Wednesday, January 28, 2004
The only major drawback to life in Abu Sir continues to be the long commute. The microbuses tend to be pretty crowded, as they are 15-passenger vans that sometimes carry as few as 14 people if the driver is merciful and allows only three people in the back seat, or somebody pays extra for space to put produce or bags of bread in. They hold on average 17 people or so, and a couple times I've gotten back to Abu Sir with to my legs completely asleep and had to kind of pull myself out of the van then lean against some nearby post trying to look cool, as the bloods starts flowing again.
Yesterday was pretty bad for the microbus coming from the Pyramids to Abu Sir. The other seats were full except for the fold-down ones in the aisle, so I was the second person in the back. A simply enormous man, your stereotypical large, illiterate, jolly Egyptian fellah (peasant farmer), was next on the microbus. He joined me in the back, which I took to be a blessing in disguise. Since he took up nearly two full seats, I figured the driver wouldn't insist on four people sitting in the back. Plus, I still had the aisle seat, so I had a little more leg room than the others. Next on was the fellah 's brother, who was quite a bit smaller, but still definitely obese. He took the aisle seat directly in front of me, and a woman took the final aisle seat in front of him. Then the driver returned from having a smoke, looked in the door, saw there were only three in the back, and said a fourth had to join us. Another woman getting on wisely refused to, and the logistics of the fellah 's brother getting out of the van, her getting in, and then him getting back in would have been difficult anyway, so the brother moved to the back with us. At this point I had to give up my aisle seat, so I was now sandwiched between roughly 550 pounds of Abu Sirians. The fellah thought it was pretty funny, and gave out a great big belly laugh, and said to me "Praise be to God you're so thin." I might have laughed, but I wasn't really getting much air, so I just wheezed in agreement.
During the first ten minutes of the ride, the two kept trying to have a conversation with each other, the fellah first leaning forward to try to open up a lane for direct communication with his brother,
Fellah: [leaning forward] "Do you see that boy up there?"
Brother: [leaning forward, but still not really getting around me] "What'd you say?"
[I try to lean back]
Fellah: "The boy up there. Isn't that 'Abd al-Kareem's kid?"
Brother: [leaning back to his original position] "I can't hear you."
Fellah: [trying to talk behind me know as I move my head forward]: "'Abd al-Kareem."
Brother: "Who's 'Abd al-Kareem?""
And so on. Utter pointlessness for about ten minutes before they gave up. The brother seemed to be very hard of hearing, and the fellah didn't enunciate too clearly in any case. The brother returned to blowing his nose on his sleeve, and then just onto his hand, which was soon glistening in the faint light from the front of the van. Exhausted by the effort, the fellah start drifting off, periodically emitting long, agreeable yawns with an uncanny resemblance to blue whales' whatever it is they do.
Getting sleepy, the fellah put his arm around me and rested his head on my shoulder. He said "It doesn't work. You're too tall and bony." Then he managed to rotate his neck enough to see the man seated to his left for the first time. Then he glanced back towards me, then looked back at the man, and chuckled. "Hey," he said to the man, "You're too short for me to lean on [i'm guessing here cause i didn't catch all of what he said], and the foreigner's very tall." The man looked offended by this gratuitous observation. Noticing this, the fellah told him in self-defense "But you are very short."
On a tangential note, the experience reminded me of Bill Mather's shirt, which on the back simply said "Big Fellah", which would be a fantastic piece of clothing to have in Egypt.
Yesterday was pretty bad for the microbus coming from the Pyramids to Abu Sir. The other seats were full except for the fold-down ones in the aisle, so I was the second person in the back. A simply enormous man, your stereotypical large, illiterate, jolly Egyptian fellah (peasant farmer), was next on the microbus. He joined me in the back, which I took to be a blessing in disguise. Since he took up nearly two full seats, I figured the driver wouldn't insist on four people sitting in the back. Plus, I still had the aisle seat, so I had a little more leg room than the others. Next on was the fellah 's brother, who was quite a bit smaller, but still definitely obese. He took the aisle seat directly in front of me, and a woman took the final aisle seat in front of him. Then the driver returned from having a smoke, looked in the door, saw there were only three in the back, and said a fourth had to join us. Another woman getting on wisely refused to, and the logistics of the fellah 's brother getting out of the van, her getting in, and then him getting back in would have been difficult anyway, so the brother moved to the back with us. At this point I had to give up my aisle seat, so I was now sandwiched between roughly 550 pounds of Abu Sirians. The fellah thought it was pretty funny, and gave out a great big belly laugh, and said to me "Praise be to God you're so thin." I might have laughed, but I wasn't really getting much air, so I just wheezed in agreement.
