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.