Sinai Liberation Day Celebration, Part 2

After lunch, we headed over to a different part of the estate for a rally. Most of the village had shown up because there was going to be a raffle- there must have been over 500 people there. Apart from celebrating Sinai Day, we were there to celebrate the launch of a program that the US Embassy and the Sadat Foundation have funded. It's a development program that provides mini-loans for the women of Menifiyah. Women can apply and receive small loans to help improve their lives. For example, they can get a loan to buy a school uniform so their children can go to school or they can get a loan to buy some drinks to sell on the streets to make a profit.

We said goodbye to Baba who headed up to the stage to perform his DCM duties and we took our seats in the front row.

This woman received the first loan. I wish I had the chance to ask her what she was going to do with the money.

We had just settled into a nice nose-picking iPhone playing routine, when we heard Booker's name called out over the microphone. Mr. Sadat wanted Booker to come onstage... in front of lots of big-wigs and hundreds of villagers. So up he went.

Mr. Sadat wanted Booker to pull the raffle tickets out of the bucket. They were giving away flat screen TVs, stereos and even laptops. So all of a sudden, my child went from obliviously playing Bug Squash on an iPhone to choosing the names of villagers who would win a TV, perhaps their first one ever. Surreal.

Booker kept nervously lifting his shirt up, exposing his chest and belly. As his mother, I wanted to crawl under a rock and die.

At first Ike was happy watching Booker from the comfort of his seat...

But everything Booker does, Teichert must do also. So he wandered up to the stage and my embarrassment doubled... tripled even.

Eventually he settled onto Baba's lap, mostly out of sight thankfully.

The village was small enough that when they announced the name of the winner, someone would shout, "He's not here, pick another one!"

Normally you see the women carrying water or bread on their heads, not televisions!