Merry Christmas From the Hamptons 2010!

Its been a busy 

year for the Hamptons 

and God continues to show his faithfulness to our family! We began the new year by exlploring the Red Sea at the now reknown Sharm el-Sheik. Sam is a certified diver and has about 20 dives in his log, including Thistlegorm, a suken WWII vessel! 

In Februrary, we welcomed our third granddaughter,  Whitney Jill,  into our hearts and the arms of Jesus. During her short life inutero she touched many people through the faith of her parents. 

In March,  Sam took a fishing trip to Lake Nasser and caught a 65 # Nile Perch! I had an entire weekend of quilting at our flat. This past year I have completed 4 quilts from my UFO pile and made 2 for the granddaughters!

We took a local leave to Amsterdam and Bruges toward the end of April-Kuykenhoff Gardens were in full bloom! We enjoyed the chocolate and beers in Belgium, as well as the countryside!

 Sheyenne and Sean were able to come visit us in May.  We made our way down the Nile to Luxor and Valley of the Kings! The ancients captured our imagination and we became thoroughly pharonicated!

We also hosted the Landers from Joplin, Mo on their way to and from Africa in June. That was a pleasure as would be a visit from you!!!!

The Desert Ball is a FUNction put on by the local Rugby association. Sam and I had the pleasure of attending the dinner/dance held in front of the  pyramids at Giza. What a memorable night!

As you might imagine, the weather in Cairo gets plenty hot during the summer months! It parallels the weather in Phoenix so when we took our home leave the end of the summer, we were going from here to the same kind of weather! We had a great home leave; I criss-crossed the US to see kids in three places and when Sam joined me, we did it again! 

 God has been faithful! Megan and Eric minister in a church where he had been the sole minister for over a year. Carrying those responsiblities as well as his own youth ministry was a lot of long hours! God gave him the energy and the organization to keep a lot of balls in the air at once! Now they have an interim pastor and hopefully he can be at home more! Emmalia (3) is in pre-school and Kaira is a busy toddler of 1.

God also allowed David’s hearts desire to change schools from DePaul University to The University of Chicago where he is studying Economics. He is incredibly happy in this academic environment! He is a part of Crew and enjoys early morning workouts on Lake Michigan!

 Sheyenne and Sean are blessed to be expecting a baby May 5th or so! God has seen them through a tough year and they give him the Glory! We are excited to welcome this precious gift into the family! At the moment Sean is pursuing work in ministry, being laid off due to the staus of the CA economy. Hopefully we can be sharing His Faithfulness in this area as well, and soon! 

This October,  Kim met folks from Highland Park CC in Israel for 10 days. It was an amazing trip through the Holy Lands!  While I was there, Sam was starting a new job in the other joint venture- Qarun! He is now the Drilling Manager there. He  is enjoying the challenge and new work-nearer to home!

Sam and I just returned from a trip to London, took in some plays and museums and captured the Christmas spirit as we watched it snow the first day there!

We attend Maadi Community Church where Sam serves on the Board and Kim works in the Women’s Ministry in the area of NewComers Hospitality. 

We attend a Life Group where we study and come to know the Lord and each other better.  Right now we are searching for a way to serve Egypt as a group. 

Kim works in the Baby Wash ministry near Giza and enjoys her Quilters in DeNile quilting group! On weekends, we may take a trip, go for a walk in the Wadi, or just stay home and read. We are enjoying our life in Egypt, but we miss you all as well! We wish you all  

                  A  Merry Christmas!

  We’d love to hear from you!  

Sam and Kim Hampton  PO BOX 27582,    Houston,    TX      77227

Kim’s Blog: samandkimintulsa.blogspot.com

Pigeons

Pigeons have become a theme, or at least a presence, in my life lately so I feel the need to share my experiences with you! We have just returned from London, where these prolific little birds leave their marks on statues and buildings, desecrating the very things tourists have gone there to see and photograph! In  2001, we were in London on a tour and  I was saddened to see signs in Trafalgar Square that read: Do Not Feed the Birds and Feeding Birds is Illegal. After all, Mary Poppins encouraged feeding the birds as a gesture of goodwill and I was in the Land of Chimney Sweeps and Magical Governesses!  This time there were no birds in Trafalgar Square; I guess the tourists got the message! There were no pigeons.  The Sea Gulls have moved in!

