Month: October 2006

Just finished culling and editing. Post to follow. (Eventually)

Click here for photos

Today, being Tuesday, I have an Arabic lesson at the AUC main campus.

So, I go out to hail a taxi to get there.

I begin the taxi hailing process:

Stand in street, stick hand out into street, positioned at about 7:30. As the taxi slows down, yell in the window where you want to go. If the taxi driver wants to go there he’ll stop. If not, he will keep going.

To get a taxi from where I live (Zamalek) to campus (Midan Tahrir) at the time of day that I normally want to get there (around 1-2pm), can be difficult because the traffic can be very very bad. I have had as many as 8 taxis refuse to take me there.

I see a taxi approach, I put out my hand. I notice that there is a small boy sitting in the front seat. Now, it is not uncommon to share taxis here. If there is an empty seat, the taxi driver will slow down to hear where you want to go, and if it is on the way or nearby to his current destination, he will pick you up.

Both passengers still pay “full fare”, you get no discount.

But, I prefer not to get into a taxi that already has a passenger, cause the taxi driver’s definition of “on the way” and my definition of “on the way” do not match.

So, I drop my hand to wait for the next taxi, but he stops and asks where I want to go. (It probably helps that I am obviously a foreigner and standing outside the AUC hostel, so he figures:

• I am obviously “rich”
• I probably won’t know how much I should pay
• and I am probably going to AUC campus.

I tell him, he agrees and I get in the back seat.

He takes an ill-advised route to get there [one pays a “well known” rate. it doesn’t matter how long it takes or how far out of your way he goes, the rate is the same]. I assume it is because he has to drop off the boy, so he chose the most congested, crowded route possible.

A few minutes of silence go by, and the man turns to the kid and says something about “bokra, insh’allah” and “khallas” which mean “tomorrow, god willing” and “enough!”.

The boys starts crying. sobbing and pleading. I got enough of the conversation that this has been an ongoing argument for sometime (days?) and that the taxi driver (who I realize is the kid’s father, based on the kid’s use of “baba”) has had “enough” and whatever it is will happen or get dealt with tomorrow.

More silence.

But that doesn’t last for long, because neither one of them is smart enough to let it go.

The boy will break the silence, begging to which the father will answer abruptly and again use “khallas”.

The boy will shut up.

After a few minutes of silence, the father will bring it up again and the boy will sob and plead.

Silencfe.

The boy will sob and plead again.

lather, rinse, repeat.

It isn’t entirely unpleasant and I spend the time trying to pick out what few words I can of the Arabic. It isn’t easy when one of the parties is sobbing while talking.

So, we reach the far side (from campus) of Midan Tahrir. The end of my time with the quarrelling father son team is nearing an end.

Traffic is stopped. We are stopped for a while. I decide to take out my cell phone (sorry: “mobile” here) and try to call Kaddee to see if she has time to meet me for lunch when:

WHAM

what the hell was..

WHAM

My taxi got rear-ended by another taxi. And then the taxi that rear-ended us, got rear-ended.

We pull over and the arguing begins. There is gesticulating, yelling and a crowd forms.

I get out of the taxi to snap a couple of photos.

I decide to vacate when the cops, who have been sitting not 5 meters away watching the whole thing, decide to come over and start taking notes.

Time to beat feet to campus.

If the taxi adventures continue, we may need a “taxi” category to keep track of these.

So, we have made a list of places we want to see/visit.

One of these is the Nilometer. It is on the sub-list of “stuff to do when you don’t want to spend all day touristing”.

Short taxi ride, a hour tops at the site. Should be done by lunch time.

Heh.

We never made it. We had some communication problems with the taxi driver. The Nilometer is on an island transliterated to “Roda”. We were trying to pronounce it like the name “Rhoda”, with a long “o”. We learned later that it is pronounced more like “Rawda”.

So we passed the last bridge to the island of Roda, and continued south. “Uhh, turn around.” We got him to turn around but were unable to convey to him our desired destination. As we were wandering around I saw a landmark that I had seen on the map.

“henna kwayyiz!”: (Here is ok). He let us out and we pulled out the map. Figured out where we were and make a new tactical plan: The Nilometer is out, Coptic Cairo is in!

First stop was the gate to the Nunnery of St George. We did not go in, because the Synagogue was about to close and we wanted to see it. Seems that the Egyptian government has decreed that the Synagogue will close at 3pm during Ramadan.

So we went into to visit the Ben Ezra Synagogue. On the way to it, I was stopped by someone I thought was hawking stuff. (This is a constant state of affairs. I usually just ignore them and keep walking). But he was an older gentlemen, maybe 60-65 and he was different.

Turns out he is an Egyptian Jew who was there to tell people about the Synagogue. There are, apparently, only 300 Jews left in Cairo, according to him. Egypt used to have a rather large jewish community, even in “modern” times.

The Synagogue is in pretty good shape. They do not allow photos there. In fact I put my camera to my eye to use the telephoto lens to examine something that was roped off, and the guide put his griy hand all over my lens. Words were exchanged.

I am probably going to go back. All my jewish friends are getting yarmulke’s embroided with “Ben Ezra Synagogue, Cairo” on them for Hanukkah 🙂

Off we went to visit the Hanging Church. A major church (where the Coptic Pope gets consecrated) that might be from the 4th, 7th or 9th century, depending on which sources you believe.

It is still in active use today, and is undergoing restoration again. I took a few photos inside. They allowed flash which surprised me.

You can buy videos and dvds of the Pope preaching and praying. They have a room dedicated to this along with holographic images of the Pope and the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus.

Now, I was raised Catholic (nominally) and I was always slightly disturbed by the “icon” worship of it. Lots of photographs and paintings of saints and popes. (and JFK).

But this place was something else entirely. Kind of a combo of Catholic gift shops and the gas station with the velvet Elvis paintings for sale, if you know what I mean.

So, from there we got overly ambitious and decided to head to Roda Island and try to visit the Nil-ometer anyway.

The problem is: we are on the wrong side of the wall and the metro tracks. We have to get west from where we are.

We walk. And we walk. And we walk some more.

We finally find a street/ally that looks likely enough to get us in the general direction we want to go. This alley goes through an older part of the city, that is apparently panel beater ally and muffler shop ally. Lots of holks up on blocks being stripped or rebuilt. A lot of hand tools and manual labor used here.

We finally get to the island of Roda and realize we are in the middle of Roda. It is 4PM , we are still a considerable walk from the Nilometer. It is hot, we have not eaten since a late breakfast, everything is now closed so people can get home for Iftar.

A new tactical plan is made. We head for the north end of Roda (the south end is where the Nilometer is) and the Grand Hyatt complex. Stuff will be open there, we can get food and a beer.

So after a very long, hot and dry walk through mostly a residential area that had no place open to even buy a bottle of water., we arrive at the Hyatt.

After much vaccillation caused by exhaustion and low blood sugar, we finally decide to sit outside and join one of the restaurants Iftar buffet along the Nile.

The food was exquisite, the sunset was beautiful and the company was extremely pleasureable, as always.

My photos are here.

We toured the Mosque of Ahmad ibn Tulun and the Gayer Anderson Museum.

It was nice trip. I learned quite a bit about mosques in general and this one in particular.

My photos are here.