The End

Waking up from the nap in Cairo felt so refreshing, but there was no time to lay around since we only had about 12 hours left. First Katharine and I attempted to lay by the pool to add a last-minute bronze to our skin, but it was so hot under the sun that we didn’t stay out for long. From there, it was time for some last-minute shopping for presents. Coming home from this, we experienced the most depressing setback ever: the Lebanese place had temporarily closed. Innocently wanting a last dessert mankousha, we had walked up to the door of our favorite Cairo eatery. Tamir was still there, and we started to walk inside, until he stopped us by spreading out his arms. “I’m sorry,” he said, “but we closed the night you all left for Abu Dhabi.” Apparently they decided to do some renovations to the place, and had waited until we left the country to do so (it’s not just because they liked us, although they did- we were definitely huge moneymakers, in terms that probably at least 15 of us ate at least one meal a day at this place for a month straight). Anyway, Katharine and I were pretty much devastated, to say the least.

Karim, Mostafa, and Amr came over later that night as we were finishing packing and showering. After much debate (the boys almost never formulate a game plan for the night until they are actually with us), we decided to go to a place called Muquttam Hills. As you can imagine, this is near the garbage village. It’s a beautiful area (thankfully, although it shares the name it does not smell the scent of the other location) overlooking the entire city of Cairo; we arrived in the waning minutes of daylight and were able to see all the way to the pyramids in Giza (they are in the background of this picture). For the next three hours, we watched the sun go down while we smoked shisha and talked about all kinds of stuff. Dale had asked me at one point what Americans the Egyptians did admire, so I posed this question to them during a lull in the conversation. The answers? Mel Gibson, Matt Damon, and Will Smith. Angelina Jolie and Barack Obama also received honorable mentions. I’m not sure what to think of the fact that four of the five aforementioned people are employed in the entertainment industry. Then again, I also admire Angelina more that G.W., so…

The guys came back to the hotel with us for the last hour that we had in Cairo, so more random conversation continued, until we finally had to meet the group in the lobby. Saying bye to those three guys was so hard. Leaving Cairo alone wouldn’t have been easy, because I love the life and character of this place, but it was immeasurably harder to leave because we had formed such close bonds with the guys. Knowing them these last few weeks made our time in Cairo so enjoyable and filled with memorable times- even if all we were doing was sitting in a café downtown.

The last hours since then have been nothing but a blur- we left Cairo at 5:30 in the morning, flew four hours to Frankfurt, and had a long layover there. The decreasing sobriety of several members of the group made the first part of the second plane ride sort of amusing. Thankfully, I slept through the entirety of the first plane ride, as well as a good chunk of the second one. I also watched “27 Dresses” in Spanish, and realized that even if my speaking ability had declined while I was studying another language so intensively that I am still able to understand spoken Spanish.

We arrived in Boston around 2:30, and Katharine’s lovely parents gave me a ride home. Ever since, I’ve been struggling to readjust on so many levels. I went for a walk with Kara, and the only clean clothes I was able to find after my shower were shorts and a sweatshirt. Even though my shorts were long (by American standards), it almost felt scandalous to be showing so much skin. So imagine my reaction when I saw a girl wearing a mini-skirt that barely covered her butt…it’s incredible how very quickly we became accustomed to Cairo and the norms in that city, down to adopting them for ourselves. Also, why am I not seeing Arabic lettering on street signs and businesses? I’m so confused.

It’s been great to see everyone so far, too, but I’m still struggling so much with the return. It’s so easy to close my eyes and picture Zamalek, from the walk to 26th July Street to the view from the balcony of Sharia Ismail Mohammed. It’s hard to realize that I know that place so well and it’s so ingrained in my mind, yet I may only see it again in my memory and never in reality. I loved Cairo and Egypt as a whole enough that I’d want to go back someday, but there are so many other countries to see, and who knows what the coming years will bring to my life.

My internal time clock is shot to hell, especially considering the past 48 hours have been full of travel and naps at random times. It’s 5:30 in the morning as I write this while listening to the music of Wist El-Balad. I went to bed around midnight American time, and woke up once around 2:30 A.M. as well. For me, it’s really about 1 PM. This is only helping to disorient me further. It’s going to be a tough few weeks ahead.

Dubai

Originally, the game plan was that both the American and Arab students would spend the last day hanging out and exploring Dubai. However, on what was to be our last day in Abu Dhabi, the damn Brits issued a warning to their citizens living in the UAE, and specifically in Dubai, that they thought the risk of a terror attack was high. Of course, everyone started getting freaked out about that. So obviously, the trip got cancelled for the entire group. I definitely understand why people were concerned, but it was really frustrating, especially as nothing happened anyway.

Thing was, though, we Americans already had plane tickets to return to Cairo- from Dubai. So we had to go there anyway, we just left later at night. The drive only took about an hour or maybe an hour and a half, and it felt quick, because we were almost always surrounded by buildings in various phases of construction. The UAE, and Dubai especially, contain a ridiculous percentage of the world's largest cranes (I believe it was 70% of them are in Dubai alone). Because we'd left with plenty of time before our flight, we were able to make two brief stops.

The first was at the Mall of the Emirates, famous for the indoor ski slope, pictured here. The mall was truly incredible, despite the fact that our alloted half-hour there didn't give us a chance to cover more than a fraction of it. Katharine, Lily, and I had a great time looking around at all the ridiculous stores and taking pictures of things that we'll never be able to afford.

The entire time that we've spent in the UAE has given me time to reflect on wealth and religiousity and their juxtaposition in Middle Eastern society. Look at this picture of a woman, completely covered, walking by Rodeo Drive. In my mind, it's always seemed like it would be hard to be both ostentatiously wealthy while being religious. How can you in good conscience, waste hundreds of dollars on a Gucci or Fendi accessory while knowing that others are starving? Aren't you supposed to help them? I still haven't resolved any of this in my head, but I'm trying to wrap my mind around what seems to me like a huge paradox.

Our other stop was to see the Burg Al-Arab, literally "The Arab Tower", which is the huge 7-star sailboat-shaped hotel in Dubai (left). It really was quite a magnificent view, which it should be, as it costs around $10,000/night. I don't think I'll ever get any closer to it than I did the other night. The building just follows the tradition of everything in Dubai- crazy. Everything is state of the art, and bigger and better than anything you've ever seen before. It also has what either is or will be the tallest building in the world- it tapers off to look like a pencil at the very top. This picture (right) shows the building, but it was much more overwhelming to actually see it streching into the night sky and almost seem never-ending.

During the time spent from 11 PM to 3 AM in the Dubai airport gave me time to reflect on the differences between UAE and Egypt. And although I'm so glad I went to Abu Dhabi and Dubai and had such an important experience, Cairo is the city to which I would return if I had the choice. The buildings are older and in some cases falling into disrepair. But there is a charm about their fading glory and splendor. In general, the sense of life is so vibrant in Cairo; there is passion and fervour. It's not at all a cold or sterile city, it teems with people. And this sense of humanity is what may someday draw me back again.

One last note- the entire time I was in UAE, I didn't have to spend a dime (or dirham, as their currency is called) until the airport, where I chose to spend my money at McDonald's (I don't think the two cheeseburger meal has ever tasted so good in my life). Who was eating at the exact same place? The Iraqi soccer team...I cannot get over the irony of this.

