Hi everyone,
This could potentially be the last mass e-mail min masr (from Egypt) for a while. I finished teaching a while ago and now my Odyssean travels have already begun as I went to Siwa, one of the more remote corners of the earth, back to Alexandria for a day, and am now in Cairo - one of this planet's ancient hubs of human life. Well. Everything here was wonderful. I'm actually writing this on a computer in a room with no air conditioning and the space bar is pretty broken. It is loud and extremely annoying... Ah the simple luxuries we're used to... I think this post will be shorter than usual.
After I finished teaching I had a great following week. Some students decided to get me some very interesting parting gifts including: a extremely tacky picture frame (I enjoyed the gesture immensely) and a small Islam conversion kit. The picture frame came from Hanan - a thirty-five-or-so year old woman from an agrarian area outside of Alex. I was later informed that the gift was some form of flirtation. The Islam conversion kit (there was also a small wooden tray to go along with it) came from Samir. Some of the titles to my new literature include popular hits such as, "Is the Bible the word of God?," a English translation of the Qu'ran, "Islam and Science: Compatible or Incompatible?," "An Illustrated Guide to the Concepts of Islam" or something like that... Along with about five other little enlightening pamphlets, these comprise my key to eternal... what-have-you.
I had some time to burn while I wasn't grading final exams (one class did horrrribly) and on the last night of class some of my students from my adult class (but about my age) timidly invited me to dinner and I enthusiastically accepted. Probably the brightest three from the class. We went to Mo'men for shrimp sandwiches and ended up wandering around Alex for a lot of the night. I haven't seen Nesma or Moustapha since, but Yehia has ended up being a great friend in Alex for the last week. I learned so much about Egyptian culture - it's really far more intriguing than I ever would have expected before coming here.
I stayed for Siwa for a few days. The bus ride was about nine hours long through the sweltering desert and for the first time I think I was the only foreign person. Not only that I was the only English-speaker on the bus (that I know of). My companion ended up being this sweet old man sitting beside me. He kept falling asleep on my shoulder (Egyptians have a very modest sense of personal space...) and he slowly coaxed me into his trust by offering me scraps of food throughout the ride. First he unrolled a miniature cucumber from a piece of brown paper and insisted that I eat it. I think that he was keeping an eye on me throughout the ride and noticed that I hadn't eaten anything... Anyway, we started chatting a little and later gave me a hunk of bread and insisted that I come inside the final rest stop for mint tea. The buses are a little uncomfortable because there is ALWAYS some sort of religious rhetoric (prayers and what not) being sang over the speakers, the AC is on and off, and you can imagine. We sat in the little shack on the side of the road with the fruit flies swarming inside and sipped our tea happily together in the heat.
I arrived in the town and stepped off the bus. I had no hotel, phone, people to talk to, friends... so I evaded the kids on their donkey carts trying to give me taxi rides, and began walking through town. I don't even know how to describe it. Its so primitive - there are cars and electricity (everyone seems to remember when those things first came to town), but the lifestyle is soooo simple and traditional. And only the people in hotels know any English. I ended up staying in this place for 3 dollars a night. Seemed like a bargain. I spent my days wandering around the town, seeing the sites - there are BEAUTIFUL natural springs (it is an oasis...) that I would walk a few miles to there and back every day. I didn't research at all (I sort of did that deliberately so that I could explore for myself...) except for some friendly advice from Gramp. The best part was meeting the Siwis though. One day when I was walking back from Cleopatra springs, I met a man who said a couple of English phrases to me. I responded in Arabic, and it turned out he didn't know any English at all really. However, he invited me for tea with his friend and soon we were walking through this grove of date palms and he took me to their little shelter way off the road. We sat for a couple of hours speaking in Arabic (!) and talking about Siwan life and ourselves. We drank tea and they made me a sketchy looking lunch - I declined politely and just ate the bread while they chowed down... It was so nice. And then we took a few pictures and Abdul gave e a ride back to the edge of town on the back of his motorbike.
I also went on a desert safari for one night with a bunch of Italians which was interesting. The sand dunes outside of Siwa are amazing. I think that it is the edge of the Great Sand Sea. We drove off into the desert and went swimming in all of these nearby springs. The would just appear in the saddle between two golden dunes. It was really amazing. I got in the water and after going for a nice swim, sat near banks and soon there were little minnows nibbling on my legs.
We had a delicious dinner and I met a nice girl from Canada who was the secret girlfriend of one of our guides. Then we camped out under the stars with no shelter or anything. Just a blanket on the sand. Not long after stretching out under the stars the wind began and made it really miserable for a while with the sand blowing. I just got another blanket and covered my face and managed to get some sleep. Woke up for sunrise.
Anyway, I came back on the night bus and arrived in Alexandria yesterday morning. Went to the movies with Yehia (the new Batman movie is worth it, I think) and chilled out a little in the nice weather before heading back to Cairo. It's hot here. And it will only get hotter...
Egypt has been an amazing experience. The teaching, the learning. A wonderful way to spend a summer, I would do it again in an instant (in fact, I'm already scheming ways to get back here...) The people are (generally) some of the kindest I've ever encountered. Even tonight I was eating koshary by myself and I ended up having a long conversation with the guys sitting near me about Egyptian and American life, marriage, all these interesting things. The gentleman beside me bought me "labn wa ruz" ("milk and rice") and we ended up just sitting for a while talking. I think there are some universal qualities of people and its truly been a joy to see all of the cultural, language, religious, etc. boundaries dissolve when we realize we're all more or less the same. Especially from teaching and living here for a while now - kids are kids and adults are adults. Wherever you go you'll meet smart, ignorant, pessimistic, peaceful, dumbasses. And that's that. I'm tired and going to chill out in the hostel common room, finish reading Oscar Wilde (Picture of Dorian Gray) and crashing for as long as I can.
Anywho, thanks for reading.
Jake
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