Mel McCombie's Fulbright in Egypt: Riding the bus

As I sat on the bus from campus the other day, I mused on riding the bus. I never ride buses in the U.S.; heck, I have a nice car of my own. But in Cairo, I have no car (nor would I!) and either get driven by Emad or take the AUC bus to and from campus in New Cairo. Or walk. The ride from Ma’adi to campus is about 25 kilometers, and can take from 45 minutes to 3 hours depending on traffic, though it’s usually an hour or so. Reading makes me woozy and I don’t bother with an iPod, so I look out of the window to pass the time. I figure I will have spent somewhere between 180-200 hours on the AUC bus by the time we depart. That does not include our many bus rides for AUC-sponsored or Fulbright trips.

Ready to walk to the bus stop

The AUC bus stop in Ma'adi

At AUC, we go through security to get on campus

Getting off the AUC bus in Ma'adi

View from the bus

Bold pedestrian crosses the Ring Road

Vendors on the side of the road

So round, so firm, so fully packed...but you will never see an ad for women's underwear!

Lately, the roads scenes have changed thanks to billboards and posters for presidential candidates. There are 11 at this writing, with three of them considered front-runners in the press. Amr Moussa, former head of the Arab League and a secularist; Mohamed Mursi , the Islamist candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood; and Abdel Aboul Fatouh, an ex-Brotherhood member who is either a secularist or Islamist, depending who’s asking. The ultra-conservative Salafists are supporting him, so I can’t tell.

Abdoul Fatouh supporters

Moussa posters in Cairo

Mursi posters

Each candidate beams from his posters, promising progress and prosperity, and each is also represented by a symbol (like a chair or ladder) so illiterates can mark their choice on ballots.

Who is missing? I see no women anywhere running for office. Moussa has said he would consider a female (or Coptic) VP.

Through the bus window, another presidential candidate billboard

And another. Note the umbrella symbol, the image so illiterate voters can identify this candidate

Back to the bus. I love watching the scenes roll by. Highways are a loose term here. They all have speed bumps so if you get up to 70 kilometers an hour, you have to slow down for the bumps, so riding means a lot of starting and stopping. Cars break down all the time, and are stopped wherever they may be on the road. Young men stand on the side and try to flag down rides. Stands offering everything from water pipes for sheesha to snacks take up a lane or two. I am fascinated by the stickers in taxi and van windows (if you read the blog, you’ve seen lots of them), the garbage, the daring pedestrians dashing through traffic (reminds me of Dodge Ball), the carts pulled by donkeys and horses sharing the highway with massive trucks, and, alas, the all-too-frequent accidents

Trust me. The stickers are the name of Allah, with "Cowboy Up" below, and then decals for DVD, etc.

Donkey cart with onions on the highway

I gave a workshop on what I’ve learned as an American teaching Egyptians at AUC’s Center for Teaching and Learning. Boiled down, it comes to: speak slowly; explain your words and ideas; let students know it’s okay to laugh; learn their names even though Arabic names don’t have English cognates.

We boarded another bus on Thursday for a three day, two night conference in Ain Soukna, a resort town on the northern Red Sea, where the senior Fulbrighters sang for their suppers and presented their work. Our first stop was the amazing monastery of Saint Anthony, the founder of the monastic tradition in Christianity. It is Coptic, with about 120 brothers, and we were given a VIP tour by the abbot, Father Maximous Elantony. He was amazing—educated with multiple degrees, an archaeologist, very tech-savvy, and a social force for good in Egypt. Not exactly the retiring meditating type, though his life is, of course, centered on faith.

Saint Anthony's exterior

Ranya Rashad of Fulbright introduces Father Maximous

The monastery's cell tower. They live in the 21st century!

The monastery dates from the 3^rd century, with walls built by Emperor Justinian in the 6^th century, along with a keep to defend the site from raids by Bedouins. The most fascinating place for us was the church. It is a palimpsest of the ages, with parts dating from the 16^th century down to excavations of the original monks’ cells from the 6^th century. Its paintings are beautiful, in the Coptic style, and Father Maximous told us that a team of Italian painting restorers help uncover the earliest paintings. After telling us about the services the monks conduct every day, he sang us a traditional prayer, accompanied delicately on cymbals, and it was transporting.

Exterior of the entry to the church

Monks' cells exterior

Door to the church

Church interior

Basket for bringing supplies into the keep or giving food to the Bedouins

Keep exterior with bridge that is lifted away when threatened

Father Maximous

Original refectory table and benches

Of course, all I can recall about my conference presentation were my mistakes but I understand it was very good; I talked briefly about my teaching, and more extensively on my research on advertising for multi-national beauty products in the U.S. and Egypt. Sociologists have already found that the classic fair beauty of someone like Catherine Deneuve or Nicole Kidman is the reigning and preferred type in India, Japan, China, Singapore, and Taiwan. Sadly, this fair ideal is also true here, even when the model or “face” of a product is from north Africa.

I stand and deliver for Fulbright

Fulbright bus

The conference also marked our last time getting together with other Fulbrighters, at least under the aegis of the Fulbright commission. It reinforced our increasing sense of bittersweet emotion at leaving. It’s been one heck of a year.

I taught my last classes today (huzzah!), which means I only have two more bus rides to AUC (to pick up final work). My students were lovely and many asked if I were staying and could they take more courses from me? Maybe we will come back, but in the meantime, we are watching the upcoming presidential elections with great interest.