1st April 2008 - Sunshine today and
the younger children's Maths homework - there are some really
bright kids here with good futures ahead of them.
2nd April 2008 - Eventually sorted
out accommodation - we have seen so many flats and some really
good and some really really bad but in the end when we gave our
landlord our notice he made us an offer we could not refuse to
stay in the same building (probably did not want to lose the
rent over the quiet summer months) but it suited us as we are so
close to the new Sunshine Village when it opens and we are happy
with the place and now the price as well!
4th April 2008 - We have new
neighbours - 17 of them in all! We thought that two of the adult
geese had been killed as we had not seen them in the last few
weeks but they must have been sitting on the eggs inside.
4th April 2008 - A fun packed
evening at Luxor Conference Centre at an event organised by the
Resala Group - I do not know much about this group but from what
I understand they are an organisation who do work on a voluntary
basis for the benefit of children in the area including those at
Sunshine. They did an excellent job of organising about three
hours of non-stop entertainment. An excellent night and it was
an honour to be there and we were proud to see some of the
Sunshine children up on stage to receive their awards along with
other Egyptian children and just shows how far things have
advanced over recent years with the Sunshine children now being
more accepted in the community.
5th April 2008 - A day at ACE
animal hospital to do a few DIY jobs and for a while it felt
just like being in the UK when we were painting and assembling
shelving units and putting handles on drawers etc but it was
difficult not to be distracted by the animals. For me the
highlight of the day was feeding the two month old donkey and
for Jo was playing with four abandoned kittens. Even with the
distractions of the animals we managed to get some work done so
overall a productive and enjoyable day and we will follow this
with a lazy and unproductive evening in front of Grey's Anatomy
and whatever rubbish is on the TV.
6th April 2008 - Another afternoon
at Ace and more handles on drawers and cupboards and of course a
chance to see the animals but had to leave early to get back for
our weekly Arabic lesson. A puncture on the way back from Ace
could not dampen the smile of our taxi driver. If you ever find
yourself in Luxor you wont go wrong by getting Mohammed to drive
you and he is one of the safest drivers here.
7th April 2008 - Back to work at Sunshine and in an attempt to
aid the fundraising we have made a "fundraising thermonmeter" to
try to track the money needed for the final building in the
Sunshine Village. Will add photo when I can.
11th April 2008 - A quiet day but
went out for the evening to Gerda's Garden in Karnak followed by
a few drinks at the Genesis Pub. Highlight of the evening was a
baby camel outside the pub.
15th April 2008 - A
days work at Sunshine followed by an invitation to a Gallery
opening at a local art college. The kids from Sunshine were
invited to attend the opening and party afterwards and the
evening began with a showing of the film Ratatouille (In Arabic)
which was screened in a room at the art college with A4 paper
sellotaped to the wall for a screen, was too bright in the room
to see the screen and at 5pm after a very hot day closely
resembled a sauna. I must admit that we were not disappointed
when with 30mins still to run in the film we had to leave to
attend the gallery opening. The kids from Sunshine had painted
some pictures to add to the art by the college students.
17th April 2008 -
Sunshine and today many of the boys received new Egypt football
shirts from one of the supporter of Sunshine. After the recent
victory in the African Nations Cup the boys were very excited to
be wearing their countries colours with the names of some of
their favourite players.
After
19th April 2008 -
Another day at ACE and more painting to do but it was not all
work as we had time to play with the latest puppy to be received
by ACE.
20th April 2008 -
A hectic day of running about trying to organise and set-up a
party for the manager of Sunshine to celebrate her "special
birthday" which would take place tomorrow but since it was her
day off we decided to involve all the kids and have a party on
the roof of the home today. Not a easy feat to organise a
surprise party for someone while they are in the same building.
I wont tell you what "special birthday" it was for her but if
you really want to know I will tell you on 21st April 2058 when
she receives her letter from the Queen.
Above shows the
preparations for the party with the kids behaving so well while
they waited for the party to start. I think the good behaviour
might have had something the do with the chocolate cakes that
they could see and were too afraid that if they were not on
their best behaviour they might miss out. Below shows gthe party
in full swing with food, music, dancing and balloons. All the
ingredients of a good party.
22nd April 2006 - The
doctor had to be called as Jo's chest infection and cold were
getting worse not better even after two sets of anti-biotics and
numerous other drugs. Doctor came quickly and after a few jabs
in the rear and a large prescription of an even wider variety of
drugs Jo was told that she would be better soon!
26th April 2008 -
Jo's birthday and we had a meal booked with a few friends at a
local restaurant but Jo's chest infection and cold were still
bad so the meal had to be cancelled and another night in the
flat was all we could do to celebrate yet another year passing.
I had needed a hair cut for many weeks but had not got around to
it so I decided the time was right for a cut so partly to cheer Jo up and partly just because I was bored I
disappeared into the bathroom and "hacked" large sections of my
hair away with scissors and a razor. It made her laugh but then
we had the problem of trying to tidy up the mess. Below shows
the during and after photographs.
28th April 2008 - A
trip to the West Bank was planned but Jo was still not well
enough to come so I being the kind and considerate partner I am
I left her in the flat and went anyway! We had been invited by
our friends John and Sue who we got to know after they were very
helpful after my mothers accident in February. I thoroughly
enjoyed the trip to the West Bank with them both for the sites
we visited and the excellent company. It was a day of firsts for
me with visits to some places I have not been to before . We
started at the Monastery of St Tawdros and were expecting the
place to be busy as it was Coptic Easter Sunday but we had the
place to ourselves. The Nuns were very welcoming and even gave
us not one Easter chocolate but insisted we had a second. The
monastery itself has Roman and Greek masonry as well as the ones
I paid particular attention to which were pharaonic. I can
thoroughly recommend a visit for anyone who has half an hour to
spare and is nearby. Next we headed for the Valley of the
workers to go to the tomb of Peshedu which although not a large
tomb has spectacular illustrations and colours. The last time I
was in the Valley of the workers was on September the 12th
following the events at the Twin Towers and I am glad to say the
atmosphere was much more relaxed and laid back this time.
While in the Valley
of the Workers we took the opportunity to visit the small
ptolemaic temple of Hathor. Somewhere I had not seen before and
certainly one I will be visiting again. This was followed by a
visit to the Ramesseum which I have visited many times and it
still remains as one of my favourites.
