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.

Outside Dubai

The UAE is a lot more than Dubai, and we set out to see it. We took a bus tour across much of the country -- the fact that this could be done in a day shows how small it is. We drove through the conservative, overtly Muslim emirate of Sharjah that is becoming something of a cheaper suburb of Dubai. We paused at what our guide called the "Little Grand Canyon," a huge river dry river bed, and at a market with an astonishing diversity of produce given its location in the middle of nowhere. And oases really are strange phenomenon. The highlight of the outing was the couple hours spent in Fujairah where we got to swim in the Indian Ocean! We agreed that the sand on this beach was the nicest our feet had even encountered.

Dubai

Each year Muslims celebrate Eid al-Adha, which commemorates Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac; they celebrate by sacrificing animals (often sheep) and giving all extra food to the poor. We hear that in Egypt the sheer number of sacrifices leads to blood literally flowing in the streets... But we didn't see it because we left the country and spent four days in the United Arab Emirates.

Most people have heard of Dubai, which is one of UAE's 7 emirates -- the most Westernized, commercial, and touristy -- and is where we stayed with family friends. It's a city full of superlatives. In 2009 the Burj Dubai will be open for business as the tallest building in the world. Elevators to the 164th floor are expected to reach 40mph.

The whole city is one big construction site.

Behind me is the world's only "7 star" hotel. It's on its own little island and no one is allowed entrance except guests with reservations. It starts at $1,200 per night, so a bit out of our price range. But we got in anyway ;)

A few of the lesser suites.

The view from the restaurant on the top floor. The bar there has trained "mixologists" who will concont a special drink catered to your taste preferences.

Perhaps king among Dubai's ridiculous offerings is the indoor ski slope. Yes, skiing. In the desert. They have decided the best use of their resources is to create tons of artificial snow.

At the end of a long day...

Christmas!

We wish everyone a very merry Christmas! We hope y'all enjoy good food and good company. We wish we weren't so far away, but are having a great Christmas here in Egypt. Our French friends invited us to a nice dinner party last night, and tonight we're joining a couple new friends from our church. And we recently got back from a great trip to Dubai, where we stayed with new family. All in all, nicer than we ever expected.

This this first (and perhaps will remain the only) time we did not get up Christmas morning. We slept past noon =)

Forget the commercialism I mentioned in the previous post: this is all about Jesus, celebrating the God of the universe and the irrational love that would cause him to live among us. It is in that spirit that we say again:

Merry Christmas!

Christmastime?

We downloaded some Christmas songs and have listened to a Christmas radio station online. We've gone to a couple concerts, one of which featured Christmas songs. We've made cider and cookies. We decorated our building a little bit with some Santas and a "Merry Christmas" banner we found. The little kids at our church did a pageant last week.

But for some reason it still doesn't feel right... We think it's the commercialism we miss. There have been no commercials about presents we need to buy. There are no displays in stores, no ridiculous songs about reindeer. No one ringing a bell outside the grocery store. Our Arabic tutoring place has a (fake) Christmas tree, but they're rare. They actually do sell them here, though -- imported from Holland! -- for several hundred dollars. Yes, $300. Fake ones are significantly less, at around $10, but they're horribly ugly. I saw one with cotton balls on it. "Snow," I suppose.

All this to say, we will be happy to spend Christmas in the States next year. Besides the obvious up-side of being with family, we'll have all the media bombardment we've apparently come to expect. We hate it, certainly. But we also love it.