It's been awhile since I've written on the blog, somewhat because school work is starting to pick up but also because there is just so much to do here that I don't have much free time! We are now on break for the next week and half, so I no longer have an excuse for not posting. Thus, here are a few fun experiences from the past week and a half:
1) My first Egyptian wedding. Last Thursday, three of us tagged along with the program's academic director to his friend's wedding. The wedding was in a suburb of Alexandria named "Wahed wa Ashreen" or, in English, simply "21." The unimaginative name is inspired by the fact this town is 21 kilometers from the center of Alexandria. The town didn't have many distinguishing features, and seemed decidedly middle class by Egyptian standards - modest, low-rise apartment buildings without much attention paid to aesthetics, satellite dishes everywhere, electricity, and bumpy roads. What was most interesting to me was the general absence of all forms of transportation on the streets. We saw a few cars parked along the sides of some of the streets, but we never saw or heard nary a motorcycle, bike, or car actually moving while we were there. As such, the roads turned into a playground for the local kids and a free and public venue for the wedding.
As guests, we were treated with the utmost respect and at every opportunity someone from the groom's family insisted that we eat more food or drink another cup of tea. One of the hardest jobs in Egypt is that of the guest: the host will always bring more food to the table than is humanly possible to eat, but you have to try your best to eat as much as possible lest you appear disrespectful. It's a tough task, but one I do enjoy (especially when there is good food like the Upper Egyptian food we were treated to at the wedding). When you are obliged to eat two huge meals in the span of two hours, however, it can become a bit much.
After our two dinners, we sat in the street and alternately watched and participated in the dancing / fundraising portion of the wedding. The groom and his family were from Upper Egypt (i.e. the south of Egypt), so this portion of the wedding included music played on a recorder-like instrument and drum from the region. As each person gave a small donation to cover the cost of the wedding, he would say who the donation was in honor of and would then get up to dance with the musicians. We donated in honor of Alexandria University, America, and finally Barack Obama, and then proceeded to do our best to emulate the Upper Egyptian style of dancing that we had watched the other men do quite gracefully before us.
Unfortunately after the dancing ended we had spent four hours at the wedding and we had to get back to Alexandria for a birthday party (and another huge meal). There was still no sign of the bride when we left, but I ran into the groom by coincidence a few days ago in Alexandria and he told me that the rest of the wedding went quite well. Alf mabrook (congratulations!)
2) As my Arabic skills continue to develop, I am starting to have some interesting conversations with the Egyptian students that go beyond basic, daily topics such as school, sports, and, my personal favorite, food. As opposed to my experience in Kenya last summer where I would read the English-language newspaper everyday and stay abreast of political developments, I am relatively cut off from Egyptian politics. I don't have time to slog through Arabic newspaper articles every day, and I didn't know much if anything about Egyptian politics before I arrived. In the month and a half that I have been here, however, I have heard the constant refrain from nearly everyone I've talked to that the current government is rife with corruption, inefficient in service delivery, and generally unable to take up the real problems (primarily unemployment) that the country faces. I have focused particularly on the shabab (youth) when thinking about the political situation in the country, and over the past week and a half I had a few chats with my Egyptian friends focused on the future of youth and politics in Egypt.
There are groups of young men all over the place in Alexandria, and Egypt, like most developing countries, has a disproportionally high percentage of its population under 30 years old. So the first question I always ask about the issue is about the options that these youth have. Is a steady job available for your average college student after he graduates? What if you don't make it to college? Are these youth seemingly languishing on the streets simply unambitious, or are they victims of an education system that doesn't prepare them well for future employment? What is their level of interest in politics? The general answers that I have heard so far is that these youth are victims of a poorly-designed and antiquated education system and a gerontocratic society that prioritizes age over skills at their expense. It would be a mistake, of course, to apply these sweeping generalizations to every Egyptian, but the reality on the street should not be taken lightly. Having large groups of unemployed, disaffected youth who are thereby cut off from engaging in the normal social processes of earning a steady income, finding a spouse, and starting a family is a potentially dangerous situation for the government and general stability in the country. The question that remains and that I want to take discuss more with my Egyptian friends is about the political alternatives that might or might not exist. I have heard some of my friends express support for the Muslim Brotherhood, some for the potential presidential candidacy of Mohamed el-Baradei (former head of the IAEA), and some continue to support Hosni Mubarak. As the semester goes on, I am going to keep trying to get my head around these issues and hopefully learn some useful Arabic vocabulary in the process.
