This is the end.

Dear loyal readers,

We leave the US again tomorrow to travel in Europe with our families for 6 weeks. It should be a really good time. This means, though, that this blog is unlikely to get updated anymore. A lot of stuff happened in Egypt that went unwritten -- a car accident, a broken arm (unrelated to the accident), and a lot of traveling -- but it looks like that will remain unwritten. All further inquires can be directed to nrhansen@gmail.com or millikhansen@gmail.com.

Our adventures will continue, but I think this blog is finished. We hope you have enjoyed reading it. We have certainly enjoyed living it.

Cheers.

Why I love Alexandria

This view of the harbor was from our restaurant table. We sat very near the place where a wonder of the world (the Pharos Lighthouse) once stood. Alexandria is nowhere near the city it once was, but it's still beautiful.

Tunisia

Arab/Berber grain storage house



The largest Roman colosseum in Africa



Roman ruins in Carthage



A quiet corner of Tunis' medina

Home

Well.

There are at least a few dedicated readers of this blog out there to whom we wish to extend apologies for our reticence this past month (and some). This blog was created to keep interested parties abreast of our life abroad, so it's ironic that our busiest period should go so unannounced. That is to say: so much happened since I last posted, and we got so behind, that we gave up keeping up and just stopped.

We're home now in Dallas and have been for a couple weeks. It's great to be back. To see family, to eat great food, to just be. Don't get me wrong, we've been almost as busy during this period of "relaxing" too, but it's still nice to be back.

It's unlikely at this point that we will describe all of our final adventures in the land of Pharaohs and smog. I'll try to at least post some pictures (now that we again have a fast enough internet connection). If you crave the info that falls through the cracks, please email or call us. We'd love to talk with you.

Secret service

We haven't posted anything in a while and will try to catch up...

A couple weeks ago, we went to Minia, a city in Upper Egypt, to visit some of CEOSS’ projects. Jeannette, a girl from Denmark who started working at CEOSS a couple months ago, also went with us. She had been trying to get down to Minia for weeks, and had been rebuffed or delayed four times. We think it’s partly because of a lack of organization, but partly because she’s Danish (see earlier posts). So our experience in Minia, we think, was because of her.

As soon as we got to the train station in Minia, and looked outside for our ride, police escorted us back inside “for our safety.” We waited there until the CEOSS van came. Two armed men joined us in the van, and a military truck followed behind us, carrying six gun-toting soldiers. If we encountered any traffic on the road, the truck behind us would turn on a siren and we would cruise onward as other cars pulled to the side. Faced with a checkpoint, our car merely cut in front of a dozen other cars. We owned the road.

This was basically how it went all three days. We didn’t always have the military escort, but we had at least one bodyguard the whole time. They didn’t wear uniforms but had strange bulges under their shirts; occasionally the tip of the gun showed itself rather conspicuously. They never bothered us, but they were always there. We slept on a houseboat in the Nile, and one of our bodyguards slept in a chair on shore next to it.

We visited some farmers who CEOSS is helping to export their crops. We visited a section of town where CEOSS has implemented a huge waste removal, housing improvement, and environmental health project. We visited a profit-generating furniture and plywood factory that CEOSS runs. Our bodyguards tagged along to each of these places. On the third day we had a different set of bodyguards, and at first I thought they were part of the CEOSS staff.

It was all a bit strange because Minia seemed like a very safe place to us. All of this security was a bit excessive.

The Syrian embassy

We have good news for our mothers and anyone else who may worry about our safety:

We are not going to Syria.

The original plan was to go to Lebanon and Syria, but with Lebanon currently in political paralysis as the Christians and Shiites vie for power, we decided that maybe Beirut is not the safest place to be. Syria seemed safe enough to us – the Arab League summit in Damascus last month passed without incident.

We had read and heard that Syria required everyone to get visas from their home country, which is obviously impossible for us right now. However, when we talked to the American embassy here, they said that since we were living in Cairo, the Syrian embassy should give us a visa no problem. The Syrian embassy apparently doesn’t have a website. We did, though, find another website that listed a phone number. We called: wrong number. Luckily, our Lonely Planet had hours listed when visas could be obtained (9am-1pm) and we found the location by poring through our book of Cairo maps.

We struggled to wake up relatively early last weekend, then took two subways and wandered around until we found it just before 11am. Unfortunately, the guards would not let us in when we inquired about visas. The visa period was over, they said. Come again tomorrow at 9am.

The next morning we woke up even earlier. Milli wasn’t feeling well, so I went alone. I took a cab because I was running late; the cab took 45 minutes, just as long as the subway, but they let me into the embassy without a problem.

