Learning Arabic

I've started my Arabic class with Berlitz through a center that helps foreigners called the Community Services Association (CSA).  We are lucky to live only a 10 minute walk from the CSA so this is very convenient.  My Arabic class has only three students in it and is for 2 hours twice a week. The other students are a woman from Uganda and a woman from Turkey.  The class is taught almost all in Arabic.  We're told that by the third class, there will be no English speaking allowed.  By the last half hour of the class, it's challenging to stay focused sometimes.  At the end of the last class we were introduced to the Arabic alphabet.  Above is a photo of what my first name looks like in Arabic.

I was happy to be in a kids' toy store a couple days ago and find refrigerator magnets with Arabic letters and numbers.  Cameron and I eagerly bought them.  A couple days ago, I gave Cameron a challenge of putting all the numbers in order (from right to left).  Now Cameron is just finishing a challenge I gave him which was to use my Arabic book and put the whole Arabic alphabet in order from right to left in two rows.



























He just came in to tell me that he has completed the challenge.   Here's the finished product.

Now all we have to do is learn the names of the letters, the sounds they each make and which ones get looped together when writing, as my name shows.  Did I mention that Arabic is the hardest language I've tried to learn so far?  Spanish and Swahili were a breeze compared to Arabic.  The first time I looked at a map and saw all the words in Arabic I thought, "Oh my gosh, what have I gotten us into!"  But for now, we're enjoying the challenge.  It's kind of fun to be at the same learning level as Cameron in something.  I have to do the same refrigerator magnet challenge I gave him in the next day or so!  

The Lanterns of Ramadan

Cameron standing with a Ramadan Lantern

The Lights of Ramadan on trees and buildings

Tonight is the last night of Ramadan.  Cameron, Jeff and I went for a long walk in a part of Cairo that was new to me.   The street looked so festive with colored lights on the trees and lanterns hung all around.  It was a really interesting evening.  We headed out around 6pm or so and the sun must have just gone down because there were people eating in groups here and there.

One group of three men was sitting on a piece of cardboard on the grass with newpapers spread out to sit on.  As we were walking by, one of the men said, "Come, come" and motioned for us to join them.  I was a bit reluctant at first (not wanting to intrude, noticing there wasn't much food in front of them and they were three men who had been fasting all day, and concerned about how the guidebooks had cautioned about eating food cooked and sold in the streets, which this wasn't, but I was still worried considering Jeff had just been sick for two days and Cameron for one).  Fortunately, Jeff said we should join them and said it would be rude not to join them, so we did.  It turned out to be a really good experience.

They handed some food to Jeff and a piece of fried chicken to Cameron, along with some homemade bread (like pita but thicker).  We speak almost no Arabic and the man who invited us spoke almost no English, but we still communicated with the few words we had.  His name was Wahil.  I tried out the couple sentences I had learned in my Arabic class.  I told him where we were from, our names and then tried to say the equivalent of "Nice to meet you" in Arabic, (phonetically:  tasharafna), but I got the word confused and instead said "tafarashna" which he nonetheless understood and thought was very funny.  (I wonder what I was really saying with my mispronounciation...)   Later when I was trying to teach Cameron  to say the word correctly to Wahil, Wahil jokingly corrected me with my own mispronounciation and we had a laugh.  Wahil knew the word "family" in English and asked if we were a family pointing to Jeff, Cameron and me.  We nodded.  He pulled out his cell phone and showed us photos of his two children, a baby and a toddler.  At one point he said "one family" motioning to us and him and his friends.  I guess it doesn't get more fundamental than that.  The whole thing experience had a depth of generosity that seems to be the essence of  Ramadan.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and is a time for Muslims to refrain from eating and drinking all day, every day, until the sun goes down.  It's really quite amazing whole countries do this for 1/12 of the year, every year.  The heat is so hot this time of year... simply not drinking for one day would be excruciating for us.   A couple people who are fasting have told me it's both religious and to empathize with people who don't have enough to eat.  Ramadan ends tonight and there will be a three day holiday this weekend as people feast to celebrate.  

Latterns are part of the festivities of Ramadan and colored lights decorate the streets as they do during our Christmas season.  It's said that the lanterns date back 800 years to a time when lanterns were held outside the city to welcome the ruler when he arrived.  Below are more photos of the lanterns which decorate peoples homes as well as businesses.  

To the right is a photo of a couple wonderful desserts we picked up to have our own little celebration.  I don't know the name of the dessert in the front, but it is a delicious traditional Egyptian dessert that tastes like some kind of spice cake soaked in honey. 

One of the shopkeepers gave Cameron the yellow balloon after playing toss with him for a while.  Cameron was very excited about the festivities and especially the balloon.

