The Hud-Hud

Egypt is much like walking through a history book.  Time and time again I was amazed at how history is preserved there and how it intercepts daily life constantly.  To Egyptians this seems to be completely normal, many of them it seems never having visited the pyramids for example or having traveled to the Siwa Oasis.  To foreigners though it's something amazing. 

One of these times in which I was struck, yet again, happened mid-day as I was trying to find a teacher of ours on the scond floor of the language building.  The window of her office opened out onto a large tree spreading its branches in all directions.  One branch was this windows height and sitting on it were two doves, side by side.   Flying in and alighting on the same branch close to the two doves came a another bird of much color and flash which I hadn't seen before.  I asked our teacher which bird that might be and she replied matter of factly, "al-Hud-hud, " or as we might call it, the Hoopoe.

Tall crown, orange breast, black and white plummage.  It didn't stand tall, but it did stand striking. 

The Hud-hud, as a bird, is mentioned in the Qur'an.  That's over 1400 hundred years ago.  This story of the Qur'an itself is talking about the Prophet-King Solomon, so right there we can probably add on another 1,000 to 2,000 years...and here is this bird still inhabiting these parts...

The Qur'an - Chapter 27, verses 20-27:

"And he [Solomon] took a muster of the Birds; and he said: "Why is it I see not the Hoopoe? Or is he among the absentees? (20)

"I will certainly punish him with a severe Penalty, or execute him, unless he bring me a clear reason (for absence)." (21)

But the Hoopoe tarried not far: he (came up and) said: I have compassed (territory) which thou hast not compassed, and I have come to thee from Saba with tidings true. (22)

"I found (there) a woman ruling over them and provided with every requisite; and she has a magnificent throne. (23)

"I found her and her people worshipping the sun besides Allah: Satan has made their deeds seem pleasing in their eyes, and has kept them away from the Path― so they receive no guidance― (24)

 "(Kept them away from the Path), that they should not worship Allah Who brings to light what is hidden in the heavens and the earth, and knows what ye hide and what ye reveal. (25)

 "Allah!― there is no god but He!― Lord of the Throne Supreme!" (26)

(Solomon) said: "Soon shall we see whether thou hast told the truth or lied! (27)

"Go thou, with this letter of mine, and deliver it to them: then draw back from them, and (wait to) see what answer they return"…"

 

In loving memory of Maxwell

Something short and sweet here and not really related to much of anything Egyptian...

I was hoping to expand this entry much more over the course of the remaining few months I had in Egypt, but alas, it was not to be.  The roommate I was living with moved to another apartment in town where the speakers for the morning call-to-prayer, which comes in anywhere from about 3:15-4am, weren't quite so situated right outside his window...

I suppose the idea for this blog came from him posting a pretty entertaining Facebook update showing what it was like speaking Arabic with me - a delicious mixture between formal and colloquial registers.  I'd like to add that I've gotten a little better at picking one and sticking with it, so I hope at least.  In any case, I decided I should return the favor and hence it was that I began eavesdropping on his Skype calls he held in the living room (which really wasn't much of eaves dropping at all) trying to catch any jewels I could from what he said.  And jewels there were! 

The operation though was cut short by his moving and so all of what I caught is recorded here.  Of assurity, gems of past speech of his are left un-recorded by yours truly and of assurity there are still new treasures being said by him every day...So here I present three sentences (if only I had more!), taken out of context, for your reading pleasure.

"Pocket integrity.  You don't really preserve pocket integrity."

"How bad can a horse mask smell?!"

"Yea, I love Ataturk.  He's the best thing that's happened to Turkey.  Turkey has him to thank for everything it has."

Civil Engineering

It's been forever and a day since I wrote the last blog post...My apologies.  In any case though, I'd like to begin writing by pointing out one of the many ingenius designs of Egyptian civil engineering.  It goes a little something like this:

In each room of our apartment we have a ceiling fan.  There is also a light that hangs from the ceiling.  The electrical cord to the light is not threaded through the fan shaft, which is what attaches the fan to the ceiling, such that the light bulb rests underneath the ceiling fan.  No, no.  The light is dangling from its cord above the blades of the fan.

There are of course three options for cooling off your room.  One, an air conditioner.  Two, opening up your doors and/or windows.  Three, turning on your fan.  We don't even have the first option, so that's out.  The second option gives way to mosquitoes entering, especially in the evening, as there is no such thing as screens here.  That leaves the third option wide open.

Do me a favor though and imagine what that does to your room...it turns it into a veritable disco ball room, minus the music.  Right now the air is pretty stagnant in my room.

In other news, my family should be getting on a plane right about now to come visit me!  That means in about 18 hours or so they'll be landing safe and sound, God willing, in Cairo, Egypt.  Pretty cool stuff, huh?  I thought you might think so too.

Where do you come from? Where do you go?

One of my unanswered questions about the workings of Alexandria has just recently been answered.  It has to do, again, with the butcher shop around the corner of our street.  I've been noticing for some time now that somehow there is meat at that place, but I'm not quite certain how it arrives there.  I have never actually seen a live animal near there, yet somehow at some point in the morning meat shows up and somehow at some point in the afternoon again it goes.   Deductively, this only means one thing: it comes in a refrigerated truck from another undisclosed location.  

It comes in a truck because that's how you transport things around here (although there are plenty of donkeys and horses on the streets as well.  That would be another nice topic to touch on at some point.) and the truck is refrigerated because that's how you preserve the freshness of the food and prevent diseases from being borne.  Well, as it turns out only half of the previous statement is true, the second part not being it.  The meat comes in an open-air truck.

The first time I saw that I nearly stumbled, or something like that.  I was surprised to say the least.  

