Adventures in Alexandria

Upfront disclaimer: Really long post!

Word of the day: مغامرة - (mookhamara - "adventure")

On Mondays and Tuesdays I usually have a one-on-one seminar with a Alexandria University professor focused on "Geopolitics in the Middle East," but, since my professor is out of town this week, I had a full afternoon free today. With so much time on my hands, I decided to undertake an adventure that I had been planning to do for a long time. I have written before on this blog about how much I love the "مناطق شعبية" ("minataq shaabia" translation: traditional/working class neighborhoods) in Alexandria. They are full of life, hustle and bustle, delicious bakeries and street-food shops, and there are always people there eager to talk with me about anything and everything. I have been visiting these neighborhoods one by one, usually with Galal, my Egyptian friend and running buddy. Today, however, Galal was busy so I went out by myself. My plan in the beginning was to go to my favorite lunch spot, stroll through my favorite souq that is near the restaurant, and then hop on the one of the tram lines that runs through a neighborhood called "ميناء البصل" ("Meena al Basal" literal translation: seaport of onion), a "shaabi" neighborhood that few if any of the Egyptian students living with us had ever visited. After that, I planned to ride another tram to the main train station and then, after a short walk, ride another tram back to the dorms. I ultimately achieved all of these goals, but the best parts of the adventure was not the transportation but instead the conversations and interactions I had with people on the street.

Here's a link to Google Maps that shows the route I took: http://bit.ly/aUFUcU

After I eating a delicious lunch of "فول و فلافل" (fava beans and falafel) at my favorite restaurant, Mohammed Ahmed, I took a short walk to my favorite souq that stretches out through one of Alexandria's oldest neighborhoods. Everything under the sun exists there. Today, I talked with a man selling squid about the possibility of cooking calamari, and I saw, for the first time in my life, a series of severed cow heads sitting on the street. Clearly nothing out of the ordinary. A few seconds after I first noticed the heads, the butcher started swinging his hatchet to break down the heads. I now have a firsthand understanding of just how big cow tongues really are!

I finished my walk through the souq and ambled over to the Abu Al-Abbas Mosque - Alexandria's most beautiful, in my opinion. Set just off the Mediterranean, the mosque is an architectural and artistic marvel. I was planning to go in and poke around the mosque for a bit, but instead I found a group of teenagers playing soccer in the mosque courtyard. They invited me to join in, so we spent about 20 minutes playing soccer, using one of the mosque walls as one goal and the other side of the courtyard as the other. As I was about to leave, one of the boys piped up "Give us some money, maybe five dollars!" I was somewhat surprised upon hearing this request. Unlike my experience in Kenya last summer when I was constantly asked for money almost everywhere I went, I really haven't had any similar experiences during my time in Egypt save for the occasional beggar on the street. Whereas in Kenya I probably would have shrugged it off and just went on my way, I decided to ask these kids why they had asked me for money. "We just played a friendly game of soccer, why are you asking me now for money? Is it because I am a foreigner and you think all foreigners have lots of money?" I asked them. Instantly, they turned very apologetic: "Oh no no, we didn't mean anything, we just want to buy a new soccer ball...sorry!" "Ok" I said, "No problem. I was just interested in why you asked me that question." I still tried to ask them one more time what the logic was behind their initial request, but I got the same response.

We chatted a little more as I was leaving the courtyard of the mosque, and somehow the conversation turned to the recent events in Israel. There has been a lot of resentment and anger amongst the Egyptians over the last few days over the Israeli expansion of settlements into East Jerusalem and the perception that a newly rebuilt temple near Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem is disrespectful and reflective of Israeli plans to desecrate the mosque. There was a protest yesterday at Alexandria University, and the newspapers have been following the story closely, too. Throughout the 2+ months I have been in Egypt I have never been reticent to tell people that I am Jewish, and I have never felt any threat to my physical safety as a result of telling people that I am Jewish. On the contrary, almost without exception I have been treated with respect even if the other person does not share my viewpoints. So I decided to seize the opportunity for another interesting conversation by telling these kids that I was Jewish. I think their being teenagers together in a group partially contributed to their initial reactions, which tended to be pretty negative. I had a few insults thrown at me and there was generally a lot of whooping and hollering among them. I kept completely calm, however, and made it completely clear to them from the beginning that I considered all of them friends and had tremendous respect for Islam. In the same way that I respected their religion, I expressed hope that they would respect me and my religion, too. Respect is a very strong word in Arabic and in Islam in general, and Muslims who I have talked with frequently quote the Qur'an as specifically telling them to respect Jews and Christians. So after the boys calmed down a bit, I explained to them that even though I am Jewish I do not automatically support everything that Israel does. "As a matter of fact," I told them, "I don't agree with the recent expansion of settlements and I think that Israel needs to reconsider its projects near Al-Aqsa seeing as to the extremely negative reaction from Muslims throughout the Middle East." Having established that I generally agreed with their current grievances, I went on to say that my overarching hope was that the two sides would find a way to work together to achieve peace and a two-state solution. "I don't respect any side - Israel or Palestine - that uses violence to further its causes," I told them, and most of them nodded their heads in agreement. At the same time, however, they became increasingly interested in the idea of convincing me that I had to recited the Shahada (There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger) and become a Muslim then and there. Staying patient, I explained to them that although I deeply respected their religion I did not want to convert. The conversation then reverted back into commotion, with some of them chanting the Shahada and some of them singing other random songs, so I sat back and waited for them to finish so we could return to our civil conversation that we had been having earlier. They eventually did, and we spent the last few minutes discussing the differences between the actions of the Israeli government and the general desire of the vast majority of the Jewish people for peace. I never felt any physical threat from them, but it was interesting from my perspective to see how they reacted upon hearing that I was Jewish and to hear some of their initial insults. I am happy, however, that the conversation took a turn for the better and I think we did reach a point of mutual understanding by the end of it.

