Day two

It’s rough trying to remember what we did days ago. I’m trying my best to update the day of but it’s proven to be near impossible to find time and to stay awake when there is time. The morning of this day I woke up with bites all over my hands. I never get bitten at home but here I am loved. I woke up with about sixty bites just on one hand and about five in the other. They looked more like odd red dots but I was told they were mosquitoes and as time went on there was no doubt; they puffed up and itched like crazy. We had a great quiet time and bible study. We are going through a book called Secrets of The Vine and each morning we have taken a day to discuss the chapter. The chapters are pretty interesting and are applicable to our daily lives. After bible study we re packed all of the donation bags to get ready for our drop off. Sam had told us about this man Tim we were going to see and finally we got to meet him. I had heard a lot about this guy and was stoked to finally put a face to a name. We got to Tim’s house and talked about our plans with him and when we were going to cruise. His wife just had surgery so we stayed outside to make sure she rested and didn’t get up in response to hospitality. My finger had become infected about a day or two before this and I thought it would be a good idea to ask Tim (who spoke perfect English) what I should get to put on it. I tried to find something the day before but ended up with just Band-Aids and no way to explain any thing else. Tim took one look at it and said oh my let me call my doctor. He grabbed his phone and called Shou-Shou. That was all that was needed and from then we were told to wait on the beach and Shou-Shou would come check it out and see what needed to happen. So we went to the beach. Shou-Shou to the rescue! All of a sudden a man zips down the beach on a motorcycle and flashed by, turns around and stops - here he is. It was the funniest sight ever. He takes one look at my finger and says you must come with me. So I jump on the back of his bike and off we go. He also speaks perfect English so I was totally secure with the situation since we could explain to each other just exactly what was going on. We zipped through town and off to his house. If I ever through Egyptians drive crazy, they ride even crazier. I was holding on for sure, all I had on were slippers and loose cotton pants and a t-shirt. I thought for sure a few time my knees were going to be taken out but to be honest I was having too much fun to be worried about the logistics of the situation. About 15min later we reached his house and it was pretty great to see a real home. It was my first house I was in that felt like a home. He was getting ready for a wood working show and was so willing to lay it all down for a bit to make sure I was okay and he had no idea who I was, just that I knew Tim. And let’s face it I had just met Tim for 5min earlier on in the day. Honestly the hospitality here has been blowing my mind, we all need to take notes for sure. Shou Shou took a razor blade, alcohol, iodine, and some gauze and fixed it all up. It wasn’t super bad but it had potential to be bad and luckily he told me the ocean here is good for cuts - phew! I was not stoked about another infection = no ocean time. It was pretty cool to sit down in his kitchen while he had a little surgery time on my finger. His woodworking was everywhere, even the table we sat at. We talked a little about how he knows English so well and come to find out he was a doctor in England for about two years and with a few policy changes he came back to Egypt and started working. Also come to find out him and Tim do expeditions for National Geographic and Discovery (and other shows). Tim is the fix it man, the go to, the range rover driver and Shou-Shou is the doctor that goes with them. So basically what Tim told me is that if you ever see a Egypt special on any adventure show him and Shou-Shou are heading it up. So after Shou-Shou fixed me all up and told me what things to buy we were off back to the beach. We jetted back to the beach and zipped down the shoreline. I wish I had this whole adventure on video because it was all and all a humorous happening. A once in a life time story for sure. Than we cruised the beach and hung with the boys for a long time. We swam, chilled, sang, played -- just spent some quality time with the boys. It was fun to talk with Catatrina a bit more and take some fun photos of the locals on the beach. We tried to play football with them and it was the funniest sight to see and everyone on the beach was watching us and totally confused. Than some little kids near the shore started playing their own version of football. The sunset and it was time to head back and get some grind with ano and Kahalad. We jetted over and found a pretty legit pizza place. It was the first meal here that wasn’t Egyptian; so to be honest it was a little refreshing. The owner lived in the states for a little bit and you could totally tell with his way of pizza making that he knew a little of how it was done back home. Re and I shared a pizza and it was epic. During dinner I asked Gano where a pharmacy was and he said yes come come, and off we went. He took my across the street and I was so stoked to get some stuff for my cut. I’m super used to people speaking no to very little English so when I walked in to the store and started explaining what I needed I said it all in very broken Arab English and the man looked and me and goes, yea yea what do you want? I just laughed in embarrassment. Everything I got only cost me about four American dollars, which blew my mind. Once I was set we were back to the pizza place for dinner and fun. Than from there it was off to a cane juice stand where they literally stick the cane sugar in the grinder and out comes a glass of cane juice. It’s pretty good but at the same time it’s a glass of sugar, so it’s overwhelming for sure. Re hates it and it was funny to see her try and down it all in politeness. Muhamad has this restaurant near our flat and wanted to show us the scene. It is only open in the summer so basically he just wanted to show us what it could look like. I’m not kidding the car rides with Muhamad are so fun. I can’t believe the no police system here but if we tried that back home we would be pulled over in the matter of seconds. I want to video it but it’s always so dark out that it really doesn’t do the issue justice, at all. We had to jet early because it was time to again organize the bags, this time in complete readiness for the kids. Tim gave us a paper with all their sizes and need and we were going to two orphanages so we wanted to make sure boys and girls were separated. We have organized the bags so many times, that by this time we were laughing so hard at the fact we were basically moving dirt from one side of the room to the other, back to the other side just for fun. This trip has produced a pretty legit quote wall and the bag time defiantly gave a few good new ones. Basically it has turned into a Robert quote wall but we entertain him with the idea we all say stupid things. The day was super long and we all passed out pretty early. I fell asleep on the couch, which was a bad bad thing. I woke up with mosquitoes all over me. So the trick is to always keep yourself covered but than you get too hot so how do you find a middle ground - well you don’t. You either get bit or you burn up. But since I had been exposed for a few hours my face was eaten alive. The whole night I was tossing and turning trying to get away from the bugs, covering up and than cooling down. I woke up with even more bites on my hands and choke on my face. I never get bit at home and here they just love me. West Nile anyone? I think I counted over 100 bites on my hands and my face I just don’t even want to look at.
It was a good day for sure and God has shown me first hand that he has a plan for everything, down to my finger infection. Later I found out from Sam that he (Shou Shou) has been pretty MIA with the trips and it has been hard for anyone to really get to know him because he is so buys. Sam was stoked I got to spend some time with him because he came back to the beach telling Sam that as soon as his show was over he was going to cruise with us as much as possible. So if my gnar finger is what it took than I’m glad! Cruising on the beach with the crew was super humbling as well. The boys just have so much fun playing together and they are stoked on everything from a wave to a grain of sand.