Cairo.... Do I love it or hate it??

Well I often ponder this question, there are days when I love, love, love Cairo, the mystic, the feeling of being in another world, the fruity smells of  shisha smoke filling the air, the constant background noise, the lights, sounds, smells, all of it. Then there are days when it all just gets on my nerves, the rickety taxis with their doors hanging off, the smell of exhausts, the comments ohhhh the comments, the complete lack of customer service, the stares, the inability to stand in a line, the phrase "Bukra Inshallah" (tomorrow if god's willing).

Some days it makes me smile that everything seems to arrive by donkey, Gas bottles, watermelons, lemons, prickly pears, you name it you can find it on a donkey cart. Other days when I am rushing to work (I always have to rush) I end up getting stuck behind a donkey and its load and I scream internally "WHERE THE HELL AM I?"
So which is it? Do I love or hate Cairo in all of it's craziness?
The special thing about Cairo, which I haven't experienced in other places is the fact that everything can change in a heart beat, so when it seems like every thing is going wrong and that things can't get better, something happens and it all seems OK again very, very fast. This something could be a person, it could be a party invitation, it could even be seeing poverty and thinking wow my life is not that bad after all. And then I think about my life and how privileged I am, even compared to western standards, like seriously how many of my friends back home have a cleaner? how many of them have an ironing guy? how many can afford to get the majority of their clothes dry cleaned? how many can get a bottle of vodka delivered at 1am or a big mac meal at 4 am? How many of them can go swimming every day after work on a roof top pool? How many of them can go to the beach at the weekend? How many of them get so much vacation time that they get so bored and actually want to return to work? how many, how many, how many??? See when I think about all of that it makes me smile to myself and say "Wow, actually you are ok!".
So the next thing is, how do I make the negative things here seem positive, I mean everything can be seen in a positive light right? Its just a matter of changing the way you think anyway. So I took the thing that annoys me the most which is sexual harassment and I thought about it for a while.... well firstly it makes me want to learn Arabic, I want to be able to shout more then "you are a shoe" at them, I actually want to say something intelligent and make them feel small (evil, yes I know but its a motivation so its positive) OK then it makes me grateful for my upbringing and the fact that I have an open mind, it makes me appreciate all of my male friends who think its disgusting and it makes me speak out to Egyptian women, hopefully getting them to see that it's not ok and they are not at fault (that's a big hope but who knows....). Lastly, well too be honest, if I am in a bad mood and am not feeling OK sometimes its nice to find an idiot to shout at and let all of the stress out :)
So in answer to my original question, I love Cairo, I really do and I think it will keep me for some time yet.

wow I can blog from my phone!

isn't that wonderful? I can sit anywhere in the world and blog... this blog entrance could be coming at you from the toilet, the beach. the back of a taxi who knows!!!!! seem's like there is an app for everything this days... just can't wait for the "skip work and let the app do it instead" app or the "don't get out of bed cos your dying to pee" app or even better the " drunken dialing prevention app" that one would be a winner for sure!
Anyway that's it! Cairo is fine so am I. Just so Appy about my apps..... ok, ok I know that one was lame but I couldn't resist.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Memories of the airport....