The embassy was incredibly derelict. Two ratty couches sat outside the main entrance that a college student would be embarrassed to own. The small reception room was dominated by a huge table covered by boxes and rolled-up posters; next to it lay some 2x4s and a framed picture of the Syrian president. Except for three old arm chairs, that was it. On a small table across the room I found an English-language Syrian newspaper and was excited to read it until I discovered it was two months old.

A few other people were also there for visas. They were filling out paperwork and seemed to be getting them successfully. When my turn came I approached the man who seemed to be in charge and made my request. When I revealed that our Egyptian visas are merely one-year tourist visas, not work visas, the discussion was over. My pleas fell on obstinate, uninterested ears. “Mish mumkin,” he said. Not possible.

So, no Syria. Maybe we’ll be able to come back someday and go there, but for now we had to change plans.

We’re going to Tunisia next week instead!

Noise pollution

Our story of the Siwan desert will continue shortly...

All we can post today is a link to the New York Times, which just ran a story about the insane level of sheer NOISE in Cairo. It's called "A City Where You Can't Hear Yourself Scream."

Money quote:

"This is not like London or New York, or even Tehran, another car-clogged Middle Eastern capital. It is literally like living day in and day out with a lawn mower running next to your head, according to scientists with the National Research Center. They spent five years studying noise levels across the city and concluded in a report issued this year that the average noise from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. is 85 decibels, a bit louder than a freight train 15 feet away..."

Into the Desert: Part I

The next morning we visited the mud-brick fortress of Shali, which looms above the town of Siwa like an apparition. Built in the 13th century, it stood up well against the scourges of time, up until the great rains of 1926 did heavy damage (more than any invader throughout history) and washed away like a third of it. It now looks a bit like Dresden in 1945. The houses at the base of the hill are still inhabitable and people live there, have shops and restaurants there.

The highlight of our time in Siwa started that afternoon: our excursion into the desert. At 3pm we hopped into a 10-year old 4WD outside our hotel and they drove us out of town and onto the dunes. As our 55-year old driver took us hurtling through the sand, I discovered that my window did not close, which was unfortunate given that it was a windy day. The first time we stopped I found that my door was bent and would not open unless the driver (directly in front of me) opened his door first. And there were no seat belts. Our driver appeared to be the leader or the most experienced in our small caravan of cars, but he ditched the others and we went off on our own. He would take us criss-crossing up to the top of a dune, pause at the top for a second, and turn around to say something to us in rapid Arabic. While still looking behind him, he would edge over the sand cliff and we’d go sliding down the bank – which often seemed to be near vertical. The Scandinavian girls in our car would scream sometimes.

This “dune bashing” was similar is some ways to our experience in Dubai, but also markedly different. In Dubai, we had youngish 30-somethings driving new SUVs, following each other in a buddy-system caravan. They made sure our seatbelts were tightened before taking off, which they could ask us in English. In Siwa, it was a middle-aged man in a dented, beat-up car, taking us on a “Live Free or Die” joy ride. The only English he seemed to know was “No baby? No problem!” which he repeated a couple times with obvious amusement.

There were no roads, of course, and few obvious landmarks out there surrounded by sand. But somehow our intrepid driver knew where to go. I really don’t know how. We stopped at a few places throughout the day and each of them suddenly loomed before us like a mirage. The mirage-like quality was only enhanced by the sheer unlikelihood of there being a small lake or a hot spring flanked by trees in the middle of sand dunes that extend to the horizon. Our first stop was at the hot spring. Milli and I changed into swim suits in a convenient little building with two changing rooms, and got in the water. It was indeed rather warm, much more so than Cleopatra’s. We talked to an Australian guy who, curiously enough, was in Egypt working for a gold mining company near the Red Sea. Also interestingly, he was traveling with a Muslim Egyptian woman; we doubt that happens too much as it seems like it would be rather scandalous. The drivers of the four cars that were congregated there made us some strong tea.

Our second stop was a cold lake, with reeds growing out of the dunes at the water’s edge. It was strikingly beautiful, especially given its incongruous location surrounded by arid desert. I wish we could post a picture…

After that they drove us “the fossils.” There, in the middle of empty expanses of sand, lay fossilized remains of fish and sea shells! I mean, it makes sense to find a sand dollar in the sand, but usually they’re found in sand within a few meters of the ocean – not hundreds of miles into the desert! Evidently, the desert used to be covered by the Mediterranean in the distant past. Incredible. Unfortunately, all of the easily snatchable shells had already been confiscated by years of visitation, so we have no souvenirs but photographs.

A bike tour

Well, the internet is still too slow to upload any pictures, but we can put a few of our oasis adventures in writing.

After rising from our nap, we rented bikes and embarked on a tour of the oasis and its surroundings. First stop was a series of old tombs cut into a hill, about a mile outside the town. A few of the tombs had paintings on the walls, but we didn't want to pay the entrance fees so we contented ourselves with the tombs just downhill. They looked rather like craters on the moon. We read that during World War II the Italians had bombed Siwa (for some inexplicable reason), and people took shelter into the tombs! The bombings raids actually opened up many more tombs that they didn't know existed.

