One of our favorite games to play in Cairo is, "remember in America when..." The truth is, for all that I complain about Cairo and Egypt and the different standards of living here, I really do like it. I don't know if I can pin-point exactly what it is that I like, but this country is growing on me.
I've started walking home from school. It is a straight shot across the Nile, past a park and the Opera House. The weather here has been beautiful making my walk all the more pleasant. I'm starting to get the hang of school. There are a few simple rules to follow: don't forget your AUC ID (they actually won't let you into the library without it), don't be intimidated by the incredibly attractive and well dressed Egyptians (they'll cause no harm and you are probably smarter than they are), don't take the wrong staircase (you can't get there from here) and be in class when class is supposed to start (they will start on time). Everywhere aside from AUC classes, being somewhere at 7:00 means being somewhere at 7:20. (Example, my Arabic tutor, whom I’ve really enjoyed working with, showed up at 10:45 when we were scheduled to meet at 10…zachma awi fi wust ilbalad.)
I won’t go through my whole week, as it was not particularly exciting. Rather, I’ll highlight the exciting points. Tuesday I went with some friends to a church called St. Andrews where Sudanese refugee children go to school. The point was to tutor them, but when I walked into the classroom (a nice name for a one room trailer with a white-board, no books and a few long tables), the teacher (who had zero control over the class) handed me the marker and told me to teach a group of maybe 25 five or six year olds to read English. A little bit shocked (last week’s Arabic vocab word – sadma), I had to think quickly. I couldn’t teach a class without first knowing my students’ names. So I came up with a solution. Each kid would stand up, tell me his or her name and give me the first letter of the name. I would write each letter they gave me on the board, and when everyone had given me their name, the challenge was to come up with a word beginning with that particular letter, then spell the word. It was then time for math. Fortunately, though my math skills are very poor, I am able to add say, 4 + 5 and even draw pictures to go along with the numbers. After a two-hour class, two little girls in the front row started asking me questions in Arabic. When they realized I didn’t understand, they turned to each other and said, “hi’a mish fahma…she doesn’t understand.” I’m not sure whether it was cute or sad, but I was glad that the girls were at least trying to communicate with me. I have every intention of going back but it will have to be at a different time than last week seeing as I now have Arabic tutoring at that time.
Last weekend was spent in a town on the Red Sea called Hurgada. It is about a six-hour bus ride from Cairo, but worth it. There isn’t a whole lot to do in the town, but the beach resorts are, by American standards, unbelievably cheap. Before leaving for Cairo, I got very jealous of my brother’s turtle. The turtle has a basking lamp. He sits on a rock and basks. No one seemed interested in getting me a basking lamp. Thankfully, I found the sun in Hurgada in place of the lamp. Six of us went in total (me, Naamah, Emily, Micah, Jordan and Elias who is visiting Egypt right now). Saturday night, half the crew went back to Cairo while half us stayed on an extra night. Saturday night, we (Jordan, Elias and I) walked around the town and found a great café with sheesha and backgammon. I cannot imagine any Americans ever going to a cafe just to play a board game. I don’t really see why not, though. It is a good way to spend time with friends while still being able to socialize, but not sitting around doing nothing. The following day, we went out on a glass-bottom boat and went snorkeling. I wouldn’t say there were great things to see, but it was a lot of fun and definitely cool.
Coming back to Cairo, I never thought I’d say I felt like I was coming home. But it was nice to be back in a city that I at least semi-understand and that I at least semi-recognize. I was taken to a great dinner by a fellow Seed of Peace at a Lebanese restaurant last night. It may have been the first time since arriving in this city that I can truly say I was really happy with the food I was eating (it may have just been the garlic, but whatever it was, it was great). I have pictures from Hurgada (OK, Jordan has pictures from Hurgada that I have every intention of stealing and then posting on my website) that I will put up as soon as I get them onto my computer.
