It's the little things...

  It’s the little things that let you know you aren’t in Kansas anymore. Some of our favorites:

            Though Arabic reads from right to left, Egyptian numerals read from left to right. Go know.

Lada black taxi

White taxi in traffic
This is where Ladas come to die. Every third taxi seems to be a Lada, particularly the black taxis. Taxis are divided into white taxis with meters, and black taxis, with no meters. You negotiate the fare before stepping in; around Maadi, you can go pretty much anywhere for about LE5 (84 cents). There is not a car in Cairo without scratches and dents, either.

When you walk on the street, nearly every car going by honks. Sometimes it’s a car giving you a heads-up that they are coming, but mostly it’s a taxi driver, honking to suggest “why walk when you can ride?” The result is pretty much constant honking, since drivers also honk at other cars. A lot.

When I walk to the bus stop at 7AM, the streets are muddy because everyone washes their cars in the morning. Every day.

LE stands for “livres Egyptiennes,” a holdover from the brief French occupation of the country, 1798-1801. Napoleon also managed to loot a lot of obelisks then.

Classes at the gym like Zumba are pretty much a 50-50 mix of women wearing the hijab and fully covered in skin-tight clothing, and westerners wearing their usual gym garb. The girls in hijab out-dance the westerners, particularly in hip-hop and salsa. Humbling.

            

Not only do we take off our shoes when entering our flat (or anyone’s home) but we actually wash our shoes every day. They are filthy, and sometimes need to be scrubbed with an old toothbrush. 

A street in Giza

Garbage abounds on the streets, and weirdly, you get used to it.

I’m called Doctor Mary by most of my students and the staff; those staff I’ve asked to call me by my first name have trouble with it. In shops, I am Madame, and with people who work with and for us, I am Madame Mary. Harris is Mr. Harris (and Doctor Harris on campus). No exceptions. “Mel” only computes after a lot of contact.

Since the revolution, the police are less respected, and thus petty crime now exists. Ladies, wear your handbag on the sidewalk side and across your body, and use the sidewalks where you can. It’s second nature to me now. There are stories of folks whose bags have been snatched by passing cars or motorcycles.

            

Though we bathe and wash dishes with tap water, it’s heavily chlorinated Nile water, so we make filtered water for drinking, cooking, and brushing our teeth using a Katadyn camper’s pump. Works great and saves a bunch of money.

Mind the gap

Building wall between floors

The elevator in our building, like all but the fancy buildings, has a door you open yourself, is about big enough for 2 or 3, and as it ascends, you see the concrete of the building’s structure. You can see through the slit between its door and the landing as well and see the ground. And like most countries, the first story is the ground floor, the second the first floor, etc.. Therefore, we live on floor two, the third story.

            

You can buy wine, beer, and spirits if you are not Muslim and it is made in Egypt. There are some decent wines and excellent beers available, but we hear that the spirits are not only awful but dangerous. If you have imported spirits in your house, it signifies how widely you travel. Hint to visitors: you can buy 4 liters of imported spirits at the airport, and Harris loves scotch and Bacardi 8-year old rum!

            

Egyptians say “I’ll see you tomorrow, insha’allah,” never just “I’ll see you tomorrow.” In emails, it’s abbreviated ISA. If they say something will be ready “bukra” (tomorrow), it really means it will be ready when it’s ready and they will call you.

            

Our kitchen fruit bowl

Egyptian limes are tiny round balls, sometimes green fading to yellow, and bursting with flavor—sweeter than western limes and great with everything.

Since we have a washer but no dryer, we hang our clothes on lines strung up off the back balcony. You can only wear clothes once since they get dirty quickly, and we have to wash the clotheslines themselves every week to keep the Cairo grit off them. Yet we don't mind this. Laundry is oddly soothing.

This theory is that of the dean of Humanities at AUC: everyone in Egypt is assigned one fly to pester them.

            

Paper is not 8.5 by 11 inches. As John Travolta’s character in “Pulp Fiction” noted, the rest of the world is on the metric system. Paper here is slightly narrower and longer.

            

Everything can be delivered. Office supplies, restaurant food, drugstore stuff, grocery stores, wine and beer—and that’s just what we know about thus far. Tip the delivery guy LE5.

