Its been over 2 years since we moved to Egypt & since I started this blog. It has some tips & tricks we figured out, to adjust to the new culture. A travel diary + event log of sorts. Also including relevant snippets & News articles
Robert Fisk, a keen observer of Egypt and its affairs has written an insightful, balanced and informed article on Egypt's day of reckoning
There are solidarity protests and demos all over the US, in UK, Rome and Germany that I have heard of.
A large number of Egyptians are standing up, for their voices and grievances to be heard. There have been sporadic protests each year, isolated incidents, but never on this scale and as sustained as this year.
SMS, Internet, Local TV channels, radio channels have all been shut down. Cell phone coverage is minimal. A Statement from Vodafone, Egypt says "All mobile operators in Egypt have been instructed to suspend services in selected areas. Under Egyptian legislation the authorities have the right to issue such an order and we are obliged to comply with it. The Egyptian authorities will be clarifying the situation in due course."
We are all Khaled Said is a group created on facebook, that I would recommend joining. They are giving the most accurate updates in English that I know of, online.
Not being in Egypt at this time is scarier for me, than if I had been there during these protests. I worry. I worry for my friends. My expat friends, my expat friends married to Egyptians, my Egyptian friends, my students in Egypt, Yemen and Lebanon. Most of them have assured me that they are staying home, especially those with little children, so that they may not be in immediate physical danger.
These are friends I can call up once phone services are back or who will email me when the internet is up and running. But what about all the other people? People I met daily while I lived in Egypt. Someone from the office will give me news of all the office drivers who have ferried me across the city at some time or the other, acted as my translator or interlocutor.
But what about those makwagi boys who brought me my laundry, the grocer boys who came home with deliveries, the lady who squatted on the corner - who could always be trusted to have a supply of limoon and nya nya (lemon & mint), the eish sellers whom I never bought baladi bread from, but whom I always saw as I passed by.
There are so many other people like this in Egypt, that I may not have had a conversation with ever, but who were a part of my life there. I worry for them too.
And all I can do other than worry, is pray for their safety. So I pray for them to be safe, I pray for a quick, peaceful and suitable resolution, I pray for Egypt. That is all I can do, for now. . .
Interesting article from Gulf News on the unique traditions of Ramadan practiced in Egypt.
I must admit, I have only seen the fanoos in Egypt during Ramadan, not in any other part of the world, so I did know about that. But I've never heard about the Yameesh, which nut is this?
Edited on 13 Sep, to add: Thanks everyone for the clarifications of Yameesh being any combination of nuts and dry fruits. I guess the reported got it wrong about the Yameesh being unique to Egypt.
So that means, its only the Ramadan Fanoos that is unique to Egypt, or is there anything else that you know of?
I wanted to write about it the moment I started to hear him speak, but life has an irritating habit of getting in the way. What is normal after such intereference by life, is that I shelve the idea. But this particular event is just too important to be lightly tossed aside in my "expired" folder.
The whole city of Cairo virtually came to a standstill on June 4th. Rumors abounded of 10,000+ snipers, 20,000 troops coming in on their own helicopters from the US and other such fantastic numbers were bandied about.
Passes to the event were carefully distributed by the American Embassy from what I gathered, to ensure an appropriate balance of profiles. 15 students from each major university were invited.
The Government declared a holiday for all its offices. A lot of Universities postponed exams to cope with this extra holiday. A number of private companies too decided to give employees the day off, fearing that they may be stuck in one of the road clearance drives. People who had parked their cars in certain areas along the route, were told to remove them the day before the President was due to arrive. (Now if we can only get similar celebrities to visit different parts of Cairo each day, we may be able to get those broken down heaps that masquerade as cars, that take up precious parking space to get towed away - How's that as a long term solution to Cairo's parking woes?)
But I digress. Coming back to the speech.
It was absolutely brilliant. There was no fault that an unvested interest could find in that speech except perhaps for him mis-pronouncing hijab and Al Azhar. But given the content and message, those are errors that can be easily overlooked.
The greatest strength of his speech was that he identified with his audience on a personal level. Compared to his predecessor whose speech writers made assume a superior and supercillious tone, Obama came across as "one of us". He drew attention to his Indonesian and Chicago life experiences amongst muslim communities.
