First off, welcome to our blog. We're hoping to provide details and observations of our daily life over here in Egypt to those family and friends who may be interested. :) For those who may not know, David is serving as a liaison/consultant for the Chinook helicopter maintenance unit run by the Egyptians. We live on a contractor-run compound inside the Egyptian air force base Kom Awshim, a few hours south of Cairo. As you read through the postings, please use the comment field to ask any questions you may have....we'd be delighted to answer them and it would be interesting reading for others as well. Also, this first post is a good opportunity to put out our contact information. Our address over here is:

CW4 David Lyons
Chinook TAFT
Unit 64901 Box 50
APO, AE 09839-4901

We have a magicJack and chose an Oregon number so you don't have to call overseas in order to reach us: 541-728-5433. The time difference between Cairo and the West Coast is 10 hours, just so's you knows.

And I'm going to leave you with my first view of Cairo. I flew in at 12:30 AM and didn't see anything until I woke up the next morning. I ran out to the balcony and took it all in. The following is representative of the buildings I saw as far as I could see:

Our home at Kom Awshim/Beni Suef compound

Our house:


We very quickly realized the compartmentalized life we'll be living over here. While in Cairo you were struck by the heat, the dust, haze, the buzz of constant honking, talking, yelling, calls to prayer....LIFE-- it appears that the U.S. contractor here at Kom Awshim has attempted to pluck a neighborhood out of small-town America, complete with rambler houses (are these ramblers?) in neat rows/blocks with patios, sidewalks, front yards and speed limits. At the end of our block is the cafeteria where you can eat three meals a day if you so choose (last night we had lasagna, a few nights before we had ribeye steaks), plus there's a bar, the pool, the store, and the post office. And it's very, very quiet....there's only about 15 Americans who live here and during the middle of the day most of the buzz comes from the Egyptian landscapers. I told David I feel like we live on a resort......I wasn't sure what to expect but I certainly didn't anticipate this!

Our front yard:

Our street:


Our living room:


Kitchen:


The pool....it's very nice :)


And the poolside bar which has a very interesting feature. They've installed a mister, pretty much exactly like you'd find in the produce section misting broccoli and lettuce, which will mist you periodically so you don't get overheated. I thought this was hilarious!!!