HOPE in Egypt

This is from my friend Phyllis, who lives (and stayed) in Maadi, Egypt during this time of change there.

"This amazing thing is happening here in New Maadi today. There are tons of young kids like college or HS kids out on
he street cleaning up. The place is getting so clean! It is amazing. They really want to make a NEW EGYPT and it brings tears to my eyes to see all the youth out there working together. I stopped and gave bottles of water to some of the kids and they were so thankful and kind. They spoke English and seem educated and really wanting a CHANGE to happen here. One had a paper that she was handing out to people and it was written in English and Arabic. They were passing them out to all the cars passing by. Of course I read the English version!!!
Here is what the paper said:

Egypt is calling everyone for help!!!

Buy Egyptian Products.
Drive with good manners
Be nice and smile =)
Spend your vacation in Egypt.
Convince non-Egyptians to spend holidays in Egypt.
Keep streets CLEAN! Don’t throw rubbish in the streets.
Open a brokerage account and buy local share in the stock.
Donate blood and unwanted stuff.
Vote in September!! Every vote counts
No More bribes or cheating in our beloved Egypt!
If you see someone doing something wrong, try to politely talk to them.
If you see any corruption, stand up against it and call 16117
LOVE EGYPT AT ALL TIMES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!IT’S YOUR HOME!!


ISN’T THAT COOL THAT THE YOUTH ARE MAKING A STATEMENT LIKE THAT AND REALLY PUTTING ACTION BEHIND THEIR HOPES AND DREAMS.
The streets over by my house and between here and the school is where I saw all those kids cleaning. The bags of garbage were piled high and the places they were sweeping or picking up garbage and the areas next to the streets were all nice and clean. It was great.
I hope it will continue and that people will keep up the desire to make Egypt a better and cleaner place to live. It really is a wonderful country filled with lovely people."

There are many things I need to blog about evacuation and life in limbo, but I wanted to start out with HOPE.

Love to you all and thanks for all the support and prayers.

Amiee and family

VERY late in coming: Italy part 2

To remind you:
Amiee traveled to Rome and Naples, Italy in late October. She spent the first part of the 10 day trip in Rome with Karami. She then traveled to Naples to attend a training on one of the military bases there.

Here is the rest of the photos:

Rain!

It is interesting to see how rain affects a country that rarely sees it.

The holes in the roof all of a sudden become a MUCH bigger issue.

The garbage, that just looked gross before, looks A LOT worse floating in the streets.

The sand, that was just annoying when it got in your shoes, is now mud and is squishing between your toes.

A beautiful, new alabaster ramp in the elementary school is now a slippery slope of potential stitches and broken bones.

People who could barely drive anyway are all of a sudden hydroplaning all over the road.

Ahhh...the things you forget when you live in the Sahara

I am coming back...don't worry!

Well, friends and family in this part of the blogosphere...it has officially been too long since I updated our blog. I am sorry! I still need to post rest of Italy pictures and all of our November trip to Israel as a family. Then I need to tell you all about Emma's baptism and about my sister Angela and her boyfriend Evan visiting us. Then it will be all about Christmas and New Years. I will catch you up and I will make good on blogging our life here in Egypt, but it isn't going to be today because I have to make bread, make jello salad for Emma's class, make hot cocoa for Sarah's class, go to parties in both Emma and Sarah's classrooms, go to basketball game for Josh and get Angela and Evan off to the Egyptian Museum. I also need to exercise, read my scriptures, make lunch and dinner and clean up:) Just another typical day! Today is Thursday and I plan to blog tomorrow (our "sunday") to catch it all up.

Love you all and thanks for all the support and encouragement.

Amiee

Pictures of Italy--part 1

November already!

October flew by in a haze of craze, and now it is into November. I feel like I am just getting my feet back on the ground:)

After 12 years of not really leaving the kids, all of a sudden I take 2 trips, for a total of 18 days gone, within 3 weeks of each other!
I just need to say again: My husband really is amazing and kind and amazing and wonderful and amazing and supportive........and...and....and..!!!!!!

I left the family on October 20th and met my friend Karami in Rome, Italy. We spent 4 glorious days touring around, seeing incredible things, eating incredible things and laughing about a lot of things:) It was great!

