Last night, I attended a screening of a film called "Garbage Dreams", which follows the lives of three teenage boys living in an area of Cairo called Moqattam. Because it is home to over 60,000 Zaballeen (trash collectors) who earn their living by recycling up to 80% of the garbage collected throughout Cairo, Moqattam is also known as "Garbage City". (See this post for photos from my first trip to the neighborhood.)
The film was incredibly interesting, examining the challenges the Zaballeen face as their trade is affected by globalization, particularly by Cairo's move to privatize trash collection through a $50 million contract with three foreign companies. It was both heart-breaking and thought-provoking.
The film was shown at a great venue called Darb 1718, a contemporary art and culture center in an area of town near Coptic Cairo. According to its website, Darb 1718 focuses on “(1) exhibiting the works of largely unseen local artists alongside those of established regional and international artists who have rarely or never exhibited in Egypt, (2) providing local artists with opportunities for international exposure and cross-cultural exchanges, and (3) implementing developmental programs that include workshops, debates, films and other educational initiatives.”
The film was shown outside, projected against the side of a neighboring buildling. The crowd that had gathered to watch it sat in orange beanbag chairs on the small grass lawn and on the roof of the building. It was certainly not a typical Egyptian evening, except, perhaps, for the oppressive heat and crowded Metro trains!
22 June 2010
"Garbage Dreams"
20 June 2010
Break from blogging
When I was back in the States in May, several people made comments about how much they enjoy keeping up with what I’m doing through this blog. Their comments reminded me that I should get back into the habit of writing and posting interesting stories, and I began to wonder what had led me to stop in the first place.
I noticed almost immediately that my blog posts trailed off right around the one-year anniversary of my time in Egypt. In that year, everything was so foreign and interesting – Islamic holidays, strange fruits and vegetables, trucks piled high with fifteen feet of God-knows-what wobbling down the highway, cases of H5N1 influenza, peaceful felucca rides on the Nile, even travels to nearby countries like Israel and Djibouti. Then everything was new. And strange. And fascinating. It was truly, as Paul Coelho writes, “an act of rebirth” in which “you confront completely new situations, the day passes more slowly, and...you don’t even understand the language the people speak.”
However, over the course of the first nine months of my second year in Egypt, situations are no longer “completely new”. Many things that were once strange and unusual have become routine pieces of daily life. Sights that I would have once photographed immediately and situations about which I would have loved to write and analyze are hardly notable. Thus blogging has become less of a priority.
While part of me feels like this familiarity could mean that it’s time to move on to a new country, another part of me recognizes that there is still much to learn and experience here, and perhaps I just need to pay a bit more attention to the environment around me.
As much as I would like to promise that I’ll revert to my former habit of regular blogging, I don’t think I can make that promise, but I do recognize that many of these things that have become routine for me may still be interesting to some of you, so I will try to continue sharing the more interesting aspects of this southern girl’s life in the Middle East.
08 March 2010
Guestroom improvements
In case anyone’s actually been following my home renovation projects, I thought I’d post a few pictures of my newly painted guest room. (Maybe this will encourage a few more people to visit?)
03 February 2010
"The wedding will start at 8:30"
“The wedding will start at 8:30,” she said. “Please be there on time.” She emphasized the latter phrase at least three more times before I hung up the phone.
On the surface, the request was simple enough. After all, I come from a region of the world where wedding guests are expected to arrive approximately thirty minutes before the event is scheduled to begin. There have been times when I’ve been scolded for not arriving a full hour before the scheduled time. So one would think that arriving at an Egyptian wedding “on time” would be no problem.
But this ignores the fact that this request went against everything I’d been told about Egyptian weddings. Although weddings are typically scheduled to begin at 8:00 or 9:00 at night, I’d been told that they never start on time and I ought not arrive any less than an hour or two AFTER the scheduled time! So it would seem that I should wait until 9:30 or 10:30 to arrive at the wedding, but the fact that she had placed such an emphasis on the time confused me.
