Pumpkins!

Here in Egypt we don't have autumn. It is incredibly sad, I know, but it's true. Egypt has two seasons: Hot and dusty, and cool and occasionally muddy. That's it.

For those of us who grew up in a climate where there are four distinct seasons, it's strange to live in a land without that. Therefor it is absolutely necessary that we keep some of our traditions alive and pretend that autumn exists (after all it is autumn somewhere). Land week some of the teachers at my school and I did just that. We decided to carve pumpkins! Wendy had us all over to her flat, where she had been preparing goodies like doughnuts and hot mulled cider. We each brought a pumpkin with us, and we set to carving.




Wendy our host dug out the seeds to roast before she began work on her masterpiece. She later dug out a lot of the flesh as well and made delightful pumpkin treats out of it.



Gabriela's pumpkin had partially rotted between the time that she purchased it and our carving party. She wasn't bothered much though. She cut out all of the flesh to cook with and then salvaged the rest.

Unfortunately she was stationed next to me for all of this. I was getting a little crazy with my knife, and getting a few strange and somewhat frightened looks from her.


I was attempting to carve a pyramid scene with a camel in the foreground, a tribute to my new country, but I kept cutting my camel's tail off and he kept getting thinner and thinner with each new attempt at a tail.



Nichole carved a happy pumpkin face.



I attempt yet another tail for my poor camel.




We called Heather's cheerful little guy Gill.



Gabriela tried to make what was left of her pumpkin into a wig. That didn't work out very well, so eventually she carved a tree and some jagged mountains and placed it next to my Pyramid scene and called it Lebanon.









All of us with our final products. What fun!


Unfortunately only one day after these photos were taken the camel lost his head, and a day after that the pyramids collapsed completely. Tragedy.