Picture your favorite uncle's pick-up truck.  Now put a travel cap over the bed and imagine that the tail gate, when closed, only covers half the space between the bottom of the bed and the top of the travel cap.  This should give you ample room for slinging pieces of meat into the back of the truck at the end of the day when packing up shop.  As for morning time, when unloading the meat, you'll probably have to let down the tail gate  and crawl over it a little, towards the meat, to reach the good pieces.  

There are two things I'm not too keen on discovering in this equation: one, how long the meat sits outside of a climate controlled area before it is finally eaten; and two, when the last time the back of that truck was cleaned.  I, personally, purposefully avoided looking at the condition of the actual bed of the truck to avoid knowing the truth of that matter.

Another distinguishing factor of butcher shop activities is how meat is handled here.  I mean literally handled.  There seems to be no shyness towards hoisting a cow leg or set of ribs over one's shoulders, or man-handling (I mean hugging) a cow carcass to hang it up on one of the hooks positioned outside the shop.  On top of all that, I can only remember one instance of somebody actually wearing an apron.

In closing, keep in mind that standards of cleanliness here are radically different than they are in America.  The FDA does not exist here (nor does OSHA by the way) and that probably, at least partly, explains why we had to avoid stepping on the slaughtered goat another butcher shop was skinning on the sidewalk the other day.  Also, as one friend put it, "If you have any problems with people handling your food, come to Egypt.  You'll get it over it real quick."

April Fool's Day in Egypt. It Came Early...

So the city of Alexandria decided to play a practical joke on the citizens of the city.  I'm not actually certain if it was a joke or if it was just some weak attempt at actually implementing city planning.  Anyways, it goes something like this: the Public Administration of Transportation decided to mark lanes on the roads of Alexandria.

Good idea, you might be thinking, and you're probably right.  I'm thinking the same thing, but I'm also seeing the poor implementation of this good idea.

The lanes have been marked at the street intersections where the first three rows of cars, both wide and deep, would be waiting their turn to turn their wheels again.  Something needs to be understood here though: the rule of driving a car on the streets of Egypt is that there are no rules.  I mean, the only rules are the understood customs and habits amongst the drivers themselves.  Any state laws are not really implemented.  Directly applied to three white stripes, painted 30 feet deep, at an intersection means absolutely nothing to car drivers.  The roads are chaos the whole stretch of road before the intersection and there is no hope of them suddenly straightening themselves out at the presence of fresh white paint.

And just like other road laws which are not implemented, neither is this one.  The policemen directing traffic on the streets don't implement this new lane thing and neither are they able to.  The road, now designated into three lanes, continues to witness cars squeezed abreast, effectively making the road five lanes and the cars continue to inch forward beyond the designated stop line whole car lengths.

The government also decided on another practical funny: road lights.  They seem to work most of the time.  Occasionally though, they might be down for two to three days.  They are still new so perhaps they are working out electrical kinks.  The people seem to obey the traffic lights more than they do the white paint beneath their wheels.

However, traffic lights mean there isn't need for policemen at intersections directing the flow of traffic, and that traffic light can't record your license plate like that policeman can (which they do in a very primitive manner by recording the license plate in script, in a notebook with them.  Electronic surveillance doesn't exist here.)  So, whose going to really listen to that changing light?

However the lights are not just circular indicators hanging above the intersection, they are either green or red lighted numbers counting down the number of seconds remaining for either your acceleration or your deceleration.  This is, in effect, interpreted as the following: green means go, with the added meaning of you should start nosing your way out early; green changing into red (i.e. the last two remaining seconds) means there is still time and you should slam the accelerator and avoid colliding with the protruding noses of the other cars.

When the lights aren't working things resort to their prior state of being: disfunctionality and chaos.  There are no such rules like we have at four way stops in Texas where you know whose turn is next in the event of failing traffic lights (either by first arrival or following the clockwise pattern when more than two cars are present).  This is compounded by the fact that policeman are not immediately present on the scene to stand in for the fickleness of the traffic lights.

In short, implementing serious change in Egyptian society like this is going to take a much larger effort than what the government recently undertook in this regard.  So far, Egypt's streets continue as they have been and as the Egyptian's describe them, "Everything here runs on blessing."  Mainly because there is hardly any organization and the only possible explanation for a lack of greater catastrophes and calamities is blessing from above.  I side with them in this belief.

Egyptian-Egyptian vs. Egyptian-Foreigner

So last semester we enrolled in a class of our choosing at the University of Alexandria (this class is in addition to the study abroad program we are with).  When it came time to take the final for the semester, we all piled into a large auditorium style classroom, with multiple classes taking tests at the same time.  The teacher for our class was giving instructions for the test as if he was drilling soldiers.

"Answer only one of these questions!  Only one! If you answer more than one, I'm going to take the first one on the paper and grade that one and not even look at the other!"  A moment's silence as he paced between the aisles, or up at the front of the room.  "I said answer only one!  Is that clear?!  Do not answer more than one!  It won't help your grade in the slightest.  Answer the question you think you know best."  etc., etc..

At one point a student entered the room, but somehow he did not enter correctly.  I'm not certain the logistics of that entrance but our teacher was not happy with it at all.  By this point though the student had already taken a seat and had his papers but that didn't stop Mr. Hussein from raising his voice once again.  His voice was so loud, accusatory, and aggressive I was convinced something had actually gone horribly wrong.  He finally ordered the student to walk back to the door and enter the room again properly (I'm still not certain the logistics).