He gave them praise where it was due, for their innovations in printing, algebra, architecture and then came to his main point. That he would fight negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they may appear. A statement that was greeted with loud applause, that almost died down with his following sentence "But the same principle should apply to Muslim stereotypes of America" This did not seem to be what the crowd wanted to hear. Until then, Obama had seemed to be a cheerleader for the Muslim world, but this statement showed that he wasn't going to unilaterally support the Muslim world. There was going to have to be some give and take.
Once the audience reconciled themselves to this idea, things improved again.
I will not get into the rest of the content of his speech, as it has been discussed ad nauseum on multiple fora.
It was a wonderful bit of speech writing to include references from the Torah, the Bible and the Quran. When he said "Jerusalem - is a place for all the children of Abraham to mingle peacefully", I had goosebumps and I know many Americans who have made Egypt their home, who were moved to tears by this sentence.
His body language was firm yet conveyed his openness to change. He came across as determined while engaging the public through eye contact and clear speech. Again, notable when compared with the last guy to hold his post.
He changed the terminology from the aggressive posturing of the previous government to one based on mutual understanding and dialogue. Instead of general nonsensical terms like "War on terror", he firmly stated that "America is not at War with Islam"
Another firm departure from previous policy was when he clearly stated "America does not presume to know what is best for everyone" If he can follow through on this and not have American Foreign policy and their idea of Democracy being stuffed down the throats of unwilling citizens of countries that aren't ready for the American idea of Democracy, it will go a long way in building bridges that had seemed burned and irrepairable a year ago.
The speech was transmitted live on Facebook and was texted as sms in English, Arabic, Farsi and Urdu. Thus upholding his campaign strategies of involving the younger generations by utilising media more familiar and accessible to them. It has also been uploaded onto Youtube.
The reaction to his speech by most locals that I know, has been "Let's wait and watch" "We want to see actions, not words" This guy is talking about change in policy, so maybe we can stop suspcecting the littlest sneeze. But to start trusting the Americans, we need to see concrete proof. We need to see steps being taken in the right direction. Words will not be enough.
It is undeniable that the US has a large role to play in World Politics. We can only hope and pray that instead of mindless wars and Nuclear arms races, we can at least have dialogue and hope for a future of peace.
In Obama's Words "All of us share this world for but a brief moment in time. The question is whether we spend that time focused on what pushes us apart, or whether we commit ourselves to an effort – a sustained effort – to find common ground, to focus on the future we seek for our children, and to respect the dignity of all human beings"
26th of January will be the start of the Chinese New Year of the OX.
In honor of this, there was a mini Chinese bazaar at the CSA yesterday. Some interesting Chinese food items from an embassy consignment like red beans flavored noodles and other hard to find Chinese ingredients were on sale.
There was also a stall by China Treasure which offers a selection of interesting curios from China.
There was also some home cooked Chinese food including dumplings, stir fried vegetables and meat in sauces. Some food was being prepared hot on site, including pan fried dumplings, Chinese stuffed bread (like parathas) and kebabs. Yesterday was also Cooks day off, which is held every Thursday & Sunday between 9am & 1pm on the premises. Normally the food on offer is of the home cooked variety and more reasonable than restaurant food. Over the last few months I have seen Egyptian, Indian, Brazilian, Phillipino, Italian among the variety of cuisines on display. From past experience, some foods keep well in the fridge for a couple of days, but some of them have to be eaten the same day as the food is packed very fresh and without preservatives.
One of the Best Bazaars that I have attended in Cairo. This was a mammoth effort. Around 80 stalls. There were the usual suspects from the Tupperware/jewelry designers/shawls/sweaters/candles brigade. But what was truly unique was the sheer number of charities and NGO's that were given the opportunity to present the handiwork of their wards. Some beautiful work was exhibited by the nuns of St Barsoum Monastery - Toys, decorations, embroidery, lace, knits, Coptic Icons, Stained Glass and needle point made by underprivileged families in the Helwan area. They have a wide variety of handicrafts and I would highly recommend visiting their workshops at El Maasara in Helwan.