Abu Dhabi 2

Monday morning began with all groups working at a frantic pace to complete their presentations and papers for the afternoon deadline. As the Americans in my group had met the night before to discuss our presentation and really give it shape, a lot of the remaining work fell to our Arab counterparts so that they could fill in their thoughts and opinions on the slides. So while I was waiting around, I ended up giving an interview to a newspaperwoman… IN ARABIC. Granted, my grammar wasn’t perfect. I had to mentally reword a lot of the statements I wanted to say in order to have the vocabulary to get my message across. But when it came down to it, I was able to do this in Arabic without needing a translator. There’s no way I could have done this 6 weeks ago, and it was a great milestone to show me how far I’ve come in my study of the language. Now, to figure out when I can get a copy of the paper…(Katharine has just walked in and handed me a paper with a picture of me in it…I’ll read it later to see if I’m actually quoted, since it’s Arabic and would take forever).

Working with the Arab students has been an interesting experience in terms of efforts made. I have to say, and I don’t know if it was because we felt the pressure of being the first Westerners at such a conference, but the American side of my group pulled together and worked hard to get everything done well by the deadline. I don’t feel that we saw the same level of commitment from our counterparts. Maybe it’s just because they are used to these conferences and the way they work, or perhaps they anticipated delays in the timetable (my group was originally supposed to present Monday around 1:30 PM, and our actual time was about 5 PM Tuesday). Also, within our group, we all had to relinquish a bit of the control we might have liked and make concessions back and forth; one side might have liked a different background for the presentation, for instance, but on issues like that it’s important to have give and take and understand that the other side might have a completely different opinion on what flows best. You have this in any group work, obviously, but I think especially in this situation where everyone really wanted to get along and have harmony that compromise was an important factor to recognize.

We discussed so many different things in the dialogue that I can’t even begin to reiterate them- we bounced around from overly sexual images like the Paris Hilton commercial for BK to the portrayal of female leaders in both worlds. I just wanted to share a few of the most salient points.

The first was the focus in the Arab world (and this doesn’t mean everywhere, but in general- the Arab world is comprised of many diverse nations and obviously no statement will be applicable in every one of those cases) on responsible journalism; there is much less of a focus there on yellow journalism and dirt-digging. I’ve written about this before, about how tabloids and such are also a product of the wants of American consumers. But this is a different issue- I’m talking how Fox and MSNBC and the rest of the syndicates focus more on Hillary breaking down and crying or taking a tequila shot than on what she actually thinks. This is not as much of a phenomenon in the Arab world, and I wish we would head in that direction. I feel that as American citizens it would improve our world view to have less junk media (remember how Anna Nicole Smith was on the news for three weeks straight? That’s exactly the kind of crap news that makes the rest of the world see American citizens as insular unconcerned self-centered idiots- why weren’t we talking about Iran’s nuclear program or how to move forward in Iraq more than a dead model? No disrespect to the deceased, but if we don’t have bigger concerns than her...no wonder we’re where we are today).

This is a great segue into my next point- the fact that in the U.S., we don’t readily have access to international news media. Media all around the world is biased, it just happens. But we can’t just accept the word of American news stations if we actually want to have a comprehensive world view. This problem is a chicken and the egg problem- networks aren’t making international channels easily accessible (affordable might be a better word; I don’t want to pay a huge chunk of money for a better cable package just for BBC)…but that’s probably because American consumers don’t demand more channels. Anyway, we need to start looking outside of our country too for information.

Into the last point- the Arab world receives a lot more news and information from us than we do for them. They know so much about our country, our culture, our politics. How many of you reading this know the capital of Tunisia off the top of your head? It’s ok- I don’t either…but shouldn’t we be more aware? Coming here, it’s obvious that the Arab students don’t expect us to know jack about their countries and cultures. Or, at least, they don’t expect us to know much. It also seems that they assume we come with negative stereotypes that need to be broken- and this is the negative stereotype they have about us. I would actually say that the Arab students, because of this came to the conference with more preconceived notions than we did, because those of us here right now tried to come with an open mind. We also realized that we don’t know much, so we tried not to form preconceptions of veiled women or men in headdresses. Hopefully we helped to change their opinions of the American stereotype in that regard (also, not all the stereotypes they have of us are bad- many of the Arab girls told me that they love the image of the independent American girl and themselves try to live like that as well).

I can’t reiterate this enough- get rid of whatever notions you have of people in the Arab world, except for recognizing that they are people too. Every country here has a different history and a different culture- don’t think they are all the same. But at the same time, we are all humans, and that’s the most important thing.

After a ridiculously long day, we went down the street to an old palace which has been converted into a hotel and museum. We went to see a Picasso exhbit, which was really cool despite my relative lack of interest. Considering that I sometimes bash my own country’s culture, I’d like to point out something positive. You know how there’s that stereotype of the rude American? Not that some Americans aren’t rude, but I’m really happy to say that yesterday, the groups of people murmuring or outright conversing while our museum guide was speaking were in the main not Americans. I was actually surprised at how rude I considered the Arab students to be during the exam. Perhaps the concept of rudeness varies from culture to culture; in fact, I know it does. But I was glad to see that as Americans we represented ourselves well in that matter.

Tuesday morning, we were granted a few hours’ reprieve from the conference, and all 60 or so students went on a tour of several important places in Abu Dhabi. The first was the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. It was the biggest mosque we’ve seen and far away the most elaborate. In fact, the ablutions centers were downstairs and those alone could supposedly hold 500 people, whereas the mosque itself has the capacity to hold 40,000 worshippers. Insane. Our experience there got me thinking a lot about Islam and the underpinnings of the religion (or some interpretations of the religion) once surface values are questioned. As girls, we were not allowed to enter the grounds without a headscarf and our arms and legs completely covered. OK, this isn’t terribly unusual and I don’t generally have much of a problem with it, although it was a bit unfair because some of the guys were wearing T-shirts with no issue. Then, to enter the inner sanctum of the mosque, us girls also had to put on gallibiyas, because even our loose-fitting clothes revealed too much about the shapes of our bodies. Even this I might have stomached; at that point I said to Mary that perhaps the underlying assumption in Islam is that men are weaker than women and need the women to be completely covered in order to worship without distraction. Mary said to me that she took a different view, that one of the underlying pretexts perhaps was that women are just so inherently sinful that they must be covered to be in a holy place, in order to hide some of this. And once I found out that women had a separate prayer room anyway and still had to wear gallibiyas there, I kind of agreed with her. Because if even while it’s just you and Allah (no men present) and you as a woman must still cover yourself completely, it’s not just an issue of your flesh being distracting to other humans. It’s that you are a sin and must be covered to be decent in the presence of God. So I’m still struggling with how I feel about this religion, because as we’d talked about with Mostafa, interpretation also plays a big role in religion, and not every mosque is like this one.

Next we visited the Abu Dhabi University, which is rather small right now but I’m sure will be a booming center of education in the Gulf within the next twenty years. We were given a presentation at the U, but exhaustion and the heat affected many students in the group, both Arabs and Americans alike, and you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who didn’t nod off sometime in the middle of it. Our final stop of the morning was the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies. This place basically monitors the news all around the world and makes recommendations to the UAE government on policy issues.

After a two hour rest, the final two groups presented their conference material. Saving the best for last, our group closed the conference. I was really happy with the way our presentation went, although it was difficult to cover an entire day’s debate in a 20 minute debriefing. We sparked some interesting comments and discussions afterwards, too, which was important. Closing remarks were made by both students and professors. The general tone from everyone was that this conference brought everyone together and helped forge new important ties between Arab and Western culture. I have to echo the sentiments expressed by everyone; this was such an amazing experience for me to have the chance to reflect on my own culture, both the positive and negative aspects, and especially to be exposed to the ideas of those from such a drastically different area of the world. Although studying abroad in the Dominican Republic in general was important in directing me down the right path, this conference was one of the two single-most important and impactful experiences I’ve ever had.