I was convinced at that point that a dark cloud would be hanging over the space for the duration of the test and thought to myself that there is no way I could handle such treatment.  I decided I would have sacrificed my test grade by walking out on the test if I were that student.  To my surprise though the teacher cracked a joke, the students started laughing, and the unfortunate student who had become an example for the class, in the midst of his returning to his seat, broke out in smile as if he had understood what the intent behind the whole charade from the beginning.  In fact it seems everybody seems to have understood what was going on in some weird Egyptian cultural sense of humor way.  No hard feelings remained.

When Mr. Hussein, eventually made his way over to me during the test, as he was making his rounds, he placed a gentle hand on my shoulder, read a few of my answers, explained a word in one of the questions to me, smiled, and spoke softly.  I noted the stark difference in his actions and words with me.

There is yet another, incident I want to share.

Our Egyptian roommate is a student in the college of dentistry.  At one point he had lab which he entered without wearing proper attire.  This apparently did not impress the instructor one bit and he let our roommate know about it in front of the other students.  Well, our roommate, feeling it was the thing to do, talked back to the teacher and this only angered the teacher further.  He ended up getting kicked out of class.

Turns out that class was pretty important for his chances at graduating and the only way to enter the class again was to apologize to the teacher.  Most likely this apology needed to be made publicly, in front of the other students.  Eventually, our roommate succeeded in entering the class again although I'm not sure exactly how he apologized.  In any case though, the situation angered and saddened him greatly at the way the teachers are able to act as they please, bordering on corruption and egotism in his opinion, without any consequences while the students are mere pawns without any power of their own.

As I was speaking with a fellow tenant in our apartments he told me a story which, although we were speaking on another subject, helped explain to me this relationship between Egyptians and authority.  The story goes something likes this and takes place in Dubai:

A high ranking official's son attended school and used to beat his classmates.  The teacher complained to his father about these manners.  The father in return asked a question: "Who is he beating?  Citizens or those without citizenship?"  The teacher replied, "The citizens."  His father replied that this was within his rights then as it is necessary for the leader of the group to put his people in line, but it is considered a lack of manners to beat one's guests as those without citizenship would be considered.

Apply that to how the teacher treated me and how the other student and our roommate was treated... I found it a helpful comparison at least.  I should hope it elucidates something for you as well.

(p.s. - I don't have time to proofread this post.  Please overlook any mistakes if you would.)

Manifestations in a Post-Revolution Egypt

Here is a beautiful occurrence of expression (the link is to Facebook, so you will have to sign in most likely to really explore the page.  'Like' it if you feel so called!).  An expression of resistance, political messages, the feelings of the youth, etc. - which has surfaced after the revolution here in Egypt and continued to strengthen in occurrence throughout the ongoing events.

This manifestation is of course, if you followed the link above, graffiti art.  If you have kept up to date with current events here at all the art pieces paint a beautiful portrait telling of real lives, real events, real struggles, losses, and victories.  They tell of tears and bullets and poverty.  They tell of martyrs, as they are known for the most part in Egypt, and they tell of survivors with two eyes and they tell of survivors with one eye, the other being lost to bird shot being employed by the armed forces.  They might even tell of one or two survivors with no eyes to see with at all now.  They tell of some of the most amazing things that the world has witnessed in the past year.  

Check here and here for a little more info and background on the issue.

Enjoy.

Ol McDonald in your home

The farm eggs you buy at the corner store come with the farm still attached...

Raising a Fuss

I should emphasize that people here, for the most part, have no problem raising a fuss.  Screaming across balconies at each other exhibits no noticeable traits of embarrassment or shyness.  Car drivers yelling at each other in the street?  They could care less about other people.  You gotta bone to pick with your neighbor?  If it's a big enough bone you can pick in public.  No problem.  You gotta fire an employee on the clock and yell at him in front of all the customers?  No worries, you don't have to worry about business being affected.

I can very easily imagine someone not knowing Arabic, coming here, and observing that about half the people are angry and yelling at each other.  I still wonder how their voices can be so rough, raised, and even violent at times and they are just having a normal conversation.

Second marriage proposal

I frequent a juice shop around the corner from my house.  It's small and mostly the only thing they are usually serving, or have in stock, is sugar cane.  The stalks are run through a machine which basically just compresses the sugar cane hence squeezing all the sweet liquid out.  The stalk shoots out the back end of the machine flat, dry, and lifeless.

Out of the two or three guys that work there one, Ahmed, stands out.  Perhaps for no other reason other than he has experience outside of Egypt and his demeanor is slightly more calm and relaxed than others.  He is also married and has three kids.  I've met two of them.

One of his sons, Ibrahim, is in middle school studying English and German and his daughter is in her last year of college.  His son tried speaking to me in English and I relented and spoke a little to him in it and his daughter was very nice and happy.

Today I went to drink some sugarcane after the sunset prayer and started asking Ahmed about some customs surrounding marriage in Egypt.  For instance, marriages parties seem to end up at some point driving the streets in gangs of about three to four cars, swerving across the road like a serpent sliding, the lead car wrapped in a white bow-tie, all of them honking their horns.  The purpose: make noise, drive recklessly and fast, and let everyone know you just got married.  It's a happy celebration, but lacking some elements of common-sense and intelligence.  It was also banned by law before the revolution, but now with a lack of police presence on the streets (not a total lack mind you) it seems to have made a resurgence.

It's also from their custom that if someone wants to marry he needs to have an apartment already provided, and it's highly preferred if already furnished.  Something nearly impossible for the large majority of Egypt's youth.  I would say there is probably a direct correlation between the amount of verbal harassment that goes on and the number of unmarried youth.  In any case though, I was asking Ahmed about how one goes about proposing to an Egyptian girl.  Does he go to the girl directly?  Does he go through the dad?  I realized in the middle of all the questions that my words could probably be really easily taken to mean I was asking about his daughter.  Awkward, slightly, considering that wasn't my intention.

His responses were very balanced though, the most important thing being that one fears God in the relationship of marriage (i.e. - will treat his wife well) and is pious in general.  One could have all the money in the world but if his character and manners don't reflect piety and God-fearing-ness who is going to want to marry their daughter to him?  It is also very important that their be connection between the bride and groom so that the she wants to marry him and he wants to marry her.  That's the basic gist of it all.

In the end though, Ahmed said happily, "You want to get married?  It's done!  We'll marry you to our daughter."  He was totally serious.  It's endearing and very sweet when someone trusts you enough to invite you into their family and marry you to their daughter.  I didn't agree in the moment though, Mom : ) 

Cairo = Huge, Busy, Dirty, Historical

The capital of Egypt.  A city of, depending on who your talking to or the statistics your reading, 16-20 million breaths (that being the Arab word for individuals in this context).  Old.  I'm hesitating to call it ancient as it's only about 1000 years old (compare that with the temples we visited of which some are like 4,000 years old) and Alexandria, in any case, was founded before Cairo.  To be fair though Cairo's history extends back farther than the founding of the modern city and history permeates the air.  So does the pollution.

You think your city is polluted?  Dirty?  Un-managed?  Dear God!  You have no idea.  Alexandria is a breath of fresh air compared to Cairo.  Imagine your place of residence without exhaust fume regulations, or trash collection, or river preservation, or burn bans, or water sanitation (to a large degree).  Now, multiply the number of breaths in your town to equal 18 million and imagine the results.  Unimaginable?  It isn't when you actually experience it.

There was a heavy haze that hung around the city all three days we were there.  I'm about 99% certain it wasn't clouds.  It severely affects vision at any considerable distance.

There are a lot cars that emit a black cloud of smoke all day long.  You have to drive behind them and breath their black poison.  Corey and I thought we were going to nearly die from CO2 poisoning after being stuck in a tunnel on a cab ride for about 20 minutes (there were three separate cars that had broken down inside it).

Traffic is a nightmare.  People drive crazier than here, the roads are less cared for, and the communicate (much like Alexandria) by honking their horns at each other or yelling.  One of our cab rides included our driver shadowing a another until they both stopped at which point ours got out to go yell at the other for cutting him off earlier.  One microbus ride witnessed me closing my eyes for about 90% of the ride and repeating the only two prayers in Arabic I know for when traveling.  I figured if I died without having to worry about seeing my death coming I would be more concentrated on Allah and more likely to die in the remembrance of His name and with a heart directed to Him.  I was hoping to meet Him on better terms because of that if that was to be the case.

It's hard to breathe sometimes because of the burning trash piles.  On that note, I heard there was no one currently collecting trash in Cairo.  Piles of trash are found multiple times on every street.  Large piles.  Perhaps 30 or 40 feet in width.  It seems though that the landfills are located within the city.  There are children who make a living picking through the trash.  Some people live in the trash yards.  You get used to stepping over dead animals.  My thought: plastic products should be outlawed from Egypt.  There is a city outside of Cairo called Garbage City.  The article tries to paint an optimistic picture over what really is a modern catastrophe, but the info is still interesting.  You can find info on Wikipedia on the phenomenon too.  Check this out too.

Cairo is full of action.  Too much action.  It's stressful just being there.  I remember feeling the same way when I arrived in Alexandria and had to deal with the same kind of sensory overload, confusion, struggle to fit in, not cause a scene, etc.  I've since gotten used to Alex and have developed a filter system for paying attention to the pertinent and ignoring the superfluous.  I can't imagine going to Cairo and having that be the first impression of Egypt for someone.  (Don't worry though, fam : ) When you come, I hope to be available to help ease the transition.)

There are so many mosques.  So many.  Minarets pierce the sky like gigantic trees growing up out of a concrete forest.  Many of them are historical landmarks.  Imam Husein's (the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him and all the prophets) head supposedly rests in one of the mosque's.  The mosque of al-Azhar ash-Sharif.  The religious leader ash-Shafi'i has a mosque and shrine built at his burial place (going to that neighborhood after nightfall is not recommended).  The list goes on and on...

Cairo has also seen a number of recent notable events and ongoing demonstrations.  Of course there was the revolution last year that overthrew the ousted President Mubarak.  Things didn't stop there though.  With new found opportunities and renewed interests in preventing a return to the "days of Mubarak" many Egyptians have persisted in regular demonstrations, strikes, and the like.  Some of these events turn violent.  Of special note is the Maspero, and most recently this soccer game (video link).  A very partial list, but all of the upheaval from these events has seemed to create an air of distress and tension.

That, anyway, is my first impression of Cairo.  I'll try and mention something about the Pyramids here soon too.  I should also say that all of the above is not to overshadow the Egyptian people and their beautiful hearts, nor the beauty of their culture.  

A Generalization:

Egyptians are honest people except for, generally speaking, in two cases:  When giving directions and when selling.  

In the first, they will sometimes give directions without actually knowing where the store/area/etc. is actually located.  Ask someone else as soon as you get out of the sight of the first.

In the second, prices are raised on foreigners very easily.  This is based on two premises: One, you have money; Two, you don't know the going rate for products.  Very, very annoying. 

(The above are based on actual experiences.)

Luxor and Aswan

Well, I'm just back from a week and a half long trip to Upper Egypt and Cairo.  Upper Egypt is actually southern Egypt, but the land is elevated higher in the South thus granting it its name.  One consequence of this is that the Nile flows from the South to the North.