Other Charities that exhibited work of wonderful quality (which is so hard to find in Egypt) were House of Charity (3381 1063), Woodwork Center of Hagaza (012 759 9479), Touch her World and Tukul Crafts. There were products created by orphans, young girls, prisoners, refugees and other marginalised groups. This was an excellent opportunity to pick up Christmas gifts in one location while contributing to some great causes.
Entry was 30Le which was completely worth it, unlike the over priced bazaar at Narmer American College
There were stalls that had activities of finger painting, wax hand impressions, decoupage etc. for the little kids, like Art Cafe There were quite a few Food stalls too. Chinese by Peking and Dragon House, Shawarmas from Bistro, Smiley, Max's Restaurant and a few others. Amera was offering some excellent hot dogs (I wonder where they buy their sausages from, but they are the best quality and consistency I have eaten in Egypt)
Jared's bagels were making fresh waffles and corn dogs on the spot. I'm not sure if corn dogs are on the regular menu at their Road 9 outlet. I'll have to check the next time I'm there.
If you attend only one bazaar in the Christmas run-up, then this should be it!
Narmer American College is situated in New Cairo. They had advertised their Christmas Bazaar quite heavily, so we thought it may be worth our while to drive all the way across town to check it out.
Big Mistake! We should have realized that, when they charged us Entry fee of 30LE each. (most Xmas bazaars charge 10LE and the few really good ones charge 20LE) My husband who has insider insight, mentioned that if the gate priceis too high, then it means they can't make money off of you on the inside.
There were a lot of stalls, but 90% of them were focused on kids toys and accessories. The only good stall around was The Bookspot run by 2 lovely ladies, but I normally pick up books from their store on Road 9 in Maadi and prefer to browse the wider collection that they have in store.
What was really irritating was that the snow and streamer cans were being sold for about 5LE and badly behaved brats from ages 6 to 14 were running riotously around the place spraying the snow all over the silk and pashmina items in stalls, the books, the food stalls and the live animals stall! Terrible behavior by the kids and complete lack of interest and control and respect for other peoples property by their parents! It was disgraceful! The better behaved younger kids were occupied with the bouncy castle and slides and the wide open playgrounds while the older ones assaulted our ears with some off key and off beat blaring karaoke!
The senior class boys who were manning the bake stall were much better behaved, compared to the rest of the lot. Not at all a bazaar I would recommend to anyone unless you had no time to visit toy shops to pick up Chritmas gifts. If the European Embassies Bazaar was a 7.5, this one was a 1.5
Visited the Christmas Bazaar organised by the European Embassies at the Nile Hilton yesterday. As was to be expected, the quality of goods on offer was way superior to most bazaars in Egypt as the goods had been imported from various European embassies.
We reached about 11am and the place was overflowing. We were wondering what the rush was about, as we haven't seen such crowds at any of the previous bazaars that we have attended in Egypt. People had even come with strolleys and suitcases. When we went in, we figured that a large majority of the crowd was there to buy the alcohol that was freely available. A lot of embassies had their countries traditional alcohol on offer: Russian vodkas, Pimms from UK, Irish Whiskey, Gordons Gin, the range was much wider than you would ever see in the Duty Free Shop in Egypt. Prices were a little higher than the Duty Free Shops. We did not pick up any alcohol as we travel frequently between the 2 of us and normally bring our legally allowed limit in with us. But a lot of people were stocking up for the holiday season.
Alcohol was just the surface of the goods on offer. Traditional foods, home baked goodies, snacks on site, traditional embroidery, crystal, jewelry, souvenirs. All these were in plenty.
We picked up some Croatian pasta sauce which I have yet to try and fresh chocolate cake from Greece. The cake we got was charred on the bottom, and more like a chocolate flavored bread.
On location we had a European Union brunch ranging from cheese toast from Holland to crepes, waffles, Hungarian Goulash and Slovenian burgers, British Pimms based punch to Irish coffee. The Swiss cheese Raclette smelt a little too strong for our taste but plenty of people were enjoying that with potatoes and gherkins. Children's Christmas Choirs provided background music and there was even a Santa's grotto for the younger ones. Entry at 20LE was a bit more than most other bazaars, but all the money was being collected for Egyptian charities.
