Last Days

Some Reading

Interesting article from the NYT Magazine on the gay culture in Egypt.

Camel Market

Yesterday I took a trip out to the camel market that is about an hour from Cairo. The drive out there was worth the trip as it's fascinating to see how quickly things transition from Cairo to village-spotted agricultural land. The market was also quite interesting though not so lively as I expected--not auction block where the camels were being sold. The market was mainly made up of traders standing with their groups of camels, regularly beating them with sticks and hobbling or unhobbling them as circumstances dictated. We had pleasant conversations with some kids in the market and had tea with a scarf trader. We started bargaining for scarves, a process that was undermined by some locals interjecting into the bargaining to tell us not to pay more than 10 L.E. for a scarf (the trader wanted 25-30) which pissed the trader off and almost resulted in a fight.

Luxor/Aswan/Abu Simbel

Thanksgiving weekend I toured the ancient monuments of southern Egypt. Not much to narrate other than a list of temples. Look at pictures!

Dinner

I had a very rewarding experience about two weeks ago--a student in the english class for refugees that I am teaching invited me and my fellow teachers to meet his family and have dinner with them. Andrew's (the student) family is from Southern Sudan and have been in Cairo anywhere from 2-5 years. Though I am not particularly well-educated on issues regarding Sudan, I should note that they are not from Darfur but from the regions in the south that have been conducting a separate rebellion against the Muslim government in Khartoum. A peace treaty has recently been signed that sets out various terms of agreement for the next several years until the southern half of the country will vote regarding whether to secede in 2011. Andrew and his family were very welcoming, cooked us delicious food, and engaged us in interesting discussions on politics (they like Bush), the treatment of Sudanese in Cairo, etc. Many of them were also present at the Sudanese protest outside the UNHCR offices in Cairo last year, a protest that was eventually bloodily ended by the Egyptian police (I think I linked to several articles about this in one of my first posts). I've posted some pictures that Andrew sent me and have some on my camera that I will likely upload soon.

Great Moments in Cairo Cultural Life (I)

A few friends and I attended a concert by a local heavy-metal cover-band called Sirens, and I think it deserves mention for various reasons, among them: head-banging, hijab-clad Egyptian girls throwing up the devil-horns; almost two hours of bad (in the good way) late 70s metal that everyone appeared to love; the lead singer saying before each song, "We are going to play (insert name). We all know the lyrics, so sing along" and every Egyptian knowing the lyrics; and more Iron Maiden t-shirts than I have seen in awhile.

Israel and the West Bank

Catching up….

I spent a week in Israel during the end of Ramadan break. The bus trip from Cairo to the border at Taba was incredibly long, and then made longer by the fact that the Israelis decided to hold me up for an hour at the border. I had to proceed through three sets of questioners who asked me gems such as: “Do you know anything about the Muslim culture?” (failing to understand that Islam is a religion, not a culture), “You do realize these are holy sites?” (upon learning I hoped to visit the Western Wall and the Temple Mount), “So I hear you want to visit the mosque [i.e. Al-Aksa]” (misconstruing my earlier statement that I hoped to visit the Temple Mount and seemingly forgetting that, as a non-Muslim, I am not allowed into Al-Aksa), “You do realize this is an Israeli place?” (upon learning I intended to visit my relatives in Kochav Yair). After my cheerful encounter with the Israeli border security, I proceeded on to Jerusalem, by chance running into some friends within 30 minutes of arriving in the old city.

I enjoyed Jerusalem, though after Islamic Cairo it feels like the DisneyWorld of medieval cities. I think we were also there at a rather unfortunate time as the Muslim Quarter was almost deserted due to the ongoing Eid holiday and the Temple Mount complex was closed for the same reason. Nevertheless, the visit was enjoyable.

