Friday, February 17

As you can see, my belly has definitely become a pregnant lady's tummy. I'm always amazed when I look at it and think there are still 4 months to go! Things have been going pretty smoothly and I'm feeling pretty good. The 2nd trimester months are definitely the best.

What's going on in Egypt. Well, the conflict over the Denmark cartoons is still alive and well here. The students at school have planned a peaceful assembly/demonstration for next week. They want to show that they can protest without violence which is rather noble of them. They are so angry about the cartoons, and it's very difficult for them to let it pass by. I never would have realized what the big issue was until I came here. It's very, very blasphemous to depict the prophet Mohammed in any way. Even when they speak or write about him, they have to "peace and blessing be upon him." They take it seriously. Then, to depict him in such a way is extremely offensive. I don't think we have anything comparable in Christianity. Even depicting Christ in an offensive way would not get the same reaction. Anyway, we will definitely have to see how the "protest" goes because I'm not sure all of our students are mature enough to handle it. There's even been talk of the media being there. They said the American teachers could get up and say something, but we're all nervous about what might happen and none of us really share the students' viewpoints.

Let's see, interesting tidbits from Egypt. Our neighbor, who always leaves for work while we are standing and waiting for our bus in the morning, commented on the rain the other day. A normal thing to comment on, yes, but not a normal comment. He said something about the rain, followed by, "What a fantastic orgy!" Joe and I held in our laughter until he left, but then we noted that orgy must not mean the same to him as it does to us. We never know what he's going to say to us.

The weather has been a bit unusual lately too. One day last week, we came home to find about an inch of dust and sand in our apartment. We leave the balcony door open for Leia, and it was blowing so hard, the desert decided to come in. We've had windy weather, and then we've had a day of random rain. Yesterday, it was chilly and cold. Today, it was beautiful, perfect sun and temperature. I think we're in the season of never knowing what to expect.

The other teachers think it's pretty cute in the mornings because Leia comes out on the balcony to see us off to school. She comes out when we go down to the bus, and waits for us to leave. It's like having our mom send us off to school.