Pics from a Cairo street...

This morning, near our street, I took this picture of three clay urns of drinking water, covered with wood, and with plastic cups attached. I have no idea who puts them out on the street, but they are for whoever is thirsty, which is just about everyone in the Cairo summer.

One for Emily

My sister had asked about health clinics in Egypt. More to come on this topic...

Just wanted to add this photo of ML and Coop rolling downtown in a cab...

An alley in Cairo

I went for a walk through our neighborhood this morning, and snapped a few photos along the way. I walked into "Arab Maadi," which is only a few blocks from our apartment and strolled down a very narrow alleyway between some apartment buildings. This area is working class poor, and Egyptians work hard to just to get by here. I bought some lollipops from a vendor - as a little economic stimulus for that particular alley, plus the local kids love them. I wasn't too sure how I would be received here. The best way I can describe it is that I was an outsider getting an intimate view of life in that particular place. I hadn't walked 200 yards before I was offered a chair and Pepsi outside of a small (very small) store in the alley. I sat and chatted for 1/2 and hour with a 22 year old computer student whose job prospects upon graduation are probably not good. During this chat a horse drawn cart ambled by (pic 1). I left after a while, but my attempts to pay for the Pepsi were refused, proving that Egyptian hospitality extends into Cairo's back alleys as well.

Cabs in Cairo

Luke likes to take taxis in Cairo. Very few of them have seatbelts, giving him the freedom to sit where he chooses, which is usually in the backseat, leaning forward between the driver and the front seat passenger. Most of the cabs are Fiats and Renaults from the 60's and 70's, and would have died long ago were it not for bailing wire, duct tape, Egyptian ingenuity, and the smell of an oily rag. But they always get us to where we are going, and the trip is never dull - especially for Luke.

After a couple of weeks in Cairo - without a car, and without the internet - we decided that it was time to get out of town. So we hired a driver to take us (and another family) seven hours to the South Sinai coast. The Sinai is the only land bridge connecting Africa and Asia, has been the object of several modern and ancient wars, is bordered to the north by the Mediteranean Sea and to the south by the Red Sea. The Red Sea is warm, with crystal clear water over magnificent reefs that (some say) rival the Great Barrier Reef in Austrailia. It is a scuba diver's mecca. We stayed in the town of Dahab for a few nights, then in Sharm el Sheikh for a few more. ML and the boys enjoyed the snorkeling - the tropical fish were amazing - and I went diving several times. What a great break from Cairo!

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Next to the Khan al Khalili market is the Mosque of Al Azhar, one of the older mosques in Cairo, and part of Al Azhar University which is the second oldest Islamic university in the world. We took a tour of the mosque one afternoon, and for a bit of baksheesh the Sheikh allowed us to climb to the top of one of the ancient miniarets for a fine view of Islamic Cairo. As you can see, Mary Leigh covered her hair with a hijab, and donned a covering given to her at the mosque.

The Khan al Khalili is an enormous bazaar that spans several city blocks in Islamic Cairo, and vendors sell just about anything you can imagine. It is famous throughout the Middle East, and perhaps best known for its salesmen that hawk their goods from their tiny storefronts. And they are good. Many of them use some version of the "Jedi mind trick" to convince unwitting customers to pay too high a price for items they didn't particularly want to begin with. These pics show our family enjoying some coffee and Karkadei (sweet juice made with hibiscus) at Fishawi's, a coffee shop that has been open more or less continuously for that past 200 years.

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Since we finally have the internet, I thought I would update this fledgling blog. I've posted a few pics of our felucca cruise on the Nile. Our Captain was a friendly gent from upper Egypt, or al saeed. We sailed for a few hours, and enjoyed a few cold Heineken's once we were underway. We've found that cruising the Nile is the fasted way to beat the Cairo hustle.