Our final group activity in Abu Dhabi took place the next morning, and was a visit to the General Women’s Union, which is a conglomerate of different women’s workshops that create products like palm leaf woven rugs, embroidered shirts, and other such things. This union was one of the brain children of the same woman who sponsored our conference, Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak. We received such hospitality there, as in all aspects of our stay here in Abu Dhabi. We also were able to try on traditional United Arab Emirates dress. Notice the gold mask-type thing on my face. Many traditional women there still wear these, and we received two different explanations for the significance. One person told us that these were simply a form of expressing modesty, by covering the face. But the other interpretation is that, when you look at the shape of the covering, it resembles a unibrow and mustache. So this person told us that it’s actually a way for females to demonstrate strength, by taking on these masculine features.

The final hours of my time in Abu Dhabi were spent enjoying the most comfortable bed I’ve ever known, as well as jumping on said bed and packing up. Saying goodbye to the Arab students was hard; although we’d only know them for a short time we were really able to connect on deep levels. Nassima from Algeria cried when we said goodbye! Once again, I have to say how great these people all were, how welcoming and accepting, and I know that they felt the same about us as well. I don’t think this conference could have been better, unless it was to have spent more time in Dubai like we were supposed to….see my next blog.

Abu Dhabi: The Beginnings

Abu Dhabi has nothing but fascinating and mindblowing since our arrival yesterday afternoon. At the airport, we were immediately ushered into a wood-paneled VIP lounge filled with luxurious couches, golden ornaments, and enormous mirrors. Instead of going through customs or immigration, we sipped chilled fruit juice and waited in the lounge while our luggage was collected and our passports stamped. Then we were promptly escorted to two waiting vans and driven to the Intercontinetal Hotel. At first, I thought they had mistakenly taken us to a palace (incidentally, this is an old palace right down the street from our hotel). Considering the chandelier-illuminated elegance of the lobby, I think my mistake can be easily forgiven.

A bit of background for everyone at home: The reason we’re here is because the Sheikha (Princess essentially) of Abu Dhabi (one of the seven emirates in the country called the United Arab Emirates (UAE)) is currently the President of the Arab Women’s Organization (AWO), which is under the umbrella of the Arab League. The AWO is hosting this conference, which is to be the First Annual Arab-Western Youth Dialogue on Women’s Issues. This conference has occurred in the past, but only with Arab students. We are the first westerners EVER to take part in this. So, I’m kind of a big deal (yes, an Anchorman reference). But seriously, there have been a lot of people from the press here, and apparently a few articles are being written up about us in newspapers here.

So…as we were waiting for our room assignments, we each received a letter from someone in the Arab Women’s Organization. In effect, the letter told us that while we are staying here, all the meals are on the AWO’s tab, as well as our laundry. And our rooms…wow…check it out. Just ridiculous. Not that I’m hung up on fancy things, but in comparison to Siwa especially and even our lovely digs at Longchamps in Cairo (hell, compared to any hotel in which I’ve previously stayed), this is amazing…check out the amazed “Abu Dhabi” faces of Katharine and Pat.

After a few hours of resting, we enjoyed an icebreaker dinner with our 30+ Arab counterparts. As opposed to the dialogues in Egypt, which began rather stiffly, we dove right into conversation and enjoyed a two-hour dinner full of non-stop conversation. It set a really great tone for the formal dialogues to come the next few days, because we were all able to become very comfortable with each other very quickly.

Sunday morning began with the outlining of some rules, and then we settled into 7 groups, each dealing with different spheres of interest, from health to education to media, which was my group. Once in our groups, the intent was to highlight subcategories that affected women. So, in the media group, we decided to talk about these subtopics, among others: stereotyping of women in media sources, presentation of female leaders in the media, and the creation and perpetuation of feminine stereotypes. In our group, there are four Americans (Cynthia, Molly, Sonja, and myself) as well as four Arab students ( Nassima from Algeria, Amina from Sudan, Reabar from Syria, and Azza from UAE). We were charged with discussing all of our subtopics, and putting together both a presentation and paper reporting the findings from both the Arab and American sides. Now, our of each different group (health, education, media, etc), an American and an Arab moderator were chosen. Guess who’s the American moderator for our group? Yup. This means a little bit more responsibility: Azza (the Arab moderator for the group) and I will be responsible for the presentation and the paper. While a lot of pressure, because I want it to be spectacular, this is also a great chance for me: the papers which we write are going to be published in a booklet by the AWO. It’s kind of a big step up from being published in the State House newsletter to the docents. So I’m pretty stoked.
We spent the entire day from 9-6 discussing our topics and findings, which I’ll write more on later. The group dynamics were really great; I felt like we had a good balance between the two sides and were able to communicate with a minimum of misunderstandings or disagreements.

After all the hard work that we put in, several excursions were organized for us. On the advice of one of the Arab girls, I chose to make the trip to the Marina Mall. I have never seen such a place; King of Prussia just doesn’t compare. It definitely doesn’t have an indoor ski slope, and this place did (although it is currently closed). Unfortunately, it also meant that I couldn’t afford most of the products, but we had a good time walking around, especially since Nassima came with the group I was in, and we were able to continue dialoguing as we shopped.

Back at the hotel, we enjoyed the buffet…oh my god. The food here…unbelievable. Honestly, I lost four pounds during my stay in Egypt, and that was without watching what I ate or getting much regular exercise…I’m pretty sure that I could easily gain it all back in the next few days at this hotel. Also, today I felt like I was just eating every hour- but that was actually because the conversation and interactions were so interesting that time was passing much faster than I realized.

The most important thing that I want everyone to take from my blog, though, isn’t how luxurious Abu Dhabi is. Please understand that all the Arabs that I’ve met here…well, they are just like me. Maybe they come from different cultures and different religions. A lot of the girls wear the headscarf to show this, whereas I don’t even believe in a god. But all the people I’ve talked to want the same things- more understanding across cultural boundaries, more respect for each others’ common humanity, more ties with one another, improved communication around the world. I think too often, especially since 9/11, that people around the world focus too much on their own country or culture. That doesn’t matter. I have more in common- much more- with the other students here than I do with George Bush. I want to tell one story about this, which will hopefully help to demonstrate this.

One stereotype that many Americans have about women in the Arab world is that the majority of them are sheltered, in every connotation of the world, and that someone who would be veiled would be more reserved than an American girl. Not true. Two of the girls today, who both wear conservative clothes and are mutahaggiba (wearing the headscarf) took a walk to the mall. On their walk, they were climbing up on the grass to be near trees, jumping electrical boxes, and cavorting around the streets of Abu Dhabi doing things that I or any of my American friends would do normally too- just having fun, being young, and enjoying life. Just because they might believe in another religion doesn’t stop them from living life to the fullest. I know this story might not even sound like a big deal- but that’s kind of my point, that we are so much more alike than people realize. People here in the Middle East think and worry about the same things as those in America: raising their children, providing for their families, owning a home, preparing for the future, the safety of their families and their country, etc. Once we start seeing each other as people and not as one of “the others”, we’ll see a good deal of improvement in the world.

