Car mafia

For those who don't know, we live in a big building on a very fast-moving, busy street in Cairo that has very little parking. Certainly not enough for all the cars that belong to the people in the building. The solution: Car mafia!

The car mafia that lives in our building takes care of all our parking. We simply drive up to the building, double park the car, and go on up to our apartment. The car mafia -- a multiple man team whose main players are two guys called Ayman and Ramadan -- finds a place on the street for our car and parks it. Ramadan has a spare set of keys, and Ayman does services like cleaning the car for a fee. They are available basically 24 hours a day, and we pay them a monthly fee for the service that would seem insanely cheap in the U.S.

For tips, they will also carry up your groceries for you or do various other services.

You would think this is a great service, but it is actually incredibly annoying. There is no option, for example, to NOT use them. And recently it seems to have taken another turn, toward serious corruption.

First of all, we have noticed that whenever they seem to need extra money, they clean the car's inside without asking us first and then as for a fee for this service. Recently they have been "cleaning" our car multiple times a week and demanding we pay. And their monthly fees have gone up well over 100 percent since we moved in less than two years ago.

We have also noticed that we have gotten an extraordinary number of flat, punctured tires on our car that need to be replaced. The car mafia, actually Ayman in particular, is constantly coming up to our apartment to inform us of a flat tire, which he will then volunteer to replace for us for a fee. This has happened three times in the past three months. Somehow the flat tires always seem to happen when the car is parked downstairs, and always when Ayman is on duty to conveniently knock on our door and offer to fix it. The tire has never gone flat when we are out and about. And miraculously, Mike has never had a flat tire at work.

Additionally, the car simply wouldn't start one morning when Ayman was on duty and we had to be somewhere very early. We opened the hood but couldn't see any problem. Ayman called his friend the mechanic who managed to miraculously fix the car while we were out, and we could never get a clear answer as to what the problem was. And our car is a Toyota that is less than two years old.

Mike has been convinced for some time that Ayman was scamming us -- sabotaging our car and then offering to fix it for a fee plus hefty tips. But I was not entirely convinced. Now, I am convinced. Today, we had our third flat tire. Ayman came upstairs less than 30 minutes after we came home and rang the doorbell. We didn't answer it because Maya was sleeping. Later, when we went out for a walk, Ayman came and followed us and showed us that our tire was flat. Then he showed us a huge pin that was in the tire (that we had supposedly driven over), and pulled it out of the car. Mike was mad, but he just told Ayman we didn't want to deal with it then, and we left on our walk. We specifically did NOT ask Ayman to fix it, as we had previously decided that e ould not give him business for car problems any more.

When we came home, Ayman had already replaced our tire with the spare from the trunk, as well as pounded out a dent in the car, and was hitting us up for money for these "services", plus asking for additional money for "cleaning" the car. None of which are services that we had asked him to do. Grrrrr. What an annoying way to start a weekend!

Maya at the monasteries

While I was working the weekend shift today, Maya and Mike and Mike's parents went off on a tour of the Coptic monasteries of Wadi Natroun. They had a blast and Maya seems to have enjoyed having lots of open space to explore.

'Grilled' cheese sandwich

Question: What happens when you promise your 2-year-old that grandma will make her a 'grilled' cheese sandwich for lunch after a trip to the park, but then grandma heads to the kitchen instead of outside on the balcony to the grill?

Answer: Temper tantrum!

The other day at the park, it was time for lunch. Maya had some requests. Request number one was McDonald's (which conveniently has a branch visible from the far reaches of the park playground). Request number two was pizza. Both were vetoed and Maya was promised a grilled cheese sandwich made by her Grandma Laura, who is visiting. That was enough to lure her from the park.

When we got home, Maya made a beeline for the sliding glass door to the balcony while Grandma Laura headed for the kitchen (you know, where the oven is). Maya demanded that the sliding glass door be opened so she could go out to the grill (you know, where naturally a 'grilled' cheese sandwich should be made).

When she realized her grilled cheese sandwich was not going to be made over open flames on the grill, she was NOT a happy camper. I guess I can understand her. It WOULD be pretty exciting to see a cheese sandwich made on a fiery grill, the flames lapping at the edges and all. We had to take Maya into the kitchen and gently explain to her that while it was called a 'grilled' cheese sandwich, it is actually made in the oven. Poor baby!

Allergy Rerun...

I am a little worried that we were overly optimistic in saying that Maya has grown all her allergies from babyhood. As a baby and young toddler, Maya had allergies to wheat, all berries and guava. But by about 18 months, and definitely by age 2, she had outgrown every single one of those allergies.

We delayed introducing some other common allergens, like peanuts, shellfish and tree nuts. But then one day Maya got ahold of a peanut butter granola bar and started sucking on it. No reaction. So we figured we were in the clear for nuts, and we started letting her have foods that have trace amounts of peanuts in them. Again, no problem. We are still avoiding shellfish until age 3...

