The Eagle Has Landed

Kristi's flight came in about 2 1/2 hours late. I had been waiting for months for her visit, so I waited the extra time with practiced nonchalance. After a happy reunion our first concern was getting a cab to the city center. After a some haggling, getting out of one cab, and some more haggling, we still got ripped off by paying 100LE for us and two Norwegians to take a minibus into town. At four in the morning saving 20LE isn't as worth it. The guest house was a welcome sight. We got our things upstairs and into our rooms and went straight to sleep.

Five hours later we were up. Thankfully breakfast was still lingering on the table downstairs in the common area: toast, jam, fruits, coffee. I picked it over and saved a banana for Kristi who was getting ready to go. We hopped a cab downtown then the subway to Maadi. As on every Friday, the train was empty (i.e. we had seats) and Maadi was the same. I thought we'd be 40 minutes late, but the church service began a half hour later than when I thought, so we were right on time. The one thirty is an African service so we were well in the minority, which is what I like about it. The singing was especially lively, the kind that gladdens your heart. We strolled out of church towards Main Street Maadi where we got a bite to eat before heading back downtown on the train. The rest of the day was pretty laid back, we toured my apartment, walked across the bridge to Zemalek, took naps, and ate Hommos wa Shwerma at a river boat restaurant watching the dozens of neon lighted river jetties plying the waters of this ancient river.

The Fab Four

(Rob, Marius, Me, & Nicole)

Weekend in Sinai

Last weekend a group of us rented a mini-bus(with driver) and took off for the lovely shores of the Red Sea. We spent the entire time on the beach and playing in the cool clear water. It was a great time. Here are some photos:

The tunnel under the Suez Canal


The group all happy to be leaving Cairo


Checking into our rooms ($20 per night!)


Soaking up the sun!


Rob, relaxing


Me playing on an old surf board that we found


Rob and I's little hut by the sea


Sunset over the Gulf of Suez

Class Laundry

Last week in my marketing class, the professor was talking about market segments in Egypt. He used household laundry practices as a way to categorize the different classes of consumers in Egypt. The poor wash their clothes by hand—the same way clothes have been washed for centuries, in the sink, or in a large basin. The poor graduate from the bottom by owning a semi-automatic washing machine. This machine is little more than a big metal tub on wheels that one fills and empties by hand, the automatic part is a small agitating wheel that spins at the bottom causing the clothes to swirl around. The emerging middle class owns a front loading automatic washer. The Cairo elite own this, coupled with a dryer. How neat—all of Cairo society falls into these categories. Funny enough, this actually works here. Most of the population--the non-elites, do not own dryers. This town is nothing but one high rise after another and each building seems to bloom with the colors of laundry hung out windows and over balconies to dry. And in participation with the Cairene way, I just got done hauling a bunch of soggy clothes out of our large metal tub with wheels and hung them neatly outside to dry. Guess I know my place.