Marsa Matruh and Siwa

Monday morning we embarked from Ciaro to Marsa Matruh, a small town 6 hours away on the Mediterranean. Three hours of beautiful napping later, I awoke to the nauseatingly strong aroma of gasoline. Apparently, the gas filter was broken. Thankfully, this occurred pretty much as we were passing through El-Alamein, so while the bus was fixed we stopped to check out the World War II Museum there. On the way out of El-Alamein, we also had the opportunity to visit the cemetary of soldiers from the allied nations. This was a very emotional experience for a lot of the group, as it was history that we’ve all studied and were able to understand on a deeper level. The many graves spread out among the sand, with some cacti and a few purple flowering trees between them, made a strong impression on me. I thought about how different the soil in this, their final resting place, must have been from the lands from which the soldiers originally came. It was shocking to realized how young the soldiers were; many of them were only 22 or 24. I’m that age, and I know I’m not ready to go yet. Although, as one epitaph read, “Not in vain”. My thoughts then immediately went to the Americans today dying on another foreign sandy soil. Would they and their families say the same thing?

Marsa Matruh was extremely relaxing. As I said, it was a small town, and although I was curious about it, I spent pretty much all of my time there lying on the beach and relaxing for a change. It’s soon time to return to my hectic American lifestyle, so it felt good to take some time out for myself.
The next morning, we headed south for three hours toward the Siwa Oasis. Well…it would have been three hours if the bus didn’t break down in the middle of the desert. We spent two hours stuck somewhere between Marsa and Siwa, mainly looking and mirages and trying to stay cool. I’d never known before that you can see mirages without being dehydrated and hallucinating. As I learned, mirages have more to do with heat waves and their reflection than too much time spent in the desert. Just for fun, though, Mary and I decided to walk towards a mirage just to make sure that it wasn’t water. Since it kept disappearing and reappearing without ever looking much closer, we’re pretty sure it wasn’t water. This, at least, kept us occupied for some of the time, and believe it or not, it was cooler standing under the hot sun in the desert than being on the bus, mostly because inside the bus the air carried a great deal more humidity.

So we finally arrived in Siwa and promptly dove into our pool, which was in reality a natural spring. The water was wonderfully cool and not salty, a refreshing change compared to the high salinity of the Mediterranean. After a shower and dinner, we took a brief walk around the town.

Siwa is an area of Egypt which bears little resemblance to Cairo. It is much more conservative, and Siwans have more in common with the desert Bedouins than residents of the capital city. The language and food are also different in this area of Egypt. Being there, we saw very few women at all, and the few we did see were completely covered. Furthermore, we noticed that their style of covering themselves was different from that which we’d seen in Cairo, as you’ll note in the picture (speaking of the pictures, credits for the Siwa shots to Pat…his camera was broken so I lent him mine, affording me the chance to really look around with my eyes and not be stuck behind a lens the entire time). Although I really enjoyed our time in Siwa, I felt that it would have been difficult to stay there much longer, since as an American woman who doesn’t speak the local language, fitting it was not an easy matter.

The next morning, we woke up and visited the Mountain of Death (to hell with Mount Washington). We were able to see several tombs that dated back to the pharaonic times and were well-preserved. Following that, a few members of the group took a dip in Cleopatra’s (algae-covered) Well. Then we visited the ruins of two temples, which was interesting but pale in comparison to all we’d seen in Aswan and Luxor.

After an afternoon spent relaxing, we headed out on what was definitely one of the collest experiences I’ve ever had. We went on a 5-hour desert trek, beginning with some crazy jeep rides over enormous sand dunes; these pictures just don’t do justice (as usual). The experience was a bit like a rollercoaster…minus the safety features.
After stopping at a few picturesque areas, we arrived at an oasis in the middle of nowhere. We were legit miles away from the nearest town. And in the middle of nothing but sand, green stalks were rising up from a blissful blue-green pool. Although the water was calm (as it was an oasis), while swimming it was possible to feel the currents, indicating the water source of the oasis.

From there, we went briefly to a hot spring, aka nature’s hot tub, and soaked our feet while inhaling the pungent aroma of sulfur. Some more dune running brought us to our final stop of the day: a huge dune for sandboarding (Sara, you would have LOVED this!). It didn’t go so well for me, as the picture demonstrates, because I mostly went down the hill backwards on my rear. I ended up with about a pound of sand in my pants. And walking up the dune again was maybe the most exertion I’ve ever had in my life; when I reached the top I was breathing like I’d run a marathon. All in all, one of the coolest things I’ve tried in a long time!

From this location, we also watched the sunset over the desert. This was beautiful and intense because we were the only people around for miles. The isolation and sense of smallness felt was very powerful.

Thursday we trekked back to Marsa Matruh, where I again fully enjoyed the pleasures of the beach. Late at night, after dinner, a few of us took another swim in the Mediterranean, which felt even warmer at night than during the day. We swam out to a raft to sit and enjoy a brief astronomy lesson from Oscar. We saw so many more stars than we’d seen in Cairo, but I bet it would have been even better in the desert.

We swam back in to find Lily and Katharine on the beach with a new friend, who was the son of the hotel owner. We were told by him that swimming at night is actually prohibited, apparently because drug running by sea is a problem on the coast. According to him, although swimmers are just yelled at to return to shore, those who take boats out at night might be shot at by law enforcement. Good to know…

Friday, after our bus ride back to Cairo and a few hours of resting, Katharine, Lily, and I met up with our boys Karim and Mostafa. First, we went to a famous koshary place downtown called Abu Tarek. Then we went to a concert on the Nile by a group called Wist El-Balad. Literally, this name means “the center of the country”, but in common parlance it is taken to mean downtown Cairo. Anyway, the group is very popular and we were lucky to get tickets to the show. It was a great way to spend our last night in Cairo.

Welcome to the Cairo Zoo Club...

We’ve become really close to a group of Egyptian guys, so have gone out with them probably 5 of the past 8 nights. The other night, we had a surprise birthday party for Basem and Kareem. We ended up playing Spin the Bottle. HUGE cultural difference here- unlike in the States, this does NOT involve kissing. Basically, you spin, and whoever the bottle lands on, you ask that person a deep, thoughtful, or personal question- the whole idea behind the game is to get to know people better. We talked about everything, from having tried marajuana to what we don't like about Egyptian culture. Mostafa and I got into an interesting discussion on Israel and Palestine too, with the end result that we just want peace. A bunch of idealists, aren't we?

Lily, Katharine, and I were curious about why the guys liked spending so much time with us Americans, so we asked about that. And it's really cool- basically, they want the same thing as we do- to meet people and better understand them and to make connections with other cultures. Hanging out with them has been the best part of the dialogue, and this will make it incredibly hard to leave Cairo in a few days. Katharine and I were debating whether we should just fake being sick in order to skip out on the trip to Marsa Matruh and Siwa so that we could stay in Cairo and just hang out with them, although this probably isn't too realistic.

Coming home from the birthday party, we encountered some unpleasantness at the hotel which upset me a lot. Some of the Egyptian guys had come back with us so that they could burn us a CD with Arabic music, and we all headed up to the central meeting spot, AKA Katharine’s and my room. After about 2 minutes, we got a call from the front desk of the hotel saying that the Egyptians had to leave! We went downstairs and talked the guy into letting us all sit on the porch, at least, but it was still the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. First of all, it’s their country, why can’t they come in the hotel? And who is the hotel to regulate what friends we bring to our rooms? Finally, it just made me feel bad because I was a tourist staying at this hotel and essentially supporting this policy in a financial way. Definitely such bullshit- that’s one thing here that I really hate. The country’s economy depends a lot on tourism, so tourists are catered to, with the result that Egyptians are denied the same rights in their own country. There has to be a better balance between these conflicting influences.