Had the good fortune of attending a lecture by Michael Haag, eminent Photographer and author of multiple books about Egypt.
Although he is from London, he has been visiting Alexandria since 1973, prior to which he already had a lot of friends who had emigrated to the UK from Alexandria. Michael's passion for Alexandria emanates from every photograph and is evident in every word that he speaks.
For today's lecture, he focused on a series of old photographs that he collected from private family albums of long term residents of Alexandria. The pictures in this book span a century- between 1860 and 1960. He showcased 30 of the pictures and told us stories behind each one and took us on a marvelous journey into "Vintage Alexandria"
While the costumes were strange (3 piece suits worn while lounging on the sea shore for example) a lot of the buildings were recognisable. Although some of the buildings were destroyed in the bombing of the Western harbour during World War II and a lot of the buildings have been torn down to give way for new ones.
In Michael's eyes, Alexandria was the ultimate Cosmopolitan city until 1971, because the blend of cultures had not come through occupation or colonialism. The Greeks, Italians and other nationalities who lived in the city for over 150 years had been invited by Mohammed Ali to trade through the Alexandria port.
We saw a lot of previously unseen pictures of Lawrence Durell, Safinaz Zulfikar (later married to King Farouk as Queen Farida), Antony Benaki (the Greek cotton trader whose collection formed the basis of the famous Benaki Museum in Athens), Robert Koch (who isolated the cholera virus and developed a vaccine in an Alexandria laboratory) and other famous Alexandrians.
He showed us a picture of Constantine Cavafy from a business card he had printed and handed over to a friend during her wedding. The funny part was that the picture had been taken 15 years earlier! Cavafy continued to use the same picture for the rest of his life :)
The one thing that hasn't changed since the time of Cleopatra seems to be the layout of the Eastern Harbour, although a lot of the land has been reclaimed. The Hotel Cecil stands on reclaimed land and just beyond the original location of one of Celopatra's needles, which is currently in Central Park, New York.
It was an extremely illuminating lecture and it was a pleasure to be taken back in time to an era that was more gentle and cultured and "quiet"?
Most of his books that I browsed through seem worth buying. Visit Michael's website on http://www.michaelhaag.com
Had a ball of a time at today's Diwali function held by the Indian Community Association in Cairo.
Met a lot of old friends, made some new ones. The decorations were awesome and felt like being back in India with bright diyas and colorful rangolis all over the place.
Usha Uthup was in town, to perform for the function and she got the crowd on their feet (although some of them were on their feet just to capture her on camera)
Good Indian khana. Over 800 guests. This was a diwali party to remember!
Ms Ostadh fought back and then went public about her ordeal
An Egyptian man has been jailed for three years with hard labour for sexual harassment of a woman in the street.
Sharif Gommaa was also ordered to pay 5,001 Egyptian pounds ($895) damages to Noha Rushdi Saleh for the attack in Cairo's Heliopolis district.
Women's rights activists welcomed the ruling saying it was the first known case of prison for such an offence.
The defendant was accused of repeatedly groping Noha Rushdi Saleh as he drove slowly alongside her in his car.
Although many Egyptian women and visiting foreigners complain of unwanted sexual advances in Egyptian streets, the subject is rarely addressed by the authorities or mainstream media.
After an hour-long tussle she dragged her attacker to a police station
However, this attack in June became the focus of media coverage after the 27-year-old filmmaker, also known as Noha Ostadh, went public about her ordeal.
She told the BBC how shocked she had been at her attacker's behaviour, and also at the attitude of passers-by who told her not to go to the police - while others blamed her for provoking the attack.
After an hour-long tussle in which she dragged Gomaa to a police station, she says the police officers initially refused to open an investigation.
Women regularly face harassment on the streets of Egyptian cities
The case was taken up by the Badeel opposition daily, which blamed Egypt's oppressive government, and "the majority of citizens who identified with the oppressor", and "decades of incitement against women" in some mosques.
'Example'
Egyptian women's rights campaigners have praised the judge for handing down what is being seen as a harsh, exemplary sentence.