We took a short-cut back to town through a village on the outskirts. It was really fun to briefly see scenes of village life as we rode past. Donkeys sleeping and kids running and old men smoking and boys standing around.

Our next stop was the Temple of Amun, which once harbored one of the most influential oracles in the Greek world. Alexander the Great came here to legitimize his claim on Egypt. And kings sometimes sent armies to destory it (which always disappeared in the desert), so great was the oracle's professed power. The temple was in ruins, but still pretty cool.

A few minutes down the road was another temple. Was. Not even the ruins are left. An Ottoman ruler blew it up in the nineteenth century because he needed more stone for his house. Only part of one wall is left.

At one point my bike chain came off the gear. A couple little boys came out of nowhere and helped me get it back on.

Our last stop was at Cleopatra's Spring. It is rumored that the lady herself bathed here, but that is almost certainly made up. Good advertising though. The spring was about 20 feet in diameter, stoned-walled and rather green. And for a hot spring, it was disappointingly cold. Two Egyptian boys were the only ones swimming in it. We thought about getting a drink at the nice tourist cafe that recently sprung up next to the spring, but didn't.

Back at our hotel, we lounged around for a little bit, had some juice, played Uno. (Milli won all five times.) Then back on the bikes we set out for Fatnas Island, where supposedly one could watch the sunset. We left about 5:30 and tried to follow our hand-drawn, very-much-not-to-scale map of Siwa. Not at all convinced we were going to right way, we stopped to ask people like four times. Turns out we were. The island was just much, much farther than we thought. Meanwhile, the sun was sinking...

We got there just in time to watch the last five minutes. Watching the sun dip over the horizon, spreading an orange glow across the lake, I forgot this was the middle of the desert. It was beautiful. And over all to quickly.

Then we biked back again, racing again against the sun, whose embers of light were dying rapidly. We were about halfway back by the time it was dark. The moonlight shone enough for us to see the outline of the road, and luckly there were very few cars. One guy followed us on his bike for a few minutes, but then ditched off when we ignored him. It could have been much worse and we got back fine.

It was nice to get the exercise. The only exercise we get here in Cairo is walking, which doesn't really cut it.

Sorry for the delay...

We have been trying to post pictures from our oasis trip for days now. The internet is just not cooperating. Hopefully it will be working better tomorrow -- though there's no reason why it necessary will be...

At a desert oasis

We had been thinking about going to Siwa Oasis for a couple months now; this past weekend we finally went. Siwa is quite far from Cairo in Egypt’s northwest corner, just 80km from Libya. That translates into a 9-10 hour bus ride. The only non-stop bus is a red-eye that leaves Wednesday night and arrives Thursday morning, so that’s what we took.

Luckily, the bus wasn’t entirely full; we each got a whole seat in which to sprawl out. For a couple hours they showed an Arabic movie (entirely too loud), but the rest of the time was relatively quiet. About two-thirds of the way there most of the people got off. With entire rows now open, we attempted to sleep by lying across the aisle. Unfortunately, “sleep” as such didn’t really come. But it could have been worse.

We arrived in Siwa at 6am. It was light but the sun hadn’t risen yet. The first hostel was checked had no room. The second did and, at $10/night for the nicer room, wasn’t too expensive. Unfortunately, the first thing we found—this after a long bus ride—was that the toilet was broken. The owner said he could try to fix it later that day, but we needed one now and tried a different room.

This second room didn’t have a bathroom, but access to one down the hall with a toilet that worked—but a shower that didn’t. We used the toilet, and then told the guy that we would take the first room, hoping that he would actually fix it that afternoon. Took showers, and slept until noon.

Health Woes of Egyptians

A friend at work today came into our office and commented "My colon is very tired." This, apparently, is a common Egyptian "ailment", as a surprising number of people have commented on the state of their colon. As an American, and that too a daughter of doctors, I'm barely aware of my colon's placement, much less its activity or energy level.

The way people here talk and think about health is ... well, frankly, strange. For instance, our relatively new, relatively nice office building has no heat. Though Cairo is not as cold as many, many other places, it does get into the 40's during the winter months. This meant we would often come to work with sweaters and coats and double layers of socks in order to keep relatively warm. The reasoning behind all of this? According to our colleagues, one is much more likely to get sick coming in from the cold to a warm place. This change of temperature causes all sorts of maladies; the solution, of course, is to keep the temperature inside the building as close as possible to the outside temperature.