Last night at a cafe, after Karim had left, it was Mostafa, Katharine, Lily, and I sitting in a cafe downtown, and we got into talking about religion some more. All of us American girls are either atheist or agnostic, while Mostafa is Muslim. But it was still really cool because we could ask him anything we wanted. So we asked him what thing about Islam he would change if he could, and he gave, what I thought was the best answer possible. To paraphrase, he wouldn't change the religion itself but the way people interpreted it. I think that's the problem with most religions; people interpret them too strictly or hide behind a religion to say that they are pious, but don't carry out any of the meaningful teachings behind their faith.

Along these lines, we saw a woman performing a fire-eating act, which, if memory serves me right, I've never seen before. Apparently it's sort of a sacred thing, passed from parent to child, and so after her act she was saying that she did it for food and whatnot. So everyone in the cafe was tipping her, but keeping the money clenched tightly in their hands and passing it to her without letting the money show. Mostafa told me that it's done because if you give alms to someone in a showy way, then you are not perceived to be doing it from the goodness of your heart- you are doing it because you want others to see that you are giving money. But if you do it discreetly, then it means that you are doing it because you are genuinely good and want to help the person to whom you give money.

Last night we went out to the Cairo Jazz Club, which was a really fun experience. It was jazz but then with some Egyptian rhythms and instruments thrown in, which spiced it up a lot. It was another great night in what’s been the most fun week in Cairo.
Besides hanging out with our Egpytian friends, we’ve been busy doing a lot of last-minute stuff before we leave Cairo. For instance, we took our Arabic teacher out to dinner at her favorite restaurant. I miss her already! Friday night, a big group of us ate dinner at Sequoia, a really nice place on the tip of Zamalek, and watched the sun go down over the Nile. This was more or less a good-bye dinner with the engineers, because they unfortunately won't be going with us on the rest of our travels :( Also, Katharine, Lily, and I went to Al-Azhar Park yesterday, which is where our group debriefing will be held today. It’s a ginormous park, an oasis of green in the middle of brown, dusty Cairo. We walked in and nearly collided with a wedding procession on the way out. That was fascinating to see- everyone was singing and clapping what I presume is a traditional song, since everyone knew the words. And within the wedding party, you had women dressed in a variety of ways, from mutahagibba, meaning wearing the head scarf, to women with skirts slit almost all the way up their thighs. And yet they were all brought together to celebrate the same occasion.

Our visit to the park coincided with an environmental awareness festival. This was extremely ironic, considering Cairo is one of the least green cities in the world (literally and figuratively). We were able to see some school kids putting on a play (so weird because the play was in English, as were a lot of signs around the area…I’m not sure how great of an idea that was on the organizers’ part).

Being at the park also gave me a renewed appreciation for just how enormous the city of Cairo is. Hearing a couple muezzins simultaneously reciting the call to prayer against the backdrop of this sweeping cityscape was a poignant reminder of where we are right now.

One other interesting note is that twice in the past few days we’ve seen street fights right on Zamalek. One time it was just a brief incident with one guy throwing a rock at the other. But the first time, it was a drag-‘em-down, knock-‘em-out kind of event…and it took place in front of a member of the tourist police force, too. I mean, we were seeing a guy get shoved on his face in the middle of the street, and the cop was doing nothing about it. I guess it’s his job to worry about tourists, and not Egyptians, but that seems like bullshit. It gave me half a mind to walk near the fight so he’d have to do something about it, but by that point the fight had finally dissapated.

Tonight we have dinner at Abduh and Hayaam’s, then the park debriefing. Tommorrow we leave for Marsa Matruh and Siwa, to return next Friday for another few hours in Cairo. Then Saturday morning, it’s on to Abu Dhabi and Dubai until the following Thursday, and Friday is our return to the United States. With all this travel, I don’t know how much more I’ll be able to write, but wish me luck!

Random Thoughts 2, AKA Angry Blog

Being a conscientious American born in this era is not an easy position. Many of us are more aware of our country's history than past generations have been. This coupled with the rise of peace studies and the idea of international cooperation I think make us better equipped to improve the world. However, now we have to work through the mistakes of the past two or three generations. I feel like the world in 1945 was on the cusp of something that could have made for a more promising future, only that step wasn't taken. So since then, as a country we retreated from what could have been. Now we can halt that recession and work towards a better future, but we are so far behind the possibilities that could have been reached if the American government had been working for good the past decades.

I think people are wrong when they tell me that I'm looking at it wrong, that American security is what the government has cared about, and that sometimes other countries have to suffer if our own is to be safe. I'm gonna go ahead and call shenanigans on that...those people are wrong. Has the war in Iraq really improved our safety? I doubt it in the long run; we just make people more upset with us (who's heard the quote "George W. Bush is the best recruiting sergeant for Al-Qaeda"?). Also, take a close look at Pakistan. Supporting a dictator really hasn't turned out in our best interests, and I'd put money on things blowing up there within the next 20 years.

If you don't want to believe me, think about it first in economic terms. The ebb and flow of money all over the world (in global trade) affects all of us, through the stock market, through gas prices, and in the rising prices of staple foods. I don't think money is the only thing that ties the world together. If people are discontented because they suffer under oppressive regimes, this will eventually come back and affect America someday- especially if we support these regimes.

I guess what it comes down to is that I resent the fact that the Americans of my generation are going to reap enmity from all across the globe, even though the seeds for this hatred were sown long before we were even born. Being here in the Middle East has made me want to work here after I graduate. My Arabic still needs alot of work, but I'd rather it be me working in Iraq or Pakistan and actually giving a damn about the people and the reality there than a Bush crony. If you voted for him, it essentially means that myself or people like me will have to risk our own lives and futures to make it better there- and simultaneously improve American security. This is a good day to write this blog, as Obama's going to get the Democratic nomination. I can't say he's the best that America has to offer, but he'll be a damn sight better than the idiot we've had the past eight years. What we've been doing since WWII hasn't worked out well for us, and it's time for a new approach.

Dale's Questions

In an email last week, Dale asked me some awesome questions about the lives of typical Egyptians. I realized that for all my other ramblings, I don't touch on any of the following things. So below, Dale's questions are bolded, with my answers in regular font. Enjoy!

Well what's new in Pa? Now you can compare what I am doing as to what a middle class Egyptian would be doing. First, I am mulching, fertilizing and mowing grass. Do middle class Egyptians own property and if they do, do they have yards?
In the sections that we've seen, more people seem to own their own apartments in buildings, without owning yards. But, As doing much physical labor is sort of looked down upon ("mish chic", which means not chic), I would say that those who might live in the suburbs and have a lawn would not take care of it themselves. For instance, my Arabic teacher does not iron her family's clothes; she sends it out to be done. This doesn't mean that she's better off than a middle class American, though (on the contrary, her family wants to visit America and it will be a challenge just to pay $600 alone for the visas!); it just means that manual labor here is much cheaper than in the States.

Next, we went out to eat tonight and had some sirloin steaks. Can Egyptians buy steaks in their local markets or restaurants? What is the favorite food for a dinner out at a restaurant?
Egyptians could buy it, but I think it's be expensive ( I don't eat at many places here that serve steak, if that tells you anything). Favorite foods would be T'aamiyya, which is like falafel (and delicious)- you can get a sandwich with this and veggies on it for $0.20 American. There is also something called fiteer, which I have yet to try (I hear it's something like pizza). And finally, shawerma is very popular- you can get it on pretty much any street corner.