Engy Ghozlan, of the Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights, told AFP news agency: "This is the first case we know of where someone was jailed for groping.
"The judge was obviously setting an example."
The organisation released a survey this year that showed 98% of foreign women and 83% of Egyptian women had experienced sexual harassment. Nearly two-thirds of men admitted harassing women in public.
But very few reported cases because of a "total lack of confidence in the police and judicial systems", Engy Ghozlan said.
In an unusual development earlier in October, eight men were arrested in Cairo for allegedly taking part in a mob-style sexual attack on women pedestrians.
The attack, during the Eid holiday, was reminiscent of an incident in 2006 during the same holiday which marks the end of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
On both occasions, witnesses reported that police officers were present but did nothing to protect women who were violently groped and had some of their clothing torn off.
My Editor at the Oasis (CSA's monthly magazine) asked me to write this article as I run whazzupcairo@yahoogroups.com and whazzupcairo@googlegroups.com, 2 groups that inform its subscribers of events in Cairo well in advance, so you may book your tickets when they are still available.
The article would be of interest to the readers of this blog & I post it here.
Stay Informed
Having moved to Egypt and settled into Daily Life, you would now like to explore the Cultural Scene in Cairo. But how do you know ‘What’ is taking place in town and ‘Where’?
Some English newspapers like Daily Star Egypt or Al Ahram Weekly give you a daily listing of events, but often by the time the paper arrives, it is too late to buy tickets to an event.
Your other option is the monthly magazines: Egypt Today, Community Times and the Croc. These magazines are a little more comprehensive than the daily newspaper and give you a little advance warning. You can subscribe to these magazines and newspapers by calling their offices or online.
A better option is to figure out which places you like to attend programs at and sign yourself up for their mailing list. Places like Makaan, el Genaina Theatre, Villa Grey, Institute Cervantes, Aliiance Francais, Diwan bookstore and others.
Places like the el Sawy Cultural Center bring out a monthly program in the last week of the preceding month in English, Arabic and French. You may need to visit their location to pick up the schedule.
The Opera House brings out its annual program at the beginning of the New Year in September. Since most acts are international, the programs are planned well in advance. You can buy the annual schedule at the Opera House in the evenings before a program starts. (It is not normally available at the Ticket Office)
www.yallabina.com does post movie listings and concert schedules, but they seem to have moved onto a more Middle East regional perspective, publicizing events in Dubai more than those in Cairo. Plus their information isn’t always 100% accurate as I found out the hard way, when trying to book tickets for the Disney Ice show which led me on a wild goose chase across Link Dot net offices. Friends have reported that the movie timings mentioned are mixed up pretty often. So the best way to use this site is, as a very general guideline and then call the location and verify details.
If you use Facebook, there are a number of online groups like Cairo Gigs and local bands whose groups you can join and then you will get a mail when they have a new concert planned in the city.
If you listen to 104.2 NileFM, you will get to hear of the major concerts and events happening in Cairo.
Expat Women’s clubs and The American Research Center in Egypt, have their own mailing lists and you automatically get sent mailers, once you are a paid up member.
Some special smaller scale events like the American Independence Day Party, the Green and Gold gala etc are advertised in the Oasis, so make sure you pick up your copy every month.
The www.livinginegypt.org site has an online calendar for CSA specific events with a feature that lets you automatically save an event in your Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express calendar.
A simple alternative to signing up for multiple lists is to subscribe to whazzupcairo on googlegroups or yahoogroups. It is a completely free service where you receive notifications on events occurring across the city straight into your mailbox. You can save the events you are interested in, in your online calendar. Signing up is simple. Just send a blank mail to whazzupcairo-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or whazzupcairo-subscribe@googlegroups.com and when you receive a mail to confirm that you requested the service, mail back with your approval. All you need is an email id.
If you find that the service brings too many emails into your inbox, you can switch to the digest version (25 emails together or one for all the emails in a day, whichever comes first) or no mail version, where you can continue to view the posts on the web.
If you check on even a few of these options, I am sure you will find a lot of events to fill up your time, especially your evenings and weekends.