            

All American TV is available the day after it’s broadcast on fastpasstv.ms. You want 190 episodes of “NCIS”? HBO? 

Tomorrow we go to a resort called Stella de Mare in Ain Soukna, an hour east of Cairo at the tip of the Red Sea; my department has organized an overnight retreat, so we will mix business with pleasure. This brings all our best to you.

Becoming Cairenes, week 5

Kiki in her street clothes

Kiki in the apartment

It's starting: we are really getting used to living here. A city of 20 million people, hot and dusty, takes getting used to, and it's happening. Daily life is taking on a pleasant rhythm, aided by housekeeper Kiki, who makes us fresh Egyptian falafel four mornings a week, which is spoiling us quickly. BTW, Egyptian falafel is different from what we were used to eating. It is spicier, contains greens, and is addictive. If you visit, you too will enjoy breakfast! Something else we have learned is that Egyptian numerals are not Arabic numerals; they co-exist, but are not the same. Since prices are often only marked in Egyptian numerals, we've learned them and quiz ourselves on license plates.

I joined a gym, Samia Allouba, a short walk from our flat. It's small but pretty much identical to a gym in the U.S. excepting the occasional gym rat wearing a hijab (full headscarf) and sweating to techno. It's been a great place for me to blow off steam and wake up the muscles. Another find has been someone to do my hair and get both cut and color right! Thank heavens this won't be the Year of Bad Hair. We are also becoming regulars at a fabulous Chinese restaurant around the corner and are working our way through the menu. We joined a club up the street called the Ace Club, open only to those who hold non-Egyptian passports. It's essentially a place to have a drink and good food, and unlike most places, has imported liquor. Harris gets to drink his Scotch there. Indeed, having imported spirits is a badge of great cultural capital here because it means that you travel internationally.

Classes are going well, after a rockier-than-usual start, and I am ahead on my work and happy with my students. Harris has been working like a demon on his monograph on the poetic theories of Roman Jakobson, and has a standing lunch with a pal down the street on Wednesdays while I'm on campus. I'm starting the research on my Fulbright project, a comparison of advertising for multinational beauty products in Egypt and the U.S..

A view in Cairo of the middle pyramid

Us at the Pyramid of Cheops--with camels

The Solar Boat

I put off entering this week's blog because we went on an AUC-sponsored trip to the Pyramids, and I wanted to show off some photos. Our guide was a professor from AUC who was filled with details and insights, and we learned a lot (ex: the brain was removed during mummification by opening the back of the head during the Old Kingdom but by the Middle Kingdom, it was dissolved and removed through the nose--how gross is that!). We had been to the Pyramids in 1996 while teaching with Semester at Sea, but this visit held something new: we finally saw the so-called Solar Boat, a painstakingly reconstructed Nile vessel made of Lebanese cedar that was one of two buried with each pharaoh so his soul could cross the waters morning and night. It was astonishing to realize that not only was this created with stone tools (as were the pyramids and temples) but held together with ropes woven of local grasses. The boat's excavation turned up some ropes and mats, and they were lucky enough to preserve things quickly before oxidation turned everything to dust. Harris calls it the Pharaoh's Gulf Stream.

Saqqara and Dashur in the distance

Today is unusually clear, and in addition to the Giza pyramids and Sphinx, we could see all the way to Saqqara, where there are more tombs and pyramids. I like the combination of the ancient and the modern in the views. No wonder Egyptians are so proud of their history.

And, to our delight, the pyramids were only a 25 minute ride from our flat--I had no idea we were so close. So life here is getting smoother and richer. We look forward to seeing Harris's sister Nancy and husband Tom next month in Sharm el Sheikh, and plan of flying to Luxor to visit with my uncle Bill and aunt Rita in November. Our special birthday wishes go out to TC on September 29th!

The postcard view; note skyscrapers in the distance

Work and play, week 4

Felucca, wine, and friends

Cairo at night from felucca

It's coming up to the end of our fourth week here, and though complex, we like life here. Our week began with a call from Barbara Price, a dive buddy, who invited us to join them on an impromptu felucca ride and picnic on Saturday, the 10th. After a day of work and lots of news in Egypt, we were delighted to accept. Walking from the Corniche in Maadi down the steps to the feluccas was magical: the noise of the street disappeared, replaced by the sounds of the water.