Kati came over for beer last night as she does most nights of the week... love you Kati :)
Anyway we got to talking about the famine in Somalia which is of course terrible and I sure worthy of it's own blog post entirely, but this posting isn't about that. It made me think of the Somali's I had dealt with at the airport and one guy in particular.....
I was taking a smoke break in the staff area when I got a call asking me to check on a situation at the gate, there were problems with a Somali passenger....
The agent working the flight was originally from Pakistan and he was one of the nicest, calmest, politest people you could meet, really a charming guy, we will call him Khan as I have terribly forgotten this nice mans name.
So I stubbed out my cigarette, left my coffee standing and ran to the gate expecting to find a forged passport or an impostor (Someone using another person's passport),  what i found was a very angry looking Somali guy and a very stressed looking Khan. I spoke to Khan quickly to check the situation, the guy had a British refugee travel document and Khan had simply asked him about his trip, how long he had been out of the UK and a bit about his life in the UK, now it might sound strange that we ask this but we really needed to ascertain that the guy in front of us really was the one in the passport, and we needed to be sure that he really did live in the UK and know about general life there. We have to do this because so many Somali's send their travel documents to Somalia for their (Very similar looking) family members to use, so normally a few simple questions about the UK have to be asked in order to make us feel that the Doc is in the right hands. Anyway so as I was saying Khan was basically doing his job and doing so in an incredibly cool and polite way. The Somali guy was waving his hands around and screaming "I am a British Citizen" (he wasn't as I mentioned he was an official refugee with the right to stay in the UK).
So here's where it gets good.... the guy turns to me whilst pointing at Khan and yells "THIS FUCKING PAKI IS A RACIALIST!!!!" I wasn't sure if I correctly heard and asked him to repeat himself "I SAID THIS FUCKING PAKI IS A RACIALIST!!" Wow he really did just make one of the most contradictory and wrong sentences I have heard in my life! I stopped myself from laughing and put on my best snooty voice "Sir if it is racist you mean, I can assure you that the only person I can hear being racist at present is you" he carried on with his tirade and I then went on to tell him we were calling the police to make a report about his insults (don't you just love Germany, you can make reports about EVERYTHING) and that he wouldn't be flying tonight, I then walked over to the desk to inform the airline of the decision and while I was on my way the Somali guy rolled up his newspaper and smacked Khan over the head with it!!!!!!!!!!!! Now when I think about it I have to laugh like hell but back then it was serious and it almost escalated,Khan finally lost his cool and went to push the guy, which is of course a huge no, no so I ran and get between them and stayed between them until the police showed up and arrested the crazy Somali guy!!
Wonderful days at the airport really

Cairo Craigs list... a delve into the dark side

My lovely roommate has decided she needs more light in her life, and has found a new lighter place in Mohandeseen. This has set me on a roommate searching frenzy.
I posted on Cairo Scholars and on a few Facebook groups but didn't really have much luck. So I decided to give Craig’s list a go....
Well the replies were many and some were normal and legitimate but there were also a lot of weird, weird replies; one guy offered to pay me 200 le to allow him to massage me and if my landlady was up for it, he would like to massage her too. Another guy, who seemed normal at first sent a mail saying his girlfriend needed a room, I told him she is welcome to come and take a look. He called me and said that she was in Italy and would I mind having a few Eastern European girls to stay?? Do I have to even comment on that?
A Dr Waleed wrote and assured me he would be polite and well behaved, he also promised me that we would have "good times" together and that he would make me pleased (language barrier?)
All of this made me think, "Well, what kind of people use Craig’s list in Cairo?" so I took a deeper look......
I started off with the community pages and was pleased to see a few legitimate sounding ads, a kitten that needs to be adopted and a driver offering his services for 30 le an hour, so far so good. Ahem then I stumbled upon the first shady listing titled " Help everyone become free of oppression" this was a listing urging people to boycott all Israeli businesses and goods as this would miraculously cause them to withdraw from the West bank, seemingly leading to an oppression free world!. Shady yes, shocking not really, and so I went on. Next up was truly shocking, the listing title: " A son for Adoption" the listing itself : " As the title of the ad says: A Son for Adoption Thanks for everything". Really! People are using Craig’s list to donate/sell their children? This one led me to a real "where the hell am I" moment! And as I really couldn't believe it, I went ahead and emailed the poster asking for more information, haven't yet received a reply but will keep you posted.  I went on and sifted through a lot of work from home and earn $$$$ type ads which I am sure are not exclusive to the Cairo branch but are still dodgy in their own way.
I moved on to personals, well Egypt is a conservative place right? There couldn't be anything too shocking here for sure..... first up was strictly platonic where I found offers of toe licking and requests for rimming from a 70 year old 300 lb heavy weight (is that for real???) and then there was the request from a FAMOUS author (yes he really capitalized the word) he wanted friends and was very proud of the fact that he already knew so many important, famous (not capitalized this time) and wealthy people. Ufff next is women seek women and no listings!!! What! No lesbians in Cairo???? Ok next, on to women looking for men, this is actually quite tame just one listing offering a relationship for the financial compensation of 5000le a month which might be a good deal for the Saudi men coming over and looking for partnership. So now it's time for men seeking women, well when I think of the way men act in this country I feel this is going to be the worse section by far, I held my breath and took a look, and was actually pleasantly surprised, most of the ads here were decent and seemed genuine. There were a lot of lonely and looking for love types, the odd foot fetish, and one guy wrote a wonderful piece on how he wanted an intelligent but submissive women. Next was men looking for men.....there were only 3 ads in this section (I imagine Egyptian homosexuals are more cautious then to advertise on Craig’s list). Now where the real "fun" starts is the "Casual encounters" section, the listings and indeed pictures on offer there made me blush!!! I am not going to go any further with this, not because I am disgusted (actually I find it funny), but because I feel if you are interested then you should go and take your own plunge into the dark side....
Just to conclude, I haven’t checked it out, but a friend tells me that London's Craig’s list is just as bad, although I am pretty sure there are no children for sale there, maybe just a lot of freshly looted goods :D
Ok people I am signing off, Ramadan Kareem and all of that.