I asked a couple fellow expats at work what I should do and they were as confused by the emphasis on timeliness as I was. Thankfully one of our senior scientists is an Egyptian woman who seems to always have the answers to these questions. Our conversation went something like this:
Me: If a wedding starts at 8:30, what time should I arrive?
Her: Between 9:30 at 10:00.
Me: What if the bride specifically asked me to be on time?
Her: (pause to think) Who’s wedding is it?
Me: The bride is a friend of mine, the daughter of my landlady.
Her: So do you know many people who will be at the wedding?
Me: Not really, just the bride and her immediate family.
Her: If it was a wedding where you knew a lot of people and wanted to spend time socializing, you should go at 9:30 or 10:00. If you aren’t going to know many people, wait until 10:30.
As my colleague seems to always be right in these situations, I took her advice and planned to arrive at the wedding at 10:30. However, while sitting in traffic en route to the venue, I started to worry – What if I was too early? Would I be sitting in a corner alone as the only non-Arabic speaker in the room? What if I was too late? Would I be an embarrassment to my friend? Would she be offended? Would I have to make up for my tardiness by staying until the very end of the event and not return home before 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning (on a Tuesday night when I would have to work at 7:30 the next morning!)?
I arrived at the hotel and entered the ballroom, and one of the first people I saw was the father of the bride (the husband of my landlady). He was thrilled to see me, stopped in his tracks, led me to a table at the very front of the room and sat me at a table with the bride’s grandmother and great aunts. As I sat down, I was relieved to see that neither the bride nor her new husband was seated on the stage at the front of the room. I was still early. So I sat and carried on a limited conversation with the older women, smiling and attempting to bridge the gap between our languages.
Within ten minutes, the lights dimmed, the music came on, and the bride and groom made their grand entrance. My timing really could not have been more perfect. The events of the night began and continued through the night. After the typical events of a wedding reception (signing the contract, exchanging rings, the first dance, cutting the cake, etc.) and lots and lots of dancing, everyone sat down to dinner, and I decided it was time to make my escape. It wasn't easy to sneak out - I had to say goodbye to about half of the wedding guests and make numerous excuses as to why I didn't need to eat a full meal of lamb, turkey, beef and fish - but I made it home and glanced at my watch as I walked in the front door. It was 2:30 in the morning - just three and a half hours before I would get up for work.
30 January 2010
Last travels of 2009
I've obviously been more than a little negligent with this blog over the past few months (more on that in a little while), so I thought I'd post a "quick" recap of my travels during the last couple months of 2009.
September: Ghana
After a day in Ada and a few days working in Accra, I was able to spend a weekend exploring the Ghanaian coast west of Accra. I spent a day in a town called Cape Coast, where there happened to be a festival going on, so the entire afternoon was spent sitting in the sun, drinking beer and people-watching.
Crowded streets during the festival
Local chief on parade
Yes, we can!
"The door of no return" through which slaves began their journey to the Americas
I then headed north to Kakum National Rainforest for a canopy walk through the forest.
After visiting Kakum, lunch was at a nearby restaurant, which is set in the middle of a pond filled with crocodiles. Weird, I know, and kind of terrifying, but kind of cool at the same time.
October: Switzerland
In October, I met a friend in Switzerland and spent a long weekend in and around Geneva. It was a perfect escape from Egypt!
November: Rwanda
November saw what has become an annual return to Rwanda for Thanksgiving and, this time, to show some friends around the country I used to call home. I spent a week traveling around the country and catching up with old friends over good times like Thanksgiving dinner and moto polo.
December: Egypt & Israel
At the end of the year, I was able to take some time to travel when my mom and brother came to visit for two weeks. We spent most of our time in Egypt, visiting some of the most impressive sites in Cairo and Luxor, and were also able to spend a few days in Israel, relaxing at the Dead Sea and seeing Jerusalem and Bethlehem. It was a wonderful, wonderful time!
And that pretty much sums up my travels at the end of 2009. I'll try to be a little better about keeping up with the blog in 2010!