We're off on our group trip to Sinai for the next few days, and after that some of us are going to Jordan to visit, among other things, Petra. I am complete ready for the beach, snorkeling, and, of course, for some more fun adventures in Egypt and Jordan.
UPDATE: After waiting five hours for our shredded bus tire to get fixed in a random rest stop on the side of the road in Sinai, we finally made it to Dahab. All of us are 100% relaxed here - life is good. More to come soon on Sinai and my upcoming trip to Jordan
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
A Trip to the Desert
Last weekend we took our first group trip of the semester, spending three days in Siwa - a desert oasis in western Egypt. Siwa is a beautiful town. It is literally smack dab in the middle of a huge desert, but because it is at a much lower elevation than the rest of the land around it there is a huge lake (which seemed to be a mix of saltwater and fresh water, I'm not quite sure) that gives rise to thousands of palm trees, and, of course, a human settlement.
My favorite part of the trip was the beautiful views that we were treated to from atop the hills that dot the area. Because the desert beyond the town is relatively flat, you can see for miles in every direction from atop the hills. To one side you see the palm trees, the lake, and town, and to the other side you see the endless sand of the desert.
The hills themselves are intriguing, too. Some of them hold tombs from the era of Alexander the Great or from the various groups that populated Siwa in the Middle Ages when it was an important trading post. We saw hieroglyphs, the trademark, one-eyed Egyptian wall paintings, and old dwellings carved into the hillsides.
We spent our last night in Siwa in a camp in the desert. Contrary to what you might think, nights in the desert are really cold! Luckily we had a fire (and s'mores) to take our minds off the temperatures that felt like they were in the high 30s. The night was great; we ate a traditional Siwi dinner, chatted, and ran around in the desert outside the camp. Unfortunately it was a cloudy night so we couldn't see too many stars. That one cold night, though, was enough for me. As I write this I am sitting in a cafe in Alexandria in a short sleeve shirt enjoying the warm day. My heart goes out to everyone at Tufts shivering in the cold.
One last thing that I found interesting about Siwa was the interaction between the old town and the new "touristy" parts. The first paved road to the town was built only 10 or 15 years ago, so tourism and connections to the outside world (even to Egypt) in general are still very new. Whenever I visit a place like Siwa that tries to cater to tourists as an "exotic" destination offering things like desert safaris and building tourist-trap sort of restaurants and shops I am always interested to talk to the locals about how they view the influx of outsiders into their town. I had an interesting chat with one of the staff at our camp about the topic, and he said that, although tourism had opened up some job opportunities, the average standard or living for most of the Siween had not changed. Perhaps this is best exemplified by the new, state-of-the-art streetlights that dot the town's main streets and the roads that lead to the sightseeing destinations. The irony, of course, is that the lights illuminate the ramshackle dwellings that dot the sides of the streets. Furthermore, the side streets have streetlights too, but they are much older and usually all that remains of them is a pole -- the actual lights have long since been removed. We went on to talk about the way that most Siween viewed the advent of tourism in their town in general. He said that the Siween not employed in the tourist industry tended not to view the changes that tourism had brought about kindly and would rather just be left alone. It's hard to tell how the younger generations will adjust, or even to think about how the town will look 10 years from now considering how much it has changed in the past 10 years.
