It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.


Sunday, December 26, 2010

Christmas

Because the Holy Family spent time in Egypt with the infant Jesus, Christmas is a special celebration for Egypt's Copts. Coptic Christians celebrate Christmas on Jan. 7, similar to Eastern Orthodox Christians.

Since our Canadian Dec. 25th Christmas Day was looking like a pretty sedate and solitary time, we decided to treat ourselves to a (pre-) Christmas dinner at Kasr El Shouk, a traditional Egyptian restaurant here in 6th of October with a great reputation.

We were not disappointed.

The decor was stunning.
The service was excellent.
The food was superb.
Quasr al Shouk chicken
Roast duck stuffed with taboulleh


Elsewhere, Christmas in Cairo seemed familiar

at home...
Thanks to sister Julie for sending these Christmas decorations!
Our tree
 in the stores...


spot the bunny
 






                   in the offices...
 
on the roads,,,
 
But some things were just a little different, for example

Charlie Brown trees...
 hanging Santas or Santas with snow-globe tummies....



Shrek in the school foyer....

Christmas tree of hands
 The Kindergarteners (KG classes) singing "Oh Christmas Tree" ...
Still... this is the Holy Land--
and there is that star in the east.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Celebrating an Engagement

Our dear friends Mohab (an English teacher colleague from school) and Dalia (assistant to the principal of the national school) held their traditional Islamic engagement party at the home of Dalia’s family. We were extremely honoured to be invited to this intimate affair, joining their immediate family members. 

Dalia’s parents are both doctors and their villa is gorgeous. Their reception room is on the main floor and Dalia and her two sisters had prepared and decorated the room for the occasion.

Dalia’s father led her down the stairs to join Mohab. The two men greeted each other and Dalia and Mohab walked together to take their special seats at the head of the room.
Art : Fur inscribed with a verse from the Quaran
  
Dalia's family
Mohab's family

Needless to say, there was a great deal of picture taking.

To become engaged, Mohab had already taken these steps: 1) formally asked Dalia’s father for her hand, at which time both parents asked many questions. 2) Dalia’s father had to satisfy himself that his daughter was choosing a man of good character 3) Mohab's mother met Dalia's parents. 4) A week later, Mohab and Dalia’s father met again and agreed upon the finances; how much gold Mohab would provide, how much Mohab would provide for an apartment and furnishings etc. 5) Then Mohab gave the agreed upon amount to Dalia’s father and Dalia and her mother went and purchased the gold. 

At the engagement party Mohab presented Dalia with these gold items (engagement and wedding rings, necklace, bracelets). The rings were put onto the 4th finger of Dalia’s right hand. At their wedding these will be moved over onto her left hand.) Mohab had purchased himself a silver ring (men do not wear gold wedding bands), and Dalia placed this onto his right hand.

right hands



 













Mohab and Dalia gave each other a sip of sweet cordial to symbolize the sweetness of their love.
Dalia's sister acted as "DJ". The first dance was a slow song. 
It was Dalia's and Mohab's first dance together.


The dancing continued with faster songs and everyone joined in.

We moved over to the table laden with food where they cut their engagement cake and gave each other a taste.  They were cute cutting the cake because they did not want to cut through either of their names (written in Arabic, of course) so they ended up slicing the cake between the two sections.

Everyone got a chance to eat, even Dalia's neice, fed with love by granny.



Before their engagement party, Mohab and Dalia were not able to be talk together alone, even in public. Now that they are officially engaged, they are recognized as a couple but will still only be able to go out together with her parent's permission and with a family member joining them as a chaperone.

It was a memorable evening, and we were made to feel very welcome by Dalia's gracious parents. 
Of course it goes without saying that we hope to be at the wedding in 2011.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Wissa Wassef Art Centre

One of our four boxes finally arrived from Canada (shipped Aug. 27, crossed the ocean 2x – be gentle with us about this topic) and luckily this was the one that contained the Lonely Planet travel guide about Egypt! Yeah!  Thanks to the guide we discovered that there was a gem of an artisan centre on the way to Saqqara.  So, I offered to drive Peter to Saqqara, a trip he had missed while in Canada for his father’s funeral (see previous blog) and we decided to stop at this Wissa Wassef Art Centre on the way. What a treasure we found!

The centre is the vision of an architect and artist, Wissa Wassef, who trained family members as well as took apprentice weavers, batik artists, and potters to create unique art reflecting Egyptian life. The result? Amazing detailed woven landscapes, stylized batik fabrics (table cloths, pillow cases), and high fire ceramics, both sculpted and thrown. These items are on sale at the centre, which we were told is rarely visited by tourists. The big tourist buses barrel on down the road without stopping, destined for  the Step Pyramid at Saqqara.  C’est domage; their loss. 

For me, the whole visit was a kind of cross cultural déjà vue. The entire time I thought of my dear parents and their pottery and painting studio with their gorgeous landscaped grounds.

We saw …

- the beautiful villa and surrounding gardens


A photo for Marlee.

Yes, a real pomegranate!




-         equally amazing outbuildings 

gardening shed   
compost
food
-  small studios for artists


batik studio
dying vats

weaving studio
the dormant pottery studio 
The architect’s aging daughter and only remaining potter, has been in ill health, so this studio seemed ghostly.

quite the kick wheel, eh Dad?

  
- and souvenirs that we just had to bring home.

  

It was my first big Cairo driving experience. On the way we … 
-      used my defensive driving skills 

-        passed by Memphis

Hey Tom, no Elvis here...
-
-         took some back roads and encountered some “traffic” 


 - and bought a cauliflower (yes when it comes to food it is always bigger and better in Egypt!).

























What a magical place! If any of you are coming this way, let us know if you would like this to be one of your destinations.  We would love to go back.