The aspect of religion is more of an issue than I would have thought. To find Mein Kamf and the Protocols, all you have to do is walk down the street downtown. Hearing people’s ideas of Hitler and the Holocaust and even Egyptian politics is, for lack of a better word, interesting. People will generally tell you that Hitler was a war hero but they don’t really support him (though no one is ever sure why they don’t support him). If you ask, cab drivers will tell you whether they do or don’t like Mubarak or any other leader, but have a hard time explaining why. (And in case you’re wondering, I don’t ask them myself; I just enjoy listening while other people muster up the guts to do the talking.) People will ask, “what are you?” I am an American. “No, but what ARE you? Where are your parents from? What is your asl…your origin?” I am American. They give up on me after a while of not giving a satisfying answer.
I have been here a month and survived it pretty well (I think at least). I have three and a half months left of class. I am dying for meat and home cooked food (especially my mom’s) and I miss my friends from home and my family a lot. But I am adjusting, and meeting people and getting into the swing of things. I’m not sure if my Arabic speaking is any better, but my understanding and confidence in Arabic are rising. By the time I leave, I will at least be able to formulate a sentence…I promise.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Cairo 5
One thing I've learned never to do in Cairo is laugh while drinking water at a koshary restaurant. The result: spitting water all over the place and having a room full of Egyptians stare at you, jaws dropped in shock/horror while the only thing you can do is giggle (laugh hysterically may be a better way to describe it). Other things I wouldn't suggest doing while in Egypt include doing laundry and getting stuck in an elevator. Like most things in our apartment, our washing machine is broken. As long as the door is completely shut, it works fine. The problem is that the door doesn't always stay completely shut so I had to sit holding it shut with my foot for an hour and a half. It wasn't a complete waste of time...I was able to do some Arabic homework and read a bit. In our attempts to buy groceries the following day, we made the mistake of taking the elevator in the store. Considering our luck, it broke and we got stuck. We had to get 7 men to pry the door open. In the States, the normal response would be to give us a discount or coupon or something for free. In Egypt, they get us out and call it a day. To us, that is weird. To them, it would be strange the way they would be treated in the US. In the same way, we get a kick out of the fact that juice stands serve juice out of a glass that someone else just drank from or koshary restaurants don’t wash the glasses before the next customer uses them. They see this as a waste of time. If people aren’t dropping dead from germs, why waste the time and energy?
Classes started on Monday. My schedule works so that I have a three-day weekend (weekends here are Friday and Saturday; I also have Sunday off), and am done with class at 10AM on Thursdays. I have 10 hours of Arabic class per week (and two additional meetings with a tutor), a history class and an Egyptology class. My professor for Egyptology is phenomenal and somehow makes everything (including weather patterns over the Nile) interesting.
There is so much to see and do in Cairo that my tourist activity here is far from over. Last Sunday was spent at the Egyptian Museum. The museum was once described to me as being similar to a sock drawer but with a lot of really old, really expensive and really fancy socks. Despite being a pretty bad analogy, I would have to agree with it. The museum was in no way organized; it wasn’t like the items were poorly labeled --- most were not labeled at all --- and the museum did not seem to be set up by rooms. Rather, you walked through hallway after hallway of really old, really awesome stuff. (A good representation of Egypt if you ask me.) Surprisingly, I loved the museum. It is incredible to me not only that most of the items in the museum were so old, but that they were so old, so massive and in such good condition. In my Egyptology class, I learned that one of the main differences between ancient Egyptian civilization and almost any other ancient civilization was their outlook on the afterlife. The Greeks and Romans for example thought of the afterlife as a horrible, empty, bottomless pit. The Egyptians saw the potential for good. They were buried with gold and jewelry and paintings and sculptures of such massive scale and (especially compared to me), talent.
Wednesday night, we did the obvious thing to do in Cairo: Salsa Dancing. A bunch of people gathered in someone’s apartment with a teacher and we learned how to dance. Nothing too fancy, but a few a spins were thrown in here and there. Some people went to a club afterwards and I skipped out on that but have every intention of going next time. Thursday was another obvious Cairo activity: bowling. I learned that to actually knock pins down and not get the ball in the gutter every time, your wrist has to be straight. I did well a few times, but in general, I am a very bad bowler…this is nothing new.