The headscarf and the veil

Before I came here, I wondered if I would be inclined to wear a scarf over my head at times to fit in and not to offend those around me.  I decided to wait to see how things felt when I got here.  Cairo is Cosmopolitan enough that I'm comfortable wearing my sun hat (... a really great hat given to me by my sister as a going-away present), rather than a scarf.  The sun is so bright and hot that I need the hat and I don't feel like the scarf is who I am so don't feel a need to wear it.  But I wonder about what it means to be covered a lot as I watch the women here.  There are so many colors and types of scarves that some look quite fashionable.  Some women wear the long flowing scarves over long flowing dresses and look like royalty as they float by.  

Sometimes when I ride the Metro by myself, I ride in the "women's car" which is for women only.  There's a sign overhead on the metro platform that shows everyone which area will be the women's car.  (As an aside, Jeff and I have wondered if there is also a men's car.  Jeff has speculated that certain markings on the train represent the men's car.  When Jeff, Cameron and I would get on a car that was mostly men, I would quickly look around to see if there was any other woman in the car (signaling that it was ok for me to be in there as well).  Even if we inadvertently ended up in the men's car (if this really does exist), I 'm sure people would excuse my behavior since I'm a foreigner and they would assume (quite rightly) that I don't know any better.  

It's very relaxing to ride in the women's car of the metro.  There's more space and one doesn't have to be so much on one's guard.  (Though in general, Cairo is one of the safest cities in the world from what I hear, so I have little fear that I will be robbed or assaulted in any way.  It's much safer than New York or D.C. for example.) There are always some women reading small books while riding (... I assume it's the Quoran but don't know since I can't read Arabic).  Most women are covered in this car, but not all.  Everyone seems fine with however you choose to be.  There are always at least a couple women in the car who are completely covered with only their eyes showing.  One woman even wore gloves .... and all of this in 90 degree weather on a subway that can be stifling hot such that drops of perspiration run down ones arms and legs steadily even if one isn't covered.  

I sat next to one woman on the subway who was completely covered and veiled.  I was interested to see how the veil is held up.  There's a little thread right above the nose that seems to hook to the top of the scarf to hold the veil up over the face.  I think some of the women in veils are as curious about me as I am about them.  They sometimes stare at me and I wonder if they think I'm unethical since I'm not covered like them.  

During my orientation week at American University in Cairo, I would often be waiting for a while at the bus stop with other students, some of whom were Middle Eastern Studies majors.  I asked them what the history of the veil was.   Different people offered different explanations.  One said it was because the Quoran said women should dress "modestly" but also pointed out that one prophet was shown three women:  one completely covered with a veil, one with her head covered only and one with no head covering or veil, and the prophet was asked which of these women was more holy.  The prophet answered that each was holy.  

Another student said the veil was a sign of privilege and status historically.  The women who were veiled were the upper class who did not need to do manual labor and who could remain in the home and be protected by the veil.  However now the veil or head scarf is worn by all classes.  It seems segments of the upper class are sometimes the most likely not to be veiled and covered.  I read an article in an expatriot magazine here that discussed how one expat went to an Egyptian wedding and dressed very conservatively only to find the Egyptian women arriving in short stylish skirts and strapless gowns.

One online article I read discussed the Muslim belief that "the honor of the family resides in the conduct of its women. Honor depends on a woman remaining chaste.....Thus, in order to be respected by men, and protected from them, in public a woman should not flout her looks."  Hence the veil and scarf.  

I've read that for some, to be covered is just a matter of custom, a way to not stick out of the crowd.  If you cover your head, no one pays any attention to you and you can go about your business with no stares or intrusions.  I also heard before I came that with the amount of dust and pollution in the air, covering ones head can be helpful in terms of keep one's hair cleaner.  

Though I don't wear a veil or a head-scarf, I do follow custom by not wearing shorts or anything sleeveless.  I've been wearing pants every day and it's hot but I'm getting used to it.  Men don't wear shorts either so Jeff is also in pants in 90 degree weather.  I've asked Jeff if he thinks he'll be wearing one of those long flowing gowns that men sometimes wear here.  They look like they might be cooler because there is room for the air to circulate.  Jeff didn't think he would be wearing one.

A Walk to the Nile

The weekend here is Friday and Saturday, so we had the day off yesterday and decided to go for a walk to the Nile.  Our end goal was actually a market there called Alpha which has a big array of household things.  Here are some photos along the way to the store.

The food store is across from this view of the Nile, across the really busy street pictured above that is treacherous to cross (.... don't know that I've seen any traffic lights in Cairo!)