Pigeons coming home to roost

Pigeons are also very important in Egypt. As we drive along the highway, pigeon houses are visible (among all the satellite dishes) on the top of tall buildings. They are made of wood slats--sometimes painted and can house many pigeons. The pigeons are released in the morning to fly about the city. As the end of the day draws near, the pigeons return to their respective homes, attracted by their owners personal flag. Sometimes you can see a young boy atop the roof, waving a flag, calling the family pigeons home.  Back in the day, pigeons were used to carry messages, but that was WAY BACK in time. Sometimes pigeons are raced; owners release their fowl from a specific place and the first ones home are the smartest, most efficient fliers. But most of the time, pigeons are a food source. One of our Egyptian friends told me that it is customary to eat pigeon on ones wedding day....and for seven days after that! It is believed that pigeon makes a man very 'strong!' I was able to capture a couple of good shots of pigeons returning home to a pigeon house!

 Pigeon House in the country (Anafora)

There is another style of pigeon house found in the 'baladi' or agricultural areas. This unique style of house is made of mud, brick and plaster with inset clay roosts. They can be whitewashed or painted and can hold dozens of nesting birds as well.  Here the birds are free to come and go naturally.

















In Israel, I had a pigeon encounter that I will not soon forget!  I was on a tour of the Holy Lands with a group from Highland Park Christian Church in Tulsa. (I met them in Tel Aviv, coming from Egypt). On this particular day we were visiting the Mount of Ascension, the location where tradition has it that Jesus left this earth to go to Heaven to be with our heavenly father.  A small chapel stands humbly over the site of the Ascension, and the rock that bears His footprint. Large enough for about the 12 of us, (and one pigeon),  we were standing around the 'footprint' rock listening to our tour guide's explanation when all of a sudden, I was hit on the head! Falling rock? No, a pigeon who needed to relieve itself! Right on my head!

Footprint of Jesus on the Mt. of Ascension

 It brought back a memory of a Christmas long ago when my daughter, Sheyenne, was talking to the Toy Soldier at Utica Square, looking him square in the eye when a pigeon pooped right in her face! This was the beginning of my 'payback' from that time when I was laughing so hard, I could not stand up for fear of wetting my pants. That was not one of my prouder moments as a parent. My daughter was crying, I was laughing, and my husband was saying, "Kimberly! Kimberly! KIMBERLY" Oh My!

Back to my story; I felt like I had been hit with a pea shooter! Trying to act nonchalant, I did not think anyone had noticed. After our guide finished talking,  several people around me came to my aid and  with many Kleenexes, we cleaned it out of my hair (for the most part).  As we filed out of the chapel past the guide, he leaned over to me and said, " In Israel, we call that Holy Shit!"  Appropriate!

                                                              

The final encounter I want to tell you about occurred when John and Phyllis Wilson were here in Cairo for a visit. We had gone to the Citadel to see the beautiful  Mohammed Ali Mosque. I had been there several times so I sat on the red carpet and watched people while John and Phyllis took photos.  If you notice in these photos, there are blue outlines on the red carpet. These are spaces for people to kneel and pray; facing toward Mecca. You can see this mosque would hold a lot of people! This particular day there were a lot of school kids visiting. They came up to me and asked, "How are you? What is your name? Where do you come from?"  They were very cute but as they turned to run away toward the teacher, Smack! something hit me on the back! "Those kids threw something on me!" was my first thought. "The little stinkers hit me with a tomato!" was my next thought! Well, I felt around to the wetness on my back and what my hand revealed was NOT tomato in origin! About that time, John comes by and seeing what happened says to me, "Man, some bird dropped a load on you!" It must have been a stool pigeon!

Home Leave

    

      I may be out of practice blogging, but I have some thougths and some stories rolling around in my head I think you might enjoy.  Since I last blogged, I have been to the US on home leave and had a wonderful time visiting friends and family all across the US, from California to Chicago and Phoenix, Tulsa, Grove, and KC in between!  As the days grew closer to my departure to the US, I felt like Dorothy must have felt as she clicked her sparkling jeweled heels together, repeating, “There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home.”  There truly is no place like home!*

     It was great being back home!  We had wonderful beds to sleep in and 
     great food, and a refreshing time of fellowship.  We relaxed, we visited, 
     we shopped and went to Dr. appointments.