After eating some delicious ice cream at the end of the peninsula in Alexandria that juts into the Mediterranean, I hopped on my first tram of the day and struck up a conversation with Mohammed, an old man who was sitting next to me. After the obligatory initial exclamation of surprise that I inevitably hear when I start to speak to someone in Arabic, we struck up a really interesting conversation about how Alexandria has changed throughout his life. He was born and raised here, and he spun the classic "back in my day" narrative about how life here used to better than it is now. At the same time, however, we did discuss some real issues such as the problem of youth unemployment. Mohammed said that when he graduated from college, a degree automatically earned you a stable job. For those without degrees, work was readily available in skilled trades. His opinion on the situation today was that fresh graduates feel entitled to instantly jump into a high level job in engineering, medicine, law, etc. Problems arise, however, when many of them realize that that option is not available. He said to me that the main problem is that they are unwilling to take any lower-paying or less-skilled job in the meantime. I have heard this story from many Egyptians - including my fellow Egyptian students at the university - and I have yet to hear any convincing ideas on how to solve the problem. One observation that I do have is that the idea of "entrepreneurship" is not particularly prominent in students' thinking about their options after graduation. A possible reason for this lack of entrepreneurship that I have heard from many of my fellow students is the Egyptian education system's seemingly endless quest to privilege memorization of information over creativity, critical-thinking skills, and discussions with professors instead of one-sided lectures.

In yet another example of the generosity that I have been so fortunate to have received here in Egypt, Mohammed absolutely insisted on paying my fare (5 cents) on the tram, and before he got off he made sure everyone else on the tram knew where I was trying to get to and would direct me accordingly.

The neighborhood Meena al Basal that I had planned the adventure around turned out to be fairly uninteresting. Just a conglomeration of light industrial factories and trucks coming and going from the port. Definitely working class, but generally without the general vibrancy that I have repeatedly found in other neighborhoods. Because I only saw it from tram, however, I think I owe the neighborhood another visit to poke around some more before I fully pass judgment. As I approached Alexandria's main train station, I was vaulted back into the working class world full of honking horns, crowded streets, and overwhelming sights and smells. After picking up a small pizza at one of the bakeries - and having yet another conversation on Israel, this time with the baker - I strolled down the main street of another working class neighborhood taking in scene. Bustling souqs, vendors hawking their wares, Egyptians relaxing in street-side cafes smoking sheesha and drinking tea, and mothers shepherding their children through the hustle and bustle of it all. I had to interrupt my walk for one of Alexandria's finest treats: fresh orange juice. And by fresh I mean literally juice squeezed from an orange on the spot. Delicious.

I finally reached my last tram of the day, and, of course, had to strike up a chat with everyone on the train. I was especially interested in a 10 year old kid who informed me with absolute certainty that he planned to visit me in America. I didn't realize how tired I was, however, until my eyes started to slowly glaze over in the middle of the ride, and before I knew it I found myself being tapped on the shoulder by one of my newly-made friends on the tram telling me that the tram had reached my stop. After bidding the people on the tram goodbye, I bought half a kilo of bananas from my favorite fruit stall and picked up a piping hot piece of of pita bread for 5 cents at the bakery. Finally, 5 hours after I started, I ended my adventure by triumphantly walking through the dorm gates and making a beeline for dinner.

Alexandria is truly the gift that keeps on giving. Not too big and not too small, I always find something new to surprise me when I go out exploring in the city. The best part, though, is the interactions that I have with people in places like the mosque courtyard / soccer field, the bakery, or the tram. Luckily for me, everyone's interest in chatting with the tall, undoubtedly foreign, blonde-haired guy who speaks Arabic never wanes.