Egyptians also seem to blame allergies for a number of their health woes. Every time either Nate or I have been sick, some Egyptian friend, sighing and slowly shaking his head, has said, "It must be allergies." Coughing, headaches, body aches, sore throats, stuffy noses, fevers, stomach aches, chest pains ... all of these things can easily be attributed to, you guessed it, allergies. Mind you, the last time I got sick I actually went to a doctor, and it turned out to be bronchitis. My friends insisted that bronchitis must be a kind of allergy.

Sick again

I work at Egypt Today one long weekend per month, and I am always sick that weekend. Literally every time. I could set a calendar by it: ok, time to get that cold again...

A bit odd, isn't it, to catch a cold when it's 100 degrees...

"Abibas"

We've seen a lot of pretty funny clothing misspellings... I've seen Adidas spelled at least three different ways.

Birth, death and re-birth

It's been a weekend chock full of holidays.

This past Thursday was the Prophet Muhammad's birthday. We had the day off work, mostly lazed around. Lots of people go picnicking, but we stayed at home, avoiding crowds.

The next day was Good Friday, when we remember Jesus' death by crucifixion.

Then on Saturday we celebrated Easter, a day early, because our church meets on Saturdays. It was strange to be celebrating on Saturday, but no great matter: He is risen indeed!

This morning we had brunch with Nadia, Samuel and Elsa (our floor mates) in honor of Easter Day. Tonight we called my sister Lauren to wish her a happy birthday!

Al Azhar University

Al-Azhar is the oldest university in the world, established in 988, about a century before Oxford. It is the religious authority within Egypt, and often considered the center of Sunni Islam.

The dark brown balcony above Milli's scarf-clad head is where the teachers used to preach to students in the huge courtyard below. They don't anymore; I believe they use classrooms.

Poverty in Egypt

The other great Egypt Today article is a profile of Egyptian poverty. The author quotes at length interviews with a variety of analysts and public figures, and they're sometimes quite interesting. I recommend reading it if you'd like to know more about the economic situation here in Egypt.

A detached World Bank assessment:

"Poverty in Egypt is not severe or deep. Moreover, we have four percent of the population around the poverty line, who keep moving up and down. These people are very sensitive. A shock in expenditures or an LE 5 increase in their income per month can change their position, driving them down or pulling them up. This means that poverty is shallow. Since we have no panel data whereby we survey the same people every five years, we cannot determine whether poverty is transient or permanent."

A former politician:

"Housing is scarce. More than half of our real-estate is dilapidated. Millions live in communal homes. This is called social impoverishment, where a family of husband and wife and seven or eight children live in a single room. Can you imagine the social decay such a situation can lead to?"

A newspaper editor:

"Living standards have definitely deteriorated. I hear it from the women, who do the shopping all the time. It is especially true of the middle classes. There is frustration. The increase in the price of construction material has made the real-estate prices soar. No one can find an apartment to live in. You tell me this is all normal, it is the capitalist mechanism. But you cannot hear about someone who makes $40 billion (LE 220 billion), and then you ask a young person to work for LE 400 per month. If you have a million pounds, you are now considered poor. I live in a rented apartment because I cannot afford to buy an apartment, although I am not considered poor."

A historian and activist:

"Sometimes things do look hopeless. Look at the health sector and the educational sector. They have deteriorated so much. Egyptians pay LE 10 billion to private tutors every year. I find that investment in education is very important. Although the dividend is not immediate, just imagine what it would be like if the educational system was much better and graduates actually knew their material. We would export professionals to the Arab world. Unfortunately, our certificates are no longer recognized."

A retired grandfather:

"I have five daughters and one son. All the girls were married and living with their husbands, but the youngest got divorced a year ago and is now living with us together with her three children. She does not work, but sometimes gets a job altering dresses and then we have enough to get us through a day or two. My son is married and lives with us. I had to agree. His mother and I gave up our room: He lives in it with his wife and two kids. My wife and I, together with my daughter and her kids, sleep in the living room. We get by, al-hamdulillah [thanks be to God]. My son is a good craftsman, but is moody sometimes. He keeps quitting jobs, so one month he makes money and two or three months he does not. We have to make this pension last, which is becoming more and more difficult every day. Prices are increasing all the time. The money is barely enough to keep us eating bread."

What can you do for us?

Egypt Today, the magazine at which I work as a part-time copyeditor, has a couple good articles this month. One is about the American University in Cairo (AUC) and its study abroad students [article here]. Americans' interest in the Middle East has skyrocketed in the last decade, with many more kids coming to place like Egypt. But the cross-cultural exchange hasn't been much of an exchange:

"With America’s recent record on foreign policy, it is easy to see where some Egyptians’ skepticism might arise; that is, wariness of the ‘learn about them to beat them’ mentality. Discussions with some of AUC’s study-abroad students reveal that growing American interest in the region has carried with it a stereotype: that of the political science or international relations major, putting in a requisite year in the Middle East before jetting home to a Capitol Hill think tank."