In any case, so there we were.  It was the whole group of us - American students, our teachers, and Egyptian friends and colleagues.  We numbered about 50+ all in all.  Luxor and Aswan.  The place where more than a third of the World's ruins and ancient artifacts lies.  Yea, a third of them.  All in one place. I had always thought the Magic School Bus was something of a child's learning tool, on this trip though, it had never been more of a reality.

Here are some places we went:

• The Valley of the Kings.  This is where a whole bunch of kings over the passage of the centuries decided to inter their remains and create for themselves an everlasting kingdom in the afterlife.  Picture a valley of rocks hundreds of meters high.  The color green doesn't exist.  Who knows the last time rain graced this place?  The valley is long, kilometers probably.  At every turn there is a tomb.  A door leading into an underground passage way carved out of the rock leading to the decorated resting places dedicated to those who used to lie in them (most of the mummies and their belongings have either been stolen or taken to museums).  This is the valley where our boy Tut-ankh-amun lives.  The most widely known mummy and Egyptian pharaoh of them all, yet he did practically nothing during his rule and died young.  His fame came about because his tomb was the only found completely intact with all the belongings still present.
• al-Dier al-Bahari Temple.  This was confusing and in the middle of nowhere.  I don't remember much about it honestly.   
• Karnak Temple.  Absolutely awesome.  Huge.  The biggest one in Egypt if I'm not mistaken.  I have no idea how they hoisted their craft of carved and decorated rocks transformed into pillars, walls, and ceilings that big into their present places.  The complex itself is huge as well and its history spans centuries. 
• Luxor Temple.  Also really big.  The second or third largest in Egypt I think.  One reason these temples get so big is the kings desires for show and consolidation of power.  As one king dies and another takes over he might remove the name of the previous king and dedicate his monuments to himself.  On top of that he would build more structures to show his might and kingship.  And thus continued the shifting sands of lordly displays of power.  This is also where there is a statue (I'm writing this from memory, I hope I'm not wrong) of Tut-Ankh-Amun's father who tried to unite the polytheistic religion/worship of Egypt at that time around one god, Aten, and thus make Egypt monotheistic.  His efforts were a burden on the clergy whom thrived upon polytheism and the ban on the worship of Amun of lasted only a short while and was reversed under his son's short lived rule.  In fact, Tut-Ankh-Amun's name as given him by his father was Tut-Ankh-Aten.  When the young prince ascended the throne at the death of his father (was it assassination by the clergy?) he changed his name to what we know it as now (Amun being the head god of the other gods).
• Kom Ombo Temple.  They used to raise live crocodiles here in reverence of the Crocodile God.  It is dedicated to another deity as well.  It is also here where one of the rulers decided to portray himself larger than the main god effectively showing his deification of his own self.
• Edfu Temple.  Dedicated to the main god, Horace.  Some of these temples, such as this one, show an interesting play between the older polytheistic, pharaonic cultures and the rise of the Christian kingdom.  Much of the defacement (literally) of sculptures, engravings, and the such comes from Christian attempts at preventing worship other than theirs.
• Philae Temple.  Water levels rised and submerged about half of this temple before UNESCO undertook to move it to another nearby island.  
• Abu Simbil Temples.  Originally built far away from the heart of his empire, whatever pharaoh it was that built this giant thing aimed at a glorifying himself a little more than his people would have accepted at the time.  He also dedicated a separate hall to his favorite wife.  However the temple became completely covered in sand except for the very tip-top decorations (a row of baboons) and was largely forgotten until recovered again by the Italians.  Due to rising water levels from the Aswan Dam threatening the temple UNESCO completely moved the temple complex to its present complex.  It took a number of years.  That's probably due in part to the fact that Ramses II's (i.e.- "whatever pharaoh it was that built this thing") head weighed in at a whopping 25 tons.  

         Unesco gets a 99.5 out of a 100 for a near perfect undertaking in moving this large, complicated     complex and setting it up exactly as it was originally laid out.  The only problem is that the back room contains the statues of four gods, three of which see the sunlight shining in through the front door of the temple onto their faces twice a year on exactly the same dates each year.  When Unesco moved the temples they miscalculated (astronomy is harder than one thought?) and now the sun peeps its head in one day later than the original calculations.  So, presently, on Feb. 22 and Oct. 22 the statues get their yearly dosage of vitamin D.  The fourth statue is the god of the underworld so he doesn't get to tan.

The two solar dates refer to Ramses' birthday and his coronation day to become deified or ascend to the throne, I'm not certain.  Another tour guide said that it could possibly mean the spring and fall harvests.

Pretty fascinating stuff!

A big shout out goes to our tour guides who rocked the boat, tired themselves out for us, and taught us more about Egypt and Egyptians than we could have asked for.  

والله والله علاء الدين ومحمد ومحمد وميادة انا مش قادر اشكركم كفاية

I spent three days in Cairo after the trip...I hope to write about that next. 

Waiting in Lines...err, waiting?

It doesn't happen.  Well, Ok, I'm being a little facetious.  I have seen it happen before, when there was military presence to ensure it.  That was during the recent elections here.  Other than that though you're going to be hard pressed to find single-file lines forming.

I want us all to do a little activity.  You'll need a pen/pencil and a piece of paper for this.

Step 1:  Fold the paper in half width-wise and then open it back up.  You now have a crease dividing the paper into two halves.
Step 2: Position the paper so that the crease is angling directly at you, perpendicular to you, from where you're sitting, if you will.  In effect, the paper should be rotated 90 degrees from how we would normally write on it.
Step 3: Take your pen and draw, on the left side of the two halves, a semi-circle at the top of the half.  If this was to be a complete circle the other half would be found off the paper, presumably on your drawing surface.  Step 4: Now, draw a straight line from your semi-circle to the bottom of the page.  Good?

Good.