Karishma Pais (Kim) is an expat trailing wife in Cairo. She has a Masters Degree in Human Resources and Behavior. She consults on HR projects, delivers intercultural training at the CSA, counsels new and experienced expats, writes for several magazines – online and offline, she runs whazzupcairo@yahoogroups.com and whazzupcairo@googlegroups.com among other activities. Her Social Commentary and blog about life in Egypt can be read at http://whazzupegypt.blogspot.com
A couple of people had asked me about this last year:
To those who were concerned, at the community gatherings there will be absolutely no religious symbols or ceremonies being performed, it is just the party part of the celebration. Especially since these are not the actual dates of the festivals. So please do not be worried on that issue.
The Dushera function on 10 October is reasonably informal with traditional Indian dance (garba & dandiya) being performed by anyone in the crowd who is interested, the more colorful the clothes you wear the better you will blend in (see poster) There is also a high pre-disposition to wear clothes with mirrorwork on them.
The Diwali function will be a more formal sit down dinner at the Mena House Oberoi, which will also be colorful, but in a more understated way.
Dashera will be all about colors, food, dance and fun. Oh and in the dance, men and women may dance in different circles if they feel more comfortable with that or you can just dance in your own group. Or you can just eat the yummy food from the stalls (there will be non spicy food available) and watch the myriad colors swirl and turn. I personally fall in the second category :)
For those who can't read the poster too well. Entry is 20LE for members and 40 for non members. Kids are at half price. This is just entry charge.
You can sign up for membership on the spot (if you are an Indian or married to an Indian)and avail the discounted membership entry for the function. Membership is somewhere between a 50 and 100LE, but we paid up for a family membership a while ago, so I don’t remember the exact amount.
The admission fee includes admission and a few freebies and the chance to dance, enjoy the music etc. The dandiya sticks you can bring your own, or buy on the spot (which may be expensive, since they have to be imported from India and they are heavy) Food pricing depends on individual stalls, because they can price it to their convenience. A lot of home made Indian food will be on offer. I think last year prices per item started from 15LE. I would roughly say that prices would be similar to anything in a food court in Dandy mall or city stars. The Karvin hotel and the Oberoi hotel might have stalls and they may charge a little higher but not as high as eating at the hotels themselves. I have to highly recommend the jelebis made on the spot by the Oberoi chef if he turns up this year and the motichur laddus that the Alexandria Carbon black group distributed last year (don’t know if they will do it this year too)
Do come along, its pretty informal, you can either mix with the Indian community or stick to your group of friends, we are pretty welcoming of everyone
Below is the message from the Indian Community Association in Egypt. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Community Members,
Further to our last mail on Dushera celebrations in Cairo on 10th October, we would like to thank everyone for the tremendous response. We have got a lot of inquiries from people who want to put up food stalls, and also from talents who want to perform on stage. We would like to remind you that if you are interested either in having a food stall or exhibition stall, this would be your last chance to register. Also, if there are any more talented people out there who want to perform on stage, do call us immediately.
Detailed maps to help all of you get to the Dushera venue is attached. One map is for people coming from Nasr City/ Heliopolis area. Second one is for people coming in from Mohandeseen/ Downtown area. Maps will also be on our website www.desiegypt.com. A Dushera poster is also attached,with more details.
Also just to mark in your calendar, the festive annual diwali nite in Cairo will be held at Mena House Oberoi on 14th November night. This is going to be a very grand dine and dance function with exclusive entertainers flown in from India, tickets will be on sale at the Dushera venue. Further mails would follow on Diwali.
Villa Grey 24, Abdallah al Kateb Street Between Midan Fini and El Nil Street Dokki 12311
+2 02 3338 2184
Villa Grey is the latest location on the Cairo scene to host photography/painting exhibitions and screen interesting off beat movies that do not normally make it to the regular cinema halls.
This center was opened under the auspices of Grey worldwide and Gerard Avdessian, their Managing Director in Egypt.
Gerard studied theater in the Soviet Union and has directed, produced and written plays in Lebanon for several years, a parallel with his almost 40 years in the advertising business. He came to Cairo in April 2007 to head up Villa Grey and to realize, as he puts it, the “dream child” of Grey’s director in Lebanon, Philip Skaff, the “madman” behind the beloved community arts project.