So all in all it was really fun weekend. We have a really great group of people and it was nice to spend time together exploring the town and huddling tight in the desert to escape the cold. I would temper my rave review, however, with the observation that it is important to enjoy the beautiful views from the hilltops while at the same time considering the impacts - positive and negative - that the swift advent of tourism brings to a previously isolated area.
My favorite part of the trip was the beautiful views that we were treated to from atop the hills that dot the area. Because the desert beyond the town is relatively flat, you can see for miles in every direction from atop the hills. To one side you see the palm trees, the lake, and town, and to the other side you see the endless sand of the desert.
The hills themselves are intriguing, too. Some of them hold tombs from the era of Alexander the Great or from the various groups that populated Siwa in the Middle Ages when it was an important trading post. We saw hieroglyphs, the trademark, one-eyed Egyptian wall paintings, and old dwellings carved into the hillsides.
We spent our last night in Siwa in a camp in the desert. Contrary to what you might think, nights in the desert are really cold! Luckily we had a fire (and s'mores) to take our minds off the temperatures that felt like they were in the high 30s. The night was great; we ate a traditional Siwi dinner, chatted, and ran around in the desert outside the camp. Unfortunately it was a cloudy night so we couldn't see too many stars. That one cold night, though, was enough for me. As I write this I am sitting in a cafe in Alexandria in a short sleeve shirt enjoying the warm day. My heart goes out to everyone at Tufts shivering in the cold.
One last thing that I found interesting about Siwa was the interaction between the old town and the new "touristy" parts. The first paved road to the town was built only 10 or 15 years ago, so tourism and connections to the outside world (even to Egypt) in general are still very new. Whenever I visit a place like Siwa that tries to cater to tourists as an "exotic" destination offering things like desert safaris and building tourist-trap sort of restaurants and shops I am always interested to talk to the locals about how they view the influx of outsiders into their town. I had an interesting chat with one of the staff at our camp about the topic, and he said that, although tourism had opened up some job opportunities, the average standard or living for most of the Siween had not changed. Perhaps this is best exemplified by the new, state-of-the-art streetlights that dot the town's main streets and the roads that lead to the sightseeing destinations. The irony, of course, is that the lights illuminate the ramshackle dwellings that dot the sides of the streets. Furthermore, the side streets have streetlights too, but they are much older and usually all that remains of them is a pole -- the actual lights have long since been removed. We went on to talk about the way that most Siween viewed the advent of tourism in their town in general. He said that the Siween not employed in the tourist industry tended not to view the changes that tourism had brought about kindly and would rather just be left alone. It's hard to tell how the younger generations will adjust, or even to think about how the town will look 10 years from now considering how much it has changed in the past 10 years.
So all in all it was really fun weekend. We have a really great group of people and it was nice to spend time together exploring the town and huddling tight in the desert to escape the cold. I would temper my rave review, however, with the observation that it is important to enjoy the beautiful views from the hilltops while at the same time considering the impacts - positive and negative - that the swift advent of tourism brings to a previously isolated area.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
News, News, and more News
It's been quite a week since I last posted. Egypt won two soccer games (both of which set off crazy celebrations in the streets), I attended the first rugby game of my life, and of course I had a chance to explore the city some more.
First, soccer - or, as they say in Egypt, kura. Egypt played Algeria in the African Cup of Nations semifinal last Thursday and the anticipation was palpable throughout the city leading up to the game. Whenever you see people selling Egyptian flags in the middle of the streets and face painters with only black, white, and red paint it can only mean one thing: there's a big soccer game coming up. This game was particularly important because of the painful memory of Egypt's loss to Algeria last fall that prevented Egypt from qualifying for the World Cup. According to every Egyptian I talked to, the Algerian team plays extremely dirty, and that style of play represents the qualities of Algerians in general. So with that in mind, I was prepared for raucous celebrations if Egypt won (revenge!) or possibly riots if Egypt lost a close, contested match. Luckily, Egypt dominated the game - they won 4-0 and three Algerians received red cards and were ejected from the game. The ensuing celebration was unlike any I have ever seen, except maybe the somewhat contained celebration around Fenway Park after the Red Sox won the World Series in 2007. All throughout the Alexandria people were dancing the streets, shooting off fireworks, and using lighters and aerosol cans to create fire blasts at random intervals. Pandemonium. We watched from the sidewalk, and decided after a few minutes that it would probably be a good idea to walk away from the main street near the dorms and onto some calmer (relatively) side streets. Nevertheless, the party continued until the wee hours of the morning. When I went to bed at around 1 AM I could still here music and car horns from the street. Talk about a national catharsis...I think every Egyptian - literally everyone - watched the match and partied afterwards!
