Thursday, November 18, 2004
Some pictures from Rana and Anjali's party for mostly CASA students the day before Ramadan.
http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeAN2rNo1bsWjDHg
And violence crossed the border into Egypt again: three Egyptian soldiers were shot dead this morning by Israeli soldiers who apparently mistook them for Palestinians.
http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeAN2rNo1bsWjDHg
And violence crossed the border into Egypt again: three Egyptian soldiers were shot dead this morning by Israeli soldiers who apparently mistook them for Palestinians.
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Spent Thursday through Sunday celebrating the end of Ramadan in Dusouq, a small city about two and a half hours north of Cairo. Walid's family lives there, as does Yassir, who is going to move in with us in Hussein. We're going to chip in 50 pounds each to get another bed, which will be my domain, while Yassir and Walid will share the current bed. I didn't get a chance to meet Yassir's dad, but he's apparently some big dog in the world of Islamic charities, running a foundation that runs dozens of schools, hospitals, adult literacy programs, etc. in rural Egypt, but he's been long out of favor with Mubarak and the Sheikh of Al-Azhar for his criticism of their domestic policies.
Yassir has been occasionally staying overnight with us when he was in town over the summer, sharing Walid's bed. Walid asked me the day before yesterday, as he was resting his head on Yassir's chest and holding hands with him, if it was true that Westerners would think that they were gay. While there might be less overt homophobia in Egypt, it's not because of any real tolerance towards homosexuals; the concept of homosexuality is just so far off the mainstream spectrum that the thought doesn't even cross most people's minds.
I spent most of my time in Dusouq drinking tea at Nile-side outdoor coffeehouses with Walid, his brother Tamer, Yassir, Amin, and some other guys. Amin, Walid, and I stayed in an empty apartment above the internet cafe their family owns, with carpets and blankets set up in one room so we could sleep there. And the night after Ramadan ended, Amin and some of the local youth celebrated in thoroughly Egyptian fashion, setting up a computer to watch porn and drinking tea all night long. I was in the other room, alternately trying to sleep and getting up and turning the lights on to kill mosquitoes by the dozen.
With free internet at their internet cafe, and not much else to do, I spent an hour or two exploring the world of Arabic-language online chatting, a very popular pasttime here. It consisted of dozens of pages with titles such as "Baghdad Babes", "Girls of Alexandria", "Giza Girls", "Lebanese Girls Only!". You get the idea. And no doubt there were no girls whatsoever in the chatrooms, just as the lone chat room about Christianity, "The Messiah is the Son of God", which I was in for twenty minutes, consisted entirely of people entering the room, typing a message denouncing Christian polytheism, then leaving. More patient chatters tried to lure "real Christians" into one-on-one chat, where they asked leading questions about the multiples versions of the Bible, the ambiguously divine nature of Christ, etc. There was also one room, "Jihad", which was almost empty, with one guy raving on about Palestine and Iraq.
And when I got back to our apartment in Hussein Monday morning, I found it occupied by a middle-aged couple sleeping in Walid's bed--the family living below us had a lot of guests for the Eid and put up a couple of them up in our place since we were out of town and don't have a lock on the door. Walid wasn't surprised at all, saying "Yeah, that's normal" عادي, عادي
Yassir has been occasionally staying overnight with us when he was in town over the summer, sharing Walid's bed. Walid asked me the day before yesterday, as he was resting his head on Yassir's chest and holding hands with him, if it was true that Westerners would think that they were gay. While there might be less overt homophobia in Egypt, it's not because of any real tolerance towards homosexuals; the concept of homosexuality is just so far off the mainstream spectrum that the thought doesn't even cross most people's minds.
I spent most of my time in Dusouq drinking tea at Nile-side outdoor coffeehouses with Walid, his brother Tamer, Yassir, Amin, and some other guys. Amin, Walid, and I stayed in an empty apartment above the internet cafe their family owns, with carpets and blankets set up in one room so we could sleep there. And the night after Ramadan ended, Amin and some of the local youth celebrated in thoroughly Egyptian fashion, setting up a computer to watch porn and drinking tea all night long. I was in the other room, alternately trying to sleep and getting up and turning the lights on to kill mosquitoes by the dozen.
With free internet at their internet cafe, and not much else to do, I spent an hour or two exploring the world of Arabic-language online chatting, a very popular pasttime here. It consisted of dozens of pages with titles such as "Baghdad Babes", "Girls of Alexandria", "Giza Girls", "Lebanese Girls Only!". You get the idea. And no doubt there were no girls whatsoever in the chatrooms, just as the lone chat room about Christianity, "The Messiah is the Son of God", which I was in for twenty minutes, consisted entirely of people entering the room, typing a message denouncing Christian polytheism, then leaving. More patient chatters tried to lure "real Christians" into one-on-one chat, where they asked leading questions about the multiples versions of the Bible, the ambiguously divine nature of Christ, etc. There was also one room, "Jihad", which was almost empty, with one guy raving on about Palestine and Iraq.
And when I got back to our apartment in Hussein Monday morning, I found it occupied by a middle-aged couple sleeping in Walid's bed--the family living below us had a lot of guests for the Eid and put up a couple of them up in our place since we were out of town and don't have a lock on the door. Walid wasn't surprised at all, saying "Yeah, that's normal" عادي, عادي
Friday, November 12, 2004
Well, Arafat finally died. His funeral was in Cairo today, but I've been out of town since last night, up in the Delta with Walid and his family and Amin. Walid, Ahmad, Amin, and others, have at times been laughing about it, saying "Arafat can burn in hell", but at other times getting more sentimental about him as a symbol of Palestinian nationalism.
The government kept the public far away from the funeral, but traffic Thursday was still atrocious, since it was the day before the Eid holiday weekend began, plus with lots of foreign dignitaries coming into town. Luckily, we had already reserved our train tickets last week.
The government kept the public far away from the funeral, but traffic Thursday was still atrocious, since it was the day before the Eid holiday weekend began, plus with lots of foreign dignitaries coming into town. Luckily, we had already reserved our train tickets last week.
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
An article on CASA in the Christian Science Monitor, written by Dan Murphy, a friend of mine who organizes the ultimate frisbee games in Ma'adi on Fridays.
