Jenyfer Matthews

Not so long ago I mentioned the tree massacre that was going on all around my neighborhood and the piles of trash that have been left behind as a result.

MAADI SINGS THE BLUES
The redistricting of Maadi out of Cairo created not just a constitutional debacle, but a contractual dispute that is leaving behind massive piles of moldering garbage and a looming public health problem.
By Azza Khattab

This article that appeared in Egypt Today really explains a whole lot about the deteriorating state of my neighborhood. As usual, it all boils down to a bunch of politicians playing games and the failed privatization of what ought to be a government service.

Bah humbug. I’d almost rather keep driving around in the snow…

We stayed the night at a hotel near Lake Qaroun, a large salt water lake. The salt content of this lake is higher than that of the Mediterranean.

Fishermen on Lake Qaroun at sunrise.

The location of the hotel was lovely, as you can see. Though it looked pretty good on the outside, the hotel was a dump. Our room was unusually large - it was apartment sized and we all had our own beds which I wasn’t expecting. We couldn’t enjoy it however because the room was so disgusting. The walls were crumbling and speckled with bug splats, the tub had dried up mouse turds in it, and one bathroom was missing a window pane which allowed swarms of mosquitoes to join us. The housekeeping couldn’t be bothered to tend to any of those problems, yet they left fresh bougainvillea blossoms on our pillows!

As an aside, having had experiences like this before in Egypt, I have a list of things I bring with me when I travel:

Flip flops
Wash cloth
baby wipes
hand sanitizer gel
bar of soap
mosquito repellent (not that they paid any attention this time!)

I may have to add sheets / sleeping bag to this list! Needless to say, none of us slept much at all.

On the second morning we headed out to Wadi Rayan where we were supposed to go and visit an open air museum where there are some 400 fossilized whale bones preserved from millions of years ago. It was in fact the main purpose of the trip.

This is as far as we were allowed to go. There was some mix-up between the bus company and the tour organizer and argue though she did, she was unable to convince them to drive our buses down the gravel road to get to the site. The drivers were concerned they would get stuck and disappointing as it was to miss the fossils I can’t really say I blame them.

The road the buses refused to travel…

While our tour organizer argued, we wandered in the sand near the bus and picked up fossilized sea shells.

So, instead of whale bones, we visited the waterfalls of Wadi Rayyan. They are formed by the overflow of Lake Qaroun flowing down into lower areas, forming two more smaller salt lakes. They aren’t particularly impressive until you realize that they are some of the only waterfalls in Egypt, period.



Close enough to Cairo for a day trip, this is a big picnic spot for Egyptians - and they certainly seem to be enjoying themselves!

The people in the countryside wear much more colorful scarves than the city





The last place we visited was this Greco-Roman temple, with the remains of the city of Dionysias








My son claimed he liked this last site best of all because we were able to climb on to the roof - though perhaps it was the danger of falling through the open pits into rooms below that thrilled him most. That or the bat we saw.

All in all, it was a good trip. We returned to Cairo on Friday evening, tired, mosquito bitten, and dirty. But there is nothing like a night in a crappy hotel to make you appreciate the comforts of home.

We spent our holiday traveling this year visiting an area of Egypt known as the Fayoum. I’m no expert on Egyptian history, but in a nutshell the Fayoum region is a desert depression into which the overflow of the yearly Nile Valley flooding used to flow. Due to this, the area is incredibly fertile. But it wasn’t until the Greco-Roman occupation of Egypt that reservoirs and canals were built to bring the waters of the Nile to the area on a controlled and regular basis, allowing people to farm there year round, at which time the area, though geographically small, became a very important area of Egypt.

Our first stop were the remains of a village called Karanis, on the edge of the Fayoum region. This was an agricultural village populated by ordinary people. Not much remains of the village because their homes were built of mud brick which has eroded over time.

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The remains of a mud brick wall in the village. The holes in the wall were where the palm log flooring fitted to make multiple story buildings.






The ruins of the village with the lush greenery of the Fayoum valley in the distance





It wasn’t all mud brick - this simply adorned temple still stands.





The primary god worshiped in this area was Sobek, the crocodile god. There were niches in this temple into which mummified crocodiles would have been placed.



The Pyramid at Hawara, built by Amenemhet III during the time of the Middle Kingdom. It doesn’t look like much now because the outer layer of limestone has been removed over time, exposing the much less durable mud brick structure below. But it is an impressive number of mud bricks! And apparently this pyramid has one of the most complicated internal passage systems, built in an attempt to thwart tomb robbers. Shortly after this period, pharaohs abandoned pyramids in favor of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings down in Luxor.






The entrance to the pyramid. There wasn’t much to see - the water table has risen so you could only go a few yards in before the floor of the tunnel was covered in water. It probably wouldn’t have stopped Indian Jones but the caretakers stopped us!



One of the many policeman that guarded us at the various sites we visited over the two day trip, a necessary precaution.