     I learned a few things on our first home leave:

     1.  Going to three doctors appointments in one day is so efficient!

     2.  The shopping is not finished until one boards the plane (in Germany)

     3.  Shopping for something in particular is still as frustrating as always.

     4.  The food I chose to eat was sooooo gooood...and fattening! I gained 
          10 # while I was on home leave! 

     5.  The time I planned at each stop along our route was not long
           enough.

     6.  Most people don’t want to look at photos, or hear stories they can’t  
          relate to, and they really,  really, don’t want a plastic snow globe 
          pyramid  with golden glitter and the statue of Ramses in it! 

My first week home was spent with Mom and Dad in Kansas City. Most of the time I had jet lag- I think I was a little like Dorothy, waking up and wondering where she was and what had happened to her! Getting up at 3 in the morning, I entertained myself by making cards in Mom’s well-equipped craft room until she came downstairs in search of coffee!  We went out to the family farm in Council Grove and had a great lunch at the Hays House Restaurant.  We caught the tail end of summer sales and did a redecorating of Mom and Dad's living room!  Fun!

In Oklahoma, I went by Fiddler’s Bend where the Flint Creek and the Illinois River come together and picked up my dear friend, Connie. We road-tripped it over to Eureka Springs for a peaceful, relaxing  and  encouraging time with each other. We stayed at a cute boarding house/B & B, reminiscent of the Wagoner house in that it was all Victorian/antique decor.  From our balcony overlooking the Ozark Mountains, we could see the Christ of the Ozark statue! We meandered through the streets stopping at shops along the way. Eureka Springs was built around several springs so there were places to stop and enjoy the parks around them as well!

One of Eureka's Springs

Me and Connie

Humpty Dumpty Before the fall!

Christ of the Ozarks from our balcony

One of our favorite places: Connie and I wrapped up a great visit toodle-ing around Fiddlers' Bend in her golf cart!

Fiddler's Bend

*As I was  writing this post I was reminded of a song by Albert Brumley. While I love being with family and friends, and I call Kansas/Oklahoma home,  I know my  true home is heavenly!


This world is not my home, I'm just passing through.
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.
The angels beckon me from Heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.

Summer Fun: Survivor on Funniest Home Videos

Fresno reminds me a lot of Tulsa. In its size, the way it is laid out, and the restaurants and shopping available.  It is hot here, in the 100s, like Tulsa too, but without the high humidity.  Yesterday was an exception to the one hundred degree heat. When we  left the neighborhood to go out for breakfast it was in the 80s. As we left, we noticed a group of five kids playing, hanging out around a gate to a backyard on the street directly behind Sheyenne and Sean's house. Sheyenne's kitties were in her back yard and as we left, she said, under her breath, I hope they are nice to my kitties."

We enjoyed a great breakfast of cherry and strawberry waffles (two different orders!), eggs and bacon and coffee. We were poppin' full when we left and eager to get home to our next project. That would be sewing for Sheyenne and me and playing b-ball for Sean.

As we rounded the bend in the street that gradually takes one from Whitney Ave. to Solar Ave, we noticed a group of kids congregated on our side of the street. Pulling into the drive way, we could hardly believe our eyes! Five kids had taken up residence in Shey and Sean's yard. They had ropes strung between two trees, palm fronds laying over the ropes and all sorts of camping gear scattered on the grass.

Sheyenne's response, "you've got to be kidding me", and Sean's, "look at all those kids in our yard! I have never seen them before!" got me to laughing! The sight was hysterical!

Among the kids is a girl holding a video camera. You probably have encountered the 'older sister', the 'group leader,' 'the boss,' 'the director' in your own childhood games, so you know the situation. We get out of the car and I said, " this looks like a set from Lost or Survivor!"  The girl-in-charge says, "Yes! it is. We are filming a show sort of like survivor for World's Funniest Home Videos"  Sheyenne's reply-"no one is going to get hurt-right?!" was  answered with a chorus of no's and some giggles. When asked if they had seen any cats, they said, " Yes! Two. And the yellow one wanted to jump on us and play with us."  "Where are they now," Sheyenne asks?  "I don't know," replies a little boy with dark hair and a ornery grin.

