Dancing Queen!

Guess who is going to enroll in dancing classes in September? Miss Maya is! It is going to be one morning a week, assuming there is still room in the class. It is technically a class in creative movement. Maya has been begging for ballet classes, but the ballet class was in the late afternoon on one of her two "school days", so I thought it might be too tiring.

Beautiful Maya

Sharky

Here are some pictures of Maya at the pool today. Seriously, I don't know what we would do ifwe didn't have access to a pool this summer. It is so hot out that our only real options during the day are the pool and the indoor playplace at the mall. And let's be honest, we can't do the mall every day.

We usually do both activities on both days of our weekend. And Maya swims every day of the week as well. We have to take her swimming or she won't get tired enough to go to bed at night. I can't believe how much energy she has. She never stops -- even without the now-dropped nap. Seriously, she has to be engaged in some sort of physical exertion for 45 minutes out of every hour of the day. How does she do it??

Also, she can run faster than 4-year-olds. And the other day Tibby took her to a toddler play class and they played musical chairs. Maya was one of the youngest kids and Tibby said she wononce. Somehow I'm not at all surprised. She's going to be a sporty girl in school I'm sure!

Maya's idea of time

Here is Maya's idea of time. Here is Maya's timeline of her life:

Life started when "I was a baby". As in: "Mommy, I was baby in Zamalek?" or "Mommy, I was a baby, I throw my 'opia hat out the window and I cry?"

After she was a baby, there was "last morning". Last morning runs from the time right after she was a baby to earlier today. As in "I ate a vitamin last morning (5 minutes ago) and I watch Barney?" or she could say "Last morning (yesterday) I had a swim lesson?" or "I go to the zoo last morning (2 months ago)?" Somehow time phrases are always questions. Not sure why.

Then we have the future-oriented "today", as in: "You go to work today, mommy?"

And we have "one minute" and "five minutes". This is used to delay as long as possible something she needs to do but doesn't want to.

And then we have a "couple days", a "couple weeks" or "five weeks". That is how long she perceives she has to wait for something she wants.

Our neighborhood

Just thought those of you who haven't been here might appreciate a picture or two of our building and street. So how many trees there are (for Cairo anyway, and compared to Zamalek for sure).

Also a note on Maya's verbal development. She has learned how to turn verbs into nouns. Hence the "hunter", "hider", etc of the the last post. The other morning she came out of the bathroom distressed because she couldn't find the potty seat -- you know the one that fits over a regular potty seat to make it easier for kids to use the adult potty.

She said: "Mommy, the potty worker is not there."

Overheard in Mayaville

Outside, walking by a basketball hoop: "Daddy, I'm a basketball hooper."

Playing chase: "Mommy, you're the hunter. I'm the hider."

Randomly: "I'm a grumpy frog."

Under the mango tree

Mike and I were both off from work today, and we took Maya swimming at the pool. She is back again to swimming to the side of the pool on her own, and she is doing it from longer distances, too. After an hour or two of swimming, we got out of the pool and went over to the adjacent outdoor cafe for a snack and some cold drinks and sat at a table under a mango tree.

As we were relaxing there, the wind blew and a ripe mango fell off the tree. The waiter brought a knife, Mike cut the mango and Maya had a special treat. An hour later, the wind blew another mango off the tree, which we also ate.

In the meantime, the waiters thought it would be funny to try to knock some mangos off the tree with a broom handle. But the ones they got were green and hard and not ripe. Then a little boy tried to get some mangos by throwing his soccer ball at the tree. But he just got hard ones, too. I guess the lesson is that mangos will fall when they are good and ready, and there's no point trying to knock them down before then.

It was a very cool experience! And it makes me see the benefits of living in Egypt, where a lot of material goods are not always available. How often do you get to have your 2-year-old eat a ripe mango that she has watched the wind blow from a tree?