Naamah and I decided we wanted to do Shabbat dinner at our apartment Friday night. We went out on Friday morning, bought some groceries and made a delicious dinner of stir-fry, homemade hummus, wine, guava juice and chickpea and cucumber salad. We had four friends over for dinner and had a great time. We felt a bit like the Marranos but instead of being in Spain, we were in Egypt and instead of lighting candles in the closet, we lit them on the table. I can’t speak for everyone there, but I had a lot of fun. Between grocery shopping and dinner, we went to a concert of a whole bunch of local Egyptian bands. Apparently this concert happens about four times a year but with different bands. The music wasn’t great but I’m really glad I went. We went with some Egyptian kids, which was a lot of fun. It’s good to be able to meet Egyptians and hang out where locals hang out. It was at a place called the Chinese Gardens, which I suppose is a bit out of place in Cairo but, it was pretty nonetheless.
Classes started on Monday. My schedule works so that I have a three-day weekend (weekends here are Friday and Saturday; I also have Sunday off), and am done with class at 10AM on Thursdays. I have 10 hours of Arabic class per week (and two additional meetings with a tutor), a history class and an Egyptology class. My professor for Egyptology is phenomenal and somehow makes everything (including weather patterns over the Nile) interesting.
There is so much to see and do in Cairo that my tourist activity here is far from over. Last Sunday was spent at the Egyptian Museum. The museum was once described to me as being similar to a sock drawer but with a lot of really old, really expensive and really fancy socks. Despite being a pretty bad analogy, I would have to agree with it. The museum was in no way organized; it wasn’t like the items were poorly labeled --- most were not labeled at all --- and the museum did not seem to be set up by rooms. Rather, you walked through hallway after hallway of really old, really awesome stuff. (A good representation of Egypt if you ask me.) Surprisingly, I loved the museum. It is incredible to me not only that most of the items in the museum were so old, but that they were so old, so massive and in such good condition. In my Egyptology class, I learned that one of the main differences between ancient Egyptian civilization and almost any other ancient civilization was their outlook on the afterlife. The Greeks and Romans for example thought of the afterlife as a horrible, empty, bottomless pit. The Egyptians saw the potential for good. They were buried with gold and jewelry and paintings and sculptures of such massive scale and (especially compared to me), talent.
Wednesday night, we did the obvious thing to do in Cairo: Salsa Dancing. A bunch of people gathered in someone’s apartment with a teacher and we learned how to dance. Nothing too fancy, but a few a spins were thrown in here and there. Some people went to a club afterwards and I skipped out on that but have every intention of going next time. Thursday was another obvious Cairo activity: bowling. I learned that to actually knock pins down and not get the ball in the gutter every time, your wrist has to be straight. I did well a few times, but in general, I am a very bad bowler…this is nothing new.
Naamah and I decided we wanted to do Shabbat dinner at our apartment Friday night. We went out on Friday morning, bought some groceries and made a delicious dinner of stir-fry, homemade hummus, wine, guava juice and chickpea and cucumber salad. We had four friends over for dinner and had a great time. We felt a bit like the Marranos but instead of being in Spain, we were in Egypt and instead of lighting candles in the closet, we lit them on the table. I can’t speak for everyone there, but I had a lot of fun. Between grocery shopping and dinner, we went to a concert of a whole bunch of local Egyptian bands. Apparently this concert happens about four times a year but with different bands. The music wasn’t great but I’m really glad I went. We went with some Egyptian kids, which was a lot of fun. It’s good to be able to meet Egyptians and hang out where locals hang out. It was at a place called the Chinese Gardens, which I suppose is a bit out of place in Cairo but, it was pretty nonetheless.
Saturday, February 3, 2007
Cairo 4/Alexandria
Cairo, in contrast to Alexandria, is probably best described by its sounds. Despite being a city of almost 5 million, relative to Cairo, it seems both small and quiet. Going to school there would not be nearly as exciting. There is far less to do and far less to see despite its clean air, lack of honking and beautiful views.