Also, had to take the car to the garage to have oil change etc. Does a middle class Egyptian own a car and are there service stations through out Cairo?
There are two gas stations alone on the small island of Zamalek, both on our main street. Even lower class Egyptians own cars (this was somewhat surprising to me as well, I didn't expect to see nearly as many cars even out in the poverty-stricken outskirts that we've seen). That being said, I've also seen people driving donkey carts through the streets of Cairo...and somehow it all co-exists peacefully. Maybe one reason that many Egyptians can afford cars is thanks to the LOW gas prices- we're talking not quite a dollar a gallon...!!!

I thought if you can go to the capital of Egypt, I can go to the capital of USA. So yesterday I was in Washington, DC. How many Egyptians from the countryside come to Cairo as tourists to visit the historic sites?
That's a good question, and I'm not a hundred percent of the answer, but I'm pretty sure that not nearly as many Egyptians visit their capital as Americans visit D.C. However, we do run into a good deal of tourists from other Middle Eastern countries, doing the exact same tourist route as ourselves. One thing I must say, though- because tourism is a big part of the economy here (I believe the number 2 contributor after agriculture)- lots of people go to school to learn about Egyptian history, with the ultimate dream of being a tour guide, so in some respects, there are a good deal of average Egyptian citizens who are better versed in their country's history than average Americans are about theirs.

Finally, since I viewed the Constitution and Bill of Rights yesterday, does Egypt have a constitution or what type of document dictates the rule of law? What document rules Egypt?
The consitution is the ruling document here also, but (unfortunately, somewhat like our country is becoming), this document seems to be taken with a grain of salt. It seems that corruption is pretty endemic in the system- baksheesh (which roughly translates to "tip") is an important word to know. Egyptian politics, alas, are the weak part of my knowledge here, so I can't tell you too much more. One interesting fact about the constitution though- Sadat changed it to say that all Presidents must be Muslim. So I can tell you that separation of church and state isn't such a popular phenomenon here!

Weekend Update

These past few days have been both busy and tremendously enjoyable. Thursday night is the big weekend night here, and we were able to go out and have a great time with some Egyptian guys we met at the dialogue. We originally intended to go to the Cairo Jazz Club, but we weren't able to get in because the two Egyptians with us at the time were not 21 (this might be one of the other only countries in the world where 21 is the drinking age). This experience showed us the dichotomy of treatment in this country: Americans under 21 were able to get in, whereas the Egyptians were not. Screw the jazz club, we decided. So instead, we went to a little cafe near the Midan Tahrir downtown. Definitely authentic, as there were only maybe 3 other non-Egyptians there. But we must have sat there for three hours, just talking about random stuff. Some of the big things that we touched on were the American vs. Egyptian styles of dating, as well as the idea of polygamy within Islam. Best quote of the night: "I'm a socialist when it comes to women." All in all, though, the guys gave us pretty thoughtful answers on the subject, like saying that it's really a circumstantial thing, as well as advocating the idea that the women must be treated fairly.

Friday and Saturday we spent in Alexandria. Friday we did the tourist circuit, checking out the Citadel of Qait-Bey (the picture is a view from inside the Citadel looking towards Alexandria), the catacombs, and the Alexandria Library (not the ancient, famous one; that was burned down centuries ago, but this library is still one of the sweetest places I've ever been). That night, Lily and I decided to go see a movie. This was an interesting experience on so many levels that I barely know where to start. The movie that we wanted to see was called "Baby Doll Night", and we were going to see it because our friend Mostafa recommended it. So we find our way to the theatre. Exciting moment for me; I was able to make the entire transaction in Arabic. As we go to enter the theatre, one of the employees says to us, " Wait! This movie in Arabic!". We nodded and said yes, and he asked us if we spoke Arabic before we were able to progress.

Before I talk about the movie, the setting for our experience: a LOUD theatre. You know that ad in American theatres that politely asks viewers to turn off their cell phones? Ha. Ha. Hahahaha. That's not a cultural phenomenon here; people have no compunctions about letting their ringtones go on for a bit before proceeding to answer the phone and have loud, lengthy conversations. Also, screaming kids add an interesting note to this symphony.

So against this backdrop, Lily and I were struggling to understand this movie which was almost completely in Arabic, with no subtitles. I have to say, I was disappointed with how little I was able to understand. One part that I got went along the lines of this:

Guy 1- Not every American is like George Bush or Dick Cheney.

Guy 2- Not every Arab is a Muslim or a terrorist.

Speaking of George Bush, the audience booed/hissed every time his name was mentioned. And as the only Americans in a theatre so full that chairs were lined against the walls, we did get some very interesting stares throughout the course of the night. Oh, and did I mention the topic of the movie? While I wasn't able to fully get the gist of things, I do know that the following ideas were involved: 9/11, the American invasion of Iraq, and the conflict between Palestine and Israel. So, saying the movie was politically charged is a bit of an understatement. Luckily, I know how to say "George Bush is stupid" in Arabic, in case anyone ever asks my political views. Anyway, the whole movie was very interesting, albeit violent, and I'm definitely going to find a version with subtitles once we get back to the States.

Saturday we spent on Montazah Beach, which was gorgeous. I got the most real exercise, besides walking, that I've had the whole trip; Molly, Lily, and I went for a nice swim down the length of the beach and back. I forgot how much I used to love swimming...

Yesterday was a service day, aka it was pointless and I'm not writing more about it. Today after class, Nermine, our Arabic teacher, overheard a few of us talking about making a trip to the mall, and offered to escort us on our first trip on the subway (she was going to the same stop). First of all, unlike some people have claimed, the Egyptian subway was not sketchy at all. Yes, it was crowded, but I've seen the orange line just as bad at rush hour anyway. The cars might not have been the newest, but they were still in decent condition and, from what I saw, weren't any dirtier than subways in the U.S. (and possibly cleaner than those in New York). Finally, it's way cheaper, to the tune of $0.20 American/ride. Excellent. We were on the subway for 15-20 minutes, and as the cars emerged above the ground, it reminded me once again how large the city of Cairo really is.

Speaking of Nermine, I think it's time for a little section on some of the Cairenes that have done their utmost to make this city feel like home for us Americans. A thank you and shout out to these people:

Nermine- One of the most kind-hearted and invested teachers I've ever had. She'd tiny, I'm guessing 115 pounds soaking wet, but I've seen her haggle in the market and tell off policemen, she's oweeya al-araada, or strong-willed. I definitely wouldn't want to cross her. Though we have never taken her up on various offers, because we don't want to impose on her life, she's offered every kind of hospitality to us, from telling us she'll do our laundry to inviting us to stay at her house on future visits to Egypt.

Tamir- One of the two hosts at the Lebanese restaurant next to our hotel, Tamir is always ready with a smile and some Celine Dion or Britney Spears music to brighten our day. He knows Katharine and I so well that he can guess our orders when we come in to pick up food. He has made us appreciate the two above-named singers a little bit more; Katharine asked him why he liked to play their music so much, and he said "Because it is soft", which definitely gave me a new perspective. He was very sadden to hear about how crazy Britney's become. We are going to make him a new CD before we leave!

Yassir- The most friendly receptionist/concierge I've ever met, Yassir is the main desk man at our hotel. Always ready with a smile and always willing to practice Arabic with us, Yassir has made Longchamps feel more like home.

Finally, to bring this blog up to date, last night was probably one of the best moments of

the entire trip. About 20 or so of us, Americans and Egyptians, went to a club over in Mohandiseen to play soccer. After having to wait till the little kids were done playing, we were able to be on the field from about 11 PM- 1:30 AM. It was a really great time, because it didn't matter how good anyone was- everyone just had fun playing around. Tonight we might be going to a surprise birthday party for Basem, who just turned 20, so it looks like another night with little sleep. Hooray!