The friends with whom I toured around the city met a college student from Singapore/Canada who was spending a semester volunteering for the UN Relief and Works Agency in the West Bank. At dinner, he offered to take us into the West Bank for a day, an offer we accepted. So the next day we took a minibus to Ramallah before proceeding onto Nablus and two of the refugee camps around Nablus. Ramallah was quite bustling and seemed to be thriving, but the situation was much grimmer in Nablus and the refugee camps. Poverty is rampant, suicide-bomber posters are everywhere, every kid seems to be playing with a toy gun, and the results of various battles with the IDF are in evidence all around. It’s also quite amazing to look around as one drives through the West Bank and feel surrounded by Israeli settlements, as well as drive out of Jerusalem and see the settlements arranged in concentric rings about the city. We spend a couple hours walking around, chatting with children who wanted us to take pictures of them posing with their guns like the suicide-bombers, and having coffee and playing foosball with some men at a coffee shop. Everyone was very kind and welcoming (although we did tell them we were Canadian…) but one didn’t get the feeling that people held much hope for the future. Leaving Nablus we had to pass through an Israeli check-point, which was quite an experience—over one hundred people waiting patiently to be let through one-at-a-time. Two more check-points and we were back in Jerusalem feeling thankful we had not run into any militia.

The next day, I went to visit our relatives in Kochav Yair, a very nice suburban community. During the day I spent with them, we went out to the Roman ruins of Caesarea on the coast, quite impressive. I then took a train down to Be’er Sheva to visit our other relatives. The train ride was interesting because, as it was just before the weekend, all the Israeli soldiers were going home on leave, and so I was on the train with several hundred armed 18-22 year-old Israelis. Even after living in Cairo where there is a large police presence, the number of soldiers in Israel was quite overwhelming, especially as they are almost all teenagers/twenty-somethings. I spend a great day with my mom’s cousin Helen—we went to the Ramon crater (a stunning piece of landscape in the Negev), the Nebatia ruins at Avdat, and David Ben-Gurion’s grave. We drove to Jerusalem for dinner with my grandfather’s cousin (Helen’s father) and the whole extended family. I had hoped to return the following day to Cairo but no buses were running to Eilat on the Saturday, and so I passed a lazy Saturday in Be’er Sheva before embarking on what turned out to be the 16 hour journey back to Cairo by bus.

Quick Update

I went to two concerts this weekend, both of which were quite good. The first was a band called Eftekasat (an Arabic slang word meaning "new invention" or some such). They were composed of guitar, bass, keyboard, drum, electric violin, and percussion and had a kind of jazz/prog-rock/80s/world music vibe. A little heavy on the Weather Report/Mahavishnu Orchestra/80s synth influence for my taste, but still very enjoyable. The guitarist and violinist in particular were very impressive.

The next day we saw a band called Nagham Masri at the British Council. The guitarist and drummer were both from Eftekasat and were joined by a percussionist, oudist, kanun player, bassist, and keyboardist. A similar style of music with maybe more Oriental influences and less rock. Also enjoyable, but I think the lyrics were quite high-brow, and so not being able to understand them I think probably takes away from the experience.

In other news, I'm continuing to teach an English class twice a week to refugees. It's been very rewarding as they are all very greatful, but also a lot of hard work. Embarrassing too, at times, when I realize how poor my knowledge of English grammar is (like when my fellow teachers and I struggled for a minute or two to remember the distinction between a word such as "cooking" used as a gerund and used in its form as part of the continuous tenses). So, if any of you want to offer some lesson plans...The most frustrating part of the course has been that we aren't given a syllabus, and so it's up to us to figure out what level people are perfoming at and decide what we're going to teach over the course of the class.

Soccer and Trash

I thought I'd just post quickly on two interesting activities from the last several days:

1. On Tuesday night, an Egyptian friend from one of my classes invited me to a soccer game between Egypt and Lebanon, being held as part of a charity event for Lebanon called "Lebanon As It Was." It didn't turn out to be much of a game--Egypt won 7-0--or a very lively atmosphere--the 80,000 capacity Cairo stadium was over 3/4 empty--but still a fun time. Also interesting to see the a couple Hizbollah flags waving in the crowd...