I am not an AUC student, but I feel a little implicated by this statement. Milli is here, in part, to gauge if she is more interested in international law or domestic (American) law. But I am here, in part, out of the hope that a year in the Middle East will help me get into grad school and after that a job at, yes, a think tank. [Not one on Capitol Hill, because there aren't any, but possibly one in DC.]

But it is not merely a cynical "what can you do for us" mentality: we wanted the international experience, we wanted to learn about another vastly different culture, we wanted to serve the poor through our job. And we have done those things.

The Green Mile

It looks like this poor cow's time on death row is about over...

Native? Hardly.

I got a chance to test my Arabic today. At the juice stand, as I stood drinking my strawberry & juice cocktail (only 40 cents!), the juice guys started asking me questions -- about how long I was living in Egypt, about where I had been, about America. To some of their inquiries I was ready with an answer, but much of the time was spent staring blankly, even after they repeated their questions...

Like a native!

We went to an outdoor cafe tonight, braving the slightly breezy weather. Midway through our time there an Egyptian guy our age came over and started talking to us. Mark was a friendly guy and spoke very good English (had just returned from 3 years in DC). He said he was impressed that I had ordered in Arabic and wanted to find out our background. Now I hadn't said more than 6 or 7 words in Arabic, but apparently it was enough to impress him. I don't think the compliment was really warranted, but still nice :)

We have an Arabic lesson tomorrow. That is the true measure...

Intercultural dialogue

One of the things CEOSS does is promote dialogue between Egyptian Muslims and Christians and between Egyptians and Europeans. One of the Danish meetings the other day was about this program, and CEOSS had brought in someone from the prominent website Islam Online to talk about his experience in dialogue groups. He talked about how he had been scared to interact with Christians and assumed they all thought the same (weird) things. But through involvement in this dialogue he found that some Christians are good people, respect others, don't think he's necessarily a terrorist... etc. A victory for "positive co-existence."

Then, since the group he was talking to was largely Danish, he inevitably turned to the cartoon issue. He emphasized how open he was to dialogue and how good it was to build relationships, but that dialogue will fail if people keep insulting the prophet. In other words, everything is cool if you act according to our rules.

The Danish bishop responded by trying to explain their perspective. 1. Denmark is a free country, where people can say what they want. 2. In a free country religion is sometimes derided, jockingly or otherwise. The newspapers often make remarks about Christians, for example. 3. A lot of newspapers reprinted the cartoons that hadn't the first time in 2006, in an effort to demonstrate solidarity with the cartoonist and his worldview, in effect saying, "If you kill him, you'll have to kill all of us."

The blogger nodded often during the bishop's explanation and didn't say much in response, except to reiterate his point: free speech is fine, just don't do stuff like this.

End result: impasse.

The website

Our major project at CEOSS thus far has been to overhaul the website. (You can see it here.) Well, "overhaul" is perhaps too strong a word; we've rewritten everything, but the website design is still miserable. CEOSS paid a design company far too much money, and got an immutable website template complete with misspellings, broken features, inconsistent formatting, and ridiculous layout. There seems to be nothing we can do about this. It's sad that an organization as competent and admirable as CEOSS has such an unprofessional website.

(One example of former text:

"...The course for girls covers every major aspect of a young woman's life, from child development, nutrition and first aid, choosing a marriage partner and the dangers of early marriage, pregnancy and family planning..."

The unfortunate sentence structure says something we doubt they meant...)

Those pesky Danes

Into the mix of the cartoon controversy comes the visit of a dozen Danish religious leaders and donors. They had been scheduled to visit CEOSS long before the issue re-emerged, and the timing was unfortunate. CEOSS asked (indeed, begged) them to postpone the visit, but the Danes decided to come anyway.

It's true, they probably weren't in mortal danger as long as they weren't stupid, but there were other factors at play here. The policy security that watches over foreign visitors to Upper Egypt refused to protect them. The police chief insinuated that if CEOSS were hosting a Danish group, then CEOSS must agree with the cartoon publishers! Accusations such as this could jeopardize CEOSS' entire mission.

The Danish group is here now, but they are not going to Upper Egypt and they are not visiting any program sites. Instead, CEOSS partners came to HQ to meet with them. Milli and I are hoping to sit in on a meeting tomorrow.

Was it worth it to fly all the way over here and not visit any projects? I suppose they did get to see the pyramids and the Red Sea...

Making "canned" pumpkin

Step One: Lug the pumpkin back home. The smallest pumpkins we could find here for 15 kilos! Luckily, the fruit guy around the corner sells them from time to time, so it's not too far to carry.














Step Two: Hack through the pumpkin in order to cut it into small and more manageable pieces.