We walk into the house laughing and shaking our heads at the 'nerve' of these kids making themselves at home in our yard to see two frantic feline faces searching the bottom six inches of uncovered patio doors for signs of SOMEONE to let them in the house. Sean opened the door and let the two inside. They dashed in, tails held straight up, to their food dish where they chomped away at the anxieties caused by the last hour with KIDS in their yard!

I have been to Fresno several times now-at different times of the year-and I have not seen kids in this neighborhood. It was such fun to see kids being creative, playing outdoors and it reminded me of a time when this was not a strange occurrence, but the norm. We didn't play just in our own yards, we were all over the neighborhood! I can remember re-enacting scenes from Gilligan's Island, and pretending to be archeologists, unearthing all sorts of treasures 'found' in neighbors' yards. We hunted for butterflies, fireflies, raced turtles found on country roads, played "Kick the Can" as the street lights came on. We built forts on the clotheslines, Barbie houses in the roots of Elm trees, we played Hop Scotch on the driveway and Jaxs on the porch! What a good little trip down Memory Lane I had this afternoon because a group of kids CHOSE OUR YARD to play in. I hope some day that they will remember this afternoon and their 'reality show taping' and be reminded of a carefree, happy day!

Sheyenne walks over to the front door. "It sounds like they are gone," she says. I join her on the front lawn. There is not a shred of evidence--not one palm frond--that anyone had ever been there, staging a camp scene, filming a video for AFV. I feel a moment of sadness that they are gone. It was such a joy to see them having fun!  Maybe I will catch them on America's Funniest Home Videos...stranger things have happened.

Update to the Trip to Holland.

Remember we went to Holland and saw the beautiful Kuykenhoff Bulb Gardens? Here is a photo of the Giant Amaryllis I brought home!

Some Things Get Lost in Translation!

I hope you get a chuckle out of this one! We live in a multi-cultural city, where lots of things get translated from arabic to English. Sometimes this makes our lives easier...and sometimes it just makes us wonder....

Sam and I ordered dinner in from one of our favorite sandwich places. We ordered a turkey with cucumber and tomato sandwich...this is what we got!

Summer in Cairo

Summertime in Cairo is not-so-bad! I thought summer in Cairo would be like the segment in Lawrence of Arabia where the heat waves danced off the sand and the army of men were imagining beaches and beautiful water....I think Tulsa in the dog days of summer, with her humidity and heat is far worse than the hottest day we have had here. There is  a little bit of humidity but also, usually a breeze to turn that sweat into a cooling machine. Staying on the shady side of the street as I am walking helps too.  (We did have a week of really  hot --115  days-those were more like a hair dryer set on high when the breeze blew.) All that to say, I have found the weather to be really nice. It cools off in the evening and is pretty pleasant to be outside.

I am ashamed to say that I completely forgot to get out our camera on the 4th of July! We had a great party here at our home, out in our tiled "garden".  I still have the decorations up so you can maybe imagine how pretty it looked with tables and chairs and beautiful (truly beautiful) flower arrangements in red, white, and blue. (It could have been a wedding we were hosting, the flowers were so gorgeous! For those of you who are flower lovers, the arrangements held red and white roses, blue hydrangeas, red cockscomb, white lilies, blue peruvian lillies and statis, white spider mums and regular mums-- gorgeous tropical leaves from giant oak-leaf philodendron, banana leaves, and some shrubby fillers.)

We roasted a beautiful pork roast-a gift from Sam's rotator-friend, Todd--on the Holland Grill. It is a wonderful little grill! We also grilled burgers and dogs on the built-in grill with charcoal. We found briquettes here, but Sam was really excited to find the 'real' charcoal like they used when he was a kid in Peru and Colombia. He did  a great job with the meats--almost as good as David's got there in Wagoner!

Our co-hostesses were Bud and Avis Lewis . Avis made sides and dessert and did the drinks. Another new friend, Mary, called me the morning of the 4th and asked if there was anything I had left to do so she picked up some odds and ends, made brownies and ordered AND delivered the flowers to our house for me!

