“Welcome to Egypt!”

That’s what people say when they see you’re a foreigner or tourist – coming out of the airport, walking around town, shopping at the market. The welcome is usually announced loudly and gleefully. It’s very funny – you almost have to smile and say “well, thanks!.” I’m sure it will get old after the first few days though!

This will be a lengthy first post, as I have not had time to write these past three days. Read as much or as little as you like. It has been a mind-boggling whirlwind of chaotic occurrences. From overnight plane rides to a rainy visit to Amsterdam’s Red Light District to the heat of Cairo and the loss of my luggage to familiarizing myself with colloquial Arabic and to the start of my work at Tadamon. WOW!

View of Cairo from Zamalek ramp, in taxi

I’m currently in Pottery Café, a small, modern café across the street from the old American University in Cairo (AUC) campus. It is surreal walking these streets again – I can’t believe I used to go to school there (I brought my old student ID with me this trip, hoping I can use it to sneak into their library for research, muah ha ha). I know my way around better than I thought I would and was able to navigate my way around the twisted streets of the neighborhood where I will work this summer, Garden City, to Mohammed Mahmoud Street where AUC and the café are. For lunch, I considered going for koshari – a traditional Egyptian noodle, rice, tomato, lentil, onion dish, extremely filling and cheap! – at a little hole-in-the wall restaurant down the street, but air conditioning, internet and a salad sounded more appealing at the time! I definitely needed to get out of the heat (100 degreesssssss) and away from the wide-eyed stares, hissing and snickering from men on the side of the street. Most of it is harmless, but some of it can get quite nasty (“tss tss,” “honey,” “sweetie,” vs. “fuck me” – all in Arabic). I was able to build up a wall against such harassment last fall (maybe being in Uganda prior to Cairo and going through similar experiences helped), but this time around I find myself with little to no patience for the sort of crap. Some people deal with it by ignoring it, others wear their ipod, some shoot back equally nasty retorts (which is actually not a good idea, as swearing and making a scene in this culture – unless physically harassed – essentially makes you worthy of being hissed at/harassed…essentially, you have stooped to a level so low with your retort that any prior gestures of harassment – major or minor – are justified. I guess I can understand the logic, but AHH! I’m so confrontational that it’s really hard for me to keep my mouth shut! I do though). I’m confident I will find a way to deal with it – probably just drowning it out with other thoughts and looking down at the ground and not making eye contact with men (what I’ve been doing lately, and what is encouraged for foreign women. Making eye contact can be a big no-no, as it is many times considered suggestive). Yesterday, one of my friends told me that when she can’t stand the verbal hurls, she slyly scratches her head with her middle finger, slightly flipping the aggressors off. Most usually do not even notice, but it makes her feel justified – what a secret rebellion! She said that even if they did see her, they couldn’t do anything about it because they could never prove it actually occurred. Man oh man, I found it pretty hilarious. Anyway, I by no means mean to paint all Egyptian men as verbally aggressive and profane, because the majority are not. It’s just that all eyes on me when I’m sweaty, alone and with little patience is more than frustrating!