Harassment... yes it is an issue

June the 20th was the day to blog and tweet about sexual harassment in Egypt, I was sick so I am late. I actually thought about avoiding the issue as it seems it will never get better, but then I thought about all of my friends who have made the effort to write something and I thought about how much the issue pisses me of so here is my piece on it. I shall start by giving you an example of a normal day in Maadi, which is a upscale neighborhood on the outskirts of Cairo inhabited by lots and lots of expats, so foreigners aren't such a strange site here.
I leave the house for work at around 7:30 dressed in jeans and a t shirt that shows no cleavage, I walk to the end of the street to hail a cab, before I reach the end of the street I am already shouted or hissed  at by at least one man. I hail a cab, I get in without making any eye contact and tell him my destination, he already has a face on him like the cat who has got the cream, he stares at me through the rear view mirror for the entire duration of the journey and every now and then he will ask me if I am single and if I like Egyptian men, sometimes he will go on to say I have beautiful eyes, I don't respond to this and put on my best "mean bitch " face. At my destination I get out and pay him and head towards the bridge that takes me to work. As I am walking to the top of the bridge a few guys ride by on mopeds, they make comments and get far too close for my liking, I get as close to the railing as I possibly can. Some days there is a guy on top of the bridge, he waits until I pass him and begins to masturbate as he walks behind me, I am sadly so used to this that I now just roll my eyes and continue walking at my normal pace. On the final street I encounter a group of school boys who laugh and point and make lewd comments. Then I get to work which is thankfully a harassment free zone, except for the days when we have work men in, but our caretaker quickly tells them to avert their eyes. From 9 to 9:30 the parents arrive with their children, the mothers often have horror stories from their own short journeys; one got flashed at with her two children in tow, and one pregnant mother was recently grabbed, more worryingly another mother spotted the masturbater doing his thing right outside the school. At 4 pm I leave work and maybe do some chores on the way home, I am constantly hissed at and guys seem to deliberately walk too close and bump into me. I get home and realize I need to order water, I call the local shop and 10 minutes later the delivery guy turns up, I answer the door in my most ugly clothes and with no make up, his eyes open up like he just saw a porn star, he greets me with a "Hey beautiful" and takes a step into my apartment; I give him an icy stare and tell him to get out, I shut the door on his face while I sort out his money, when I open the door again to give him his money he lets it drop to the floor and expects me to bend over in front of him to pick it up, when I refuse and slam the door he screams to me that I am a cunt!