We had a good turn-out with about 20 or so people. Three were little kids so that was lots of fun-to hear their sweet voices and watch them interacting with people. Some of the men were here without wives who are summering back home with the kiddies doing summer ball, swimming in lakes, camps, etc.  There is really not a lot to do here with kids in the summer. Most all of the ex-pat kids are away. That makes it hard for those who have arrived too late in the year to have accumulated a home leave yet.

Apple Pie and ice cream (not home-made), brownies and Cherry Dump Cake...yum...can we get more American than that!?  Bud brought his iPod station so we had a great, no fantastic collection of good music with some newly down-loaded patriotic tunes thrown in for the occasion.  It was a lot of fun...we hope to do it again next year!  I must say, I was a teensy bit homesick for fireworks. Last year we went to Matt and Crystal Lahmeyers --Lynn and Kelsies too---home for the fourth and I got some great photos then. I looked at them on a loop while I was making food preparations for our celebration!  Thanks guys for great memories a year later!!!

Sheyenne and Sean left yesterday after 10 days of non-stop sightseeing, shopping, eating great Egyptian food, and playing games in the evening.
I knew coming home to an empty house would be difficult. It was. So, to  bust the blues I decided to plan a few things this week. Today is Tuesday...hair cut day! I have included the photo to the right as my "before" photo; it was taken when we set out on our Nile Cruise Adventure. I included it because I want you to see that I did not look HORRIBLE, but it was time for a trim!
    Today is my first haircut in Egypt. The last several haircuts I got in Phoenix when I would travel there to visit Megan. I could not wait until August to have it cut again because this weekend Sam and I get to go to the Desert Ball. ( It is held at the Pyramids!) So, I called a place where my friend, Julie, got a great haircut...and they speak English.
    Several things were strange for me. First of all, I have not had my hair cut by a man since my nursing-school-girlfriend's boyfriend was going through beauty college.  Secondly, I have not had a man wash my hair before, nor have I seen so many men in a beauty salon! There was a man to sweep the hair up off the floor, one to get the tea for me, two shampooers, my hairdresser, Maroun, and a couple of men who just watched. There were a few women doing nails and working the front desk.
   M* is French and came to Egypt 7 years ago with a French hairstyle business. He was friendly and personable and talked to me about what I wanted for a haircut. Then, as he cut my hair he just dropped things on the floor and said to me, " I have a bad attitude, I just drop things so they will have something to do." and he glanced at the 'sweeper-guy' to indicate who he was talking about.
   M* is particular and gave great attention to my cut. He admitted to being a perfectionist to which I told him, I was fine with that. As he worked on my hair, the room felt like it was getting smaller. I was not wearing my glasses at this point, but I could tell there were a lot of people in the room. At one point, he asked me if I thought one side looked shorter than the other. I put on my glasses, and there were (I counted them) 9 people in the room--all looking at me and speaking french or arabic. "Yes," I replied, "I believe it is." I took off my glasses feeling REALLY self-conscious and as I wondered what was going on, M* told me, "They like your haircut. They tell me I work magic! I am not a magician, I told them...just perfectionist."    He called for another clean towel and gave the hairy one to the towel-guy.  Another guy steps forward to give my neck a quick brush off but M* took the brush from him and with vigor, swiped at the hair clinging to my neck. He said, " He's afraid of you. If he touch you, he will go to hell."  (Moslem religion forbids a man touching a woman who is not his wife.)  When he had finished spraying my hair I put my glasses on and looked in the mirror.  I could see all these people smiling at me. One gal, beautiful, says to me with a french accent, " zee next time, M* will cut my hair."  !!!

    It was all so strange. I did not think I looked THAT bad when I went in, and I don't think it is MAGIC that he worked...but it is a good haircut. I will probably go back but I won't be getting my eyebrows waxed there....too much pressure!
(M* remains anonymous  to protect me  from embarrassment should he find out I told this story!)

