Comments on Comments

Having changed the format to have comments, figuring out what to do with them, or even how to find what post they are referring to, has become an interesting task. Most of the negative posts are from Mr/Mrs/Ms Anonymous and many of them seem to indicate that the poster hasn't really bothered to read my blog.

One of the latest went on about Americans who were rich enough to "pick up and move to a foreign country". My old format mentioned that our family is Canadian/Egyptian and I think that I have to fix that on the first page. Not that I have anything in particular against the US, but we are Canadian and that isn't American. A minor but important point often missed south of the border. Actually, I live here partly because after my husband's death, I couldn't afford to live in North America. At 55, I'm not exactly prime employment material, especially since I've lived here for the past 16 or so years and I was a fulltime mother for 7 years before that. With my husband traveling so much for his business, we both felt that our kids deserved at least one fulltime parent and I got picked. I didn't mind, since by that time I was in my early 30's and had plenty of job experience under my belt. I had also met my husband while doing a graduate degree in social psychology, so being a mother was essentially having my own lab to work with for 20 years...but it wasn't as horrible as that sounds. I did find my training extremely useful in easing the transition from one culture to another very different one and in observing the life around me. Here, my experience, familiarity with local custom, and language skills are marketable skills. I wouldn't want to go back to Toronto to try to start over. Besides, it's too cold.

But "picking up and moving to a foreign country" is easy if you can arrange...and afford...to be surrounded by your compatriots, their customs, their language. That's like buying a house in a compound in a tourist area, like the Brits in Marbella. There is a compound like this in Egypt for Italians in Sharm el Sheikh, and we happen to own a house there, but the hassles of having to explain that I don't speak Italian and I don't want to pay for something in Euro's for heaven's sake are taking its toll. I have to admit the look on the face of the Egyptian staff when I speak to them in Arabic and they are trying to figure out why my Italian is so weird but understandable is priceless. There is always a moment of total linguistic non-comprehension before they realise that I'm not speaking Italian. We keep the house because it was my husband's favourite getaway and the children use it as a base when they visit, or for my son, who is working here now, his favourite getaway. For myself, the Sharm house is getting to be too organised, too Italian, too European for my taste. I'd rather have tea with my neighbours here.

ermyrukmana asked what hotel or what kind of house I live in. No hotels, thank you. Much too expensive and impersonal. We have plenty of Saudis and Gulf Arabs to fill our hotels during the summer and the tourists the rest of the year. My house is one story, a bedroom with a guest room/library, a bath room and a kitchen. Only one person can fit in the kitchen at a time and two people can fit in the bathroom, but they'd better be well-acquainted. About half the area of the house is taken up by one large room with my desk and computer at one end and some daybed-type sofas at the other end. Most of the time, there are dogs all over the sofas and floor. I have a verandah out front with some palm branch chairs and tables and some of the same up on the roof. No air conditioning although we have been trying for the sake of my daughter and her friends. The temperatures are supposed to go up to 39 C this weekend and I suspect that I will drive them down to Sharm where there is air conditioning in the house. I don't mind the lack of airconditioning as I've gotten used to the heat and I have ceiling fans to keep the air circulating. Real luxury there. But the parrots have room for big flight cages and the still of the night with the palms silhouetted against the Cairo glow more than make up for the lack of space and amenities.

One of the interesting things about the comment from ermyrukmana was that I have no idea what post it was attached to. I get the comments in my email and when I check back to my blog, I have no idea where the comment is posted. I'm sure that there is some very simple way to find out and if any more experienced bloggers can help, I would be most grateful.