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!