The decor at the rest stop where we ate lunch was certainly interesting!



Farmland



Pyramid at Lahun, built by King Senwosret II



One of several openings leading to the tombs of the princesses



This pyramid survived somewhat better than the previous pyramid because of the way in which is was built, incorporating the stone of the hillside in conjunction with the mud bricks.

Stay tuned, more pictures tomorrow…

Looking for just the right gift for your little one this Christmas? Want something unique? Something that will stimulate their imagination? Develop hand-eye coordination while at the same time killing any spark of empathy or compassion they might have?

Have I got the toy for you!

(Click images to enlarge)

Not convinced it’s right for your little one? The blurb on the back speaks for itself:

Having trouble finding the Terror Game in your local toy store? Made in China by HAPPY BABY, request it by name!

Note: This game is not suitable for children under three.

(THREE??? I think they should have stopped after “not suitable”, full stop)


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SSSHHHH!!! Don’t tell, but I’m giving this to my father for Christmas. Should be good for a laugh…

I went shopping for coach gifts for my son’s soccer team on Tuesday, thinking that if there were any snags I’d still have time to rethink and do something else. Am I ever glad I did - there were more snags than anything else!

The head coach recently became ill from eating out so a restaurant certificate as an idea, an old standby, was immediately thrown out. Though she is a recent arrival to Egypt I decided against buying her any arts / handicrafts because tastes vary so much with that sort of thing. In the end I decided to get a gift certificate to a local clothing store than sells a nice selection of items made from Egyptian cotton. Everyone agreed it sounded like a great idea.

Only when I got there, they don’t sell gift certificates. In fact, I had to explain what a gift certificate was.

So I made a few phone calls and it was decided that I should go to another shop in the neighborhood, one that sells arts/ handicrafts, and see if I could get a gift certificate there. They not only knew what I was talking about but had pre-printed cards ready. One down, one to go.

After a quick consultation with the assistant coach’s wife, I went to his favorite shop at the mall. They don’t sell gift certificates (Attention Egyptian retailers - you’re really missing the boat on that one!) I then went to a club to which he belongs, planning to get him a restaurant voucher there. Closed.

Keep in mind I was walking everywhere to do this stuff. I was certainly well exercised as I was defeated at every turn.

As it turns out, it seems what he would really like is a case of Corona beer so guess what he’ll be getting? Though he’ll have to pick it up - I’m not schlepping that to the field!

With coach gifts sorted I thought I was home free. Not quite. My daughter, soccer star extraordinaire, child with not one but *two* days of tournaments scheduled this weekend, is sick with a fever and throat infection. There’s something going around our building so I called the doctor at the first signs of illness (He came to us within an hour! Cheaper and easier than an office visit!) Fingers crossed the meds he prescribed will kick in by tomorrow. She’s determined to play for her respective teams. (And I’m more grateful than ever I went out and got the coach presents early!) I hope she recovers quickly because it wouldn’t be nearly so much fun to be out at the field all day Saturday for my team mom duties if my own child wasn’t even well enough to participate!

At present, I’m just determined to remain well enough myself to enjoy wine night tonight!

Since we don’t have a car, I get around mostly on foot. I don’t normally mind walking - in a safe and orderly place. Walking in Cairo is anything but safe and orderly. In fact, pedestrians are considered just one more hazard in the road.

It’s become even more tricky to walk lately since the one decent sidewalk that existed in our neighborhood has recently been torn up. It looks as if they are intending to improve it a bit which would be great:

However, they tore it up with much more speed and enthusiasm than they seem to be reconstructing it. I haven’t seen anyone working on it in a week.

And it seems to be tree trimming season in my neighborhood. It all started when a large tree limb broke and fell onto that sidewalk pictured above. Not only did no one clear it, but it seemed to give people ideas and everyone in the vicinity started adding their own tree trimmings (and other misc trash0 to the pile. That enormous pile has been cleared away to make way for the sidewalk destruction but there are similar piles springing up all over the neighborhood.

I could go on like this all day! It’s kind of fascinating in a way, though it does make it hard to walk along when your path is suddenly blocked by a big pile of tree limbs. And the poor trees! We aren’t talking about precision pruning here either - think a barefoot guy up a tree with a blunt axe, cutting off anything he can reach until all that is left are a few leafy sprigs. It’s a wonder than anything survives.

Only three weeks until we leave for our Christmas holidays in the US. Maybe when we get back, the sidewalk will be fixed…

One odd thing about Egypt that I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned before is that doctors practicing here often have evening hours as a matter of course. So far as I can tell, they will work a rotating and floating schedule - a few days a week at this clinic, a few days at that one, a few hours here, a few hours there. You get the idea. They may be across town on a Monday afternoon and in your neck of the woods on Tuesday evening.

Going out for doctor appointments in the evening isn’t my idea of a good time, but on the up-side you can normally get a appointment the same day you call the office. And evening hours do work out well for children who are in school during the day - provided it’s the early evening. I was once offered an appointment for an MRI at 11pm! I waited a whole day so I could go in at noon instead!