The yellow dotted lines on the road mean nothing here! Drivers do as they wish

I’m in Cairo with a grant I was awarded called the 100 Projects for Peace. Through the grants awarded, this organization enables university students to create or partner with an organization dedicated to peace-building. The grant money is used for airfare, accommodations and for organization funding. Today was my first day at work. Yes, I’m working on Sunday. Here in Egypt, the work week runs from Sunday to Thursday, with Friday and Saturday as the weekend. My co-workers are great and I’ll even get my own office…how fancy! I am working at Tadamon, the Egyptian Refugee Multicultural Council. Tadamon essentially translates to ‘Solidarity’ in Arabic. A non-profit organization, Tadamon seeks to promote the welfare of refugees and their mutual co-existence with Egyptian citizens. They do this through networking, cooperative events and activities, peace building initiatives and capacity building for organizations. The refugee situation in Cairo is a huge issue, mainly due to the massive amount of refugees and an impossible task of dealing with all of them regarding legal issues, asylum, employment etc. Most of the refugees come from Egypt’s neighboring country, Sudan. Others come from elsewhere in North Africa – Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia – and a new surge of Iraqis has occurred in the last two years. Many organizations have been created to assist refugees – everything from AMERA (Africa and Middle East Refugee Assistance) to STAR (Student Action for Refugees). Tadamon is a networking organization with many local – and some international – non-profit and CBO partners. In addition to its community projects that bring together Egyptians and refugees in hopes of peace-building, Tadamon wishes to create a dynamic web portal that not only brings together relevant partners (organizations, staff, volunteers), but make known the services available for refugees and underprivileged Egyptians in Cairo. For the next two months, I will be working on the website development (i.e. finding a web developer and creating the creative and informational backbone of the website…I do not know html or code, so I clearly will take no part in the actual physical creation of the website) and communications development (pamphlets, brochures, presentations etc. with Tadamon’s mission). I will also be conducting site visits to the different partner organizations to assess the ways in which they might be able to collaborate on projects with Tadamon. I am interested in the arts, and lucky for me, so is Tadamon! They have put on events such as poetry readings, creative and interactive community discussions and forums, bazaar-like craft sales, and the sort. They often work closely with Townhouse Gallery, a contemporary art gallery that puts on a SAWA workshop every Saturday where any individual – regardless of language, religion, race – can come together to create art in an open environment. I attended several of these last year and had a total blast. I plan on going this Saturday and reconnecting with many of my Egyptian and Sudanese friends from last year.

View of Nile from Zamalek

I’m living in an apartment in Zamalek, an island in Cairo where the Nile splits. It is a 5-10 minute taxi ride from the center of Cairo (Tahrir Square). The taxi costs less than a dollar. Great deal, huh? Zamalek is a quiet, more “friendly” neighborhood. There are trees, parks and beautiful old colonial buildings. Not surprisingly, many ex-pats inhabit Zamalek – that is what it is most known for. While there are many recognizable, modern restaurants in downtown Cairo (McDonald’s etc.), Zamalek has everything from McDonald’s and Pizza Hut to fancy Chinese, Thai and Italian restaurants. The restaurants look like they were transplanted from America – that’s globalization for ya! Zamalek does not really have any schwarma/falafel joints or juice stands like downtown Cairo. They both have positives and negatives.

Looking out from my apartment balcony

I have two flatmates – Niambi from Georgia, USA and Sandra from the Netherlands. Niambi is a Fulbright scholar researching Egyptian hip-hop. Sandra attended school to learn Arabic. Both are pretty good at Arabic now, especially Sandra – she has many Egyptian friends that basically live in the apartment and with whom she is constantly chatting. That is really the best way to learn a language, talking with friends who speak the native language. You want so badly to understand what they are saying that you are forced to learn! Last night I spent a couple hours in the living room talking with her and two of her Egyptian guy friends. While my spoken Arabic is quite rusty, I could surprisingly understand almost all they were saying (except a few filler or slang words they used here and there). I was definitely excited. I’m planning on getting an Arabic tutor here. I brought my old Arabic books (fusha – written Arabic language) from school last year, but now I’m thinking I might just study amiyya (spoken Arabic). After all, I just want to be able to communicate with people. I don’t need to read and write just yet, although this is a goal of mine for the future. That’ll take YEARS though.