This is a day when I stay in Maadi, where harassment isn't as bad as it is in the rest of Cairo, if I choose to go downtown, the taxi driver may try and grab my boobs, he may also offer me money for sex, as I walk down the street guys in nice cars will pull up close and tell me "oooh I wanna fuck you in the ass", if I choose to take the metro; guys at the metro station will begin to play porn on their phones and hold it in a way that I have to see it. The point is, it happens but people here, both male and female choose to deny it happens, and while they keep on denying it it will continue to happen. Women feel they can't speak out because it is somehow their fault and decent women don't get harassed.... BULLSHIT men made you feel like this OPEN YOUR EYES!! People say it happens everywhere and to some extent it does but I have never experienced it to this extent and neither has any foreigner I have spoken to. This blog won't change a thing, facing up to the fact that it is a problem will set the wheels of change in motion but I really wonder how long it will be before that happens... maybe we will all have to were a niquab to stop the poor men lusting after us. Until then I guess we will have to resign to kicking them in the balls... bastards

Giza Zoo a pile of poo!!

It was Easter, I had time off and no travel planned, all of my friends were on the beach and I was sat at home feeling very sorry for myself indeed. Spent a few days sleeping then thought "no, bugger this, I am going on an adventure!!". Sent my ex room mate Emily a message and we made plans to go to the zoo. Now, my friend Mike had  repeatedly warned me about the Zoo, but hey I am stubborn and well I like to see things with my own eyes.
In the morning I took a look at the Zoo's website which actually makes the place look like a nice day out. Here is the link http://www.gizazoo-eg.com/ , looks nice right? So here is the grand entrance to the zoo,

it is located on one of the  busiest streets in Giza not far from the Israeli embassy (I mention this because recent protests took place in front of the Embassy and the Army sprayed tear gas, this gas drifted over to the zoo and the animals could be heard howling!) We paid the "foreigner price" for our tickets which was 20le, I wonder how long this has been the case as wherever I read reviews on the Zoo written by foreigners, they always states the entrance price as being 1 or 2 pounds, I was quite worked up about this but Emily calmed me down and said "we are here now so yalla" or something to that effect.
Once inside, the first thing we saw was a caged Persian cat! We began to laugh at this and wanted to take a photo, unfortunately a group of young men saw us laughing and thought that two laughing foreign females simply had to be easy sluts and proceeded to bless us with profanities, we decided to vacate the area and failed to get a picture of the cat.
A few minutes later, I accidentally made eye contact with a teenage boy, I am actually quite good at not making eye contact these days but every now and then it happens, and damn don't I pay for it when it does, these boys followed us for ages, shouting at us and making vile gestures; I would say they were the worst behaved animals in the Zoo. We tried our hardest to shake them, we threatened to call the police (big laugh, this was post revolution and there wasn't a police man in site), we tried to shame them in front of others (also a big laugh, people stared and laughed at us), we tried hiding in the Hyena house but it was far too depressing. Finally I started to take pictures of them and they fled. We headed over to the lions....

which I think were the most sorry looking things I have seen in my life, the cage was a concrete prison smaller then my living room and the inmates were bored out of their lives and skinny as hell pacing back and forth, their manes were matted and it was just cruel, cruel, cruel, I was truly disgusted, at this point a zoo keeper asked if I would like to pay a few pounds to hold a lion cub; I looked at him with my very best "you are an idiot" face and walked away. The next stop was the monkeys and if you look at the following pic carefully you can see the zoo keeper encouraging punters to poke the monkey with a stick. Do I need to say anything further on that matter?

A few minutes after taking this shot, we saw visitors poke a bear with a stick and feed the monkeys cookies and chips. I was at boiling point and it started to rain so we though it best to leave and went to eat cup cakes in Zamalek.

Something I wrote during the revolution...

