Arts and crafts and culture (and stuff) Part I

Two Fridays ago we spent our only free day for two weeks at the summer home of the director of our language school. Let me start this post by saying I AM EXTREMELY GRATEFUL WE HAD THIS OPPORTUNITY AND I ENJOYED IT IMMENSELY.

I’ll continue and describe the hour-long 110 degree bus ride to her house. Then I’ll go on and discuss the hunger that gnawed at our bellies as our director encouraged us to use her pool and the nearby beach – lunch would be ready soon, like, in two hours! Finally, I’ll expound on our top-notch teachers who came along and “uh-uh”ed us when they caught us speaking English, and sought us out in unsuspecting moments so as to corner – er, catch – er, guilt – er, encourage us to converse with them in either classical or dialectical Arabic. (I really, really wanted to listen to the man playing the oud…)

Well, upon reflection, perhaps I’ll discuss other aspects of this day-trip. Our director Al-Mudeera’s* house is beautiful – absolutely beautiful. It’s an entirely closed-in compound, started 40 years ago from a sandy plot of land next door to Al-Mudeera’s father’s house, about an hour away from the area we live in along the cornice. (We discovered at the end of the day that there’s a more direct route to her house on the highway – that passes right by the 6 or 7 oil refineries that ring Alexandria.) Every year, as she and her husbands’ incomes could afford it, they added on. First sat just the house. Then the second floor of the house. Eventually a pool was added, and arranged artfully. Eventually the second building was added, which sits perpendicular to the first, and acts as an arm delineating the boundary of the property. It stretches for 30 or 40 feet, 2 or 3 rooms in a row, with 2 or 3 beds in each. The second floor is one long room with 6 or 7 beds, and storage filled to the brim with ancient childrens’ toys. Bikes, Big Wheels, jump ropes, dollhouses - EVERYTHING I WANTED AS A CHILD.

The decision was unanimous: We’re going to adopt Al-Mudeera as our Grandmother from Another Mother…and Another Continent.

*Al-Mudeera is Arabic for "the director." It would be unwise of me to name any actual names. Y'know?