getting around

Here’s the math. Greater Cairo has 17 million inhabitants. Its Metro carries 700 million passengers a year. There are 4.5 million cars in Egypt; I believe most of them are in front of us when we drive to school in the morning. Here's a little congestion for you:

No amount of hyperbole can do justice to Cairo traffic and Cairo drivers. At its best, the traffic achieves five lanes in the space marked for three, all traveling at 110 kmh or more. At its worst, it takes two hours to make the 30 km trip across the city.

Cairo drivers love their vehicles.

Pimp my pickup

Beautifully restored Fiat

Visitor from Qatar-- zoom on the poster!

Caterpillar decor

Egyptian cats love cars.

I love my car too.

Muhamed keeps my car clean.

Egyptians love them even if they are old
and small, and tired.

A Jeep, apparently

Motorcylcists love their bikes.

More take-out: Shawarma and Koshari

Mick-D does delivery

Truckers are truck proud.

 

A Jumbo

...or a Jumpo

  

Trucks carry everything.

bananas

cattle

onions

children

...behind

workers on top, or...

No load is too large.

Buses carry most students to school.

Students arriving at Malayeya

 Micro-buses are everywhere. Even by Egyptian standards their drivers are maniacs.

Not all Egyptians travel by car…

 

…or move their goods by truck.

 

 

 Not everyone arrives...

We are slowly mastering the automobile arts;  the vocabulary of the horn toot...

the lane jump, the merge bluff, the half-hearted yield— used only when the merge bluff fails  ...and the last minute deceleration for the many ,many, many traffic bumps (Egyptians call them “sleeping policemen”).

 

Here's a little of everything:

Cairo roads are always an adventure.

Al Fayoum

It has been colder than we (I) imagined Cairo could be. I suffer from the cold more than Peter, so I am wrapped up in up to 4 layers. School is unheated, of course, so teachers march from class to class bundled up in coats, bulky sweaters and boots. We have even turned on the heaters in our AC units at home which helps a bit.  The best antidote for me is shea bin nana (tea with mint) made by stuffing the better part of a mint plant into a tea pot and adding a tea bag. This with a hint of sugar hits that shivery spot.

As there have been some “troubles” in Egypt (a suicide bombing of a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria), we have been keeping close to home (quiet 6^th October); safe and sound on one hand, and a bit cabin (make that palm hut) feverish on the other. So we decided to venture into the countryside for a day trip rather than down into the heart of Cairo. We just went on a short road trip, but what you encounter in a 200 km radius of 6^th October is amazing. 

As usual Peter did his detailed research before we departed. What this means is he spent at least 2 – 3 hours studying Google maps as well as other sources of information making us print outs, section by section of our route, as well as detailed travel suggestions for historic and other sites. My research was way more casual and consisted of chats in the English teachers’ staff room, complete with ways to ask directions in Arabic, Arabic texts to show people if we get lost, and suggestions (make that heated arguments) about where to eat, stop etc. With our combined knowledge, we were set.

We headed in the same direction that we travelled on our school trip to the Arabian Nights resort. The highway is pretty good, all in all – 4 lanes with a barrier in between, so cars and trucks zip along. I was driving today, to keep up my skills (nerves). Our first destination challenge was to find Qarun Lake; a large lake, much loved by Egyptians because it is, well, a lake, and not a desert. We were told that this place had a number of places to eat, but my buddies had directed me to the expensive hotel on the lake that catered to foreigners and had a parking lot with security guards. I have introduced them to the English word “splurge”, so we joked that if we stopped to eat here, this would indeed be a splurge.

fishing boat

Qarun Lake is a bird sanctuary

Spur-Winged Plover

tourist boat for hotel guests

The Auberge Hotel turns out to be historically important as the site where European leaders met after WWI to discuss redividing the Middle East, including parceling out some territories and creating the states of Palestine and Mesapotamia. Egypt was placed under British control at this time, and the French were given Syria and Lebanon. Anyway, clearly this place, although it seems to be in the middle of nowhere, is somewhere to be to make major decisions. We chose this for lunch:

Tahini with Egyptian bread

Bori fish - cooked to perfection!   

  

ducks (live!) for sale

 

We headed towards the city of Al Fayoum (pop: 200,000). My colleagues told me, and Peter’s research confirmed, that there was nothing much to see in this very rural centre. However, being curious Canadians, we still wanted a close up of Egyptian rural life. Of course, Peter’s digging had also uncovered that this part of Egypt was home to the right wing, religiously fuelled, political group, the Muslim Brotherhood. We decided that there would be no stopping during this part of our trip. 

Still, we saw plenty, as we bumped along the narrow, sandy, dirt road. 

farm village

main street of the town of Sanhur

shepherd

A tuk-tuk - a three wheeled dirt-cheap (haha) taxi. Spot the water heater?

 

We looped around and began our return towards Cairo. The Lonely Planet guide told us about a great destination, Karanis, not well developed as a tourist spot, but the site of ruins dating back as early as 300 BC. We stopped, found that the museum was closed on Friday (prayer day), but paid an entrance fee and opted for a walking tour with a military police guide, who was equipped with 10 words of English and a loaded pistol. Off we went. Luckily my 30 words of Arbabic include “fine”, “very fine”, and “wonderful”, which got us off to a good start.   

Over the next hour, we marched briskly from the first site created by the pharaoh Ptolomey II…

columns with hieroglyphic inscriptions

a headless Ptolemy II  

 

…to the agricultural town settled by the Roman emperor Augustus. There were ruins with olive grinding stones, and foundations of houses. Best preserved is the North Temple, built to worship the crocodile gods, Pnephoeros and Peresouchos (The settlers liked to feed the crocodiles in Lake Qarun.)

Roman bathtub

North Temple entrance and vestibule

mummy niche - for crocodiles maybe?

 

The South Temple was built by Greek settlers who came as mercenaries for the Romans.

Gallery of the South Temple.

tourists

 From the heights, we had a wonderful view of the countryside. In the video clip you will hear the afternoon call to prayer from a nearby mosque in the rural town of Karanis. 

During the tour our guide impressed on us that we could not take photos as this is a military site and photos  of military operations and check points in Egypt are strictly forbidden. He had let us “sneak” photos, however, when our position was shielded from the watchful gaze of the military surveillance duty officers. As the tour ended, people came out of the woodwork including a few of these other military officers, and an old peasant man. They were clearly gearing up for their “baksheesh”, or bribe. With none of our Egyptian colleagues to help us fend off these kinds of situations, Peter passed around some bills. The flurry to include others in this pay-off did not stop until we got into our car, locked the door and gunned away. 

We had had an eye-opening day, for sure, one full of histories from the mighty to the lowly. All of these images and experiences reminded us that we are far from home and that things here are rarely what they seem to be as we view them through our Western eyes.

New Year 2011

The week between Christmas and New Year continued to be an education for us.  For starters, there was school, so we had to learn to go to work (sigh). I learned how to say the traditional new year greeting. It sounds like this in English: Kol Zana Winta Taibee.  Then we learned that the school held a fun day to celebrate Christmas and the coming of the New Year. This was a whole day event.

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.