The river was breezy and cool (relative to the 90+ degree days) and the quiet delightful. Anyone can rent a felucca without a reservation for about LE50 per hour, around $9 USD. You can bring as many friends as you wish, and we look forward to felucca picnics with everyone who comes to visit us here--that's a promise.

My teaching schedule is Sundays and Wednesdays--Sunday is the start of the work week, which is taking some mental gymnastics still--and the students at AUC are engaged in rallies in addition to classes. The students here are very different from my grad students at Trinity, less academic (you don't see a lot of backpacks heavy with books), very polite, and I am addressed simply as "Doctor," a little unsettling to me. Harris and I went to a great lunch meeting with the dean of humanities, and Harris is making his own academic connections at AUC. I am hopeful that my midday classroom's air conditioning will be functioning on Sunday. You can imagine what a sauna the classroom is when it's on the blink.

Annemarie and Bruce

The Nile from the Lohof's Zamelek flat

Fulbright in Egypt has come through for us in all kinds of ways. My boxes finally arrived at the flat, and both of us feel like our partial lobotomies have been reversed. I'd no idea how much I missed my stuff until it arrived. In addition, my brother Bruce succeeded in sending us our marriage certificate, so Harris can get a residency visa (handled by the capable staff at Fuylbright). FYI, those of you traveling to the middle east who are married with different last names: bring your marriage certificate! On Wednesday, we attended a required orientation at the US Embassy downtown. It was fascinating, partly for the information we gleaned (lots of common-sense stuff about security, food safety, etc.) and for getting a glimpse of the Embassy from inside. Visitors are intensively screened, all electronics must be left at the front desk, and access is only available with an Embassy escort. After the orientation, Bruce Lohof, director of the Binational Fulbright Commission in Egypt, hosted all the Fulbrighters at the beautiful Nile-front flat he and his wife Annemarie share. Dinner was as good as the view.

So life proceeds. We are probably getting fat from Kiki, the housekeeper's, superb Egyptian cooking, so we added Pilates in the morning to push-ups and lots of walking. An early "happy birthday" to friend TC (a frequent commenter on the blog) for the 29th. Looks like we may see Harris's sister Nancy and husband Tom next month, possibly my uncle Bill and aunt Rita in November, and we are counting on McCombies and Andrew in December. Everything we have learned tells us that though Egypt is going through a lot of change, things will work out well. We hope so. The Egyptian people are wonderful. 

Neighborhood vignette and school

We are well into our third week here and truly getting settled. I began teaching at AUC on Wednesday (my schedule is Sunday and Wednesday--the weekend here is Friday and Saturday). The 8:30 AM class is tough on everyone. I have to depart Maadi on the 7:15 bus, and the students themselves are barely conscious. Ironically, the topic is deconstructing advertising photography, so everyone needs to bring their A-game. Time will tell! My next class is the art history survery at 11:30 (aka, Darkness at Noon). The students are all engaged and willing to talk, but unfortunately, none of my books were ordered for either course, and my academic materials remain at the Embassy, wrapped in red tape. The Fulbright director here, the wonderful Bruce Lohof, is working on springing the boxes (since it's not just me, it's all the Scholars) but I have little expectation of seeing them before the middle of next week at the earliest. That means I must essentially invent classes from the little I remember, not so hard with photography, but really hard with the survey. It's been 10 years since I taught it.

Mel is a pillow nut

Harris and I have enjoyed making our flat more comfortable. One nearby shop sells beautiful fabrics and goods made by a coop in Upper Egypt, and I can't resist showing a few of the pillows we got. They can all come home with us.

Road 200 

38 Road 200, our door

Vegetable vendor cart (donkey-powered)

We are also learning our way around the area. Our street, Road 200, is lined with fancy apartment buildings and a number of soldiers since the Philippine Embassy is a few doors down. Our apartment building is easily the most modest on the street, but the neighboring buildings class it up (or maybe emphasize its modesty). Touches of old Cairo remain on the street- particularly the donkey-drawn carts of vegetables and propane tanks, each accompanied by boys who shout out the wares (in Arabic, of course).

