Arrival

Most people would think that it would be fun to have their 9th birthday on an airplane, but not me. I was very unhappy. My family had packed up everything we owned to begin a new life in a land far away. My parents even had to take lessons on how to speak the language!
My birthday was ruined! I had no friends over, no party, no presents, nothing even to mark that I had lived 9 years of life. I was stuck in a plane being bored to death.
I looked out the window of the airplane. They were sitting where the wing was so it was hard to see the approaching land below. It looked brown….brown and ugly. “Is THAT it mom?” I asked sarcastically. Mom looked over, “Yes, Princess, that is what Egypt looks like from the sky”. My heart sank. I had been told that Egypt was a hot, dry, and dusty desert and now I could see it. ‘Boring! ‘ I thought…and sighed out the next question, “How long are we going to be here?” I asked for the hundredth time. Mom just stared at me, willing me into silence. I knew that was because I already knew the answer. My father had accepted a position with the American University in Cairo and he planned to be there for several years.
I sighed again. THUMP! GGrrrrrrThump! ‘What was that? ‘ I thought as I sat up. The stewardess picked up the radio “Ladies and Gentlemen, we will be landing at Cairo International Airport shortly. Please fasten your seat belts, make sure that your chairs are in an upright position and your tray-tables are locked in place. Thank-you.” The people around us began to prepare for landing. “Mom what was that noise earlier?” Mom whispered back to her “it was nothing, just the landing gears coming down”. ‘Great’ I thought, ‘at least I will be able to get off and stretch my legs.’

I watched as the ground got closer and closer. BUMP! BUMP! THUMP! The plane landed and they were finally there. The plane drove around the runway until it parked. I watched the buses come out to meet the plane. ‘This place does not even have a proper airport! ‘ The passengers disembarked the plane and loaded onto the buses waiting on the runway. As I exited the plane I was forced to stand in the plane’s doorway gulping for air…several times. It was so hot, it was hard to breathe and the waves of heat could be seen coming off the runway. I grabbed hold of the back of Mom’s suit and followed. The crowds inside the airport made the heat unbearable! I could only follow with my head down and just concentrating on getting out of the airport, out of the crowds and hopefully to somewhere where there was air-conditioning!

The University had sent busses to pick up the new staff that had arrived at the airport and to my immense relief they WERE air-conditioned. My clothes were now soaked with sweat and had plastered onto my back. The air-conditioning made me feel a little chilled but I decided that was OK given the alternative. The bus began driving. It left the airport and began to make its way toward the city. I just stared out the window. I was tired and sleepy. Just as I was dozing I saw something moving outside the window…I opened my eyes to see the men outside were wearing long night gowns with funny pointed shoes! “Mom! MOM! Look! They are wearing nightgowns and pointed shoes!” A man sitting behind he began laughing real hard. He barely panted out what I wanted to know… “They are not dresses, that is the national dress for Egyptian men. It is called a galabaiyya.” His laugh reduced to a light chuckle and he went back to reading the newspaper.
Mom looked out my window and said to me, “This is a different world from the one we left, pay attention to what you see, so you can remember it.” I barely heard her, there was a buzzing in my ear and my head nodded. Jet-lag caught up with me and I fell asleep.

I woke to the smell of something beautiful. It was in early in the morning, the air was cool and pleasant, and there were many different songs of birds coming from outside my window. I did not want to get out of bed. The cool air caressed by shoulders and it felt really nice. Some birds I could recognize like the mourning dove others I could not. Some birds were very annoying like the rooster someone had behind us. It began crowing long before the sun and did not stop. I could only hope that he would become someone’s dinner real soon. The calm of the morning was broken by the harsh voice of an old woman, “Ahmad! Ya Ahmad!” she yelled. “Ahmad!”
I groaned. Whoever Ahmad was I hope he answered soon just to shut her up. He didn’t. The old woman called again. Finally a man yelled at her calling her Zaynab. I hope it was not a swear word…but she did stop yelling.

I decided that it was time to discover what the wonderful smell that came thru my windows was. I got up and went out onto the balcony of my new room. Climbing up the wall and spilling onto my balcony was a vine covered in large purple flowers. The smell from it was nice but it was not what I was smelling. I looked over to the marble veranda. Climbing up the walls and over the roof of our house was this huge viney bush with hundreds of small white flowers.

Swish, swish, swish, there was the sound of someone sweeping the ground under my balcony. I leaned over and looked. There was a man there. He was a big brown man with a full moon shaped face and a huge grin. “Ahloo” he said as he waved his hand at me. He seemed to be waiting so I said “hello” back. The man resumed sweeping. “uum….? “ the man looked up at me. “What is that?” I said as I pointed at the plant. The Man studied where I pointed my finger and looked back at me and shrugged his shoulders. Frustrated, I wiggled the plant next to me and pointed again towards the plant. ”What’s that” I said even louder, while thinking “why am I saying this louder the man is not deaf.’ The man’s face erupted into a huge grin. “Yasmeen” he said and he continued sweeping.
I took a deep breath and said “yasmeen” (he nodded with out looking up) and I went back inside. Dressing quickly (I managed to find everything from my suitcase,) I went downstairs for breakfast.
Everyone was eating fruit for breakfast. The plate had oranges, tangerines, mangos, and watermelon! FRUIT? Whatever happened to cereal and milk?

Another strange man came in to the room bringing another plate full of cut up fruit. He was wearing the long dress that the men where wearing last night with plastic slippers on his feet and a brown hairy skull cap on his head. He came in the room smiling broadly so I could see that he had almost no teeth…. what teeth he had left were dark brown. It was a pleasant smile.
He smiled at me and asked “May I get somezing forr the mazmazelle?”
“Who me?” I asked. The man smiled and nodded. “Could I please have a glass of water.” The man bowed and said “Haahder” and left the dining room.
The man came came back and poured me a tall glass of cool water. He said “Zis is Maya----water, so repeat please.”
I repeated the word back to him “maya”.
As he was leaving I there was something I had to ask….”Sir, if this is maya in the glass, is that a mayamelon?” I asked while pointing at the watermelon.

The Man laughed at me. “No mazmazelle, that is Batikh”. He laughed all the way back to the kitchen.

“Who was that man mom?” I asked.
Mom smiled and said “His name is Ateya Abdu Hagag and he will take care of everything in the house, the man outside is called Salem Khalil and he takes care of the grounds and the garden. Salem does not speak much English but Ateya knows English very well.”
I sighed. “Is there anything else I have to know?”
Mom smiled at me. “Well” she said “we have a washer woman called Omm Nadia who will come here on Wednesdays to wash our clothes. Ateya is our cook and will go to the market to buy our food. Salem will also take you to school and keep you out of trouble after school. Please try and keep out of trouble.”