Step Three: In multiple batches, boil said pieces until they become tender.
Step Four: Once the pieces cool, peel the thick pumpkin skin off of them.
Step Five: Blend the peeled pumpkin pieces to make pumpkin puree.
















And then you have the stuff of pumpkin pies.

It makes you kind of grateful for canned pumpkin.

$10 if you can put that in your mouth...

Mean streets

I saw an accident yesterday while walking home from the store. A taxi stopped suddenly (presumably to let out its passenger), and a motorcycle slammed into the back. I was just across the street when it happened and one of the first people on the scene – though within a minute there were 20 people there. (I don’t know where they come from. The street was relatively empty.)

They pulled the motorcyclist off his bike, which was lodged under the car. He was limp, not moving. Someone tried to wash some of the blood off his face with a water bottle another person had. The man’s eyes were closed and he wasn’t responding. I wanted to do something, but plenty of people were attending to him. Someone was calling an ambulance.

Just a couple days ago we saw a pedestrian get hit by a taxi. His suitcase flew 20 feet through the air – some indication of the force. This man was conscious at least, though probably had two broken legs. In time he’ll be fine. Though the man last night… I don’t know…

It’s actually surprising that we don’t see this more often. Drivers here are insane, and pedestrians are fearless. Close encounters happen every day. It’s rather miraculous, really, that most of the people in this city are still alive.

And before y’all say anything: yes, we try very hard to not get killed.

Asking to be mugged

Yesterday I road a crowded subway with LE 5,300 in my pockets. That's almost $1,000. (For reference, average annual income in Egypt is about $1,500.) One thick wad filled each of my front pockets. People were pressed up against me the whole time. I kept my hands in my pockets the whole ride.

So why was I carrying so much money in cash? The only way to buy tickets with Egypt Air is to purchase them in the office; their website does not work and they will not sell anything over the phone. Their customer service is astoundingly bad, with each person telling you something different. Each method -- internet, phone, in person -- yields different rates. We use cash to avoid the extortionary fees they hit you with for using a foreign credit card. We were buying six tickets for a flight to Upper Egypt when our family visits in May.

So, lots of cash. I felt much better once I had tickets in my pocket instead of eight months' wages.

High culture

With Japanese financial support, Cairo built a grand opera house 20 years ago to serve as a venue of all types of performance arts. We had been thinking about going for a while and finally did this past weekend. Tickets are heavily subsidized by the Ministry of Culture -- $7 for the best seats in the house! (We should go more often.) We went an hour early to get tickets, but the ticket booth wasn't open until just before the show. Not that you really need to book in advance; it was only half full at most.

We had thought it was the Cairo Symphony Orchestra performing that night, but it turned out to be a string-less wind ensemble. We still enjoyed it very much. The marches and concertos reminded me of stuff I used to play in the high school band (though they were a bit better). They even played music from Indiana Jones! Not the place we expected to find John Williams, but it was great.

Since we were dressed up, we had planned to make an evening of it and go to a nice Thai restaurant. Unfortunately, it was closed -- too early in this evening! By the time they opened at 7:00 we wouldn't have had enough time to eat. Our nice dinner will have to wait for another night.

So instead we sadly walked around looking for food near the opera house, finally finding... KFC. We might have stuck out a bit in our operatic attire...

(Interesting sidenote: this KFC was staffed entirely by deaf employees! They took orders through pointing and hand gestures, and actually communicated pretty well. There was some miscommunication, though, about being charged too much, which required the manager to emerge and actually talk to us. But, all in all, a laudable enterprise.)

The Samuel Habib Award

A couple nights ago we had the distinct privilege of attending an awards ceremony wherein CEOSS annually bestows honor and certificates upon worthy partners in the development field. We were told by our supervisor Medhat that it was an extraordinarily fun event, that everyone dresses up in their best finery, and that the music was wonderful. Oh, and that it would only last 20-30 minutes. Turns out few of those things were true. Many of the men were indeed wearing suits, as I did, but none of the other women had on dresses like Milli's. The music turned out to be a DVD of a Yanni concert, which they let run for almost half an hour! Quite strange (but no on else seemed to think so from our observance). Needless to say, it lasted a bit longer than 20-30 minutes... And it was in Arabic. One of our friends (loudly) translated for us for a bit. The most interesting part was that one of the award recipients was blind and read his acceptance speech with three placards of braille.

Denmark, Part II

According to polls, Denmark is the second biggest threat to Egypt, with Israel coming in first. We were a little shocked by that information, as Denmark has ... well, not much of a reputation for anything at all in the US.

We recently discovered this link to a children's show aired in Palestine. Not Egypt, but pretty close. It's scary.

Denmark = Enemy #1

You may remember the controversy a couple years ago regarding some cartoons of Mohammad originally printed in a Danish newspaper: riots around the world, attacks on embassies, dozens dead...