After Rome, I had a training in Naples, Italy and spent 5 days there. I didn't have a car and was on an American military base, so I didn't see as much as I did in Rome. I did get to a local market and tried the wonderful mozzarella cheese and fresh olives. I also got to run outside a lot, so I was happy about that. I didn't get to see south, down the Amalfi Coast or Sorrento (another trip to Italy is a must I guess), but I saw to the north, a place called Gaeta, and I also saw Mt. Vesuvius and some of Pompeii.

After Naples, I headed back to Cairo and reunited with my family. I missed them so much and even now, 2 weeks later, they are still telling me how glad they are that I am back:)
Absence does make the heart grow fonder!

It takes forever and a day to download pictures, but I will put them up. It just may be a few posts of just photos.

For the Eid break, our family is taking a trip to Israel all of next week and we are very excited to explore that part of the world, especially to see places where Jesus Christ actually walked.

It has finally cooled down here and is the perfect weather! Fall is in the air and we are looking forward to Thanksgiving....I already have a turkey hoarded in my freezer:)

The Egyptian people are kind people in general and I am enjoying a more settled, relaxed feeling living here. I think we all feel the 2nd year has been easier than the first---maybe not as exciting and new, but a lot more comfortable.

Well, gotta go try to find the Israeli embassy----wish me luck. Sometimes I really wish they had roadmaps that were accurate here!

Love to you all and Happy November:)

Amiee's Alaskan Adventure

Because I have an AMAZING husband, I got to fly to Alaska for the wedding of Aaron (my youngest brother) and Hillary. I left on Monday at 6am and didn't arrive in Alaska until 9pm on Tuesday---that included an 11 hour time change! I got to see London, NYC, Salt Lake, and Seattle on my way. It was beautiful flying across the USA in the daytime and seeing the whole country! Flying into Alaska (Ketchikan) at sunset was beautiful.

I arrived in Juneau a bit delirious. After a good sleep, I woke up on Wednesday and took a bush plane to Gustavus, Alaska. This town has about 400 people, with 60 kids in the school k-12. There are a few paved roads now, but still my house is still on a dirt/gravel road. This is where I grew up and where the family home is. My parents were working all day and none of the other siblings were there yet, so I went myself to Gustavus and had a sunny day in the true beauty of Alaska. I saw mountain goats and black bear on the flight there. I kayaked in my parent's single kayak, I went to the beach/dock, I saw friends and enjoyed the quiet of the forest--I mean absolute stillness and quiet where all you hear is sounds of the forest and nothing else. It really was great! That night Aaron (who was still working at the Glacier Bay National Park for another day before ending) and I hung out, talked and had yummy pizza at my friend's restaurant (the only one in GST).

After a night of darkness, with stars all over, and just the sounds of the wilderness around, I got up and rode a bike all over town in the rain. The gray skies made the fall colors and the evergreens stand out and the rain brought out the smell of wild cranberry bushes---it was fantastic! I saw a bald eagle on the dock road and listened to its call...one of my favorite sounds in the world. OK OK =-) I won't go on and on anymore, but I will say that I flew back to Juneau refreshed and rejuvinated....and my lungs felt cleaned out from Cairo's pollution:)

Back in JNU: Andy and Heather and little Bryant, Alan and Lisa and little Logan, Amber, Angela and Evan had all arrived and we got to spend the rest of the time (thursday through Sunday) hanging out, laughing, teasing Aaron and each other and just plain having a blast. Amber and I went running through the glacier trails with Uncle Mike, we all ate lunch with the wedding party and saw a whale right outside the window and we got to go on a boat to pull crab pots, then I got to eat said crab less than 1 hour later:)

The wedding was in the observatory of the Mendenhall Glacier and in spite of the rain and gray skies, we got some amazing pictures and saw our "little" brother get married to a girl he really loves:)

As I said, I could go on and on, but I will stop now and just put on the few pictures I have of flying into Gustavus and my time there. I hope Andy and Alan put up some pictures of the wedding because my camera ran out of batteries and even my back-up batteries were dead!

One more thing: when I grew up in GST we had church in our living room. Now there is an actual church house in good ol' GST! Amazing....really.