Tuesday was good, Hannah and I went to the Cairo Museum in the morning to make up for missing a fieldtrip and to find artifacts to write descriptions of for class. We went back to Zamalek, I worked on my Halloween costume and rested (I’m coming down with a cold :/ ) and then later that night I went to go meet up with my dad’s former co-worker and my childhood favorite person Nanci Martin. We were to have dinner at Taboula, the Lebanese restaurant I’ve mentioned many a time already in this blog. I got a cab by myself and between my broken Arabic and his broken English we almost got to the right place. At one point he told me that the way I say “ayawa” (meaning “yes”) is the “most sweet”. This is one I haven’t heard before, so that was interesting. Finally we got to a barricaded road- it turns out the restaurant is on the same street as the US Embassy. I had to get out of the cab and walk the rest of the way- a way I didn’t really know, alone in Garden City. I was just about to ask a traffic police officer where to go but then I saw a teeny sign that said Taboula. I was pretty proud of my success J. I had a great time with Nanci and her intern who joined us, named Melanie. On the drive home (Nanci has a driver, and Melanie and I live at the same place which was relatively close to the restaurant), Nanci told me a couple of stories about my dad that made me miss him a lot.
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| Nanci and I |
Wednesday we went to class and all that. After class while walking out of the maze building, we encountered a huge crowd of people huddled around something and occasionally yelling. I was curious but a little nervous- my friend Tim investigated- it was a worker’s strike. Apparently the workers are typically paid somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 L.E. a month- roughly the equivalent of $107. (this salary is already remarkably lower than what they should be paid (I’m not sure if it is minimum wage or what but this is what my friend told me) something like 1200 L.E. a month (about $200). However, the main point of contention now is a recent allocation of 100 L.E. of their monthly salaries going to a retirement fund. Now they only have a little less than $90 to live on for a month, not to mention supporting their families. After watching this for a little while, we went and got dinner then went to see the movie Cairo Time which my neighbor, Jim Connelly had told me about shortly before I left the states. It didn’t come out until the day I left, so I hadn’t gotten a chance to see it. However it was being shown on campus so we all thought we would go see it. This movie got mixed reviews from amongst my friends. There were a lot of lingering moments and shots that could eiter be taken as romantic or awkward, however, it was fun to see Cairo on the big screen since being here. Also, her hotel is either on our island (Zamalek) or looks at it from across the Nile, which was cool. One thing that bothered me is how Patricia Clarkson, the main actress was wearing clothes that would be considered mildly offensive/indecent in the culture here and her male companion, an Egyptian, did not advise her to dress in a more modest fashion the whole movie. Other than that it was pretty enjoyable. Also, before the movie started there was a travel ad for Egypt that was so enticing, that even though I was already in Egypt I wanted to go to Egypt. Well done Bureau of tourism!
This morning at school it was interesting to notice all the ways that campus has been effected by the strike- the bathrooms are dirty and sloppy looking, trash is all over the ground throughout campus, and the fountains on the main Plaza were going crazy and flooding the walkway a little bit. Their absence might not be quite as noticeable if the students cleaned up after themselves and didn’t litter all the time but so it goes. I sure hope that the workers can get their wages raised, they sure deserve it!
I went to the clinic this morning because my cold is worsening and they sent me home so I am on the bus back to downtown where I will catch a cab to the dorm. Hookie isn’t as fun without Sue Lyke though…
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