Cairo

It’s been weeks since I was last in the forest and while Ruth is knocking out another one of her monkey follows in the National park today I’ve surfed the net, drank a big mug o’ cowboy coffee and tackled two bucketfuls of laundry. I’m sort of like a Mr. Mom, without a bunch of screaming kids, dirty diapers and a television blaring in the background. I can sip my coffee in peace while I read Russell Brand’s ‘My Booky Wook’-hilarious stuff in there. I’ve also been perusing some literature about women in Islam that we picked up at a mosque on our recent trip to Cairo- yes we went to Egypt! I am sympathetic to the fact that Muslims have been demonized by western media while we bomb their countries to pieces (not to peace), and was interested to visit the ancient mosques in Cairo but when we were led to the rack of religious propaganda on the side of the big carpeted worshipping area I was reminded how similar the three major religions descending from Abraham really are and how little use I have for any of them. Maybe that’s why god has cursed me with a swollen neck! Why not strike my unbelieving bald head down with a bolt of lightening…in fact strike me down now if I have wronged thee? OK, still here…for now. This would be so much easier to deal with than some obscure unidentifiable low grade infection that has me jumping from one outrageous diagnosis and treatment plan to the next. We drove 8 hours to Dar to see a doctor that could only tell me that it was probably a virus infection of some type in the sinuses and glands and that there was nothing they could do. The great wazungu soccer ball giveaway had to be postponed but I’ll soon get back to it because while the throat thing has kept me lying low and rubbing tiger balm on the old neck muscles and lymphs for weeks I think I’m on top of it. Two words-neti pot-Josh told me about this years ago, but I failed to appreciate the significance until now. What you do is add some salt and baking soda to water in a specially designed clay pot and pour it into your nose. Sounds preposterous, and it IS when done with an old plastic water bottle and half spilling onto your face, but it flushes out the sinuses like I just surfed Blacks for two hours.


Levitating using the trans-galactic power of the pyramids…Ruth just jumping

The Nile

Sunset felucca ride

The air pollution in Cairo rivals the worst in the world. Ruth and I had a clear view of the Egyptian desert spotted with tombs, pyramids and half buried geometric shapes until we descended into the black cloud hanging over Cairo. It was unbelievable really. How can people not realize that they have become victims of their own progress? How can they live in that blackness and mass of traffic jams and not realize that automobiles are destroying all that history and culture and their quality of life? A few trolleys, some pedestrian only greenways crisscrossing the city and tight emission restrictions and even wing-nut knuckle draggers would smile with ungrateful serenity. In Tanzania you have about 1% of the population driving automobiles, zooming up and down rural dirt roads running 99% of the population who are riding bicycles or walking off into the ditches- so clearly ridiculous. In Egypt, car ownership is certainly more evenly distributed among the social classes but it’s hard to see the benefit for perhaps close to ½ of the population who don’t have cars and push through the thick black air of the clogged city streets on their old steel Chinese beasties. This was the true test of the neti pot treatment. Ruth and I would wander around Cairo for hours and hours going to the markets and museums and pyramids and I’d come back at night and snort a salty mixture of black soot and snot out of my sinuses-come here Ruth for a kiss to celebrate our romantic vacation.


Massive

This guy got a little grabby so Ruth gave him the brush-off

Young (and old) lovers……Oh! My back is killing me-climbing out

The Arc of the Covenant is buried somewhere here I just know it

Our trip to Cairo was a little getaway I arranged for Ruth’s birthday and a chance for us to buy all kinds of crazy Christmas gifts for friends and family. We stayed in a small hotel on the 12th floor of an old building in the downtown area. We were blocks away from the Nile and from the Egyptian museum and only a few miles from the Giza pyramids. We went on felucca rides on the Nile, crawled into the dank air deep inside the pyramids and we spent two days at the museum wandering among the statues, sarcophagi and King Tut’s treasures. The place was packed with Euros. It’s funny because we went out of our way to dress conservatively during our stay since showing shoulders or knees in Cairo is scandalous. But, the tourist buses were unloading thousands of scantily clad blond Euro couples. Women in hot pants with butt cheeks hanging out and bikini tops and dudes all kitted out in the latest Euro beachwear. Tanzanian culture has conservatized us I guess, but we were shocked. I don’t know where they were staying or what else they did while in Egypt besides visit the pyramids and the main tourist market, but we never saw them while we were roaming around the rest of the city. Pretty much every local woman wears robes and scarves and maybe 10% were completely covered from fingertip to eyeball. I must admit that seeing only the eyeball made me quite curious just what the hell was under that hood? I figured that they must be at least sporting a face mask to deal with the pollution. That might be a great invention. Make a hijab with a breather hose/filter built directly into the fabric for Muslim women that live in cities with crap air.