Dialogues and Dervishes

Monday we experienced our second dialogue at the Fulbright Commission. I have to say, I enjoyed it much more this time. We were grouped with the same people as last week, and I can only guess that the dynamic in our room changed because the conference table was taken away- it’s amazing how much better the conversation flowed once that symbol of formality was gone. We ranged from religion (again) to drugs in both societies, but spending the majority of time comparing the school systems in both countries…it honestly sounds like the Egyptian system might be better. Tuition here is only 300 pounds a year...this translates to $60 American. Insane. After our dialogue session, everyone had dinner together. Then the majority of us, both Americans and Egyptians, headed down to the Nile for a nighttime felucca ride. I definitely lucked out on boat choice; we were on the party boat. The Egyptian guys had brought a tabla, a type of drum, and we were all singing and dancing out on the Nile. It was such a relaxed setting and it made it easy to get to know people. One of the girls is a dancer, and she does a lot of Latin-Arabic fusion stuff, so Rebecca and I are excited about going out with her some weekend here.

The excitement didn’t end there. A few of us went with the guys to ride horsese to the pyramids at midnight. The few glimpses that we saw of the pyramids indicated that it would have been a beautiful sight…if we weren’t riding the craziest horses in the world. Less than 5 minutes into our ride, Katharine’s horse attacked mine, and they were both bucking around for a while. (Note- Don’t wear flip-slops (shibshib, in Arabic) to ride horses…). Our guide said our horses didn’t like each other. So when we calmed down, we tried to continue. Only a few seconds later, a bunch of the horses started going crazy and biting each other, bucking around, and generally scaring the shit out of me. A few of us lost our nerve at that point, and we ended up walking back to the stables in defeat. Still worth the experience, and I was glad that the guys with us were so understanding about everything.

I’ve been in classes since then, and tonight we spiced it up by going to see a performance by the Whirling Dervishes. The Dervishes are a sect of Sufi Muslims, and the whole idea is that their dancing brings them closer to Allah. Gotta say, I’m a fan of any religion that involves dancing to experience union with the divine, and I don’t mean that sarcastically. It was an incredible show that we saw tonight, and I would recommend it to anyone. The musical accompaniment was equally as stunning as the dancing itself. Since it’s now going on 1:30 AM, I’ll leave you with this video to enjoy!

Weekend of Adventures

Thursday night was chock-full of diplomatic missions, beginning with our time at the American Embassy. Immediately, we had to surrender any electronic devices before going through a metal detector. We were then escorted in to a library. For the next hour and a half, we met with three employees, who gave us what felt like the typical line- “represent America abroad, pride in serving your nation”, etc. I’m not opposed to the Foreign Services, but I think that the jobs these people had were very ironic- all of their positions revolved around the fostering of cultural understanding. For me, serving this administration (or many American administrations of the past) would basically be a sell-out of many values that I hold important. Also due to the fact that the people with whom we met were employed in the Cultural Affairs section, we didn’t have a whole lot of luck engaging them in political discussions of substance. Most of us were much more interested in getting some dinner before heading to our second engagement.

The Arab was much more interesting, if this picture of me at the Iraqi ambassador's desk tells you anything. Although our partner in discussion, the Cabinet Chief for the Secretary-General of the Arab League, got off to a slow start, the insightful questions from our group quickly brought fire and passion to his speech. His thoughtful and detailed answers really helped give us context to each situation that he described. The best part is that unlike other places (hmm), he didn’t try to evade questions. On most issues, he seemed very reasonable. For instance, when discussing Israel and Palestine, he said that the Arab League does not support Hamas’ terrorist actions, but that at the same time Israel must desist from aggressive actions. At the same time, I felt that the Arab League’s position on conditions for a successful two state settlement was not quite realistic: specifically, one of the three conditions was that Israel would give back the land won during the War of 1967 (?). At this point, Israel has enjoyed the backing of the United States on everything, and they’ve settled those areas, and there’s not much incentive to give back the land. On the other hand, perhaps if peace and an undisturbed existence could be guaranteed in exchange for this, it might be a pragmatic decision to make. I can’t say that I know enough about the history in the region to pass judgment on it, but it was definitely a beneficial experience to hear the Arab perspective on the issue.

Friday also proved to be quite full of adventure. Instead of having Arabic class, our awesome professor Nermine took us on a field trip from end to end of Cairo, literally and figuratively. From a church to a garbage village to a traditional bazaar to a ridiculous mall…well, it was a whirlwind through Cairo past and present, and left me with many thoughts, to be worked out in a subsequent blog. In order to get to our first site of the day, which is a Coptic church set into the mountain, we first had to drive through a slum called Muqattam. It is a garbage village, meaning that trash from all over Cairo is brought to this place. Its inhabitants work to separate out the garbage between recyclable materials, other valuables that can be used/sold, and rubbish of no value. We could feel the heat of the sun through the van’s windows as our van wound its way higher and higher up the mountain through narrow streets lined with enormous trash bags.

Although our windows were shut tight to keep in the precious air conditioning, the unmistakable scent of garbage permeated the van and all the surrounding areas; once inside the compound of the church, we were not entirely free from this phenomenon.


The church, however, was beautiful enough to distract our attentions. Basically, this enormous stadium for 2000 people was set into the mountainside, and down in the front and center was
the altar and the icons. The surrounding mountainsides also had gorgeous and elaborate scences cut into its walls. Also, the whole area was supposedly formed thanks to a miracle of God (he lifted up and set back down the mountain). My favorite part about the church at Muqattam, though, had nothing to do with the actual church or the beautiful surroundings. It was the sense of community that was very obvious, all around us. For instance, children were allowed to run around inside the church, they didn’t have to be hushed and silent. It wasn’t as cold as the churches that I’ve been to seem; thanks to the kids as well as conversations between adults within the church it seemed so much more like a place to live and enjoy and celebrate life. Also, out on the street in front of the church, but still very much inside the religious compound, some adult men were playing soccer with younger boys. It struck me as so important that this area wasn’t meant for people just to be untouched by others and unlinked to their community.

Our next stop was the biggest and oldest bazaar here in Cairo, the Khan Al-Khalili. We didn’t have a lot of time to shop around, but I’m pretty sure we didn’t even see a tenth of the shops there. Although I hated being part of a large group of Americans constantly blocking the path, I was fascinated by all the people and everything they were selling. Nermine helped us to get great bargains on our purchases, and I’m definitely looking forward to going back to the Khan before we’re done in Cairo.

Needless to say, going from this extremely traditional setting to the ultra-modern City Stars mall was a shock. I pretty much couldn’t afford anything there, but it was nice to walk around in the air conditioning and pick Mary’s brain about Egypt. It’s a little overwhelming thinking about the great gap between the rich and the poor and how closely they co-exist all in this one city.

Saturday, we spent a day at the beach, called Ein Sokhna. Although the fish restaurant had no fish (or any other food), it was great to relax and get out of Cairo for the day. The best part of the day was definitely watching dolphins out in the water; unfortunately this was followed by some of the rankest bathrooms I’ve ever seen.

Finally, Sunday was sort of a lazy day spent around Zamalek, although Katharine and I did check out two bookstores. I’m gearing up for another full week; it’s our second-to-last in Cairo already :(, so in addition to planned group activities like another dialogue tonight and a trip to Alexandria over the weekend, I definitely want to do some more exploring in the downtown area.

