Andrews Adventures in Cairo: Saturday

Friday's craziness resulted in my losing my key ring, with my house keys, art centre keys, and office keys. Thankfully, my landlord lives across the street and has a key to my flat, and thankfully I keep a spare in a dish next to the door. So we weren't in too much trouble. But losing the art centre key necessitated an early morning meeting to borrow another one. As the crew slept peacefully on, I made my way to Cafe Greco to recover a key and then to MetroMarket to buy groceries to feed the hungry crowd. Mama and Daddy met me at the grocery store, and we planned menus, mentally converted LE to USD, and finally made it home with food. The crew was still asleep - staying up til 4 am caused them all to sleep til noon :) After breakfast/lunch, we headed to Cairo American College, where we met one of the high school girls who comes with me to the art centre on Saturdays. All nine of us piled in cars and then spent the next two hours coloring artwork and playing with 20+ adorable kids.

One of the girls, Injy, loved Brooke and insisted that she stay in Cairo with me when the rest of the fam headed back to the States. In efforts to not explain the odd relationship that our family shares with Wilby and Rachel, I introduced them all as my family. The children stared in amazement upon discovering that Will was my brother, and were positively shocked that Rachel was the youngest. They were sure that she must be older than Meredith as she is taller (by a whole inch!). We had lots of fun singing "Father Abraham" in Arabic. The kids insisted upon Mama and Daddy getting in on the action, and were DELIGHTED to watch them shake their arms and legs during "Abuna Ibrahim." After a full afternoon, we came back home to a Spaghetti dinner, which was enjoyed by all until Wilby decided to breathe and eat and the same time, which resulted in a serious choking incident followed by hysterical laughter. (laughter was the theme of the day!) Next came a crazy game of Catch Phrase, Andrews style. If you've never been a part of an Andrews family game night, you're missing out. It's pretty incredible. I'll leave you with a few choice gems from the game that had us all stretched out on the floor laughing hysterically....

Dad (describing a word): It's something that makes everything go smoothly (that's ALL he said, I promise)

Rachel, before anyone else could say a word: BALL BEARINGS!!!!

Dad, pumping his fist: YES! (while we all laughed and looked on in astonishment)

Rachel: I LOVED those when I was a kid!!!

Yep, she's the daughter of an engineer! Who else gives ball-bearings to their kids as toys??

An astonishing moment of mental connection between Meredith and I:

Me: You know, when water comes out of the ground...

Meredith: DEW POINT!

A correct guess followed by more astonishment.

A demonstration of Rachel's articulate descriptions:

Rachel: The one who made the invention!!! He did it! He made it! He made the invention! You know the one who made the invention!!!! He came up with the invention!!

Everyone else: Albert Einstein! Umm, WHAT invention?

Dad, finally: Inventor?

Rachel, after the time was up: The INVENTOR! DUH!

Thank you Rachel. You are a true wordsmith.

No, those words are not synonyms:

Brooke: You know, mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise...

Wilby: COMMODITIES!

Everyone else: more hysterical laughter, and Dad suggesting that we all begin investing in Condiments....