"Walk Like an Egyptian": it's not just a song by the Bangles, it's a technique. At first, I was frozen with fear walking here since one is usually obliged to walk in the street, as sidewalks rarely exist. That means dodging cars and potholes, cracks and rocks, mounds of dirt, and at night, it's even more exciting since drivers only turn on headlights when someone is coming. Though complacency means certain death, we are getting better at dodging cars and know that the little horn tootle behind us means a car is coming. I now carry a tiny LED light on my keychain to light the way home as it gets dark.

Today is Friday, and we are hosting a colleague, an actor-director working at AUC, Mark Mineart, for dinner. Our housekeeper Kiki will do the cooking, insh'allah, and it will be good. Then I must create something for classes next week out of thin air. BTW, we have heard from Annie, who is taking care of the cockatiels, that all goes well, and also that our house suffered water and wind damage from Hurricane Irene. No snail mail has arrived yet, but by local standards, it's still early. All our best to everyone.

Koshery, not Kosher!

Just had to tell you about one of the great foods here, called koshery. I assumed it meant kosher, as in deli. I was very wrong. Koshery is a peasant food staple and absolutely addictive; it includes rice, pasta, garbanzo beans, lentils, onions (usually fried) and a variety of toppings, from tomato sauce to spicy sauce. It may not be pastrami, but it is good for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and microwaves well. Turns out our housekeeper cooks great Egyptian food, so we are looking forward to being introduced to a greater variety.

Big greetings to Ryan and Daniel McCombie, our amazing nephews, who turn 21 on 6 September. Tear it up, guys!

A cruise on the Red Sea

After a very busy week, we had the chance to go diving on the Red Sea with a great group of people led by Maadi scuba instructor, Hussein Ramadan--an extraordinary person. We began with a 7AM drive from Cairo to Hurghada--I tried a few photos, but take my word for it: it's all desert. When we arrived in Hurghada, we boarded a local liveaboard boat, the Reef Master. The boat was big, and decent, though it is not a five-star vessel (particularly when the electricity and airco went on the third day). But the food was excellent Egyptian food, and the group the most worldly and interesting group we have ever dived with--everyone had lived all over the world, and not in its world capitals, but places like Mali, Bangladesh, Cambodia, and worked largely for USAID and the State department.

Our first two dives were on the Gota Abu Ramada reefs about 45 minutes from the port of Hurghada. This reef system is beautiful despite being heavily dived and snorkeled, with coral heads reaching to the surface, and many smaller coral heads dotting the sandy bottom. The topography provides habitat for lots of fascinating creatures, lionfish and turkeyfish (Volatans and Radiata), gorgeous bird wrasses, Titan triggers, giant morays, crocodilefish, and the magnificent (and lethal) stonefish. I found a huge fushia stonefish on our second dive there at night.

Sunset at the Brothers

Elphinstone Reef and a giant moray

Mel atop Big Brother's lighthouse

After diving in Hurghada and checking out equipment, the Reef Master steamed overnight to The Brothers, a pair of islands (Big and Little) about 12 hours steam south of Hurghada. The seas were very rough and the diving, done from Zodiacs, not easy getting in and out. Indeed, I managed a magnificent fall wearing all my gear and wrenched my left knee badly enough to make me miss 3 dives. (it is recovering just fine) The sheer walls of the Brothers, currents, and abundant corals and fishes were gorgeous. It's known for sharks, though we saw but one. Also made a dive south of the Brothers at Elphinstone reef, with lots of current, though again but one shark.

Does this need a caption?

Another overnight steam to the Marsa Alam area brought us as far south as we went, the Abu Dabbab reef system. Very pretty, and calm. By this point, the boat's airco went out, so we napped every chance we got. Ask Harris.

After returning by sunset on Sunday, tired and smelly, we cleaned up and went to a reception at the AUC President's house in Maadi. It was splendid, large, with a huge garden, great food, and (not always available), a bar. Retired Sunday night tired but happy and are now busy getting everything in order for the week and my first classes.