Get me some dates

View out the window in the stairwell of our building (12 flight climb when the electricity went out)

Old lift into one of the buildings and the view at night from our balcony

Outside of the air pollution, Cairo was awesome. Since we were coming from Tanzania we had a pretty low happiness threshold if that’s the word for it. We were seeking some basic pleasures like toilet seats (for me since I squat poorly), air conditioning, some semblance of anonymity, fresh fruit juices and falafel which we read about in our travel guide and of course millennia of ancient Egyptian civilization which has survived invasion from Persians, Greeks, Romans and more recently from the rise of Islam (OK maybe it isn’t surviving this) and which, perfectly conserved by the desert air, has permeated and infused with enlightenment the day to day life. Unfortunately in Tanzania successive waves of conquerors, transient population, the unrelenting cycles of dry season/wet season and the temporary nature of the structures has left only shadows of the ancient cultures which were once here- shadows which are now rapidly eroding under the relentless flow of capitalism.


Shopping madness!!! How can we live without an antique sheep horn handled dagger.

Where’s Ruth? We got lost a few times in these confusing streets.

One of our navigational landmarks

I highly recommend visiting Cairo. For all my friends out there- take your ladies (or vice-versa) to Cairo. Ruth and I had a great time and aside from the black snot and swollen neck it might even be called romantic. Every single person we interacted with that week first asked us where we were from, then raised their eyebrows and then welcomed us to Egypt. Many said Ohhh! Obama! Yes! It’s the same with Obama in Tanzania. I can’t stress enough what a major shift in the overseas perception of the US that president Obama has made. Now, I can’t say that I agree with all of his policy decisions thus far, but our experience in Africa has been greatly influenced by his presidency. Regardless of who is president, Cairo is one of the safest cities I’ve ever been in. We could wander all over at night, kids were out on their bikes and families were out strolling enjoying the cooler evening air and celebrating the holy month of Ramadan. We happened to visit during Ramadan, which wasn’t planned and frankly made it really difficult to find a place to eat during daylight hours and nearly impossible to drink any beer, but interesting for many other reasons. There were big fast breaking food parties in the streets after the sun went down (we could never quite wait long enough for these) and everyone was out until the wee hours shopping for kids clothes in the shops downtown. We couldn’t believe the lines at the front of all the kid’s stores each night- it was almost like the parents, wearing traditional robes, were living out their western fashion dreams upon their children. For every kid’s clothes store there was a lingerie shop getting nearly as much business.


Working man’s bike

Another workhorse- notice the massive central break pedal on both of these bikes

These ARMS bulging from a tight fitting shirt grabbed me by the neck- and this other guy gave us chips

We met some neat characters along the way. Of course we didn’t speak any Arabic so our communication was limited but most people knew a few words of English. There was our toothless cab driver that wanted to be called Steve Mcqueen and drove like it and the guy we bought these awesome canvas bags decorated with Egyptian Cartoon characters from who bought us yams afterwards. There were the guards at one of the pyramids that insisted that I hold an AK47 and stand next to their camel for a photo - how could I refuse? There were the guys in the scarves market who were really friendly and one big muscle bound eunuch (OK maybe that’s an exaggeration) who grabbed me in a headlock in a totally friendly smiley way blabbering in Arabic while everyone around was laughing and I took a picture of his giant bicep. I have no idea what that was about. Maybe he wanted me to buy some of his men’s shirts for sale. But they were too metro-sexual for my taste. Ruth was trying to find a nice shirt for her bro Alex, but I had to put my foot down since the fashions were all like leftover off Back Street Boys costumes. The market streets were crowded and hectic and touts would do everything they could to pull you into their shops to look at their goods. We did our best not to get suckered into any silly purchases and now that we’re back in Tanzania it seems like we got some good stuff for you guys!

Wadudu of the day- Keep moving folks nothing to see here, just a couple of leaves.