“The idea behind this is to create a social link between the agency and the city of Cairo, the people of Cairo. It is non-profit because I don’t think it is our calling to make any money out of this. Once we cover our expenses, whether from sponsors or from sales of art, all the rest is cashed by the artist himself. We don’t charge a commission, la’a. We’re not an art gallery. We just have this non-profit movement within the agency and in the garden, and we open our doors to talented people, whether young or old.”
This talent will come from the visual arts — including painting, graphic design, sculpture and installation, photography and fashion, performing arts, music concerts, poetry, script readings, film screenings — and whatever else shows up on the marble steps to inspire Monsieur Avedissian and his team.
(Italicised extract from Egypt Today, December 2007)
We had the chance to visit the Villa a couple of weeks ago and check out "Oum el Dounia" - a photo exhibit by Dr. El-Sayed M. El-Sayed. Dr Sayed retired in 2005 and took the opportunity to develop his talent for photography. This is his first solo exhibition and the theme is Old Cairo and Egypt, its architectural heritage and its people.
We had gone for the Wednesday night movie screening that the Villa Grey holds, hoping to watch the Oscar winning German movie "The Lives of Others"
Unfortunately, the copy of the movie that they received that day, did not have English subtitles, so they could not screen it. They ended up showing Travolta's Hairspray so we left. (We had already watched the movie)
The viewing room is quite cosy and comfortable, so I'll definitely go back when they next show a movie that I want to watch.
To receive the schedule of Villa Grey movies and other events in Cairo, do send a blank mail to whazzupcairo-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or whazzupcairo-subscribe@googlegroups.com
The Villa Grey building itself is worth a trip. Its a traditional old style Egyptian bungalow with lots of Mashrabiya work, beautifully inlaid doors, ornate ceiling and lovely flooring. Reminded me of the Eicher Consulting office in Bangalore for the use of an old building as an office space. This is one of the best kept old bungalows with access to the public that I have seen in Cairo.
With the appropriate sighting of the moon, yesterday (September 1st) was the first day of Ramadan in Egypt.
This begins the Holy month of fasting for Muslims over the world.
What specifically does it mean to expats in Egypt?
Treat everyone with utmost respect. Lack of nicotine and caffeine to bodies used to consuming them every 5 minutes can lead to extreme crankiness.
What work normally takes a day to be done, will take longer. (yes, than usual)
Offices are working shorter hours. Expect major traffic jams around 3pm when people start heading home. Expect near zero traffic at sunset during Iftaar time.
Ramadan is a time to share with the less fortunate. Expect more people lining up for Baksheesh and remember your house help have to be given half their annual bonus at Eid time.
Expect to be invited for at least one iftaar party where you will be treated to a large variety of foods. If you are unlucky enough to not have any Egyptian friends to invite you, make sure you attend at least one iftaar buffet in town this season to be treated to delicacies that aren't prepared during the rest of the year. The buffet at the Marriott is a good option.
There are plenty of special cultural events being hosted in the city, try and attend as many as you can and take full advantage of the shortened work days.
Ramadan in Egypt is a unique experience, enjoy it as much as you can. Who knows where you will be next year :)
A combination of circumstances meant I wasn't able to attend the "Disney on Ice" show last summer. But after being reassured by friends with kids that the show was as much fun for adults as it was for kids, I managed to catch the last show of this year on the 23rd.
The Disney on Ice show has been coming to Egypt since a couple of years and has been qite a success as they put on a different show each year. This year was built around a family adventure for the Incredibles (who visited Disney Land)
Although yallabina.com reported that tickets would be sold at LinkDOTnet Customer Service Offices in Cairo, I found that wasn't true on a wasted trip to their Dokki office.
The Disney on Ice, Egypt print advertisements and website assured an online booking at http://disneyegypt.com/html/tickets2.html Fortunately it was a Cash on Delivery Deal, because the tickets from this mode, never arrived, even 3 days after the show that we had made bookings for.
In the end, it was quite easy to get tickets at the location itself, even though we just turned up a couple of hours before the show. and the stadium wasn't anywhere near even 50% occupied.
With 100LE tickets, we were some distance away from the rink but had a pretty decent view nonetheless.