Step 5: On the other half of the paper repeat step 3 above.
Step 6: Now, around the new semi-circle draw a lion's mane, or pretend like your drawing the Sun's flames, or your young son's curly hair, or just draw consecutive, yet inter-weaving, concentric semi-circles.

Take a step back and look at your artistry.

Congratulations!  You've just represented the concept of waiting in lines in America and in Alexandria, Egypt.  The semi-circles at the top of the page stand for cashier stands and what extends out from them, or crowds around them, are the customers.  Can you decipher which line you're used to waiting in?

Point in case, it's just kind of the way things work here.  There seem to be some general guidelines: the American concept of waiting politely in lines will not benefit you here; take the initiative;  don't be offended when somebody just absolutely "cuts in line" ahead of you (you should probably be trying to do the same to somebody else!).

I can't tell how you many times I've been smack-dab in the middle of a transaction with a store clerk and somebody else comes in and just blerts out what he wants, or jumps in front of me and lays money down in front of the cashier.

Another common situation is when you enter the store and the clerk is just talking with somebody and it's obvious that the conversation is not work related, or a another transaction.  Don't wait until he turns to give attention to you!  Oh no.  Just go ahead, confidently and assertively, say a greeting (which in effect breaks the ice, draws attention to you, and is in general a polite thing to do, and as far as I can tell, considered rude if you don't) and ask for what you want.  Otherwise you'll be waiting for who knows how long.

I used to think that this way of interacting with others was pretty rude.  I can't say that I have completely accepted it or warmed up to it, but it is the way things, for the most part here work, and it's effective.  It is also not considered rude within this society's culture and context.

Translate this general attitude and ways of going about things into the context of driving cars and you get very interesting results...More to come on that soon God willing.

A Small Taste of the Wide World of Arabic

Here's an example of how Arabic can get a little confusing and/or complicated at times:

al-farsh: household furnishing, mats, linens, etc. (الفرش)

al-firaash: bed (الفراش)

al-faraash: wheel of a mill, or butterflies (الفَراش)

al-farraash: errand boy, office boy (الفرّاش)

The conjugations of the verb also give rise to meanings of painting, to spread out, and by extension either loosening your tongue or sleeping with a women, for example.

Today was test day.

We had a short reading and then were required to answer five questions.  Each question in turn requiring a 150 word answer, the last of which though was 200 words.  We had two hours to complete the exam.  Needless to say, none of us, as far as I know, finished it in its entirety.

Anyways, at the beginning of it, we're all looking it over and Tim, stating the obvious, says, "Oh man, it's in Arabic."

Haha!

There's a butcher shop at the end of our street.

It's on the corner with the side windows facing our small street and the front facing the main street ours dead ends into.  It's small, but they seem to do a generous amount of  business.  They hang large hooks - that are large enough they look like they could be used to fish for sharks - attached to chains from an overhead metal bar outside the door of the shop.

This is very convenient for them and very inconvenient for pedestrians.  This is because the front of their shop is also the sidewalk.  The walkway is often bloody right there and squeezing by another person makes for a fun game of avoid-the-hanging-carcasses.  In addition, turning the corner brings one face-to-face with one half of a skinned cow carcass, or a goat, or some other dangling body pieces.  It took a little bit of getting used to, but it's second nature now avoiding them at the end of the street.  I still tend to think of the potentials as being disastrous though.

The chopping block is set up outside the shop at the end of our small street.  It is literally a tree stump nailed to three pieces of 2x4's forming a tri-pod structure about three feet in height.  Those vertical 2x4's (i.e. the legs) are in turn reinforced by three horizontal 2x4 pieces acting as spacing and stability.  The end result resembles a bar stool.   They chop up cow heads and feet on it with an axe, or a large knife.  I was struck the other day by cow feet shrapnel as I was walking by.  The butcher didn't even notice; he was talking with two others as he was chopping away.


  

Winter in Alexandria

It's not that cold, per se, perhaps only dipping down into the teens - celsius that is : ).  So the problem isn't actually the temperature itself, but rather the fact that you get used to 50 F being freezing.  There is also, at times, a howling wind from the ocean that will turn your umbrella inside out or cause you to lean forward while walking.  The temperature drops a little at that. There are also not really heaters inside the homes.  I don't think any student, out of any of the apartments we're in, has a heater in their place.  It's colder inside usually than it is out.

It also rains a lot.  I don't think I've seen yet a violent, pounding rain, but it does come down generously and it might last for some time.  One of the rain's more favored times seems to be early morning around 5:30-6:00a.  It also visits during the day though at intermittent intervals.  Rain is great.  I couldn't agree more.  Alexandria's drainage system is not though.

As the last post shows, some get high-tided by a lack of a working drainage system and poor street designs.  I've heard that the drainage holes have actually been installed somewhat elevated on the walls in a certain area of town.  I don't know the veracity of that report though.  While there are extreme cases usually the most one has to deal with are puddles accumulated around the sidewalks.  Usually these puddles gather at the end of the sidewalk, where you would like to be stepping off of it.  The situation is compounded by the fact that the puddle sometimes extends out from the curb  farther than you are able, or willing, to jump and the fact that the water has brought all sorts of debris with it making for a muddy, trashy landing spot.  Not only that but often the parked cars follow the curves of the sidewalk exactly, like a Christmas fringe decoration hugging a door frame, thus effectively blocking the end of the sidewalk in any case, but they are also parked so close to each other as to make walking between the front and rear bumper of the two automobiles a squeeze at least or impossible at most.  The only option open to you now is to take a minor detour of about two cars, until you find an opening and a somewhat clearer landing pad.