Egypt won the African Cup of Nations three days later, and that set off another round of celebrations in the streets. Unfortunately in our excitement to join in with the frenzy on the street we had a small run-in with a group of unruly young Egyptians who harassed our group (about 6 or 7 of us, mix of boys and girls) as we were watching the partiers on the street. Nothing came of it in the end - we went into a shoe store off to the side of the street and the we were able to push the harassers away - but I think the girls in particular were not very happy with what happened. They face a lot of adversity on a daily basis (for various reasons and from various people on the street), and in retrospect it was a poor choice on our part (the guys) to go nearer to the celebration and make ourselves more visible to people who, although they probably weren't drunk, were certainly in a charged-up mood. Lesson learned, we'll do better next time.
We had our first rugby match on Friday. A club team from Cairo came to town, and we faced off under the lights of the university's stadium in front of a small crowd (well, in reality, it was just a bunch of the students in the program and our rugby club's junior team). Of the five of us from the program who joined the team, three - myself included - had never played rugby before in our lives. The other two had, so they actually started the game, but we three were content to simply watch from the sidelines. Rugby, as you might know, is quite a physical game. Unlike football which has a set beginning and end to each play, there are no set stoppages in rugby. The teams go back and forth unless there is a penalty, the ball goes out of bounds, or someone scores a "try" (touchdown). So in addition to requiring speed and size, a good rugby player has to be in really good shape, too. I think conditioning was our main problem, and we went on to lose the game 23-12. Our coach gave quite the speech afterward in the locker room. We are learning all sorts of interesting Arabic words from him that are not suitable for this blog. I now understand the basic form of the game much better after watching on Friday, but I'm still not sure I'll ever get to the point this semester of understanding it well enough or playing well enough to actually get into a game. As far as I'm concerned, however, playing in a game would just be an added bonus. It's been really fun to get to know the guys on the team and learn sports vocabulary, and I've particularly enjoyed getting to experience the camaraderie of team sports once again.
Finally, an Egyptian friend of mine and I went for a run Monday along the Corniche - Alexandria's main road that runs right next to the Mediterranean. My ambitious plans to run about 4 miles soon fell by the wayside when he told me that he hadn't run in over a year. We ended up going at a "comfortable" pace, which included a stop for ice cream in the middle, a walk through an old fortress at the end of the road, and a stroll through a shabi (working class) market right next to Alexandria's oldest and most beautiful mosque. Our short run seems to have inspired my friend, though, who has now vowed to run every day of the week so that when we go out again next week he'll be able to make it the whole way In'sha'allah (god willing).
We're off to Siwa today, a desert oasis in the southern part of Egypt. This is our first group trip of the semester, and everyone is really excited. We have a 9 hour bus ride, but there has been talk of a prolonged Arabic singing session and who knows what else on the bus. We'll be spending 2 days in the desert and then coming back to the city on Saturday. More updates to come!
