Cairo Culture

Cairo is huge! See the pyramids?!

There are so many things to say but so little time to say them. First thing to know about Egyptians: they are very friendly. Our resident manager, Mr. Mamdouh, is a prime example. He bends over backwards to make sure we are comfortable in Egypt. If your drink is empty, he will give you his. If your plate is empty, he will give you his food. He is very outgoing as well, often singing and dancing throughout the day and sharing jokes with all of us in his very broken English. As he tells us, five times a day in prayer he thanks Allah for sending us to him in Egypt.

In my last post I also mentioned crazy traffic. It is super crazy. Cars, buses, motorcycles, horses, scooters, donkeys, etc. Today I saw a horse and cart going the wrong way on the highway and a scooter with four people on it: a man, a boy, and a woman holding a baby! The only place in Cairo with stop signs and stop lights is downtown and half of those don't work. Traffic is bad. It took us 30 min. just to cross the Nile today and an hour to go 1 mile! There is just a constant drone of car horns.

I also mentioned the police. They are everywhere. Every street corner downtown has at least 3 police officers and since there are no traffic lights they have police officers directing traffic at every major intersection! There are also police in front of most restaurants, hotels, and apartment buildings.

In the last couple of days I have eaten some interesting dishes as well: Kushari, a traditional spicy Egyptian dish and roasted pigeon, which was actually quite good.

Yesterday we visited Al-Azhar mosque and even got to go through their religious library and peruse the ancient tomes of hadith, the sayings of the Prophet. Today we went to Muhammad Ali mosque and the Citadel as well as a perfume and papyrus factory. Tomorrow: The Pyramids. Until next time, ma salaama.

Kushari