To say that the past days have been unprecedented is an understatement.
Most people know me as being adventurous and a bit of a thrill seeker, but this? Well its fair to say, this has pushed me to my limits.
It started on Cairo scholars when someone asked about the ATMs being out of order in Maadi, he suggested it may be because people have emptied them in a panic, preparing for the results of the 25th January protests. It seemednobody took this mail serous and a few people even mocked him.
Then came Tuesday, on Tuesday I was restless and followed the news all day ( I am a news junkie anyway). I had vowed to be sensible and stay home but the second twitter got cut I felt the biggest urge to be there... nothing like censorship to make one more curious!!.
I called my roommate and admittedly at this point I could have been persuaded against going, but it turned out she was as eager as I was. We arranged to meet at the Maadi metro station and I had to smile to myself as she showed up in full demonstration mode; Pepper spray at hand and money stuffed in her bra in case we needed to pay bribes. We assumed Sadat metro station would be closed so departed the metro at Saad Zagoul. It was the quietest I have ever seen downtown and to tell the truth it was a bit of a anti climax, yes it was eerie and felt a bit  like the calm before the storm but I wanted the bloody storm! Had they cut off twitter for this??? We wandered towards Tahrir square and eventually came across a load of people praying in front of lines and lines of police. This seemed quite interesting so we hovered and gawped at that for a minute or two. The roads were blocked so we had to enter Tahrir from the Cornish (road next to the Nile) We followed a group of Chinese men who looked like they knew what they were doing. No one stopped us I don't even recall any strange looks. Upon arriving at Tahrir we scouted the area for a women friendly view point and decided on the big plant pot outside the Mogamma. We stayed on this plant pot for about an hour, taking in the buzzing atmosphere around us. After a while my feet started to hurt so we packed up and took a taxi home... That was it, protest over. Never in my life did I expect the following events.
The next day I bragged about my Tahrir trip to everyone who I came across. Some thought I was brave, some thought I was stupid. The protests went on and the Egyptians who lived downtown left work early. By Thursday it seemed the situation was becoming serious, work was normal, fewer children maybe ahh and 2 teachers didn't make it in as there were problems with the metro. After work the internet was sketchy and there were talks of massive protests... a few hours later Facebook went down, I turned on a proxy and congratulated myself for being so clever, posted a status saying Facebook, twitter and sms is down what is next?? They turned out to be my famous last words as just minutes later the internet went down and suddenly everything seemed very serious indeed. We didnt believe it at first, it had to be T data or something, surely its not possible to pull the plug on the internet? A few calls later and it was confirmed; Egypt was officially internetless. We made the best of the evening by watching movies but I think everyone went to bed that night with a heavy heart. The next morning we awoke before the prayer, tried to make a call and discovered that now the phones were down too.... The outside world was getting further and further away. We sat at home and watched Al Jazeera English all day, they had by now, given up on the Palestine papers and started some pretty impressive coverage of the protests. Things were getting crazy. Police stations had been burnt as had the government's head office. By Saturday morning the police had vanished, I decided to go with my friend to his families house as they had been worrying about him. We arrived at his place in Shoubra shortly before curfew and not long after we got there the gun shots started. The looting had begun. Places that had made me forget I was in a developing country were being destroyed one after another, my sense of security was slipping away. The shots outside were loud now. My friend stated to assemble an arsenal of home made weapons. Bats, metal bars, Tequila Molotov things (I wanted him to use cooking oil and save the tequila). I contributed by taping a knife to the end of a stick and spent the next few minutes waving it around menacingly. We pushed the fridge freezer against the front door and spent the night barricaded in the house. Seriously, it was frightening and I don't think anyone got much sleep.
