Basketball season came to an end. Nick’s team, The Mavericks came in first for the regular season and won their tournament. They were undefeated for the year. Nick was the leading scorer and rebounder for his team. Jonah’s team, The Heat, took second place, after losing in overtime by two points. Jonah led his team in scoring, assists and steals. Baseball is starting this week. Jonah and Nick are playing on two different Yankees teams to Todd’s excitement.
Here are some events that have been happening with Bekah. She has been teaching swimming every Sat. morning to little kids. Bekah and her Young Women’s class made about 20 blankets and delivered them to a children’s cardiac hospital here in Cairo. The high school here has a week of school called “Week Without Walls”. During this week, Bekah spent her days helping refugee children in a Sudanese school. She was very proud of her bench that she made from scratch. She built the bench and then painted several benches and took the benches to the school. She raised money and gathered supplies to donate to the school. They also organized an activity day for the students to come and play. Bekah helped the kindergarten kids make beaded bracelets. Since Todd also works with the refugees, it was great for her to be exposed to a little bit of what Todd works with. This Sudanese school is the top refugee school in Cairo, but Bekah was surprised how dirty and ill-equipped it was. There were only two desks for the entire kindergarten.
Bahariya Oasis, White Desert, Black Desert
Last weekend our family went with the Eastin Family to the Bahariya Oasis, the White Desert and the Black Desert. It was about a 4-5 hour drive from Cairo. A German man named Peter ran our hotel. It was built around a natural hot mineral springs. At first the kids all just thought it was dirty, but after getting in they loved it. The water came out at about 110 degree, so we had to let it cool down a few hours, but you can see that it was still very warm from Jonah’s red skin.
The next morning we took off 4-wheeling through the deserts. First, we stopped at some huge, amazing sand dunes. The sand was very fine. It was really difficult to run in the sand, but the kids had a ball running up and then running/falling down. The black that you see in the pictures is from volcano magma from millions of years ago that has broken down into sand. That is why this is called the Black Desert.
We did some more climbing and then stopped at a place called Crystal Mountain. It contains crystal formations that look amazing. It is not authentic crystal, but is made from quartz. We continued 4-wheeling with our guides as they led us deeper into the White Desert.
Millions of years ago this area of Egypt was covered by water. What is left now is a white limestone that formed mounds. Those mounds have been eroded by the wind and sand to shapes and formations that are intriguing to see. Many are named things like “The Mushroom”, “The Chicken Under the Tree”, and “The Camel”. Others are left for your own imagination. We drove around these formations for about an hour. Close to sunset our guides found us a location by a rock formation and set-up camp for us. We had time to explore. The kids loved climbing on the huge formations. Our guides cooked us a delicious dinner over the fire.
The stars there were absolutely stunning. The sky was streaked with what looked like wispy clouds, but were actually stars. It was incredible! A desert fox that came to our camp to get food joined us. It had large ears and was about the size of a cat. It is amazing that animals can live in these extreme conditions.
We woke up the next morning, ate breakfast, packed up our campsite, explored and then headed back to our hotel, which was about 2 hours and then back into Cairo. As we were leaving the desert we passed a few camel trekkers, hiking and riding through the desert. The camels in the desert here are different from the camels we see in Cairo. These camels are from Sudan and are mush shorter and furrier.
We arrived in California and had cold weather. The temperatures are regularly about 95 degrees and it never got above 75 degrees the entire time we were in California. Emily lives in Palmdale, CA, which is about an hour north of Los Angeles. We had a fun time playing with the kids. Jonah worked hard helping Mike build a shed. Mike got a sunburn, but I won't put that picture in here.
