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.