It is amazing what can be accomplished after learning a bit of the language. I still can't converse, or really form very interesting sentences, but now knowing the local dialect for "what is this, price, I want one," I can really get around. People always seem helpful, more than necessary sometimes, when they see that I'm trying to learn Egyptian Arabic, so I'm picking up about 3 words a day. Ironically, I just now had a moment when I went into a textile shop and said "One blue towel please." I was quite proud of myself- yet for the first time in a week, the shopkeeper looked up and said in English, "fine, what size do you want."
On the way I also saw an old woman selling incense on the steps of a mosque. Now anyone who has been to my apartment knows that I like to collect a lot of different types of incense, and equipped with my new vocabulary I was excited to ask her "what is this?" "how much" etc... of course I don't remember any of the new words I learned, but I'm sure I'll pick up another 1 or 2 tomorrow. The important part of this experience however was that for the first time since my arrival here, I was able to interact with some of low social bearing. Living in Zamalek is convenient, but it really drains me to be on a paradise island, centrally located within a run down city and to primarily interact with the upper class. I went into a ritzy cafe near my house today to use their internet services and it was absolutely nauseating. Although a 4 dollar frappe-mocha-chai-latte concoction will easily cost 4 dollars in the US, the average cup of coffee on the street around Cairo is about 60 cents, so for someone to spend 4 dollars is unbelievable - especially when you consider the average family income in Cairo is between 75 and 100 dollars per month. As it is, many families can no longer even afford bread. Consequently, sitting in the cafe and being surrounded by a bunch of hot young, rich and disdainful Egyptian women smoking cigarettes nonstop and mistreating the service staff was sorta like being in high school, but somehow worse. Of course, the upside is that women are quite the rarity in this city, and it was nice actually see a woman who wasn't covered head to toe - just the thought makes me veer toward heat stroke. But then again, I think I would prefer to spend my days in Cairo being ignored by the average woman in hijab than by the rich one in high heels.
So all in all, while the cafe simply reinforced my dislike of Cairo, meeting the old poor woman on steps really made me feel better, it gave me a connection to this place, the sort of connection that I have always found in other developing countries. I afterward sent an email to St. Andrews, an organization located somewhere in Cairo that provides legal and social services to refugees. I had spoken to them previously about developing a hip hop music program with some of the refugee youth, but I have honestly been so frustrated with this city that I hadn't done anything to further develop that project since arrival. I'm really looking forward to it now, to once again have a sense of place and purpose, to again be around true Africans (Egyptians really don't consider themselves or this place as Africa even though its on the continent, they prefer to be labeled as part of Mid East - and rightly so, considering this place has very little in common with Africa).
Hopefully the next few days will be as satisfying as this evening. While I believe that it will all work out in the long run, it feels good for improvements to arrive in the short term too. In the meanwhile, I'll just keep plugging away at the local Arabic as that appears to be the key.
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