Bernie Grafe

Class Trip To Fayoum

I was lucky enough to get invited on a class trip with the Grade 11 Social Studies class. Ms. Kelly, 14 students and I trekked out to Fayoum to visit an eco-lodge there. 3hrs outside of Cairo, Fayoum and Tunis border the Kharoun lake. A salt lake, infected with years of inbound over nitrated farm water.  The eco-lodge, founded by artists, poets, and novelists in the 60′s screams hippie commune revitalized into marketable lodgings to eccentrics and born again “go-greens”. The students had a great time speaking with local fisherman, farmers and a pottery artisan. One of the students was nice of enough to snap a few pics of the this guys mug, here attached below.

Latino Night !

Haley and I live in a suburb of Cairo called Ma’adi. People have compared it to living in the suburb of Toronto called the Beaches. We have done quite a lot of local exploring here, but our comfort zone has not reached into the downtown expanses of Cairo. I have taken the subway a few times for local attractions like Giza, Sphinx and the Museum, but we had yet to experience the night life of Cairo. How fortunate for us when our colleague Heidi offered us tickets to Latino Night at the Sheridan hotel in Cairo. I quickly jumped at the offer for a night on the town. Haley and I scrubbed up and put on our finest and met up with our dinner dates:

Lola and her husband Fernando:

Our friends Heidi and Alessia:

The hotel was incredibly beautiful. It had the exact amount of swank we desired, and our attire was fitting for the atmosphere.

The view from the balcony over looking the Nile was really beautiful. A little dancing, and some great food combined with incredible company made for a really fun date night. Oh ya, Haley winning a door prize of lunch for 4 back to said swanky place was icing on the cake.

(SQUIRREL !! )

Camel Ride full of Hurt.

Hello all. I just wanted to expand on Haley’s post about the camel ride experience

The entire experience was just amazing, Waking up early, traversing the back end streets of Giza, and watching the sunrise in the desert with the backdrop of the pyramids. All awhile, gyrating uncontrollably on the back of a beast of burden. I aptly named my camel Chewbacca as the entire time the poor creature would turn to me and snarl like good ole Chewwy.

Chewbacca even took a liking to Haley !

Me and that camel had some good times and bad. I feel like I left a little piece of myself behind that day. More specifically, a precious piece of my ass cheek. Sure, I felt a little violate, but I am sure it was mutual between Chewwy and I. The joke around the table for a few days after was “Bernie had camel butt, and Chewwy had Bernie back!”

Update – Contacts

Hi All.

We have updated the contact page to include some mailing information !

More Updates soon:

1. My Version of the Camel Rides

2. Gallery of Bill and Lisa’s visit

3. Latino Night !

4. White Desert Camping

Up-Date From the Cairo Trenches

Week 3 and 4. I’m still alive and so are my students! We are beginning to find a balance, though it’s wobbly at times… I’ve never been a yeller and I have trouble looking at their big doe-eyes and not believing they are sorry… Mistake number 1! So I’m trying new tactics (ie, threats and rewards) to see if we can get them hooked and keep them…..

On a much happier note we had our very first visitors! Lisa “the Tout Slayer” Kelly and Billy “Mick Dundee” Doucette! They arrived on Friday October 22 and stayed at Casa BernHaley until Tuesday morning. We had an excellent time with them (and we hope they enjoyed their stay with us). Bernie was in his happy place cooking and entertaining… We had dinner at our place Friday night (steak cooked on the new Hibachi grill) and lots of wine and laughs. Our friend Wael joined us. He’d made the trip to the airport with the nephew of a friend of his to pick up our guests… Hamed (the nephew) is an ex-rally car driver. Experience that comes in handy on Cairo streets! At dinner we decided on an early start the next day for sunrise ride at the pyramids…

When I say early, I mean 4:30, and when I say ride, I’m talking camel’s!!! Finally the long sought after ‘Bernie on a Camel’ photo… a collector’s item because I’m pretty sure it will never happen again!

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We met the camel guys in this dodgy little back lot off an alley-way near the entrance to the pyramids. Billy, being the bravest of us, took the first camel brought out to us. A very BIG male they told us was called Michael Jackson. Billy soon had MJ under control to the extent the guides passed over the reigns and told him to lead. Our 3 remaining camels were tethered together and led by a guide on horseback. So off we rode through the streets of Cairo and out into the desert. My camel, hereafter known as ‘Trottie’, took every opportunity he could to run… and when a camel runs, the rider achieves actual lift-off. After an hour, we should have had a pyramid view, but the day was hazy when we reached the look-out point for tea. We sat and rested our aching parts for a bit, then it was back in the saddle. The guide had a little change up in store for us… I was now to ride Lisa’s camel, Moses. Lisa was riding Bernie’s camel that he’d appropriately named Chewbacca. Bernie had Trottie. Now something else that should be added here is that there is something about a camel saddle that seems to leave it leaning a little to one side. When I got on Trottie, the saddle was tilted a little to the right. By the time Bernie got on Trottie the saddle was more than a little off centre. The whole trip back consisted of the camel drover trying to trot the camels and Bernie yelling, “Whoa, whoa whoa.” Or the drover  yelling, “Mister, Mister lean to the left!” And Bernie responding with,”The saddle is going right, my ass is in the saddle, I CAN’T GO LEFT!”. We all got back in almost one piece, Bernie being convinced he left large pieces of his butt and thighs behind, but even so it was a great morning!

We followed camel riding with a trip to the Pyramids. Of course, we picked the busiest possible time. On that Saturday, 6000 people from the Cairo area were at the Pyramids participating in “The Race for the Cure”. Though the energy and enthusiasm was amazing, the crowds were EVERYWHERE, and we waded through pink  and white shirts all around the Giza plateau. Though we tried to escape the crush at the end of the race, our best efforts still left us in traffic for 30 minutes.

From there we went to the Citadel, an old fort and Mosque perched above the city. Billy made friends with the other tourists and earned his nickname by telling them he was, “Here ‘til Tuesday and maybe I’ll see you around!”. We took them to smoke sheesha at our favourite Lebanese restaurant, for a very short float in a felucca on the Nile (fickle Nile breeze decided to desert us… no pun intended), and for a long back alley search of the streets of Maadi looking for a famous Thai restaurant… Which we have since tried and it is REALLY good! Sorry Lisa and Billy!

Then as I went off to be a slave to the youth of Egypt, Bernie continued to entertain. I got many vicarious laughs listening to the stories of their adventures in the tourist traps of Cairo. Bernie bartering (and breaking seats) in Cairo cab and fighting with sellers of fake antiquities, and Billy and Lisa’s adventures on their own were laugh out loud funny! We missed them when they left, and can’t wait to hear stories of their adventures in Jordan and Israel.

Since then, we haven’t been idle. We’ve been working (Bernie substituting and tutoring), me at my usual grind with a big bottle of vodka at my side… On that note, we’ve also found a beer and wine delivery place that we have put on speed-dial… Bernie catered the food for a friend/colleague’s Halloween party and we’ve held a few dinner parties. Yesterday a good friend brought over an LCD projector and we ended up with a roomful of fans for our “House” marathon. We ordered in food and Bernie made nachos… as well as the contributions of our guests!

Next week I’m heading for a desert leadership camp with my students and Bernie gets to come in as my substitute with the kids who opted out… I don’t know how he’ll survive without me, but something tells me I’m coming home to cigar smoke, stale beer and a stray poker chip sticking out of one of our many dead plants!

Hope all’s well back home,… missing everyone terribly!

xoMe