First, soccer - or, as they say in Egypt, kura. Egypt played Algeria in the African Cup of Nations semifinal last Thursday and the anticipation was palpable throughout the city leading up to the game. Whenever you see people selling Egyptian flags in the middle of the streets and face painters with only black, white, and red paint it can only mean one thing: there's a big soccer game coming up. This game was particularly important because of the painful memory of Egypt's loss to Algeria last fall that prevented Egypt from qualifying for the World Cup. According to every Egyptian I talked to, the Algerian team plays extremely dirty, and that style of play represents the qualities of Algerians in general. So with that in mind, I was prepared for raucous celebrations if Egypt won (revenge!) or possibly riots if Egypt lost a close, contested match. Luckily, Egypt dominated the game - they won 4-0 and three Algerians received red cards and were ejected from the game. The ensuing celebration was unlike any I have ever seen, except maybe the somewhat contained celebration around Fenway Park after the Red Sox won the World Series in 2007. All throughout the Alexandria people were dancing the streets, shooting off fireworks, and using lighters and aerosol cans to create fire blasts at random intervals. Pandemonium. We watched from the sidewalk, and decided after a few minutes that it would probably be a good idea to walk away from the main street near the dorms and onto some calmer (relatively) side streets. Nevertheless, the party continued until the wee hours of the morning. When I went to bed at around 1 AM I could still here music and car horns from the street. Talk about a national catharsis...I think every Egyptian - literally everyone - watched the match and partied afterwards!
Egypt won the African Cup of Nations three days later, and that set off another round of celebrations in the streets. Unfortunately in our excitement to join in with the frenzy on the street we had a small run-in with a group of unruly young Egyptians who harassed our group (about 6 or 7 of us, mix of boys and girls) as we were watching the partiers on the street. Nothing came of it in the end - we went into a shoe store off to the side of the street and the we were able to push the harassers away - but I think the girls in particular were not very happy with what happened. They face a lot of adversity on a daily basis (for various reasons and from various people on the street), and in retrospect it was a poor choice on our part (the guys) to go nearer to the celebration and make ourselves more visible to people who, although they probably weren't drunk, were certainly in a charged-up mood. Lesson learned, we'll do better next time.
We had our first rugby match on Friday. A club team from Cairo came to town, and we faced off under the lights of the university's stadium in front of a small crowd (well, in reality, it was just a bunch of the students in the program and our rugby club's junior team). Of the five of us from the program who joined the team, three - myself included - had never played rugby before in our lives. The other two had, so they actually started the game, but we three were content to simply watch from the sidelines. Rugby, as you might know, is quite a physical game. Unlike football which has a set beginning and end to each play, there are no set stoppages in rugby. The teams go back and forth unless there is a penalty, the ball goes out of bounds, or someone scores a "try" (touchdown). So in addition to requiring speed and size, a good rugby player has to be in really good shape, too. I think conditioning was our main problem, and we went on to lose the game 23-12. Our coach gave quite the speech afterward in the locker room. We are learning all sorts of interesting Arabic words from him that are not suitable for this blog. I now understand the basic form of the game much better after watching on Friday, but I'm still not sure I'll ever get to the point this semester of understanding it well enough or playing well enough to actually get into a game. As far as I'm concerned, however, playing in a game would just be an added bonus. It's been really fun to get to know the guys on the team and learn sports vocabulary, and I've particularly enjoyed getting to experience the camaraderie of team sports once again.
Finally, an Egyptian friend of mine and I went for a run Monday along the Corniche - Alexandria's main road that runs right next to the Mediterranean. My ambitious plans to run about 4 miles soon fell by the wayside when he told me that he hadn't run in over a year. We ended up going at a "comfortable" pace, which included a stop for ice cream in the middle, a walk through an old fortress at the end of the road, and a stroll through a shabi (working class) market right next to Alexandria's oldest and most beautiful mosque. Our short run seems to have inspired my friend, though, who has now vowed to run every day of the week so that when we go out again next week he'll be able to make it the whole way In'sha'allah (god willing).
We're off to Siwa today, a desert oasis in the southern part of Egypt. This is our first group trip of the semester, and everyone is really excited. We have a 9 hour bus ride, but there has been talk of a prolonged Arabic singing session and who knows what else on the bus. We'll be spending 2 days in the desert and then coming back to the city on Saturday. More updates to come!
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