Ok, kiddos. I told you I’d keep this thing updated. Last night was good fun and even more good food. I hung out all afternoon at the McIntosh’s house and helped Sheryl make brownies, chocolate chip cookies (from scratch!), queso and guacamole before the shindig. It was so weird realizing how completely normal my life could be living here in Egypt if I wanted it to be.
Anyway. A bunch of church people came over and we all just sat around on the floor upstairs in Sheryl’s “Bedouin” eating area that comprises Egyptian carpets, pillows and lamps all on the floor surrounding the tiled table that was raised about one foot off of the ground. It was completely relaxing and the conversation reminded me overwhelmingly of all of my friends both from high school and at Vanderbilt. There were some slightly inappropriate jokes and a lot of laughter. It was a perfect way to get to know everyone. In the end I ended up with the phone numbers of a couple of awesome Christian Egyptian girls who promised to help me see “the real Egypt” as well as one of the American interns who has promised to take me to the gym tomorrow so that we can have a work out date. Thank the good Lord in heaven for that.
Amidst all of the chaos of our little party, I received a phone call from Mike (the cousin of the oldest McIntosh child’s friend, Zach). Mike was planning a tour of some Mosques around downtown Cairo with this awesome tour guide/Egyptologist, Ibrahim who he had spent the previous day with and thought that I might be interested in joining him. Remarkably, he was right. Also remarkable, he planned for us to be picked up at 7 am the next morning (which was actually today).
After the party last night I went home to my apartment and (after rearranging my room so that my bed was no longer underneath the air-conditioning vent that had a tricky habit of spewing nasty black sludge all over whatever was beneath it) I spent my first night in my apartment. I slept remarkably well, and woke almost cheerfully at six in the morning ready for my first ever shower without a shower curtain and without a spickety-deal that hangs up over my head. All in all, the water pressure was good and the temperature warm. I’d grade the whole experience A-. Not a bad start.
At around 6:50 a.m. I hit the streets of Maadi and walked (for the first time) to an unknown destination (Zach’s house) by myself. I made it there (after stopping into a local bakery to buy myself a large bottle of water… for 2 LE ≈ 40 cents) in about 9 min. and was off for my fantastic Mosque-seeing adventure.
The day was long… we walked from about 7:15 until 1:45 without a break and without lunch in the scorching Egyptian heat. The day was also amazing. Our guide (who I definitely plan on soliciting again) grew up Egyptian in the Muslim school system but is not a Muslim. He knew everything about Egyptian and Islamic culture but remarkably, did not buy into any of it. He gave us the most complete, comprehensive and objective description of the Islamic faith that I could have possibly imagined. He kept telling us, “I’m sorry… I know this isn’t what you usually hear… but I am a historian. I am trained to try and tell it like it is.” I am pretty sure I asked him way too many questions. But then again, so did Mike. The Mosques were absolutely enormous and decadently carved, painted and decorated. Right outside the Mosques were the 5 million homeless men and women and street children mingling with the other countless million stray Egyptian dogs. The housing was all a little shanty with mismatched colors and clothing hanging out the windows in every sort of direction to dry. Carts lined the streets and we battled, along with everyone else, to get through the hectic no-rules traffic that defines Cairo roadways. At one point, we climbed to the top of the only spiral Mosque pier in the world that people are allowed to climb up and, I’m going to be a little cheesy for a minute here, as I looked around at Cairo around me, I realized I was looking at the real Cairo. I saw the palace in the distance. I saw Mosques in every direction. I saw AT LEAST 4,000 satellites. But, unlike in Maadi, all of the people I could see were real Egyptian people. Poor people. Dirty people. There were no villas or SUVs in this part of Cairo. For whatever reason, this was the most alive I have felt since I have been here. I realized that this was the part of Cairo I was looking forward to getting to know. I am so incredibly blessed to have the wonderful Ex-Pat community to turn to… but they are not who I came to Cairo to spend my time with. So…. I guess only time will tell whether or not I will get the experience that I am looking for.
After I got home from the tour Paul and Sheryl McIntosh came over to my apartment and helped me give everything a good scrubbing. They are absolute saints. I think I am going to love my apartment. I definitely love my room. I bought a green rug today from the same store that I purchased my (slightly tacky) beaded turtle key chain from several days ago when I arrived. This place is slowly becoming home.
My roommate is really chatty. Like… REALLY chatty. Very friendly. And very eager to talk about her recent conversion to Islam. She is an interesting person. We have already established a pretty respectful but VERY honest relationship. I am curious to see how things will go.
It is a total mystery as to whether or not these entrees will ever get any shorter than this. I am writing in my room but I won’t be able to post this until I lug my computer over to the McIntosh’s for some free WiFi. And free coffee. Ugh.... I LOVE THERE HOUSE.
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