Bruges, Belgium

                                                                                     BRUGES, BELGIUM

How does one spell euphoria? C...h...o...c...o...l...a...t...e! Belgium Chocolate! And if you were to ask Sam, it would be B-e-l-g-i-u-m B-e-e-r-s! Chocolate and world famous beers in the midst of a mid-evil village paved with cobbles, architecturally quaint buildings, lazy canals, bicycle transportation, and friendly people makes for a very relaxing R&R! Bruges is located in Flanders---an A-HA moment for me as the words to a long-ago memorized poem crystallized in the reality of time and place! In Flanders Fields! I AM HERE ! Awesome and sobering feeling. In Flander's Fields is a WWI poem describing the terrible battle in Ypres in1915. Growing up, I got to go to the VFW with my grandmother. (She sometimes played the piano for them.) Always, on the counter was a red, white, and blue cardboard display of paper poppies. You could buy them for a dime or a quarter. When you removed the poppy, the cardboard slit the poppy sat in would hold the quarter. Ten years ago, when we went to Europe, we found the fields covered with poppies--and the light bulb came on as to why the Veterans would be selling paper poppies! Again, I was awed by the sacrifice of our forefathers when I stood in Flander's county and the resurrected poem came up from the depths of my memory! (Isn't it amazing what we can pull up from our memories...and we can't remember what we wore yesterday!)

 Sam and I took the train from Amsterdam through many tulip fields to Bruges. Our hotel was a family owned B&B full of antiques and nicely decorated. I was amazed at the number of bicycles in Bruges and Holland as well! We rented bikes one day and rode along the canal out of town to a nearby village called Damme. We rode past fishermen, fields dotted with cows, and windmills into this 16th century village paved with cobblestones. An old church yard holds an unusual sculpture. A couple of small outdoor restuarants, a bookstore, and a souvenir shop seemed to be all that were open.

Another day our walking tour took us into several grand old builidings-a courthouse, a church, a brewery and a monastery. We passed countless chocolatiers, waffle stands, and shops selling lace and pubs selling beer. One boasted over 400 kinds of beer! Each Belgium Beer has its own trademark glass it is served in. Some are quite interesting!

We enjoyed some of the towns sights via horse-drawn carriage and some via canal boats. The weather was perfect; a little cool, but with a jacket-nice! We ate good food, drank great coffee (each time it was served with a little piece of chocolate or a chocolate-clad cookie).Wednesdays is market day in the square in Bruges. The square was transformed by flowers, plants, veggie stalls and fruit vendors! Portable trailers sold meats and cheeses. We had a great time wandering up and down the aisles enjoying the aromas and beautiful colors! I did not realize it, but the french fry really originated in Belgium! They are served everywhere!!!
Our time in Bruges came to an end all too soon for me. This is one place I would love to go back to.

Kuykenhoff Gardens

Tulips! No, not the acronym associated with  theology, but the beautiful cupped petals above a slender stem. Single petalled, double, Rembrandt and botanical...and all in one place-- Kuykenhoff Gardens!  Those of you who know me know that flowers take me to  my "happy place!"  I tell you now,  I was in such a state of happy, I could not contain it! I walked into the garden to the tune of a caliopy playing jaunty music,  the smell of waffles wafting through the air,  and a beautiful display of  spring flowers of so many colors, an artist's palette could not hold them all! I got goosebumps, I felt tears welling up in my eyes, and I was speechless. I looked at Sam and I think he thought I was losing it! (Those of you about the same age as me probably realize that much of this intense emotion is due to "the change"! )   He looked bewildered, and then he realized HE HAD DONE GOOD! booking this vacation! 

The gardens are laid out in beautiful designs, using tulips donated by growers. All of the tulips are HAND PLANTED each year with a different theme. The theme is decided on depending on the bulbs they are given. We are talking millions of bulbs!  The gardens are only open 6 weeks out of the year. The rest of the time is spent preparing the beds, planting, growing and maintaining the grounds. There are ponds, waterways, a windmill, a children's play area, several green houses where they grow the fancy and botanical specimens. There are also food stall set up in a couple of areas...selling Belgium Waffles, Cotton Candy, and other food that is probably better for you--but you can see what I was going for! Ha.

We spent the day there-took the bus to the train station to go to Leiden and then took a bus out to the garden. Along the way, the fields were resplendent in their stripes of red, pink, orange and yellow tulips, and the pastel shades of the hyacinth-pink, purples, and whites.  From the air, it looks like a crazy quilt!
We had a few sprinkles, but we were prepared with umbrellas and jackets. The weather was cool-a nice reprieve to the heat of Cairo!  I took hundreds of photos and if you would like to see more pics, you can visit this link to my FB photo album.