There yet remains another problem: gutters.  I took their use and utilitarian design in the good 'ol US of A as a granted.  The water hits your roof, rolls down over the shingles, slides into the gutter, single file line, and empties out neatly where the gutter mouth is positioned very near the ground.  At the most you might be mildly offended that you have to raise your footsteps ever so slightly higher as you cross over the run-off.  Let's look at the picture in Egyptian terms.

To begin, the roofs are not slanted.  They are flat.  I have no idea what happens up there with them.  Does a mini-lake form before finally reaching enough volume to begin pouring through the gutter spout?  Or maybe the roofs are slightly titled in the direction of the gutter.  Who knows?  In any case, I hesitate to call this drainage system a system, or at least a well thought out one at that.  The "gutters" here are, in reality, a pvc pipe, the total length of which being estimated at about 4-5 feet.  It is placed somewhere along the roof line and funnels the water build-up off the roof and onto the street.

Now, picture this, anywhere from a 3 to a 13 tall story building with a pvc pipe creating a free-fall water fall off the roof onto the street below.  How wide are the streets again?  Oh, about wide enough to park one car on the side and squeeze another by, barely.  During a downpour this makes for interesting walking conditions.  Even during light rains the water comes down somewhat heavily out the pipes.

Compounding the situation is the fact that is not just one pipe per building, or per side of the building, yet there seem to be multiple ones, randomly placed.  They might jut off at different angles and be facing different directions.  I've seen some of them pouring water out when the sky is clear also.  I've been slightly scared to think about what that water is and where it is coming from.

Who wants to take the kids swimming?

I'm back!  But not for long.

Apparently it rains a lot here in Alex in the winter and that's just what it's been doing, on and off, for about a week or more now.  It's an interesting discussion due to other considerations, but I thought I would post this picture as it shows something of an unfortunate reality in Egyptian day-to-day life: a lack of infrastructure.

Keep in mind, the whole city is not like this.

Making tea

I'm sitting in the dining room.  I've been sitting here for a good 3 hours.  I've cooked some food and had dinner; the call to prayer for both the sunset prayer and the evening prayer has been given and city has prayed them both; my American roommate has left to go to a cafe; I'm on my second cup of black tea with mint leaves.  The only time I saw our Egyptian roommate was when I first returned home three and half hours ago and that was only when he was crossing the hall to enter his room.

But he did happen to come out a second time about thirty or so minutes ago when I was in the process of making my first cup of tea.  The first thing he says is, "You didn't even ask me if I wanted any!  You Americans aren't social at all.  Your recluse lifestyle is wrong."  He was hiding his smile, but you have to understand that he was genuinely, even if only slightly, offended.  Egyptians are social people.  Very social.  You can make a new best friend in minutes. You can expect to get invited over for tea the first time you meet somebody.  You'll hold hands with the person you just met while walking down the street.  And, you can also expect them to get offended slightly when you don't return the same level of hospitality.

Egyptians aren't product oriented.  They're relationship oriented.  I didn't actually believe that when I came over here - I'd never really experienced it - but it's true, absolutely true.  Three hours of talk is a lot more meaningful than meeting deadlines.

They have also preserved their community neighborhood feel too.  Everybody knows each other and their daily schedules.  In America we call our kids in at dark.  In Egypt it seems like they push them out the doors.  You can hear kids playing in the streets well into the night, past midnight.  Giving kids a candy wouldn't be considered weird at all.  I don't think anybody would even think to check if the wrapper had been opened or not already (that might be because half the stuff you buy here has seems like it has already been opened, dented, or re-used in some way in any case).

I'd love to write more, but I've got another paper to write.  It's about how sectarian strife and social problems in Syria originated with the French and the foreign policies of their selfish mandate after the First World War.  I'm almost done.

Paying the bawwab

So, I've received a request for the story of under paying the bawwab.  Well, you see, the story is much more than just a simple transaction carried out between two parties.  Oh no, we'll have to start somewhere nearer the beginning of this one to really cover it well.

Transactions here aren't like in the US.  Or, perhaps I should say, transactions in the US aren't like here.  That's because buying and selling here is probably much like the rest of the world.  What I mean is, when was the last time you had to haggle with someone? or barter?  When was the last time you didn't feel like you had enough money to just pay whatever the man was asking for? When was the last time you doubted that the clerk was selling you the object at the listed sales price?

Generally speaking, in Egypt, if there isn't a price tag attached to it that's because the price is flexible.  Which means the guy selling you the stuff wants to milk the transaction for all it's worth, which means you're going to want to do some haggling.  Working off of the assumption that you the reader, whoever you are, are not Egyptian nor do you resemble one by looks nor habits, nor do you speak Arabic, nor do you look like you know what you're doing, here are some general guidelines for you when buying things in Egypt:

One, take whatever price you've been given and divide it by half.  That's probably something close to what an Egyptian would be paying.  Now you can reasonably shoot for paying something close to the middle of those two extremes.  Some beautiful advice I heard in this regard was if you don't know how much the item costs, know how much you're willing to pay for it.

Two, don't buy at touristy locations - you're just asking to get ripped off.

Three, take an Egyptian friend with you - they act like a shield protecting you from those long fingers of the seller.

Four, ask about prices before you go shopping.

Five, just shop where they have price tags.  You won't have to worry about any of the above, theoretically.

What does all of this mean for our new apartment here?  Well, when we came to check out the apartment we sat down with the landlord to discuss prices.  Thank Goodness that the director of the program was there to do the bargaining for us.  So the landlord put forth the price of 3,000 EGP.  We apparently weren't going to accept anything but 2,500 EGP as the price.  So Robert just immediately dropped the price down to 2,500 and kept persistent at it until the landlord conceded, the latter probably knowing all along that was bound to happen in any case.