Before leaving for Alexandria, we made a stop in Islamic Cairo. One thing I notice daily in Cairo is that every area (downtown, Doqqi, Islamic Cairo, Coptic Cairo, etc.) has its own personality. Islamic Cairo seems no less religious than the rest of Cairo. Rather, it is filled block after block with massive mosques built centuries ago. The mosques, for the most part have an open ceiling in the prayer room so you can see the sky. Climbing to the top of a minaret, you can see far, but Cairo is so large and so polluted, it seems like you can hardly see anything. Islamic Cairo seems to be slightly quieter and less bustling.
We left for Alexandria at about 8 in the morning on Tuesday. It is about a three-hour bus ride. There is not too much to see on the ride between Cairo and Alex but some sand and lots of billboards. We stayed at a 5-star hotel with a view from our windows of the Mediterranean. We were able to eat vegetables and fruits without fear of getting sick. It was a bit too cold to swim, but not too cold by any means to sit outside by the water with a book and sunglasses. Walking around Alexandria, we stopped in at a few churches (including the main Coptic church and an Armenian church) as well as outside of the Alexandria synagogue. The guards would not let us in and while standing looking at the building, we started to draw a crowd so we left. It is a huge building with large gates in front of it. Between the gates and the building is a large courtyard. The building seems to be very well maintained for what it is.
The following day, we went with school to the catacombs, an amphitheater, the Alexandria library and a large fort. The catacombs are carved underground and can hold I think something like 300 mummies. It is a huge space and amazing that all of that could have been carved out. From the top of the fort, you get a beautiful view not only of the city but of the Mediterranean as well. The library seems to be more of a tourist attraction than an actual library. It has very few books, though there seemed to be people there doing some studying.
My program has 227 kids on it. Most are American, although we do have a number of Norwegians and I believe some Brits, Australian and probably Canadians. For the most part, kids seem to be nothing but nice. It is a chance to meet people I would never have met before. I am meeting people from completely different backgrounds, different schools and different interests from myself.
Coming back to Cairo, we went out for a standard meal of kohsary. The more koshary is discussed, the more it defines Cairo. A mish mash of every leftover with a few spices. Like the loud noises, the food here seems to describe the city. Not only koshary, but things like the thick juices that can be bought at every street corner. Sugarcane juice is a perfect example of this. Despite its sweetness (which I obviously love), it is too thick to get down a whole glass. A few sips are enough.
Every year, Cairo has a huge book fair. Although most books are in Arabic, we were able to find enough used books in English at prices as low as 2 pounds (it is 5.7 American dollars to the Egyptian pound). There were a good number of anti-Jewish books at the book fair that we saw.
Any other city, living across from the police station would make me feel safe. Here, walking to my apartment at night, I am terrified walking past the station. The guards are no different (if not worse) from any other male on the street. That, on top of knowing that they have huge guns and are much bigger and more powerful than myself is very disheartening. That's not to say that our block doesn't have its perks. It is fairly quiet, we are not too far from school and it is nice to be able to be in a different part of the city, even if it is only for the night.
Cairo may not have a magic to it like other cities, but it has something indefinable making it like no other place. I love that five times daily, the call to prayer is heard and people take five minutes to pray. It is a time to take for yourself. In the States, no one takes those five minutes of self-reflection. One thing I learned about prayer in Islam is that when bowing down, your entire forehead and nose should be on the floor. In that position, any bad thought you are having is coming from you and you only. There is no way to blame it on anyone or anything else. There is magic in the contrast between old and new in this city. My favorite part of the street our building is on is seeing a donkey taking a food break from pulling its cart. We, as Americans, are more out of the ordinary on our street than the donkey. The irony in being able to see Pizza Hut from the sphinx can have no other reaction but laughter, like almost everything in this city. I have learned that rather than take things seriously and be frustrated over not being able to understand why things happen the way they do, it is better to laugh and take it for what it is. After all, as I said, this city is like no other place I have ever been (although I suppose I haven't been too many places).