More swimming in Sharm

Wow. After about 30 million tries on my *$#*&* internet connection, I finally managed to download this video of swimming in Sharm el-Sheikh. This is the first time Maya actually let go in the pool and swam and jumpd in by herself without floaties. We did this for like an hour and she thought it was terrific. But then the next day she was afraid to jump in by herself again. Anyway, we are definitely making progress.

Maya holds a baby

Maya got to hold her friend S's baby sister, who is just two months old. She is obsessed with all things baby. She wanted to watch little sister get her diaper changed, wanted to kiss her, to stroke her head and just generally be around the baby. So S's mom let her hold the baby, and I have permission to post some pictures!!

She wants to have a baby sibling really badly. Well, actually she says: "I want a baby sister like S". I did explain to her that would mean sharing her mommy with a baby sister, and that remark was met with silence. But it didn't seem to stick because a few minutes later she was back to saying: "Mommy, I want a baby sister like S's sister".

Pictures (to go with Mike's post below)

Mike's guest blog: What's in a July 4 party?

We came back early from the beach to make the annual Independence Day party for the American community in Cairo. We've been going to these parties in Egypt since 1998. We told Maya to get ready for a party, and that was enough to persuade her to cooperate in leaving the beach. The party was more-or-less as advertised. Hot dogs, burgers, bouncy castles for kids, music and dancing. All as expected. But we left with an unsettled feeling - and I asked Cindy if I could borrow her blog to write about it.

This party is a chance for Americans to get a little taste of home, and the organizers work pretty hard to make it a good time. They get a good turnout. Not only do we keep coming back, but you get an assortment of military, petroleum, diplomatic and other families who make Cairo their home - along with a lot of study abroad students who come for the free food. This is July 4th, after all, and it should be a big celebration of all things Americana.

This is why we left feeling unsettled. The July 4th party in Cairo is definitely 100 percent quintessentially American, but not all American. Expatriates are not necessarily representative of Americans as a whole. But at our American club we hear Spanish, Arabic and sometimes Hindi spoken by the members, and inter-racial families are probably more prominent than in the U.S. generally. But not at the July 4th party. The crowd was very very white. The music was nearly all country-western and swing. An official statement was read recognizing Americans who are in the military, but no other reason for Americans to live abroad - nor any other part of the American experience generally. The quintessential America the organizers were recreating was clearly white America - and mostly southern white culture at that.

One of the reasons we like the neighborhood in Cairo where we live now is we feel we don't stand out as much. With Americans here, usually, we feel some relief from constant staring because our family looks different. This is good for us - and I think it it will be good for Maya - to appreciate our American identity while living abroad. But we didn't feel that way at the July 4th party. We stood out. And the quintessential American culture they reproduced for a few hours wasn't really our identity - and it definitely wasn't an identity that would easily include our daughter.

A few years ago, I probably would have seen the party organizers' choice of music ("My achy-breaky-heart" and "I'm proud to be an American" were pretty representative) as quaint amusements. But this time it felt more disturbing.

We are pretty used to not fitting in among Egyptians, and we seek that out by living in our little American-influenced Cairo neighborhood. I don't really identify with any of the nationalities we've lived among in the Middle East, but it is also hard sometimes to feel that many Americans back home can appreciate our experiences and worldview. A region that is usually portrayed as dangerous and threatening is just normal and routine for us, and for Maya.

It's often with fellow expatriates here that we have felt most at home, and that especially includes the American commmunity that we've been more a part of recently. The expatriate community has really become Maya's community. Maybe this is why it felt most disturbing now to feel, at least at this American gathering, that we really didn't belong. Quite often, we enjoy not fitting in. But on July 4th, we wanted to fit in, and while Maya still enjoyed dancing and jumping, we didn't feel that we totally belonged.

Sharm trip for Daddy's birthday

We just got back from a nice short trip to Sharm el-Sheikh and the beach. It was fabulous! Actually I had to go Sharm for 5 days for work for the African summit, and then Mike and Maya flew out two days before the end of my trip, and we stayed an extra two days. So Maya got 3-1/2 days at the beach at a really nice resort. She had a blast, and it turned a work trip into a totally fun family experience!