Last weekend was my trip to Cairo, which was hot hot hot! A three hour bus ride from Alexandria southwards, I was so sick by the time we arrived. We spent dinner on a boat on the Nile, then we went out for a Nile River cruise. It was dark and my camera couldn't capture the lights, so all I managed to get was this picture of Cairo at night:
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| From Arrival to Cairo 6/17/10 2:03 PM |
The next day, we first visited the very first pyramid in Saqqara --->
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| From Museum at Saqqara and the Pyramids! 6/19/10 2:06 PM |
The Pyramid was the idea of the ancient priest, Imhotep, who wanted to build a temple for the Pharaoh on his way to the afterlife. The personage of Imhotep is somewhat loosely portrayed in the movie The Mummy.
The museum was very informative, but the tour was disappointing. We took a vote of English or Arabic as the language of the tour, and Arabic won. Fine, but I feel there's a point where the obtainment of information in a clear, concise way is more important than practicing understanding a new language. I won't be back to Saqqara, and would have liked to know exactly what the woman said. I understood about 60%. So I stopped paying attention.
The pyramid itself was amazing; to stand in front of the oldest pyramid on the planet was breathtaking. The downside? This site is swamped with people dressed in bedouin garb, trying to get you to ride their camels for a couple minutes for 50 pounds ($10). Kim and I were grabbed and a headdress shoved on our heads and pictures taken before we could protest. The monsieur asked for 50 pounds, I laughed and gave him a bit of change. It was like flies on a fresh piece of meat. I felt like such a foreigner. I kept wondering why the Egyptian government would allow this at a UN World Heritage Site. The world may never know. In the Imhotep museum, we were not allowed to take photos. Me not knowing, I managed to get a few before I noticed the guard was going around to all the foreigners, confiscating their cameras and deleting their pictures. I quickly hid mine and pretended I didn't see him and walked out of the display. My pics, yo! I managed to snap one of Imhotep's sarcophagus:
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| From Museum at Saqqara and the Pyramids! 6/19/10 2:06 PM |
Soon after, we went off to the PYRAMIDS! They are even larger and more powerful than I thought before. I was standing in front of the last of the 7 Ancient Wonders of the World. I felt the chills run down my spine (or was it sweat?) as my water bottle began to slowly boil. I was in front of greatness. I imagined all the workers who had to drag these massive umtine ton blocks all the way from Aswan to the Cairo area in the north. To be that dedicated to a ruler struck me with awe. Obama is great, but I wouldn't kill myself building a stone temple for him. The afterlife was an obsession for the ancient Egyptians; so much so they even buried food with them in their tombs (we saw 4,000 year old cheese in the museum at Saqqara).
for a bit of history, check this out.
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| From Museum at Saqqara and the Pyramids! 6/19/10 2:06 PM |
Needless to say, I was not disappointed. I was in front of greatness. It will go down as one of the most memorable experiences of my life. Thank you, American taxpayers.
I felt a bit guilty the whole weekend because my language partner came with us and I didn't want to talk to him. At that point, I found him hard to understand because he was speaking Egyptian Arabic and not Modern Standard Arabic, and he mumbles and speaks quickly. I just wanted to relax, and when we got to the hotel, our director Robyn was giving our room keys and said "Matt wa Mahmoud, oda 118." Damn it, same room, too. It's totally against my nature to be rude and to make people feel unwelcome or unwanted. I just couldn't help myself last weekend. I felt like my privacy was being invaded. I knew that I would have to live outside my comfort zone here, but I was so angry because I didn't expect it to be every waking moment. I'm getting over it.
On a tangent, I should explain the difference between MSA and Egyptian Arabic. MSA, modern standard, is the Arabic which is used in the media and for official and formal communications between all Arabs from Morocco to Iraq. If you speak it in the street however, it's very awkward. There is so many particular and picky grammar rules, case endings that go on words depending on their function in the sentence (noun, adjective, verb) which affect the pronunciation, and vocabulary that differs from what people speak. You will be understood, but it's almost like a foreign language and it's difficult for Egyptians to speak it as well unless you are well educated. Egyptian Arabic, however, has fewer grammar rules, no case endings, and flexibility where you put words in a sentence. It's easier to speak, and the words are simpler. For example, "Hello, how are you?" in MSA is "a-salamu 'alaikum, kaif al-hal?" in Egyptian it is "ahlan, izaiyik?"It's not stilted and everyone speaks it in everyday life. I guess you could kinda compare it to the differences between "ebonics" and proper British English. Imagine speaking the queen's english in downtown Detroit. It's the same effect.
Yesterday, I hung out with my language partner to get our required 4 hours a week in. He took me to the outdoor mall and then we watched a soccer game, which everyone knows, I don't have a clue what's going on. We talked about soccer, school, Ramadan, and "love stories". He caught me so off guard with that one. I had to have him repeat himself twice, like an idiot. I told him about my "qissas hubb" (love story), just required a changing of the pronouns from masculine to feminine. I didn't REALLY lie, there was just one detail missing, my girlfriend was actually a boyfriend. I quickly changed the subject before I accidentally slipped up and said "him". It was amusing. He took me back and we talked about the similarities between salaries and jobs in Egypt and the US. I talked about Starbucks and what an awful salary it is, especially for those who are not in school. I told him how I started to resent my job because of the lack of respect shown by the customers, like I was a slave. He had a similar job at a sandwich shop and told me that it sounded like the people in America, good and bad, are very similar to Egyptians. He said he was glad he met me. He said the only idea of Americans he had was from the television and internet. Oh jesus!
At that moment, it hit me that I was a doorway into American society and cultural understanding. I am here to set the record as straight as I can. With every thank you and smile, every kind word, every interaction I have with an Egyptian, it is my opportunity to give them a kinder, more "human" side of America than it's foreign policy that is seen as threatening to many Egyptians. I can show them that American society is more diverse in opinions and attitudes than the media portrays. I am a cultural ambassador.
The other night, I went to the mall to buy a coffee pot and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Yes, I broke down and payed $9.80 for cereal. It was worth every penny. So was the coffee pot. No more migraines. Coffee is so hard to find here. They have Turkish coffee everywhere, but the portions are so small and you can't take it to go. I'm so American. The other option is Nescafe, a freeze-dried packet you put in boiling water and drink with milk and a load of sugar. I can taste the chemicals used to freeze-dry it. I'm such a snob.
We also made a friend in the store. He said "Hello, Welcome" like all Egyptians. It's hard to tell if they are being welcoming, showing off that they understand English while assuming we don't speak Arabic, or are just messing with us. I ignored our new friend as he followed us. One girl started to talk to him, and the other girl with us told her that she wanted him to go away. So the talker said, "Actually, I don't know you and don't want to talk to you. Ma' salama (bye bye)!" I died with laughter.
The other day, my streak of not being sick ended with King Tut's revenge. I've never had it like that before, I thought I was going to die. Thank god it only lasted a day. After I took some body antiseptic pills, that is.
I find Egyptian society fascinating. Everywhere you go there is so many signs of Islamic tradition and Middle Eastern society, all mixed in with the modern, like malls, Hardees, and clubs. At the mall, you see women walking around in skimpy shorts and no headscarf, yet when you go out, almost everyone is wearing the hijab. If they aren't wearing it, they are Coptic Christians (about 10% of the population). The population has become slowly more conservative over the past 10 years, and much of the reason is dissatisfaction with their political situation and the president and his emergency law. The hijab has become, for many, a symbol of protest against the tyranny of the state (as shown through the recent beating and death of Kahlid Sa'id here in Alexandria).
Witnessing such political conditions makes me appreciate the freedoms that enjoy in the US. Really. Think of opening your mouth to say that you think that President Bush should be dismissed at a protest, and imagine that the police (dressed in civilian clothing) caught you out of the crowd, shoved you in an unmarked van. Where would you go? You might be beat, you might spend an undefined amount of time in jail. Who knows. The emergency law is a blanket law that is meant to help the government respond to threats of terrorism and public security threats. Very broad. The constitution is basically followed until any kind of unrest. Then it's anyone's guess.
Things are heating up, and I'm learning mostly through the leading oppositional newspaper, al-masri al-youm (the Egyptian Today). I'm learning so much Arabic. All in all, I'm starting to enjoy it here, and all the excitement Egypt has to offer.
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