Before leaving for Alexandria, we made a stop in Islamic Cairo. One thing I notice daily in Cairo is that every area (downtown, Doqqi, Islamic Cairo, Coptic Cairo, etc.) has its own personality. Islamic Cairo seems no less religious than the rest of Cairo. Rather, it is filled block after block with massive mosques built centuries ago. The mosques, for the most part have an open ceiling in the prayer room so you can see the sky. Climbing to the top of a minaret, you can see far, but Cairo is so large and so polluted, it seems like you can hardly see anything. Islamic Cairo seems to be slightly quieter and less bustling.
We left for Alexandria at about 8 in the morning on Tuesday. It is about a three-hour bus ride. There is not too much to see on the ride between Cairo and Alex but some sand and lots of billboards. We stayed at a 5-star hotel with a view from our windows of the Mediterranean. We were able to eat vegetables and fruits without fear of getting sick. It was a bit too cold to swim, but not too cold by any means to sit outside by the water with a book and sunglasses. Walking around Alexandria, we stopped in at a few churches (including the main Coptic church and an Armenian church) as well as outside of the Alexandria synagogue. The guards would not let us in and while standing looking at the building, we started to draw a crowd so we left. It is a huge building with large gates in front of it. Between the gates and the building is a large courtyard. The building seems to be very well maintained for what it is.
The following day, we went with school to the catacombs, an amphitheater, the Alexandria library and a large fort. The catacombs are carved underground and can hold I think something like 300 mummies. It is a huge space and amazing that all of that could have been carved out. From the top of the fort, you get a beautiful view not only of the city but of the Mediterranean as well. The library seems to be more of a tourist attraction than an actual library. It has very few books, though there seemed to be people there doing some studying.
My program has 227 kids on it. Most are American, although we do have a number of Norwegians and I believe some Brits, Australian and probably Canadians. For the most part, kids seem to be nothing but nice. It is a chance to meet people I would never have met before. I am meeting people from completely different backgrounds, different schools and different interests from myself.
Coming back to Cairo, we went out for a standard meal of kohsary. The more koshary is discussed, the more it defines Cairo. A mish mash of every leftover with a few spices. Like the loud noises, the food here seems to describe the city. Not only koshary, but things like the thick juices that can be bought at every street corner. Sugarcane juice is a perfect example of this. Despite its sweetness (which I obviously love), it is too thick to get down a whole glass. A few sips are enough.
Every year, Cairo has a huge book fair. Although most books are in Arabic, we were able to find enough used books in English at prices as low as 2 pounds (it is 5.7 American dollars to the Egyptian pound). There were a good number of anti-Jewish books at the book fair that we saw.
Any other city, living across from the police station would make me feel safe. Here, walking to my apartment at night, I am terrified walking past the station. The guards are no different (if not worse) from any other male on the street. That, on top of knowing that they have huge guns and are much bigger and more powerful than myself is very disheartening. That's not to say that our block doesn't have its perks. It is fairly quiet, we are not too far from school and it is nice to be able to be in a different part of the city, even if it is only for the night.
Cairo may not have a magic to it like other cities, but it has something indefinable making it like no other place. I love that five times daily, the call to prayer is heard and people take five minutes to pray. It is a time to take for yourself. In the States, no one takes those five minutes of self-reflection. One thing I learned about prayer in Islam is that when bowing down, your entire forehead and nose should be on the floor. In that position, any bad thought you are having is coming from you and you only. There is no way to blame it on anyone or anything else. There is magic in the contrast between old and new in this city. My favorite part of the street our building is on is seeing a donkey taking a food break from pulling its cart. We, as Americans, are more out of the ordinary on our street than the donkey. The irony in being able to see Pizza Hut from the sphinx can have no other reaction but laughter, like almost everything in this city. I have learned that rather than take things seriously and be frustrated over not being able to understand why things happen the way they do, it is better to laugh and take it for what it is. After all, as I said, this city is like no other place I have ever been (although I suppose I haven't been too many places).
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