Anyway, today Maya tried a piece of walnut. I figured it would be OK as she has had other similar stuff, like sesame seeds and pine nuts, with no reaction. She chewed the walnut a little, but didn't like it and spit it out. Then she went down for her nap. When I went in to her room to get her after she woke up, I was greeted with a 2-year-old with two black eyes. I felt her belly and felt the telltale bumpy skin. These were the exact same reactions she had to berries and wheat early on. But the strange thing is that the reaction to walnuts faded quickly. It was almost completely gone within several hours. Her previous reactions had stayed for up to a week. So I am not sure how to interpret it, whether it is a real allergic reaction or not. I guess we will ask Maya's doctor when we go home to the U.S. for home leave, but that is not until sometime this summer. Until then, well, let's just say we'll be avoiding walnuts...

Baking cookies

Here are more pictures, this time of cooking cookies (and one more from fagnoon because I couldn't resist).

Fagnoon again

We took Maya and her grandparents to Fagnoon out by the pyramids again to do some painting. This time, we didn't get lost, and we discovered that Fagnoon is really only about 20 minutes from our house (not three hours!). Maya had a blast!

Maya at Daddy's office

Here's a cute picture of Maya taken by one of Mike's colleagues.

Cheering on the home team

All night last night, the streets of Zamalek were filled with revellers celebrating Egypt's African Cup victory over Cameroon. They honked their horns, played loud music and yelled and cheered. As we put Maya to bed last night, here's what she said:

"Mommy, I get older, I dance at the party!"

You got it, Maya!

Breaking News!!

My cooler-than-ever sister-in-law got to meet my fave presidential candidate today at a rally in New Orleans. She shook his hand and invited him to visit the school where she teaches at (a girl's gotta dream, right?). Oh yeah, and did I mention she shook his hand!!! Go Michelle!!

I guess the chances are pretty low that he'll come to Egypt to campaign for the expat vote... Darn!

Maya knows her name (almost)!

Maya knows the first four (out of six) of her names! If you ask her what her name is, she will say: Maya Meron Ruth Bababa!

OK, well, she does need a little prompting. The real conversation goes like this:

Me: What's your name?
Maya: Maya Meron!
Me: Maya Meron what?
Maya: Maya Meron Ruth!
Me: Right! Maya Meron Ruth what?
Maya: Maya Meron Ruth Bababa!
Me: Right! Good job!

And just to clarify, her fourth name is not Bababa, it is Abebe (pronounced: Ababa) which means flower in Amharic. But she says Bababa. And she thinks it is funny because it sounds like what a sheep says. But hey, as long as she learns it, that's OK with me. We can pin down the pronunciation later. Now all we have to do is teach her her two last names... But we are definitely making progress!

I voted in the global online primary

I am very happy to report that I voted in the global primary today. We expats will get 22 delegates. Yeah!

I am sure many of you already know who I am voting for. I won't say here, but you can probably figure it out from my demographic. You know, the under 40 mother of a black child. My child, of course, has already made an endorsement on this blog...

Did I mention that I am also a former resident of the state of Illinois? (hint, hint)

Beautiful Ethiopian braids

Tiberh did Maya's hair yesterday in seriously beautiful traditional braids. They are absolutely gorgeous! I had asked her a couple weeks ago if she could do a traditional hairstyle for Maya, but I was not expecting it yesterday!

I was jaw droppingly awed by Maya's hair yesterday. I wonder if I will ever be able to do braids this beautiful. Here are some pictures of Maya eating pomegranate this morning with her new hairstyle.

False alarm!!

Woo Hoo! It's a false alarm. Maya's friend doesn't have chicken pox after all!! Well, I don't know if that makes his life any better, since he's still itchy with a rash. But the good news is he's not contagious so he will be going to music class tomorrow and Maya will get to play with him!

Chicken Pox Scare

Guess what's going around Cairo! Chicken pox!

We just had our first chicken pox scare!! Aaaaah! It turns out one of Maya's closest friends has just come down with chicken pox. He was apparently just days away from getting the immunization when he broke out in spots. Poor boy!

Anyway, his mom called me to let me know what was going on and to check whether Maya had had the vaccine. I couldn't remember and had to summon Mike to look in her vaccination records. Fortunately, we found Maya's records, and she had the vaccine a year ago!

It doesn't mean she can't get chicken pox. I looked it up on the CDC website! But the chances of her catching chicken pox from this exposure are pretty low, and if she does catch it, she will likely only have a minor case. We will know for sure we are home free in a week or so... But in the meantime, please send Maya some special vibes to ward off chicken pox! Oh, and also please send some special vibes for her friend that he feels better soon!

Maya at the park

Our Internet connection has been awful recently due to some undersea telecoms cables getting damaged in the Mediterranean Sea. We never lost our connection entirely, but it has been slow. Supposedly, Egypt is supposed to be back up to around 70-75 percent of capacity by now. But the network is not expected to be completely normal for a week or so.

Anyway, here are some recent park pictures of Maya to tide you over (if I can upload them on this connection, that is).