New blog site

I'm transitioning over to a new blog site. There aren't any new posts yet, but there will be soon!

http://twinskis.wordpress.com/

Exodus from Egypt

Hi Everyone,

Well, we finally made it back to the U.S.  We are staying in California with Jessie's mom.  We arrived last night at the house at about 8pm exhausted after a very long week of stress and uncertaintly.

We will probably hunker down here to mentally recoup and figure out what BP has in store for us.  It may be working temporarily in Anchorage, Houston or London until Egypt simmers down.

In the meantime, we came with two bags for all 4 of us.  We definitely feel like refugees!  But we are all safe and thankful to be out of the chaos, so life is good in that respect.  Still, it is tough without any warm clothing, only 4 pairs of underwear (well, maybe that is about 2 weeks worth of underwear for a male chmielowski) and no possessions or toys for the kids.

In the coming days when we relax a bit more, I can fire off more emails and call folks, but for now, I just want to sleep, hunker down, eat bacon and salads (remember, can't eat these in Egypt due to giardia) and enjoy all the fresh air outside.

Thanks for all your emails and thoughts during this "revolution."  I hope it all ends well for Egypt.

Joe

Joe is going local

Joe has started to be absorbed into the local Egyptian ways as demonstrated by pictures from his latest desert field trip.

Twin banana

As the parent of identical twins, Joe was very interested in this twin banana that he found. It was twice the size of a normal banana, and inside the outer skin were two normal-sized bananas. They were consumed by our two normal-sized kiddos for good luck.

Brandon: our first guest

Brandon is a good friend of ours from Alaska. He now lives and works in Angola and was our first visitor in Egypt. Here are some good tourist photos of us.

At the pyramids:

Riding camels:

Inside the small pyramid:

Brandon:

Me and Brandon by the Sphinx:

An evening felucca ride on the Nile:

Desert camping adventure: days 7 & 8

Jessie and the boys in the western white desert:

White desert:

White desert chalk formations:

Crystal mountain: 

Jessie in Baharia by drawing of Alexander the Great:

Us with Mary, Alice and Kevin in Baharia:

Local in Baharia with Henry:

Desert camping adventure: days 5 & 6

We spent two days and nights in the Great Sand Sea. The first night we slept under the stars:

J&J in the dunes:

Our trusty steed made it through all the dunes and only got stuck once:

Beautiful dunes:

H&N playing on dunes in the evening:

Family photo:

Henry buried:

Nate buried:

Us with guides:

Cars stopped for a break:

Dunes as far as you can see in every direction:

Part-way between sand sea and white desert:

Flying a kite:

Desert camping adventure: days 3 & 4

View of desert in Qattara Depression:

Oasis with hot water spraying out of the ground:

Qarah Oasis old mud city:

View of date palms in Qarah Oasis:

Old drinking well in Qarah:

Jessie in Qarah (no local women are allowed outside during the daytime):

Joe in Qarah:

Morning donkey cart ride in Siwa Oasis:

View of old mud city in Siwa:

Temple where the Oracle resided:

View of date palms and olive trees in Siwa:

Feeding carrots to the tired, sweaty donkey:

On way out of Siwa, stopped by old gravesites with skulls inside:

Nathan and Henry with skull:



Desert camping adventure: days 1 & 2

Here are some photos of our desert camping adventure in November. Reference map located here.

7am start in Maadi:

El Alamain WWII museum on Mediterranean coast:

Herd of wild camels:

Henry before we enter Qattara Depression:

Large piece of petrified wood, it was everywhere:

Sleeping Nathan:

Jessie at first oasis:

Lunch time, Alice and Henry:

Evening on sand dune:

Campsite on sand dune:

Nate playing in sand:

Henry rolling in sand:

Joe getting tents set up: