Shokran, ya Masr..

"There is only one reason 

We have followed God into this world:

To encourage laughter, freedom, dance, 

And love.

Let a noble cry inside of you speak to me

Saying;

'Hafiz, Don't just sit there on the moon tonight 

Doing nothing -

Help unfurl my heart into the Friend's Mind,

Help..to heal my wounded wings!' "

Cairo has been kind to me this week. I arrived last week with bleary eyes, a heavy heart, and trepidation for the months to come. I braced myself for the usual assault of the chaos on my senses - but this time the traffic noise seems a bit softer, the sun a bit warmer, the smiles of the shopkeepers a bit more welcoming. Its as if the city read my grief in the coffee grounds left in the cup on my kitchen table, and offers its sympathies in small, deeply moving, gestures. 

I took an armful of suitcase-wrinkled garments down to be ironed by the unshaven, burly man on the ground floor of our apartment building, and was greeted with a big, tea-stained smile and, "Where are you?!?" (meaning, where have you been?). 

I was smothered with kisses by my female Egyptian co-workers, and given hearty pats on the back from their male counterparts.

My American co-workers have made sure I'm fed and beer-ed and given me the name of a renowned cleaning lady who is guaranteed to remove all traces of the sandstorms from my apartment. 

Even the sunsets from my balcony have been beautiful.

I'm grateful. 

I made a decision to not work myself to death quite yet, and took the time to do some enjoyable things this weekend. I finally hung the pictures and decorations in my new apartment, and slept a respectable 10 hours a night.

Easter weekend is going to pass us by since we work on Sundays, so my good friends B. and C. invited me to Easter dinner on Friday. There was no ham to be had in Zamalek, so we made salmon, asparagus, garlic potatoes, and arugula salad. Then we sat in their garden and ate cupcakes for dessert (their toddler preferred to munch on some leaves and dirty from the garden - she is making an effort to develop a robust immune system). 

Easter dinner! Auntie Emily was taking the picture.

Today I went with my friend A. to walk Islamic Cairo. It's a bit of a misnomer, since its no more Islamic than the rest of Cairo (except for say, Coptic Cairo - that will be another day trip). But it does contain the highest concentration of historic mosques, madrassas (Islamic schools), islamic architecture, and the old city walls. It was kind of amazing to think that the structures we were walking into were anywhere from 500-900 years old.

My favorite was the blue mosque - you step through the gate from the dusty, hot noisy street and into a cool, white tiled open expanse. It's like a drink of icewater for your eyes and ears. My pictures don't really do it justice.

 

 

Continuing on, we saw a lot of mashrabiya windows - beautiful wooden latticework like the picture below:

When women kept purdah (ie not leave the house once they were married), they were able to watch the activity in the streets below through these windows without being seen by other men. 

I'm really interested in decorative arts from the Middle East - I visited the Museum of Islamic Art last fall and could have spent a few days in there. It was even better to see some really well-preserved and restored examples up close.

I had to sneak a picture of A. - he's not very photogenic :) 

The ceilings are amazing 

Footbath for pre-prayer ablutions

Ivory inlay

Script from the Quran runs around the edge of the ceiling 

The grand finale was climbing one of the minarets of the al-Ghuri mosque. It was poorly lit, and we had to use a lighter to find out way up the spiral staircase. 

Halfway there

At the top, we had a 360 view of Cairo, in all its hazy, smoggy, crumbling glory.

View of the market below

So tonight I'll wash the Cairo dirt from my feet before I slip between bedsheets cooled by the air conditioning and sleep with a lighter heart, healed by the unexpected balm of a city thats welcomed me back with open arms.  

Life in the Big Mango*

See, I told you - this blogging endeavor is going horribly. I've been in Egypt for two weeks today, and I just uploaded my pictures from my camera - a grand total of 18, 5 of which were the interior of my apartment, and 3 of which were repeat shots of my first Egyptian breakfast.

Typical Egyptian breakfast - juice, fuul (stewed beans with toppings of tahini, tomato, and pepper), 'aish (bread) and Nescafe (instant coffee - more on coffee later). Scenery not typical. This is not my apartment.

  Point being - I've gotten off to a poor start in documenting my Egyptian adventures.

  To be fair, I've really only started feeling ok in the past few days. A large part of it was the epic episode of Pharoah's Revenge (like Montezuma's Revenge, get it? OK, I'm done) last weekend. But an even bigger factor in my feeling unwell was the immense culture shock.

  Egypt hit me like a ton of bricks.

  Before I arrived, I thought I was fairly worldly, open-minded, and adaptable.  What I hadn't considered was that I had never traveled somewhere I didn't speak at least some of the language, or have experience in some form of the culture and religious tradition. I've only been to South/Latin America and the Caribbean, in addition to a brief vacation to Switzerland (I know just enough French to be dangerous).

  Absolutely everything is foreign to me here - the language, the clothes, the transportation system (er, or lack thereof), rules for gender relations, the role of religion in public life, etc. Having to consistently process those elements and make decisions when your brain would normally be on autopilot is exhausting.

  However, my downstairs co-worker has me set up in a cozy little apartment upstairs from he and his fiancee with a view of the Nile for a month until I can find more permanent digs. The inside is typical middle class Egyptian (they have a penchant for heavy, ornate furniture.

Zamalek (my neighborhood)

Nile and the National Bank of Egypt

Nile in the background

 

  I like being by my co-workers (see previous post) and I love the neighborhood, but I was hoping to have a roommate and this place just isn't big enough for two unrelated people (its two bedrooms but they bump right up against each other, and the living room is quite small). I'm checking out a few tomorrow and hope to have something lined up soon.

  I'm learning where and when its appropriate to take pictures, so hopefully I'll have some more interesting things to look at posted in the near future. Until then, lots of love from the Big Mango.

*Cairo is sometimes called "The Big Mango" (a nod to NYC, the Big Apple). Also like NYC, Cairo never, ever, EVER sleeps. Seriously. More on this later...