In any case, throughout the conversation we agreed to pay the bawwab a one time initial sum of 100 EGP.  That's a sweeping reward for any bawwab!  This was our first experience with this though and we were at the lead of Robert, so we agreed as he had.  The important thing though is that the landlord mentioned during the course of these negotiations that after we pay that first month we would just be obliged to pay "something symbolic" each following month, mentioning about 10 or 20 EGP as being appropriate.

All of the above took place at the beginning of December.

Now it's January and only our second month here.  So the bawwab's due came at the first and that's when he wished me a "kulla shahr wa anta tayyib" and that's when we paid him 20 EGP.  The upper limit of the suggestion of our landlord and it wasn't done without forethought either.  We consulted our Egyptian roommate, Hatim, who brushed off anything over 20 EGP as superfluous and I knew that another group of students pays 50 EGP for their bawwab.  Whenever the topic is brought up their Egyptian roommate nearly shakes his head in disgust at having to pay that much.  So 20 EGP seemed like a sure bet.

The landlord came by to collect rent at the first of the month too.  He made sure to drop us the line though that the bawwab complained to him that we had only paid 20 EGP...!!!  Hatim emphasized the fact that the only thing he does is carry the trash to the dumpster and that we could do that if necessary, no problem.  I reminded the landlord of his telling us about 10 or 20 EGP a month.  He didn't seem too accepting of these ideas, which was pretty frustrating.  Turns out, this was one of those circumstances where the theme of the last blog entry is incredibly pertinent as well: reading between the lines.  The only problem is sometimes it's hard to read like that until you skip over a line or two and then step on somebodies toes and then go back and review your lesson and see what subtleties were impossible for you  to notice the first time around.

In closing, after about three or four days of what we saw as a noticeably dis-heartened bawwab, I snuck off and paid him an extra 30 EGP so as to lighten the situation.  The only question remaining really is, what the heck are we going to do for the coming month?!

This entry dedicated to TC : )

p.s. - a note from the previous entry - gamid giddan = really awesome. 

Beloved of my heart...

"How are you, my beloved?"  We had just finished praying at the mosque next door to our place and an older man sat down behind me and started putting on his socks.  He said the above.  I think he half expected me to be Egyptian.  I wasn't though, but I responded appropriately and I don't think I sounded too foreign so he didn't push the envelope.  "My beloved" or "Habibi" is a phrase in common use amongst just about everybody here - between friends, between parent and child, between teacher and student is even possible.  Another common wording is "Beloved of my heart" or "Habib 'albi".  I've started using both more as of late, they're very endearing words.

Another phrase which is going to require some background was said to me by our bawwab, who is kind of like a guard of sorts at your apartments.  He usually lives at the apartments, might be married and have kids or not, and is responsible for collecting your trash bags (which you place outside your door) and is otherwise available for running small errands for you if you so desire.  A key to be made, some bread to eat, some medicine from the pharmacy, etc.  His wages come from the tenants of the apartments who pay anywhere from about 20 EGP to 50 EGP.  Bawwabs are usually stereotyped into having come from the south of Egypt and as being of a lower education level than others.  Having a troublesome bawwab can make for uncomfortable living situations as some of the experiences of our classmates attest to.

Joey, Tim, and Ahmad found their bawwab stealing from them while they were sleeping in their rooms.  It wasn't the first time he had been in.  It turns out all that money they thought had just been misplaced actually had another story attached to it.  The icing on the cake is that the bawwab gets to stay at the apartment building and they have to find another place to live.

Another apartment of girls had to actually get the director of our program, Robert (who is gamid giddan!), here involved with the situation with their bawwab.  Robert ended up breaking the bawwab's cigarette in front of his face and calling him a liar.  Apparently that was the most appropriate way to handle their issue with him and as far I know things settled down after that.

The Egyptian-American house (affectionately named for being two apartments basically attached together and for being a hub-hub of student activity outside of the university) hasn't mentioned one positive quality to me yet about their bawwab.

Our bawwab, Usama, however seems to be nothing of the above.  I have only found positive qualities in him. He doesn't smoke cigarettes.  His kids are gorgeous and love him and he seems to always have the front door to the apartments covered in one way or another and does his job well.  Which is basically why we pay him monthly.  So...

The beginning of this month was a new year.  In Egypt they say, "Kulla sana wa anta tayyib" meaning something like I wish the best for you all year.  It's a common phrase in holiday seasons and it's in use constantly.  So when Usama and I crossed paths in front of the apartment and said to me, "Kulla shahr wa anta tayyib" the same phrase except the word "year" was replaced with the word "month", I was thoroughly confused.  I couldn't place the significance of the word "month" in this context.  I responded, somewhat awkwardly, with the same phrase but one upped it by saying "two-months" instead of one.  That would be akin to doubling whatever kindness and well-wishing is found within the phrase and it is nearly expected of one to do so.

For example, if someone says to you, "You brightened the place" upon your arrival, you would say in return, "That's your light!"  Or if someone were to say to you, "God bless you" you can say "The blessing is in you!"  I sometimes feel that half of any conversation is composed of formulated greetings and blessings passed around amongst the conversants.

In any case, it took me about 10 seconds or more to realize the intent of Usama's words and that was after him actually asking me if I understood or not.  He was asking and reminding me, rather politely, of his due for the new month.  Phrases like this and Egyptian speech in general are coded in niceties and indirect ways of expressing one thing while saying another.  Reading between the lines and gathering cultural experience  is crucial here.

Let's not go into the fact that we under-paid our bawwab, that's a whole other story.

Hey neighbor, wanna get married?

Well, that was a first...My neighbor just proposed marrying me off to her younger sister.  The most unbelievable part is that it took about four months for that to actually happen!