During the first ten minutes of the ride, the two kept trying to have a conversation with each other, the fellah first leaning forward to try to open up a lane for direct communication with his brother,
Fellah: [leaning forward] "Do you see that boy up there?"
Brother: [leaning forward, but still not really getting around me] "What'd you say?"
[I try to lean back]
Fellah: "The boy up there. Isn't that 'Abd al-Kareem's kid?"
Brother: [leaning back to his original position] "I can't hear you."
Fellah: [trying to talk behind me know as I move my head forward]: "'Abd al-Kareem."
Brother: "Who's 'Abd al-Kareem?""
And so on. Utter pointlessness for about ten minutes before they gave up. The brother seemed to be very hard of hearing, and the fellah didn't enunciate too clearly in any case. The brother returned to blowing his nose on his sleeve, and then just onto his hand, which was soon glistening in the faint light from the front of the van. Exhausted by the effort, the fellah start drifting off, periodically emitting long, agreeable yawns with an uncanny resemblance to blue whales' whatever it is they do.
Getting sleepy, the fellah put his arm around me and rested his head on my shoulder. He said "It doesn't work. You're too tall and bony." Then he managed to rotate his neck enough to see the man seated to his left for the first time. Then he glanced back towards me, then looked back at the man, and chuckled. "Hey," he said to the man, "You're too short for me to lean on [i'm guessing here cause i didn't catch all of what he said], and the foreigner's very tall." The man looked offended by this gratuitous observation. Noticing this, the fellah told him in self-defense "But you are very short."
On a tangential note, the experience reminded me of Bill Mather's shirt, which on the back simply said "Big Fellah", which would be a fantastic piece of clothing to have in Egypt.
Thursday, January 22, 2004
I had the usual short day of work on Wednesday, plus my weekend's Thursday and Friday, so I've been spending more time in Abu Sir. The usual evening around the house consists of Egyptian soap operas with the occasional news or religion show. A couple times a week the whole family will go hang out with some cousins or friends, drinking tea and chatting for a couple hours. Visiting the sick and injured is a popular activity too, so that someone sick will be usually be surrounded in the evening by a dozen friends and cousins. A touching gesture, but not the best idea if s/he is contagious or really just needs peace and quiet.
When I returned to Abu Sir, the family was in the process of investing their newly found savings (from my rent) into renovating my apartment. The second night I was here, we all stayed up until about two in the morning finishing the job. While back in September it was only lightly furnished, with an uncomfortable bed in the bedroom and a pretty good bathroom, but no other furnishings in the other room,but now it's all decked out with pillows, rugs, new lights, tastefully painted walls, windows, etc. And in August, when I first saw the apt., it was just empty concrete rooms with the walls painted pink.
Right now I'm off to the airport to pick up Thomas Showalter, a Swattie here for a semester abroad, and tomorrow Raghu Karnad comes in. It'll be fun to have people to show around Cairo.
When I returned to Abu Sir, the family was in the process of investing their newly found savings (from my rent) into renovating my apartment. The second night I was here, we all stayed up until about two in the morning finishing the job. While back in September it was only lightly furnished, with an uncomfortable bed in the bedroom and a pretty good bathroom, but no other furnishings in the other room,but now it's all decked out with pillows, rugs, new lights, tastefully painted walls, windows, etc. And in August, when I first saw the apt., it was just empty concrete rooms with the walls painted pink.
Right now I'm off to the airport to pick up Thomas Showalter, a Swattie here for a semester abroad, and tomorrow Raghu Karnad comes in. It'll be fun to have people to show around Cairo.
Sunday, January 18, 2004
Sorry no posting lately. I tried to post on Saturday, but halfway through my story the computer froze. I'll try again tomorrow or so, but for now, rest safe knowing that I'm back in Egypt with all my luggage. For those of you that know Jimmy Abdullah Fry, he is still alive and unhurt in Iraq, although his unit is stationed in Fallujah until the end of February. He passes on the message of "hey come to Iraq man..... I am telling you this would be awesome!!!!" Uh-huh.
Wednesday, January 07, 2004
Here's a good guide to Egyptian censorship, put up by Al-Ahram Weekly's rival, the Middle East Times.
http://metimes.com/2K4/issue2004-1/methaus.htm
http://metimes.com/2K4/issue2004-1/methaus.htm
