My Mom is Here in Cairo!

Friday night, my mother arrived at the Cairo International Airport, at 7 pm, on a Delta flight, via Air France.   After months of nervous twiddling, wondering how she would dress, what she would pack, how she would handle the 20 hour flight (including layover), negotiate customs and passport control... all this excessive expenditure of nervous energy was in vain.  She was smiling, happy, beautiful, and relaxed.

The only complication was really on my end, as I had the taxi driver drop me off at one terminal, only to later discover that her flight had arrived at another.  After picking her up, I had to call and  explain to the same driver, in arabic, to pick us up at a different airport terminal.  This was slightly tedious, given my shaky language skills, but the situation was resolved within about 10 minutes of awkward chatter and several near misses.

Since then, the last two days have witnessed a consistent increase within the rate and scale of adventure. The first night consisted of nothing more than a routine stroll down the sidewalk to eat Koshari, the local egyptian pasta meal, and a leisurely meander home.  After a long, deep sleep, the next day I took her on a small tour of Zamalek, my former island home in the Nile, and then dinner at my favorite Lebonese restaurant, Taboulah.  Therein we met up with my girlfriend, Mallory Anne, and had a wonderful time over a variety of dishes and a glass of wine.  Concluding our meal, the three of us dashed off to the city bizarre of Old Cairo, where we haggled over brightly covered scarves and extraordinary oil essences, while exploring the rich architectural labyrinth of the medieval city.

In contrast, today's adventure was entirely of a different sort.  Planning to visit the pyramids of Giza and collect overnight train tickets to Luxor, our intentions were undermined by the demands of my own domestic responsibilities.  This morning I awoke to discover my internet connection was cancelled, as the bill had not been paid for the last month.  Needing to take care of this immediately, yet not sure of the precise location of the payment center, my mother and I made a quick stop at the AUC campus then headed toward the neighborhood of Doqqi.  After wandering the neighborhood and eventually taking a taxi to the address, the payment process was no problem.  However, the discontented grumbles of our stomaches demanded attention to a new objective, and we switched our sights from the Pyramids of Giza to the inviting tables of the Tobassco Cafe.   Emerging an hour later, contented by fresh salads, hummus, and potatoes, we explored the nieghborhood for sometime -walking in a north eastern direction toward the area of Mohandiseen - then took another taxi to the Ramsis train station.  

Initially the train station presented no complication, yet as we thoroughly explored the time tables, it became clear that leaving Luxor - and returning to Cairo - poses a sufficient difficulty, more so than escaping Cairo for the riches of the Middle Kingdom.  Unable to secure train tickets for return, we adjusted our itinerary to better fit the capacity of the available resources.  As the city of Alexandria is only 2 hours away, we will now visit this costal town on wed, and commit tomorrow to visiting the pyramidal sights of Saqqhara and Giza.  While walking home from the train station we picked up some richly flavored deserts from a local baker, then comfortably returned to my apartment with faces of exhaustion, satisfaction, and the positive expectation of tomorrow.

Cairo Never Felt So Good

I am amazed by the positive impact Dahab had upon my demeanor.  I feel so relaxed, positive, focused... so much that I am almost looking forward to going back to school in 3 weeks.  Well... almost.  Regardless, the 5 days spent laying in the sun, climbing mountains, and swimming in the red sea did a wonder for mind body and soul.   In addition to climbing around Mt. Sinai and snorkeling in the world famous 'blue hole,' I also ate an impromptu meal with some beduin, spent late nights looking at the stars, and wandered a medieval monestary that contains a suppossed descendent of Moses's burning bush.

Standing in front of the burning bush... or at least its offspring.

Monestary in the Sinai

Another part of the monestary.

 

Hey, we might be in Sinai, looking at the Red Sea, with the mountains of Saudi Arabia in the background, but I'm always thrilled to get a little bit of Cuba whereever it can be found.

Malllory and Stacey investigate the strawberry juice.

Mallory on the treachorous journey up Mt. Sinai...

Gotta love the rock formations on the mountain side...

One last picture of the lunar-like landscape of the Sinai.

Back into the Sinai

In response to some questions I recieved, I should mention that with all the news regarding Israel continuing to murder and abuse the Palestinian people, you would hardly know this was happening from within Egypt.  I haven't had a single conversation with an Egyptian on the subject,and have not scene a single protest or public recognition of the problem. Of course, Egypt is partly accountable for the the dire circumstances within Gaza, as they refuse to maintain an open border along the Gaza strip, further depriving Palestinians of economic advancement and furthering the demand for violence.   While I doubt the people of Egypt feel any sense of responsibility, this might however influence the general lack of  visible public discussion.

In other news, I am about to leave in 3 hours for a trip back to Dahab.  While I had been hoping to visit Jordon for over a month now, the simple truth is that the amount of time and money required to go there at this time is beyond my capability.   For the last several days, I have spent a great deal of time in Ain Shemz with the Unigunz, and as our album is nearly complete, I really do not want to get distracted from the project.  More importantly, one of the members - Slim J - is returning back to Sierra Leone in less than 2 weeks, providing only a small amount of time for us to complete everything.  Yet I really need a break from Cairo, and so 3 or 4 days in Dahab seems to be the best compromise.  Later tonight I will be leaving with Mallory and her friend Stacey (who is actually from Cincinnati!) for 3 or 4 days of clean air and good food.  Best of all, one of the first things we plan to do is climb Mt. Sinai! 

Welcome to the Warehouse of History

The other day I went to the Egyptian National Museum.  I had a fantastic time, yet it was definitely a different experience than one would find within most museums.  The most significant difference is the basic layout of the museum.  Artifacts are not exactly on display, but seem to be simply in storage.  Everything is arranged by Old, Middle, and New Kingdom, but otherwise the objects seem to be dispersed at random.  Very few objects have labels, many things are laying about with no lighting, and the rooms have no sense of context.



However, there were many fantastic aspects to the Museum.  I saw all the artifacts from King Tut's tomb in addition to a mumified horse, two mummified crocidiles,  ancient egyptian drawings on papyrus, and entire chariots dating from several thousand years ago.  The best part was to look at all the other tourist - raven haired Russians, Europeans with silly haircuts, and pudgy Americans.  Most of these folks were part of large package tours with exotic names like 'Dreams of the Nile' that supplied them with name tags, museum guides, and tour buses.

New Hip Hop Video

I recently finished this video for Life of Slim J.  For whatever reason, I am having much difficulty in getting the appropriate resolution for Youtube, so the image is not as nice as I would prefer.  Regardless, if it is not visible below, then you can link directly to it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGwBTavlhDI