The Egyptian Museum in Cairo has endless artifacts, so much so that almost everything on the first floor is not enclosed in glass. It is unbelievable to me that I was touching things that are literally thousands of years old! The mummies were also definitely a sight to see. Unfortunately, the do not allow photography in the museum.
Khan El Khalili is as crowded and crazy as everyone describes it, and then ten times more so. It's definitely an experience though.
Ramadan is the strangest cultural phenomenon I have ever experienced. Muslims do not eat or drink or smoke at all from sun-up to sun-down. As a result, they stay up almost all night, beginning at 6:30PM with dinner (or iftar, which literally means breakfast in Arabic because that is when they break their day-long fast) and ending with suhoor, which is the Arabic name for the meal eaten before dawn during Ramadan; this mean usually takes place around 4:30AM. Ramadan is amazing to me not only because it creates an interesting schedule here but also, and even more so, because every Muslim follows its rules in the strictest of ways. It really is one of the greatest displays of devoted religion that I have ever seen, and I am grateful that I am experiencing it here.
Now onto the more serious things I have learned:
There are Egyptians who love Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president who is largely criticized in Egypt for both ruling with an iron fist and misusing the American aid that is funneled into the country. (It was eye-opening to see a USAid sticker on a projector in one of my classrooms). The woman who is teaching my survival Arabic class, a thirty-one year old Muslim woman living in Madi (a section of Cairo) insisted that that US, and not Mubarak, was responsible for the funds being misdirected in Egypt, pointing out that USAid came to the American University in Cairo and not to Cairo University. She meant that the US was looking out for its own interests. This is obviously true to some degree, but her refusal to admit any fault of Mubarak in the misappropriation of aid and other funds in Egypt made it seem as if she ascribed to some sort of personality cult. She claimed she loved Mubarak, then said she did not love him, but rather admired him, and in her mind "admiration is greater than love." Her reasons for loving him included the elegance he and his family showed in dealing with the death of one of his grandchildren six months ago. When someone in our class pointed out that this meant she admired him as a person, and not a politician, she claimed that there was no difference in her mind. She said she did not know him personally, so he as a person and he as a politician were one and the same in her mind, and she repeated that she loved and admired him. This woman is definitely not in the majority of Egyptians, and she knows this, but that even some Egyptians think this way is eye-opening and possibly insightful as Egypt further develops.
There is hope for a solution to the Palestine-Israeli conflict. I realized this from listening to two students talking. One was Palestinian. The other was an American Jew. Both boys, neither one of them older than 21, knew the issues surrounding the conflict well. They each had first hand-experience in the conflict. The Palestinian is prohibited from landing in Tel Aviv because his father owns and has the deed to land that is now controlled by Israel and has been strip searched at the border. And the Jewish boy has been to Israel and also has first hand experience with border security. Despite their experiences, they intelligently discussed the issues involved in the conflict, and surprisingly, each was conciliatory to the other side. The Palestinian went so far as to say that the Holocaust was the worst case of genocide in the history of the world. And the Jewish boy agreed with him that Israel cutting off food supplies to refugees during the flare up in December of last year was a comparable offense. One of the boys offered a solution, as each agreed that one of the biggest obstacles to a solution is the fact that were the groups to each live as Israelis, the Israeli government would become controlled by Muslims. The idea was to ensure a Jewish/Israeli ruler, while letting Palestinians full involvement in all other elections. At first it was laughed off by everyone listening, but the more I think about it, it's going to be compromises like this (certainly far from perfect, maybe even far from fair) that will open up a dialogue between other moderates like these boys who I believe have the capability to one day solve the problem of the Palestine-Israel conflict once and for all. This may be hopeful and optimistic thinking, but I think the next generation of politics is going to see more moderate people rise to power and have a say, and what now seems hopeful and optimistic may indeed become a reality.
I apologize that this has been heavy content for a blog, but these are the things I think I need to take from Egypt. The final thing I will talk about is important but can be, and often is, spoken about much more lightly. I don't completely know how to begin describing AUC. It's a brand new campus in the middle of the desert and it's absolutely gorgeous inside and out, but an example of efficiency it is certainly not. I this the best way to convey my point about this is to describe the student services office. It's most similar to a deli counter. When you walk in, you take a number. I think there are three sets of numbers, or at least there are for orientation week (one for IDs, one for bus passes, and one for other/general questions and issues). You can spend hours in there, especially considering it a bus pass is a stamp on your ID, however they are done in different lines with different numbers so you can wait over and hour for your ID and then, instead of getting it stamped, have to pull a new number which is usually at least 100 away from the number that AUC staff is "Now Helping" (not a joke, there's really an electronic board). There is also very, very little communication between offices. There are constant scheduling conflicts during orientation, conflicting e-mails are often sent, and procedures are subject to change at any moment (which is frustrating for students but sometimes even more frustrating for staff and orientation leaders). We complain so much about bureaucratic inefficiency in the US, but not until I came here did I truly understand the definition of such a term! And to finish on the lightest note possible, nor did I truly understand the definition of traffic before I came to Cairo, Egypt! Simply being transported anywhere safely and somewhat timely are sometimes, and I think will often be, my greatest victories each day!
Hope everyone enjoyed or at least enjoyed skimming this LONG entry. I'll post again soon. And I'll work on putting up more pictures. I've been having some trouble uploading them, but I'll definitely try to work on that, especially after I visit the pyramids next week!
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