Now on to the store.
We still need some basics for our apartment like a longterm solution for drinking water.  Some people say it's fine to drink the water here (which is heavily chlorinated) and others say its safest to stick with bottled water.  I hate to have so many plastic bottles (... so bad for the environment) so we're looking into other options like perhaps a water cooler.  I also got a water purification tool from a camping supply store back home that supposedly kills harmful bacteria with ultraviolet light.  I'm just having trouble recharging the batteries for the tool to work.  Things can be a little challenging here with things like electrical currents and electricity in general.   There are quirky little frustrations.  We lose power once in a while and the shower won't have hot water unless the faucet in the sink is on at the same time.

Food shopping is adventure and a challenge at times.  You can buy Western produced goods but they are four times the cost of Egyptian made products.  Cameron sees Life cereal on the shelf and wants us to buy it but it costs $10 a box so no Life cereal this year.  We buy the cereal with Arabic writing (... thank goodness for pictures!) which is about $2 a box.  (He likes it ok.  He said this morning's chocolate flakes cereal tasted like brownie mix, which I'm sure is a vote of approval.)

All around the store we try to find products that we know how to cook (despite directions all being in Arabic).  Then we try to figure out what things cost when the prices are in Arabic (.... I know some of my Arabic numbers, but really need to learn them all, and fast...)  Then there is the check-out line... Our first store experience, when we didn't even know what the money was worth without looking really carefully at each bill, I watched the register total then noticed I had only received a fraction of the change back that I should have gotten.  I tried to explain in English and someone (not the cashier but someone standing a few feet away from the cashier) handed me a 10 pound note.  I still don't understand exactly what happened with that exchange.  It is all a learning experience.

There are also great things about shopping here as well.  I was buying a mango juice at the university the other day and the nice guy who is always there explained that the juice was fresh squeezed that morning.  I smiled and thought he was kidding.  (... how could juice be fresh squeezed that morning and be in a comercialized packaged plastic bottle in my hand at the university in the afternoon?!)  I later looked at the label more carefully to learn it was packaged by Cilantro (the same name as the food store) and it was produced in Nasr City, a part of Cairo.  The date on the top of the bottle showed it was indeed produced that same day.  He wasn't kidding!  The juice is full of big chunks of real mango.  Just delicious!  Not something I could ever get in New England!

The cheese is also really good here and there are lovely homemade breads.  The boxed cartoons of fruit juice that we often get are great, but also something to be careful about.  We learned, the hard way, that sometimes cartoons of juice have already been opened at the store (with a cup or two taken then put back on the shelf). Cameron got sick one day, throwing up his whole breakfast after having some juice that we later thought was the cause.  Jeff and I have stayed pretty healthy, just a little stomach problems here or there.  We're trying to keep up with disease prevention (... I brought what I hoped would be a year supply of Purell containers), but still there are gliches occasionally.  Cameron got a scrape that got infected, so I took him to the university clinic and have been applying antibiotic cream and bandaids for the past week.  But he's a happy little kid and is singing around the house now as I type.

Getting settled

I attended my orientation at American University in Cairo (AUC).  I'm in the International Human Rights Law program doing a one year graduate degree.  I'm really looking forward to my classes.

There are two campuses for AUC.  My classes are at the old campus (in downtown Cairo) but the orientation was a the new campus.  Here are a few photos of the new campus.

I've been working on locating Rotarians in Cairo and am making progress now that I have easier access to internet.  (We just got our internet hooked up on our apartment tonight).  There is a great website for the Rotary Clubs in Cairo and I've emailed the contact people listed for four different clubs.  I also found a Rotary Club listed in the phone book in Alexandria which is about a two hour train ride away.   I'm looking forward to attending some of the Rotary events I see posted on their website.

All in all, we're getting settled in nicely and having a great experience.

Celebrating Jeff's birthday with some new friends

Jeff had a birthday recently and we invited a family we became friends with to celebrate with us.  There are very nice folks.  They speak English and our kids gert along great.  Both parents are very impressive:  he works for a foreign company and travels a lot internationally and she is an engineer who was completing her degree while parenting several children (with her husband watching the kids while she went to school).  Cameron and their little boy are the same age and get along well.  Here's some photos after we all had cake on Jeff's birthday.

Our new home

We're very happy to be settled in our new apartment (-- they call it a flat here--) which is in a lovely part of Cairo called Maadi.  Our apartment is simple but nice and all that we need.  We bargained with the landlord (-- bargaining is a routine part of life here and is expected by everyone) who was kind enough to reduce the rent by a couple hundred dollars in exchange for us foregoing having air conditioning in the rooms other than the two bedrooms (which already had AC units).  He bought us a fan instead and it's fine.

We love how quiet our street is and how we can walk to the grocery store, the metro, Cameron's school and my bus-stop.  Here's a photo of our street (our flat is on the right) and a photo of the building we're in.  We're on the third floor.