Islamic Cairo, Service Learning, and More

Hi all,
It's been a few days, and so much has gone on. Last Saturday, those of us in the Arabic 2 class, as well as a few of our more adventurous compatriots from the Arabic 1 classes, took a tour of Islamic Cairo (PLEASE visit my photo site in a day or two to see a ton of pictures with my detailed explanations of their significance...some of the architecture we saw was really gorgeous and worth seeing). We were led around by an Egyptian-American woman who is an expert on Islamic Art and Architecture, and she works under Zahi Hawass himself. She was a great leader, and really kept us on our toes with questions. During the day, we visited three mosques and a sabil-kuttub. The sabil-kuttub was a style of building that involved a public well on the botton, with a Quaranic boys' school on the upstairs floors. The whole idea for this was kind of cool; these buildings sprung up from a quote of the Prophet Mohammed, which said something to the effect of "The two best things you can do are provide water for the thirsty and education for the poor". So in effect, they were really important buildings in the community and were created in order to help the less fortunate members of society.

The mosques we saw were all stunning in their own way. My favorite by far, though, had to be the first, the Mosque of Ibn Tulun. I liked it for its lack of ostentation; you can see the difference between the very plain picture on the left and the elaborate mosque in the Citadel on the right. If people weren't even supposed to display pictures of animals or humans in mosques because they were too distracting, why make mosques that are so ornate as to inspire awe and divert the worshipper's attention to more earthly matters? Our guide, Iman, replied to this question from me by saying that the second two mosques we visited were built for rulers, not commoners. The mosques would have been used not only for worship but as a means of impressing both the people of Egypt as well as foreign leaders. I, however, then have to doubt the true piety of such leaders. Palaces are for impressing foreign leaders, not the place where you are supposed to worship your god. So the Mosque of Ibn Tulun appealed to me the most because its austerity revealed a place more worthy of contemplation and true spirituality. Unrelated to its status as my favorite mosque, we were able to climb the minaret of Ibn Tulun; check out the amazing cityscape of Cairo behind me (the smile was plastered on my face, since I was not a fan of the heights as we climbed the outside staircase). Also, it was very powerful to see the multitud of minarets soaring into the sky. The view from the Citadel was also amazing, but the pictures were terrible by comparison.

After Islamic Cairo, our entire NU group went to dinner at the home of Abduh and Hayyam, Prof. Sullivan's friends. Hayyam's cooking was kwayyisa owee, or really good. I finally had the chance to try koshary, a savory Egyptian staple composed of rice and noodles, topped with tomato sauce. Simple, yet delicious, as Brett says. After that kind of meal, we were pretty much done for the night.

Sunday, our Arabic 2 group had off of class unlike everyone else, so we went down to the American University at Cairo, practiced our Arabic with Navenka, Prof. Sullivan's counterpart here in Egypt, and visited the Yacoubian Building, a residential building which inspired a recent blockbuster novel by the same name (incidentally, this was our pre-Egypt reading assignment, and we may be able to meet the author during our stay here). Following this little jaunt, a few of us grabbed some DELICIOUS shwarma near the campus, and set off on a futile search for a computer cord for Brett. This was followed. for some of us, by a stop in a shisha den. This was an awesome, authentic place down near the Midan Tahrir in Cairo. I'm pretty sure that they must not get too many female customers, because Julia and I were the recipients of a good many stares. But it was just a great place to sit around and talk to people.

Monday was pretty much jam-packed; maybe not time-wise, but in terms of all the reflecting that I've been doing since then. In the morning, we fanned out through the Greater Cairo area to begin (and for the most part, complete 50% of the work for) our service projects. I chose to go to the Kattan Carpet Training School, which had been the place under suspicion of being a child labor site (after all the stink that people had raised about it before, there was no other place I could choose). Even now, after a few days of mulling things over, I'm not quite sure how to articulate all of my thoughts on the idea. More or less, this hand-woven carpet business has been in place since the later 1800's, and just within the past year they've begun a program with kids in a local area (a very poor local area). The place is called Stabl Antar, and the deal for these kids that are chosen is that 5 days a week, from 9-5, they are bussed to the "carpet training school", where they receive instruction and practice in this handicraft. On Thursdays, they have the choice of going to school, and Fridays they have off, as it's the holy day in Islam. The kids also receive meals- sometimes koshary or fuul, or occasionally meat.

Like I've said before, I would wish for any kid that they'd have the luxury of growing up without having to work, instead of pulling a full time job when they're 10. On the other hand, the kids legitimately seemed to be enjoying their work here. We had the opportunity to talk to two of the children there, siblings names Aiya and Hamaada (aren't they adorable?), and both of them actually seemed very eager to be done talking with us in order to get back to work (the cynic in me says that this is because they get paid to work, not to talk to us, but according to one of the women in charge at the factory, they get paid by the day and a slight decline in productivity for 15 minutes wouldn't affect their salary). As you can tell from that parenthetical aside, I definitely haven't resolved my own thoughts and feelings on the issues. I guess what sketched me out the worst was actually the woman that we spent a majority of the time talking to, the granddaughter of the man who began this enterprise over a hundred years ago. She came across as very defensive although she wasn't being attacked, which made me feel that she had something to hide. Furthermore, she was making a distinction to us between the fact that they run a "government registered carpet training school" and a place of "child labor". The idea is that, because the kids are working on artistic products, and receiving career training at the same time, this doesn't fall under the auspices of child labor. Again, my cynical side wants to come out, because a big part of me says this: 1) Kids are working. 2) These children are getting paid. 3) They are working a full 40 hours a week. I would still call that child labor- regardless of the fact that this very well might be the best possible option for these kids. I'm not trying to downplay the fact that these kids very might well be on the street if it weren't for this training school. But let's call a spade a spade. Anyway, the rest of our project is to do a write-up on them, which will then be uploaded to the web in order to give this company more of an online presence.

Monday night we experienced our first actual "Dialogue"; we met with a group of Fulbright Scholars here in Cairo, and split into four groups of about 15 people to discuss whatever it was that came to light. Although I felt that our fifteen-person group was a bit too unwieldly, I really enjoyed the dialogue experience. One of the most interesting parts of my group dialogue was actually the thoughts that my fellow Americans have on the United States. Now, all of you reading this know how I feel about our President, and some parts of the American culture/attitude, but I still love our country for many things. One of these things happens to be capitalism (I don't like when the desire for profit leads to exploitation, but that's a whole other story...). So somehow, at this dialogue, we got into a discussion about American media; for instance, we were asked why it was so biased, etc. I responded to that question by saying that as a country, a lot of us realize that every outlet will put their own spin on things, but that's why those Americans who want to full story also look to other sources, like the BBC or Al-Jazeera, in order to get a more rounded version of the story. Then, others in my group responded and started going on about how media companies are controlled by rich corporations and rich people, and that explains both media bias as well as the fact that Britney Spears can be found in media sources as often as something actually worth reading. Let's wait and look at this for real, though, America. The reason such stupid topics are so widespread in the media is because, for reasons unfathomable to me, a large segment of the American population actually wants to read that drivel. The news sources that publish articles about useless celebrities are supplying the demand- study economics with D. Voigt someday. If we as a nation wised up and stopped caring about this crap, the media might respond to that and give us real, carefully investigated news instead. Again, I'm not always a fan of the media or rich corporations, but if you have a problem with it, DON'T FEED INTO IT.

Since last Monday, we've had another week of class, seen the movie "Yacoubian Building", and I've been up to some other adventures, most interestingly our time at the U.S. Embassy and the Arab League (diplomacy centrals...?), so stay tuned for more updates!