The tickets said gates would close half an hour before the show was to start. This was a good marketing trick to get parents in with their kids and push them into buying overpriced Popcorn (10/25Le for small boxes) and cotton candy (20LE for 4 balls) The extra price could be for the Disney branded packaging but the popcorn was salty and not worth it. The Cotton Candy was good and it was thoughtful of them to include a wet wipe t the bottom of the packet. That was really neat, practical and great consumer insight.
The Show itself was awesome. The performers were flawless in all their synchronised pieces. There were shades of High School Musical in the opening Sequence. there were some outstanding performers in the lead roles which made it a very enjoyable couple of hours.
The Stadium was comfortable and at a good temperature. So no issues on that front. The only problem here was that seats weren't pre-allotted, so there was a lot of pushing and shoving to get inside. But once we got in, things were fine.
Below are some of the pictures I took which haven't come out great because of the distance from the stage and the constant movement. But it gives a flavour of what to expect.
Next years theme is "High School Musical" which should draw in the teenage audience too.
Dr.Nawal El Degwi Proudly invites you to attend the First Musical production (The Phantom Of The Opera) .The first and largest English musical production in the Middle East. This production, "The Phantom of The Opera", is one of the wonders of the international theatre and has been a great success for many years at Broadway .That includes more than 100 students from different nationalities that will be held at the Main Hall of the Cairo Opera House for four running days 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd of July 2008.
All the revenues will be invested in the charity project “Contribute in Building one hundred Schools” which is targeted at renovating and building schools under the supervision of the first Lady of Egypt Mrs. Susan Mubarak".
We caught the 2nd public performance on the 21st.
It started off with 3 songs from the original musical played live by their band. The band was good. Its a pity, they did not play live for the rest of the performance. The drummer and acoustic guitar player were the best. Somehow most of the semi-professional guitar players I have seen in Egypt do not exude the attitude and confidence that most guitarists in other countries do, even though they do play well. Then a couple of students sang the most famous pieces. The lead Singers Samaa Mohamed and Othman were excellent. Samaa faltered a bit at the start, but quickly recovered to give an admirable performance for the rest of it.
The entire story was shortened to a one hour performance. So obviously a lot of the story line was lost. The accents were a bit hard to follow. Raoul was the clearest speaker but not the strongest performance. The phantom was agood performance but I wish he could have been more menacing. Instead of scaring us, he made us want to give him a hug and tell him "Everything would be ok in the end" Christine was played well, but the best performance was undoubtedly that of Joseph Boque who had a minuscule speaking part but he was the most authentic of all the characters. Carlotta's acting was good, but with her put on Italian accent it was difficult to follow her lines.
The one professional ballet dancer in the group, who performed a solo (actually a duet, but the male dancer was more of a prop to her dancing) was excellent. The dancers were good but could have done with more synchronization.
The costumes and sets were Outstanding! All in all, it was an average college performance studded with a few stellar ones in between. It was definitely over priced, but since all ticket sale money is supposed to go to charity, I guess that makes it worth the price.
Location: AUC Greek Campus, STAR and AYB Booth by OSD office
Student Action For Refugees (STAR) and Alashanek Ya Balady (AYB) are working together to raise awareness of the shared suffering in Cairo by Refugees and Egyptians. All food collected is directly given to Refugee Egypt and the Cairo Food Bank.
Please donate canned and boxed food help fight hunger in Cairo.
I later proceeded to the Talent Show hosted by the Indian Cultural Association in Cairo - ICAE for Indian adults and children. There were about 55 participants for the talent show and another 5 or so for the Fancy Dress.
It was fun to see the kids dressed up in Indian clothes and all made up. Over 200 people turned up to support the participants. Yummy chicken biryani, spicy samosas and hot gulab jamuns were on the menu for the hungry few as were a range of chilled drinks.
The stage at the Maadi British International School seemed a little large for the individual performances by the tiny tots, but they did an admirable job.
It was a fun informal way to meet the Indian Community in Egypt especially the bus load of Indians who came in from Port Said for the event.
After an hour-long tussle she dragged her attacker to a police station 
but had a pretty decent view nonetheless.