The apartment is pretty big, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, a huge living/dining room and a balcony overlooking our street. The apartment is actually right down the street from my apartment from last year. My old neighbors and bowab (doorman) are still there – I saw them in the lobby when I walked to the supermarket yesterday. My current roommates will be leaving by July 27th, so I will be moving to another apartment, also in Zamalek. My next apartment is SWEET. I visited it last night. It’s big, with modern furniture (Egyptian apartments usually have hysterically decorated walls and tacky gold-rimmed furniture – this was like my apartment last year. It honestly looked like discarded king’s furniture), an extremely comfy bed (my bed now is hard as a darn rock) and….A CAT! The young woman who owns the apartment found her as a kitten in the street with a broken leg (the garbage man had dumped the garbage bag on her, poor thing!). She rescued the kitten, helped it heal and got it the necessary shots. The cat definitely still has “feral” characteristics and personality – she’s quite touchy, ornery and will sometimes attack your feet or hiss for no reason! It’s pretty comical though. All I have to do is feed her, change her litter box and make sure she doesn’t jump off the balcony…yikes! I’m sure she and I will get along fine – her name is Aisha and she let me pet her for 5 seconds yesterday…before she attacked my hand!! Her owner swears she is schizophrenic. I agree entirely. I’m sure I’ll come out of this apartment experience with amazing cat stories. This apartment is actually 2 floors above my good friend Susannah’s. She also went to Northwestern and now works at AMERA, having received a grant. She’s an invaluable companion and friend in this crazy city and I’m really looking forward to hanging out with her. She has a really awesome Egyptian roommate and a fun crowd of foreigner and Egyptian friends.

Whizzing through Cairo in a taxi

These past three days have definitely been chaotic. Thank goodness my “lost” baggage was found and returned yesterday. PHEW. I really needed a change of clothes!! I’m definitely starting to settle in. Even though it’s ridiculously hot/humid outside, I’m adapting to the heat quite well, although AC is obviously always more comfortable. I usually wear long pants and long or quarter-length shirts to minimize the stares and cat calls. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but I prefer not to dress half naked like many of the dumbo European tourists here (I have even seen partial butt cheeks!) Sometimes I think “Do you have ANY idea where you are?! The woman next to you is in a burka!” The sad thing is, many of them have no idea that their choice of dress might actually offend someone. Oh well – such is life!

Asiadam = Amsterdam ?!

Before I end this post, a quick note about Amsterdam. So, I had a 10 hour layover in Amsterdam in between my flights. I’ve only been to the Amsterdam airport once before – on my way to the Czech Republic when I was 10 years old – and all I could remember were the extraordinarily uncomfortable neon green plastic chairs. Although this was not the case when I arrived (the airport is well-organized, clean, and comfortable), I decided to escape into the city to explore for a couple hours. It was drizzling (Seattle style) but I hopped on a train and took the 15-minute ride into the city. Without a map, I just started walking. After a while it wasn’t difficult to find my way around. I wound in and out of the streets and little alleys. Everything is clumped closely together and the city is made up of tall skinny houses and apartments. It reminds me of parts of Boston or the Andersonville neighborhood in Chicago. There are bikes EVERYWHERE and the graffiti was mindblowingly awesome(!).

Graffiti was all over Amsterdam - some of it was really quite interesting

On bridge in Amsterdam

People usually either walk or ride a bike – most of the streets are narrow and one way. I can’t imagine driving there unless I knew the city really well. You could clearly tell who were tourists and who were not. Tourists typically had neon rain ponchos on, red umbrellas with ‘Amsterdam XXX’ on them or cameras hanging around their necks. Locals tended to be inside the bars or “coffee shops,” all of which smelled like weed. There was a hemp museum and a store selling sensi/cannabis seeds in little packets! They had an entire windowsill filled with humongous marijuana plants. It was really ridiculous! Of course it had a big fat “DO NOT TOUCH THE PLANTS” sign on it. I walked through much of the Red Light District, saw many unclad girls in the windows, zillions of “Live Sex Show” signs, erotic sex toys and pictures of sex positions I didn’t even think were possible (we’re talking acrobatic quality!!). There was even an Erotic Museum. This was my first time in Amsterdam, so I didn’t know what to expect of the Red Light District, but I knew I wanted to see it. I have heard that it has toned down a lot. It seemed pretty controlled, and not too crazy. I was there in the day, however, so who knows what kind of crazy stuff goes down at night. I only imagine the worst/best, depending on the audience!

Alright, well that’s all for now. The future blogs will cease to be as comprehensive as this, I just wanted to explain what I’m up to. For now, masalaama (goodbye, in Arabic).

Red Light District window irony: mannequin vs. hooker

I bet it's more scandalous than Baz Luhrmann's movie...