Well, there was recently an attempted murder of one of the cartoonists, prompting newspapers to reprint the cartoons. Again, people are angry. There have been angry words toward Denmark in Egyptian newspapers and talk shows (so we've heard, they're in Arabic). Thousands of students, led by their professors, protested at a university in Upper Egypt. An MP connected with the Muslim Brotherhood has called for a ceasation of all diplomatic ties with Denmark. And there's now a boycott of all Danish products.

How this affects us:

1. Another volunteer just arrived at CEOSS from... Denmark. (She's taken to claiming Norway as home, not that most people know where it is.)

2. A group of foreigners is visiting CEOSS projects next week from... Denmark.

3. I'm currently working on a proposal that requests money from the government of... Denmark. (Hopefully all aid money won't be cut off for some irrational reason.)

4. The butter we usually buy at our grocery store is no longer there because it is produced in... Denmark.

5. My blue eyes, my last name, and my great-grandparents all come from... Denmark.

Thunder!

We had a thunderstorm today! It poured and poured like nothing else! People were hanging out their windows trying to get all their (not so dry anymore) laundry inside. People were running down the street, people were calling each other...

Then it stopped in like five minutes. But it was great while it lasted.

Unfortunately, Cairo drivers are even worse than California drivers with rain. The traffic on the way home was ridiculous. I guess that's to be expected...

Muslim bachelors

The NY Times has a front-page story today about Egypt's increasing trend toward religiousity, especially among the youth. Confronted with the lack of opportunities afforded them, many young people are finding solace in Islam. People tell us that as recent as five years ago, not many women in Cairo wore headscarves; now it's hard to find someone who's not.

Interestingly, chief among the causes of depression and disillusionment is the ridiculously high cost of weddings. Many people are delaying weddings as a result, feel like outcasts or failures, and look to God for acceptance.

It's a good article. Check it out.

Cairo at its best

There are many valid reasons to dislike Cairo, and sometimes we do. Last night was not one of those times.

In a slightly-belated celebration of Valentine's Day, we schlepped across the city to Mena House, an awesome colonial-era hotel right next to the pyramids. The balconies of the rooms boast one of the most surreal views in the world; we could never afford it, so accomodation wasn't our aim. This hotel has the best Indian restaurant in the country, the Moghul Room. It was so nice to eat Indian food again! The food was great and plentiful -- we have enough left over to have a second full dinner today! Sadly, the restaurant did not have a view, but we strolled in the gardens afterward, and they did.

Such an elegant location is, of course, rather expensive. (Cheapest wine: $100. We didn't have any.) I felt like a poseur, surrounding by well-heeled people our parents' age, but we had dressed up a bit so maybe no one noticed!

The second great thing about the night out was our transportation success. Even though our meal wasn't cheap, we scoffed at paying $7 each way for a taxi. So on the way we took the metro and a bus, and on the way home we took an even more ghetto microbus. The Egyptians surrounding us thankfully took little notice, and it was practically door-to-door service. Total transportation bill for the night: $2.

Bureaocracy, Part II

Mo'men, our UN-bound friend, is still here. His flight was this morning, but he wasn't on it. The US embassy had promised to have his visa done in two days, by Thursday. It was indeed very last minute, but the embassy knew that.

He'll probably get the visa on Sunday or Monday. And then the UN will probably book him a new flight for the near future. So everything should turn out ok. Plus it means he'll have a few more days to pack. But talk about nerves!

Egyptian pride

In all likelihood, no one reading this knew that the Africa Cup football tournament took place this past month. To be honest, we barely knew. But we watched the last few games and are happy to announce that our lovely host country fielded the best team on the continent!

(Cue even more honking and yelling than usual.)

There's something to be said for bureaucracy...

Last night we went to the home of Adel, one of our friends from work. His mother made us a great dinner and kept trying to feed us more and more, winning out over our protests. One of the reasons for our visit was to help Adel's friend Momen with some paperwork. He is moving to New York to work at the United Nations! It's essentially the ultimate Egyptian dream come true. It's a pretty sweet deal: on top of a solid salary and good benefits, the UN will cover his travel (business class), give him an "allowance" of $275/day his first month there, and...oh....a "relocation grant" of $10,000. We're quite jealous and now want him to get me a job ;) He's having issues with the embassy with his visa, but hopefully those will be worked out soon. So maybe we'll see him again in New York, if we end up moving back there.

Oh, the UN will pay for his visa too. And the shots they made him get.

The cab to the airport? Yep, that too.

Global primary

For all politically-interested Americans, it was a pretty big day yesterday. It has surprised us how in touch people here are with our electoral process. We, for our part, really wanted to vote in the primaries. So we applied for absentee ballots and visited the embassy (twice) to fill out paperwork -- to no avail. Then we found that the Democrats had a "global primary" this time, for expats everywhere. We registered... and waited. Then Monday evening we got an email with instructions and web links! So we got to vote. It won't count for as much as it would have in CA, or NY, or even TX later on -- but it's something.