2. Yesterday, some friends and I visited Mokattam el-Zabaleen, also known as trash city. The city is a neighborhood of Coptic Christians who have taken it upon themselves to collect much of Cairo's trash and bring it back to their neighborhood for sorting and recycling--it now resembles a living garbage dump where people, trash, and animals live side-by-side (for those of you who think this a horrifying situation read the links below for some perspective on the issue). Perhaps the oddest thing about the neighborhood is the large population of pigs that are kept by the inhabitants--a very strange sight in an overwhelmingly Muslim country. Above the town, a Coptic monastery has been built into the limestone mountain, with huge rock carvings of Bible scenes and the Ten Commandments. As we walked up to the monastery, we spent a fair amount of time chatting with some adorable kids who wanted to show us their cross tatoos, play marbles with us, and recite Bible verses in Arabic to us.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0106/p07s02-woaf.html
http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/mokattam.htm

3. Last night, I went with some friends to a gathering at some students' apartment in the nearby neighborhood of Dokki. On the way home, I had a conversation with a cab driver that I've had often enough with other Egyptians that I thought it might be interesting to report. In the course of asking me why I was studying Arabic, whether I liked Egypt, whether I thought terrorism was a problem in Egypt, etc., the cab driver asked me where the black residents of New York live, and then whether I'd feel safe in those neighborhoods late at night. I've faced this question a number of times. Egyptians pride themselves on how safe Cairo is at any hour (which is mostly true, though I believe there are some quite dangerous neighborhoods that they tend to ignore). A number of times, this has led to conversations regarding the safety of U.S. cities, particulary in regard to African-Americans.

Hopefully, some pictures of trash city and the soccer game soon.

Post

So I actually wrote a long post several days ago but then the internet deleted it as I was trying to post it, which discouraged me for a little bit. So, here is what has happened in the last month (that I can remember):

Orientation trip to the Red Sea: All us study abroad kids spent a very nice couple days at a resort called El Gouna. I didn’t take any pictures, but just picture beautiful beaches, warm water, sun, sand, etc. The resort itself is a bit surreal—they’ve constructed a huge canal system that goes inland from the sea and the resort is built on it like a faux Venice.

Sudanese refugees and STAR: I’ve gotten involved with a student group Students for Action on Refugees. The group offers, among other services, English classes to refugees living in Cairo. Registration for the classes was held several weeks ago, and instead of 500 people competing for the 250 available slots, as was expected, 2800 people showed up to the campus, filling an entire street next to the university and causing a scene of total havoc. As the campus security became increasing nervous, we had to barricade ourselves inside the campus and write down everyone’s name and phone number through an iron-grill fence. Last week, after 250 people had been randomly chosen and contacted, we conducted language placement tests, and tomorrow classes begin. I will be teaching a class two days per week with two other study abroad students.

Yacoubian Building: I finally went to see the “Yacoubian Building,” Egypt’s most popular movie this year, several days ago. I believe it is coming out soon in the U.S., and I recommend seeing it for an interesting picture of modern Egypt. Plus, most of it was filmed around Talaat Harb, which is about a ten minute walk from the university.

Ramadan and Iftar: Ramadan started about ten days ago, which throws the entire country for a loop as people begin fasting (no food or water during daylight), university classes all change times, the city turns into a madhouse as people rush home for Iftar (the breaking of the fast) just before sunset, and the city is abandoned during Iftar. Some friends and I were lucky enough to be invited by some Egyptians in the dorm to an Iftar in their hometown about 1.5 hours north of Cairo. We arrived too late to eat with the family, but nevertheless had a wonderful meal and spent the evening with our friend’s friends who were mostly students at the local university. This last Friday, a big group of exchange students were invited to our friend Mohsen’s apartment for an Iftar. Again, the food was delicious. A friend and I had a very interesting conversation with Mohsen’s brother-in-law, who works for the Ministry of Interior Affairs and is responsible for all the Palestinians living in Egypt.

SOS music festival: I went with some friends to a large out-doors music festival held in Nasr city (a suburb of Cairo) several weeks ago. All of Egypt’s top bands were there, and the music was quite enjoyable. I met an Egyptian from one of my classes who is really into the music scene in Cairo (and who’s favorite band is Dream Theater-hahahaha) and has promised to give me the scoop on all the concerts in Cairo.

Wandering in Islamic Cairo: Some friends and I spent an afternoon wandering in Cairo’s ancient Islamic district. I believe Cairo is known as the best-preserved medieval city in the world, and the oldest parts of it are a sight to behold. Unfortunately, this district was also severely damaged by the 1993 earthquake in Cairo and most of the damage remains.

Classes: Classes are alright, y’know. Arabic is going well.

Uh, that’s all I can think of for now. I’m still trying to get around to putting some pictures up, though I haven’t taken many recently. I’ll try to post more regularly in the future. Send me an email or something.