I took my son to the doctor the other evening and since I forgot to bring my own book, I looked through their selection of magazines instead. There are plenty of magazines produced locally, but few are in English so I can’t read any of them. But this time I found one that was just fascinating.

(click image to enlarge)

Written by Egyptians for Egyptians (in English? Why?), the editor’s note on the inside cover says:

The first time the magazine was launched last March 07, the words “Just Divorced” and “magazine” uttered together made some people immediately envision Divorce in their future. The rationale behind it though, was that each and every family witnesses the subject of divorce in one way or another and has many unanswered questions, but no publication has ever put it all in one place. Fortunately, this has changed and people now see it as it really is - a useful and interesting resource for anyone trying to improve their life to start a new slate so they don’t end up divorced.
{…}
Of course, we understand that divorce is a loaded word - one that holds a negative connotation for some. But it doesn’t have to be negative. We see divorce not as a failure but as an essential learning experience - experiences if not always building blocks to future success, then at least a necessary part of life. It is not a problem as many like to believe but a solution to a problem!

Okay, I can see where they are going with this idea and it’s not a bad one - though I’m still not sure about that title. And I’m sure that many many people have viewed getting a divorce as “a solution to a problem”! Maybe it’s just me, but just from scanning their table of contents, is their reporting style a tiny bit skewed? Women - you better look your best or you’ll end up a poor cruel single mother. Guys don’t worry - you can be a great single dad!

I’m almost looking forward to the follow up visit to see what other reading material the waiting area has to offer! And by the way - follow up visits with doctors are very often free or at least discounted. Now that’s a system I’d like to export…

BTW, little man has a plantar’s wart on his big toe. Now maybe he’ll listen to me when I tell him not to run around barefoot!

(click image to enlarge)

I see this chair every week when I go to my yoga class - look closely and you’ll see it’s chained to the landing on the stairwell. Why?? By the looks of it, it wasn’t terribly valuable even in its prime and now even the duct-tape re-upholstery job has seen better days. I will give it credit for being sturdy - I sat in it briefly while waiting for the instructor to arrive and open the studio - but really, is that thick chain really necessary?

Or perhaps the owner is afraid the chair will escape…

Halloween was a a weekend-long event in my part of the world, kicking off with a Halloween party at the children’s school on Thursday night. Why Thursday? Because Thursday is our “Friday”, the last day of the work/school week, and also because the big American school in our neighborhood did their Halloween extravaganza on Friday night.

The costumes came out really well, if I say so myself. The ninja hood is made from a plain white tshirt with the sleeves stitched behind the head! I got tons of compliments on my pirate costume too. Do you think it was the eye patch or the fact that I actually had on some mascara for a change?!

Halloween itself was pretty quiet - at least in our part of the neighborhood. Apparently there was some trouble around the American school after their Halloween fair. My son’s soccer coach, who lives quite close by the school, told me that there were hundreds of teenagers milling around on her street throwing eggs and tomatoes at cars, buildings, and people - including the policemen that were there! - and that they knocked down a power pole as well! Someone else told me that last year the “revelry” included overturning a car. The Halloween fair at the American school is a closed event - students and family only - and from reports I’ve heard, the troublemakers were mostly Egyptian adolescents who knew that the fair was going on and just came to hang around. One Scottish acquaintance I have said that it happens every year and she thought that the bad behavior / “tricks” was just an “American thing”. I hastily denied that! Sure, there is some mischief that gets done on Halloween, but I’ve never seen or been part of a mob scene like that in America! And I’m sure if anything like that developed, the police would do more than just shield themselves from the egg-throwing.

Saturday afternoon, all the people in my building got together and had a party in our shared garden followed by trick-or-treating after dark. This time my daughter was the ninja warrior - a blue belt, the most dreaded of all! (she claimed the black belt was too small) My son couldn’t be bothered to go and change out of his soccer uniform from his game in the morning so he claimed he was dressed up as a soccer player - which in fact he was!

All in all, I’m happy that October is finished. I’m hoping that November might be a tad less hectic. But if you haven’t had enough of Halloween and have a few hours to kill, check out this Halloween bowling game. Don’t blame me if you don’t get anything else done today…

getting the message across. You don’t have to read Arabic (or at all) to understand this warning:

No, I don’t smoke - these packs just caught my eye in the store the other day. Never have I regretted not having a camera phone more. Then I noticed that the street was littered with empty cigarette packs. Yes - I picked up trash for you guys, just so I could scan it and show it to you here. What I wouldn’t do for you.

And judging by how many packs there were to choose from, I’m guessing that this warning isn’t working.

There are many things about living in Egypt that are frustrating - like when the water pressure is too low to shower for three days straight or having a birthday card that was send from the US two weeks ago never show up (thanks Mr. Postman) But then there are things like the above that just make me laugh. And lately I’ve been seeing many such things. So stay tuned…