I won't tell you which amazing black politician we voted for.

Signal strength: Low

Apparently the internet reaches the Middle East and East Africa and even India primarily via three large submarine fiber optic cables from Europe. And a few days ago two of these cables were cut. We thought it was just our internet that was down, but apparently it was hundreds of millions of people... Even just a few days without internet must have had a huge effect on business. It's working spottily now. Even I can easily remember a time before the internet, but wow. It's really got a hold on us now.

Where we work

A glimpse of our office.

I was trying to upload images from our trip to Upper Egypt, but it wasn't working. But for some reason, this picture did.

An apple a day

Our first three months in Egypt were completely illness-free, which actually surprised me a little. However, since then, one or the other of us has been sick almost constantly. Our symptoms in and of themselves are not all that worrying, but, sick of being sick, we finally went to the doctor last night.

The $15 fee is paid up front. (That's the whole charge, not the copay.) Then we waited 45 minutes for our doctor to arrive, and 30 minutes for him to see the two people in front of us. The doctor spoke English and seemed to know what he was doing. We were sent home with prescriptions for an assortment of pills.

A sidenote on pharmacies is warranted at this point. Pharmacists certainly take doctor-written prescriptions, but they're not required. If you know what medicine you want, you can simply walk into a pharmacy and they'll give it to you. Or, if that's too sketchy for you, the pharmacist can diagnosis you and suggest the appropriate medicine himself.

Border patrol

Palestinians are streaming across the border into Egypt to buy milk. Nice.

UPDATE:
350,000 Gazans have now crossed the border. The official Egyptian line: "Let them come to eat and buy food and go back, as long as they are not carrying weapons."

America and Egypt

A few days ago we came out of the metro station in the main square downtown to discover cops everywhere. They were directing pedestrians. We were herded across a street we didn’t want to cross and prevented from walking down one we wanted. This had never happened before. Police are everywhere in this country, but they never do anything. They’re asleep at their posts almost as often as not. So this was surprising.

Apparently there had been a protest earlier in the day. People were not happy that President Bush was visiting. Our friend Annie had been there earlier that day, discovered what was going on, and immediately left. Probably not the safest place for Americans just then. Protests are not common events here; allowing freedom of speech is not a priority for Mubarak’s government. When they do happen, we hear there are usually more police than protestors.

As is probably the case in many countries across the world, views toward our country are complicated. Though sometimes I’m a little hesitant to introduce myself as an American, the admission never inspires an antagonist response among Egyptians I’ve met -- especially once they learn we’re not fans of our president. Some people don’t like how beholden the Egyptian government is to the States and want to become more independent. And they obviously don’t like the Iraq war and its repercussions across the region. At the same time, almost every educated person we’ve met wants to immigrate to the United States (except for one woman who favors the UK). Many of them have family there already.

By the way, Bush's tour of the Middle East which aimed to inspire a tougher line against Iran and encourage the new Israel/Palestine talks, did not go so well. The New York Times reports on Bush's soft words toward Egypt, which largely avoided looming human rights and rule of law issues. Also see the Economist and the Middle East Times.

Tombs and temples

It's been a busy two weeks. We toured the bottom half of this country, then jumped on an airplane and saw another one.

It was really nice to spend time with family: Milli's grandparents, brother, and (surprise!!) her mom. She had been feeling left out and decided to join the trip at the last minute ;) It was impressive that the details worked out so that she could come, especially considering the general incompetence of travel agents in Egypt.

Upper Egypt is, next to the pyramids, the reason why this country is not broke. The two towns of Luxor and Aswan and the strip of land between them lay claim to some of the world's best ancient historical sites. We opted for the luxurious route and took a 4-day cruise from Luxor to Aswan, by far the easiest way to travel. The slow, relaxing pace allowed us significant card-playing time as we floated down the river.

Unfortunately, even though we were assured otherwise, practically nothing was handicap accessible, making it very difficult for Milli's grandmother to get around. Her knees are really bad, making it difficult for her to walk. It's so frustrating that nothing in this country is handicap accessible.

The sights (almost all of which Nani missed) were great: the resilient and brilliant colors on the walls of royal tombs; the sheer size of Karnak Temple's great hall; the splendor of Petra; the awesome age of everything. Quite incredible. We were actually a little bit tired of temples and tombs by the time it was all over.

Out of town again

We're going to be incommunicado for over a week because our family is here are we're all going touristing! We leave tomorrow for a four-day cruise down the Nile, stopping often to admire tombs and temples. Then we fly to Jordan to see, among other things, the final resting place of holy grail (at least according to Spielburg). Should be fun.

Into the desert.

Indeed.