You may see a little paper guy in some of our photos...He is Flat Stanley, an elementary school project one of my neighbor's nephews was working on. There is a story about a little boy who winds up being flattend by a bulletin board. The good thing about this accident is that now he is flat, and can go anywhere. We took him along on our trip--he has been all over the world with different people. If you  were to be his guardian, your responsibilities are to keep him safe, take photos of him in different places, and be the pen to his journaling. Then you send him and his photos and journal back to the child who entrusted him to complete strangers in his trip around the world! It was fun!

Happy Easter, Happy Spring

Today is not only the day the west celebrates Easter, it is also Coptic Easter. They don't always fall on the same date because we use different calendars.  The typical weekend here is Friday (Moslem holy day) and Saturday so our Easter 'weekend' is different this year.  We celebrated Good Friday at our normal church service-Friday nights at 5pm, under the tent on the grounds of St. John's Episcopal church.  Saturday we went to a villa and watched children scramble for the hidden Easter eggs. We had a good turn out and everyone had a great time. Jarod's Bagels provided breakfast and coffee!

While today is considered a normal work day, and Sam is at work right now, we have a plan to celebrate our Risen Savior this afternoon and evening. We are going to Karen and Fred's home for dinner before a Resurrection service at the tent about 7pm!

We decided to cook a leg of lamb. The last one I cooked was smallish (2 1/2  pounds), easy to do, and tasted fantastic. It seemed small for a group of 10 people  so I ordered two legs of lamb for this dinner.  I think we got legs of 'giant mutton'! Today I am cooking 10 KILOS of leg of lamb!  I admit I am a little nervous about how this will turn out!

As you can see, it turned out to be wonderful!  Sam and I had a great time with Karen and Fred and their family and good friend, Pat. Following dinner we went to church . It was a huge treat to get to meet twice in one week with our multinational church family The "Africa Live" worship band lead our worship time. They were spirited and highly energetic!  The church was full and again, I must say, it is such a blessing to worship with the nations as we will one day in heaven!   Happy Easter! Praise to our risen Lord!

A Big Fish Tale

Fishing on Lake Nasser  (guest blogger: Sam Hampton)

Located in upper (southern) Egypt, created by the Aswan dam on the Nile River, Lake Nasser has a barren shoreline and rocky islands. I was expecting to see green plants because of the water. Our fishing trip was organized by African Anglers, consisting of 4 fishing boats and one ‘mother’ ship.They provided all the tackle, meals, and equipment. We fished three men to a boat--three of the boats were father/son teams and another adult. Meals and relaxation took place on the ‘mother’ ship while the smaller boats were for fishing and sleeping (al fresco). We pulled up to different islands each night to unroll our sleeping bags on a mattress aboard ship, under the stars. We were on the water for four days and three nights.

                                                       The moon was new so there was light only from the millions of stars overhead. We saw shooting stars, and all the constellations. Surprisingly the stars provided a lot of light so we could walk from boat to boat when pulled up to shore. Temperatures were in excess of 100 degrees during the day and on the third day we had a very refresing and much needed swim/bath in the lake after lunch.

Mostly, we trolled with 8 inch long “Repalla” lures in many colors on 40# test line-designed to handle a 200 pound Nile Perch! The Nile Perch look a lot like a large mouth bass and fight like a large mouth bass-jumping out of the water with a ‘tail dance’ and diving deep. We also caught tiger fish which are a cousin to the pirana. They have long sharp teeth that interlock. From time to time, we pulled up on one of the rocky islands and cast from shore. 

The fish were not biting as much as we had hoped-fishing had been poor all week. About 11am on the last day, on our way back to dock, I felt a jerk on the line.   Fifteen minutes, two tail dances and two long runs later, I caught the catch of the week. A 65 pound Nile Perch! I was not allowed to keep the meat because this area is catch and release only, so all I have to show are photos...oh, yeah...and the prize money! 

Abu Simble is the temple of Ramsses II and Nefertari. It was once located where the waters collect behind the Aswan Dam. The ancient temple was moved thanks to the efforts of UNESCO World Heritage, piece by piece. It had to be exactly aligned with the sun because twice a year, the sun angles into the temple,  lighting the faces of the giant statues within.  All of the statues were moved and the  heiroglypics were cut from the stone of the original mountain. Once relocated, a simulated mountain was built and one can not tell the difference!  All in all, a fantastic trip!