the age of 5 is a run around here. It takes some getting used to. Lack of sidewalks, busy streets, you develop a 6th sense.....
Stay at home moms can do lots of things, the best thing, is the local masjids always have classes......
I figure you could always ask a lot more.......are you thinking of coming here?
1:43 PM
yeh my family has plans to move there in a few years.
One of the things i like about the US is playgroups and storytimes and things like that for kids, or pet shops, zoos etc. So what kind of things are there for kids to do in egypt?
Also, how do you like the schooling there?
My husband is always saying how 5000 LE pounds for instance is a huge amount in egypt .. but now yuv actualy substantiated it.
however, are you also including like school fees to good islamicish schools in those 2000 LE pounds?
5:53 PM
The longer you wait to move here, the harder it'll be. I left Canada when my oldest was 9 yrs old. Her arabic wasn't great......and had I waited any longer, it would have been difficult for her to adjust.
About the schooling. We opted to put the girls in a semi private school, as opposed to the fancier ones. Why? Well, we wanted them to adapt. We didn't want to set a standard that maybe we couldn't maintain. The schooling system isn't at all like Canada.....and it is probably upsetting at times, but you have to get used to it. I always told my kids, ur just like everybody else and you'll get used to it....
Prolly in Cairo you'll find playgroups and things like that.....I'm not sure where you'd be moving to. It's really about making connections with ppl and making ur own things.
$5,000 LE is a good amount. If that's what you had to work with, you'd be able to buy your groceries like a foreignor, (not care about prices), pay for tutors for the kids, and have some extra money on the side.
The fees for fancy islamic schools cost an arm and a leg.....but you could probably manage something at about $6,000 LE per year.......it goes up and onwards from there depending on ur kids ages. Again, tho......I prolly wouldn't do that. You could register ur kids in a semi private school like mine, and then send the kids daily to the mosque for quran and islam classes at very modest prices. If you wanted to pay a little more, you could get a sheikh to come to ur home. Again.....we are talking very modest prices, possibly about $40 LE per month for a sheikh to come to the house.
The best way to make Hijrah to Egypt, is to get ur husband to go first and get things set up. You have to be completely prepared before you leave the states. Have ur apt, all ur furnishings, a car...everything.....if you don't do that......it's going to be very hard......I know....we came here in 97, only to leave 11 mos later......when we came back in 2001, we were better prepared.
10:49 PM
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