Everyone handles stress like this in a different way. My friend's Mother and Sister were crying, I was jumpy and asking questions like a crazy person, and my friend was silent. The atmosphere was heavy and what made it worse for me was not being able to talk to anyone about it. The next day was just as bad, constant shots outside and reports on state tv about all the areas in Cairo that had been looted. It felt like the world was falling apart and my friends were starting to flee the country. The internet was still down and I felt totally isolated. I was getting on every ones nerves by constantly asking for the international news and translations of the state news. At some point during day two of what I will call the Shouba siege I actually got my stuff and tried to leave my friends house. I wanted to be in Maadi, I wanted foreigners, I wanted to talk....This of course was a stupid thing to do as it was dangerous as hell outside. I spent the afternoon sleeping and  playing angry birds then came nightfall and with it more shots. My friend decided to join the men who were protecting the neighborhood. I spent some time looking down at the street and couldn't help thinking that they seemed to be enjoying themselves. They lit fires to stay warm, drank tea and watched the teenagers play football. State Tv was driving me crazy, I couldn't understand but just the visual was enough for me to know it was propaganda. I spent the night calling friends in Maadi. The next day the shots died down. I longed to go outside and was starting to feel like Anne Frank!. Spent the day mooching around feeling sorry for myself. I had now given up on getting translations for the news and shut myself in a room with the house phone and my I phone... yep more angry birds.. oh how I missed the internet. I think my friend saw how unhappy I was and how much I longed to be in Maadi, he offered to escort me back in the morning.There were less shots that night (Monday). On Tuesday I woke up bright and early eager to get back.
We walked to the metro station, every one on the street seemed to be on edge. There were no police although it had been reported on State TV that they had been redeployed all over the city. People were paying even less attention to the rules then they normally do. The woman's cart on the metro was full of men and when one brave woman screamed at them to piss off (or the Arabic equivalent) they stayed were they where and laughed. I don't think I have ever felt so tense on the metro. We got to Maadi and looked for a working ATM which, we of course didn't find. I headed towards the shop to pick up some pasta, my answer to all of this has been pasta. If in doubt, stock up on pasta!
On the way to the shop I heard someone shout my name, it was a girl from work and boy it felt good to see someone I knew. At this point my friend figured I would be safe alone and headed off back to Shoubra. I got my Pasta and toddled of on my way. Before reaching home I bumped into another friend yippee I was feeling normal again.
That night we went to a friends house in Degla, it was so nice to be with people again. All of them foreign and all of them understanding the thoughts and concerns I had. This by the way is no disrespect to my friend, he had enough to worry about himself.
When we got back to our flat, we decided to make arty farty things to kill the time, whilst doing this I painted my cat pink, one of many curfew killers I have had to come up with.
The protests that day had been massive and Mubarak was to make a speech. We were convinced he was going to step down. As we now know, he didn't step down, his big speech was to tell us that he wouldn't stand again for the next elections.
The next morning was amazing.... the internet was back yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay and things seemed calm, brilliant, dare I say, over?
I spent some time reading the messages my friends had left me, all of them very touching. Googled all of the things I had written down for future googleing. Google was the thing I missed most
Then I went to meet friends for a coffee at Villa 55. It was a beautiful sunny day, the internet was back, I was sitting with my friends, it felt normal, it felt over, it felt like we were survivors.
When I got home and turned on the news my heart sunk.
Pro Mubarak protesters had suddenly appeared out of nowhere and attacked the peaceful protesters. This was awful, horrid. It looked and felt like civil war, this beautiful day had turned into a sad, sad day of dread, unspeakable things had happened. It was a disgrace to humanity.
On Thursday the fighting went on. State Tv started blaming "foreign influences" so people began to turn on foreigners.On Friday I was afraid to leave the house. Cairo scholars were reporting foreigners being picked up all over the place and being taken for interrogation. The protests were huge but thank god they were peaceful.
Now its Saturday, well to be fair its early Sunday morning. Things were quiet today and I am told that normality shall return on Sunday. People are going to work and the banks will be open.
So do I feel its over? Let me get through Sunday then I will make a prediction......