First there was a 'dish party'. All of the teachers brought food to share. Peter made some wonderful eggplant parmesan, and I made some peanut butter cookies, both new tastes for our Egyptian friends. The dish party started first thing in the morning. The English teachers' staff room was buzzing! Have a look and a listen!
The play field was alive with games, stalls where teachers and friends of the school sold all kinds of toys, jewellery, clothes, perfume, food, and trinkets, and a DJ blared catchy Egyptian pop music.
Peter and I wandered around and chatted with some of our students. Here is "Mr. Peter" talking with 3 boys from his national school English classes. These 3 are from Canada and Britain and have been sent to complete their high school studies in Egypt where their parents can be assured they get a good education along with living in an Islamic environment. They speak Somali, Arabic, and English, and are studying French. They were telling him that they plan to return to Canada and the UK to work. One is determined to be a doctor when he returns to Edmonton. What a different view of the world they have compared to many of our Nova Scotian students!
Too bad the beginning of this video just missed Peter exchanging the traditional cheek kisses with one student. We have assimilated to Egyptian customs quickly, so you may expect a few changes when we return. Look out!
There were blow up games for the little ones with their boundless energy always protectively watched over by their parents.
Our New Years' weekend started with a much awaited Egyptian Championship Soccer match between the two national rival teams, Al Ahly & Al Zamalek. We went to dinner at our local cafe (we go here at least 3 times a week) to watch the locals watch the game.
Egyptians are crazy (CRAZY!) about soccer and everyone (EVERYONE!) cheers for one of these two teams. At school I am often pulled into heated debates about which team is best as they see me as a new recruit. Mr. Mohammed, one of my English teacher buddies is a Zamalek maniac, so we are rooting for this underdog team. Of course we will not share this at the cafe as this is an Al Ahly cafe. Seriously, we could be in big trouble to cheer for the wrong team in the wrong place.
The game turned out to be a fizzle; no goals. In three months these teams will play again and we will be sure to be in our regular seats at the cafe to watch this match too! Here is a taste of the cafe before the match started ...
and during the game.
There are scarcely words to describe our New Year's Eve. 2011. Our brilliant Grade 12 student, Reham, invited us to join her family to attend a concert by a revered virtuosic oud musician, Nasser Shamma (http://www.naseershamma.com/) and his Al-Oyoin Group of equally masterful musicians.
The venue alone was unforgettable. The El Sawy Culture Wheel is a centre built by an engineer son to pay tribute to his renowned writer-father. The result is a centre (http://ar.culturewheel.com/sections/venus/zamalek-branch) to celebrate and develop the arts as well as intellectual thought. Reham's father is a cardiologist and his circle of friends includes Engineer El Sawy, so we were in special company indeed. Peter and I had been looking for just such a venue since our arrival in Cairo, so this evening wasa wonderful New Year's gift on so many levels. The main centre is in Zamalek, a fashionable, wealthy district of beautiful apartments and shops built on an island in the middle of the Nile. Wisdom Hall is an intimate concert space with seating for 700, and (wait for it...), it is built under a bridge that spans the Nile. (yes!!)
Outside there was a courtyard with stalls selling handmade items and, of course, coffee and tea. In this very short video we see members of Reham's family and Reham dressed in purple-pink.
Inside you feel cozy, even if you are under a bridge...
The concert began with some solo pieces by Nasser Shamma, an Iraqi now living in Egypt. He has started his own school, makes his own instruments, composes, arranges, and is renowned for his virtuosity, exemplified by this brief clip of his work playing with only his left hand!
For the first half of the concert, this all star group of 7 musicians played pieces composed and arranged by Nasser Shamma.
A special guest, a renowned Iraqi singer, joined the group. He sang this traditional Iraqi song; the first half was sung in classical Arabic and the second in Iraqi dialiect, much to the delight of the audience. No, my Arabic is not coming along that quickly. Reham whispered this to me during the concert. She was particularly pleased to tell me this as she had just completed a presentation as well as an essay about the importance of classical Arabic to Egyptian culture.
This clip is for my violin playing mother...
At midnight, all the lights, including the stage lights, were turned off and Nasser Shamma played solo in the dark without pause or error. The lights came on, balloons dropped from the ceiling, and there was this ...
We pinched ourselves. Here we are in Cairo (Cairo!) celebrating the New Year 2011. We had met friends at our cafe earlier in the evening, enjoyed amazing masterful music with a loving and clever family. As we traveled home we received New Year's text greetings from other of our colleague friends on our phones. We miss all our friends and family back home at this time, of course, but we are also so lucky to be here - now. Happy New Year.
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