Coptic Cairo and al-Azhar Park

Yesterday I went on a day trip to Coptic Cairo and al-Azhar Park. Those two places, more than any other two that I've visited in Egypt, gave me a real sense of being "somewhere else."

I think I may have mentioned before that people are people no matter where you go (even if I didn't mention it before, there you have it now). There's a certain consistency in human nature that makes me feel less confused about my being transplanted into a different culture from my own. ANYHOW, for a while I thought that, considering how people are remarkably similar even given vast distances between them, there was nowhere in Cairo where I would feel really, really far from the US. All it took was one day trip to Coptic Cairo and al-Azhar Park for the very real sense of being in an ancient and foreign land to settle over me.



There are a number of sites in Coptic Cairo that are thought to be places where the Holy Family (Jesus, Mary, and Joseph) visited so long ago. At one such site is a well that is said to have been blessed by the Holy Family when they stopped there. When my friends and I entered, there were some Greek pilgrims there, gathering water in bottles and reverently crossing themselves with it.

In another area of Coptic Cairo is another peaceful and strangely beautiful place: a cemetery. There are mausoleums that look like small churches, tombs with the occupants' pictures carved into them, graves with flowers and other plants that seem to be flowing from the graves themselves. There are pools of cooled wax from candles that seem to have been burning for years. And over it all is that fine, democratizing Cairo dust that mutes some of the differences from grave to grave. It's like a small, silent village. I almost expected to be greeted by shopkeepers, or to see children running around, or hear music winding between the statues and various architectural tributes to loved ones.



Most obvious was the silence.

Most other place in Cairo, one is bound to hear the honking of taxis and minibuses. The cemetery in Coptic Cairo is restful. I suppose the people there tend to get along. One image that impressed itself on me was where two mausoleums stood as neighbors with wildly different themes. One was obviously Greek with its Parthenon-like pillars and white marble, while the other was clearly more at home in the Middle East.



And then there's al-Azhar Park. It is a beautifully landscaped park on what used to be a landfill. We visited in the evening and, like many other Cairenes that night, got to enjoy Cairo's unbelievably crowded silhouette.



This was one of those places where it was abundantly clear that Toto and I were not in Kansas anymore. Minarets burst up over thousands of brick apartment buildings. Modestly-dressed women walk leisurely with their husbands and children, a hijaab covering many a head. And I had forgotten how it felt to be in open spaces until we got to look down over the city; in my mind's eye I imagined civil engineers staring drop-jawed at the insanity below.



Are you staring drop-jawed? Go ahead and click on the photo for a larger version. Stare. I did. The view caught me off-guard as I hadn't been out of that maze of buildings for quite some time. And then there I was, above it all. There is modernity built up right next to historic architecture. This is a land where some people can look out from their balcony and see pyramids in the distance and taxi cabs racing along downstairs.

How different this is from "historical sites" in the United States. In my own home town we make a big to-do about maintaining Victorian homes built in the 19th Century. Go to Egypt and you can do handstands on a structure built before 2000 BC. If that doesn't serve to make you feel the weight of history, I don't quite know what will.

Just Getting Settled

You know, for all the "inconveniences" that Cairene life presents, I've grown to like it here.

When I first wandered the streets here in Maadi, I looked around in disbelief at the trash piles on the side of the road in in the streets. I tripped over random pipes that jut out of sidewalks. I nearly rolled my ankle in potholes on a daily basis. I was nervous about haggling over fruit prices at the fruit stand across the street. I noticed with worry how I woke in the mornings and coughed up some grey pollution bits before breathing normally. Those are all things from which the 'disbelief' has faded. The deeper I looked, the more I saw that those initially vexsome traits have become a part of what has endeared Cairo to me. Not only that, but they've been countered five times again by some really spectacular features of this place. ...Though I could do without the morning coughing routine...

There are such generous people here. One of my bus FRENDs (refer to a few posts back) recently relayed an invitation from her mother to me, to visit their home for lunch. I don't really know this young woman all that well, but here her mother is inviting me over. And our Coptic friend, Peter, has been an exemplar of hospitality for my roommates and I. He's proven an eager guide around the city, and insists on treating us to fresh juice every once in a while (fresh squeezed juice is a staple here, as water isn't so good for you). The American/French/New Zealander/Gulf country expatriots here have also been indispensable in making me feel truly at home here in Egypt.

I was also pleasantly surprised and extremely blessed to find a strong church community here. I've been the recipient of a lot of wise words and free meals from my fellow church-goers, and that's been an incredible boon to me during my stay. I've found family away from family, and home away from home.

In short, I guess that although I have a few more weeks in Cairo, I'm really going to miss it here. I know that already. I've made so many good friends as I've been here. I also see so much potential for Egypt to grow stronger economically, politically, even socially that I want to get to see the changes happen. I know that if I return in a few years I won't be returning to the same Cairo or the same Egypt. I love this country for what it is now as much as for what I can see it becoming in the next few decades.

I was just getting settled in, and now it's nearly time to go!
Dear friends and family, I will most certainly have to return to this country. I don't think I could stay away!

Voting from Cairo

Just in case anyone was wondering, yes, it is possible to vote from Cairo, albeit more of a hassle. But how exciting-- several people were dragged into this process just so I could vote.

I was already registered to vote, but needed to fill out the form to vote absentee from abroad. After an international call to the San Bernardino Registrar of Voters Office, I was emailed the correct form, and told that I could fax it in. A fax machine. The list of things that I took for granted in the US grows each day. I knew there must be fax machines SOMEWHERE in Cairo, but how could I find one? One of my Cairene friends, Peter, came to the rescue. Peter got one of his friends (thanks, Muhammad) to drive us around Maadi in search of a fax machine.

In the end, I faxed my absentee registration from a tiny, semi-jumbled stationary store in some far corner of Maadi. It felt adventurous.

Then I waited for my ballot to come. And I waited. And I waited. When the darn thing still hadn't come with 2 weeks until the election, I shot off an email to the Registrar's Office asking whether it had already been sent, or if there was another way for me to cast my vote. Bless our county, a week later I was EMAILED a ballot and told that I could fill that out and FAX it in. Ah, technology. So, this year, my first elligible year to vote in a Presidential election, I faxed my vote to the Registrar. And again, Peter and Co. drove me to that little stationary store to get the job done.


"Tell Mr. (candidate's name here) that he can thank us later," said Peter.

I was so glad to be able to be involved with my country's oh-so-important democratic process from all the way around the world!

As a side note, I was really pleased to see that almost ALL of the United States study abroad students there in Cairo were eager to vote.

Side note #2: The Foreign Student Association put on a mock election at AUC, where anyone could cast a mock vote for either John McCain or Barack Obama. At the end of the day Obama won with about 88% of the vote. And watching the news here in the Middle East, that wasn't entirely surprising; various international polls reflected the same affinity for Sen. Obama.

Just the same, on November 5th almost all of the American students and faculty showed up to school looking like the walking dead: everyone stayed up all night watching the election results. So whether people were elated, depressed, or didn't care all that much it all looked relatively similar. Bloodshot eyes, heads nodding off in class, and people cursing the time difference.

Looks like I'll be coming home in December just in time to see the Executive Branch transition. A much anticipated event for everyone, I'm sure--my arrival, that is :)