Harassment of Women on Cairo Streets

Warning: While most of my posts are General Audience, this post has some material that you may not want young children reading.

Sexual Harassment on the streets of Cairo is a common topic that comes up whenever a couple of women here in Egypt meet up, online or in someone's home.

There are those that say that it isnt really bad, incidents of rape are so low compared to the US, what's the harm in a little cat calling? The problem is that if you ignore the cat calling, it then turns to men masturbating at the sight of a women (I've had friends who said they saw their taxi drivers masturbating with one hand while driving with the other, simply because a foreign looking woman got into the back seat of their car), groping (which happens in a lot of cases) and could eventually by progression lead to rape if this malaise is not stopped in its tracks.

I've posted before, about Sexual Harassment but its mostly been newspaper articles or other people's experiences. Few women choose to detail their own humiliation for dissection to the world (its a different matter between close friends who understand and have gone through the same - that is in a way, slightly therapeautic)

When I last traveled to Dubai in March, most papers were filled with the news of 2 construction worker immigrants who were facing court proceedings for cat calling/ whistling at a South East Asian maid.

Points to be noted about Dubai.
1. Women (foreigners/expats) here cover far less than the majority of women in Egypt. (think tank tops and shorts to the maximum, but off shoulder, backless, low necklines are pretty common too)
2. This is a muslim majority country and local Emirati women are predominantly dressed in the black abaya type hijab. Fully covered black robes and heads/hair covered.
3. There is a high number of single men - men who have left their wives behind in home countries because they cannot afford to bring them over when they are here on long work contracts/ unmarried men.
4. There is a large population of hired labour living in what would be considered as Below Poverty Line status in the rest of the world.

All of these have been used as excuses to brush away sexual harassment in Egypt, yet Sexual harassment in Dubai overall is not even 0.1% of what "I" face in Egypt on a daily basis.

Why? Mainly because authorities take action about any such complaint. The law is tough and it is applied without fail. No excuses.

I'm not saying that everything about Dubai culture is perfect or everything about Egypt is imperfect (I've lived in Egypt for 3 years) but harassment on the roads makes me tend to avoid going out unless absolutely necessary or in a large group of friends. I know a lot of expat women in Egypt who are here on husbands postings, who do not visit anywhere that is not an expat dominated location for fear of being assaulted. While such fears may not be justified, it is a real feeling that these women live with daily.

A closer look at my wardrobe, shows me much higher necks and back lines than 3 years ago. Sleeves below the elbows, loose fitting semi-shapeless clothes. Visiting Lebanon and Dubai makes me realise how much I have changed my own style of dressing to suit this country. (Not that I ever wore plunging necklines to work in India, but they didnt all end above my collar bone either) Changing the way I dress, was just one of the adaptations to blend into the culture and surroundings in Egypt.

My husband and I both love traveling around the country/city and discovering hidden gems of cultural, architectural and historical interest which takes us into sometimes weird areas. Our driver/translator despairs when 'Madame' wants to visit Souk al Gumma (The second-hand Friday market) and other such areas, which he tells me even his mother and sister who have lived in Cairo all their lives, avoid.

But a part of the charm and beauty of living in another country is to explore its nooks and crannies. Unfortunately in Egypt, exploration into some of these nooks and crannies brings a lot of unwanted attention and in many cases, especially if my husband isnt with me, harassment both verbal and sometimes physical. So one has to be extra careful about where one goes, with whom one goes and what kind of clothes one is wearing.

Fortunately, not being cursed with blond hair, white skin and blue eyes, the harassment that I face is less than those who look "foreign" even if they are conservatively dressed.

Yes, making a scene helps and you don't need to speak in Arabic. I remember generally strolling around the pyramids alone when my husband went inside one of them (I'm claustrophobic and chose to not go in) one of those camel ride guys was persistently trying to get my attention. As is the case with most touts in the pyramids area (I have visited over 25 times in the last 3 years) I continued to ignore him, as though I couldn't understand him and refused to make eye contact. (this may seem rude, but works in most cases of persistent touts) Usually after 3-4 tries they leave me alone. This guy actually touched my hand and attempted to give me the riding whip/stick for the camel. While his gesture was not sexual, he was still "touching" me without my permission and when I had given him absolutely no reason to believe I was interested.

In Egypt, Egyptian women will never permit a strange man to ever touch them, so why do they think it is ok with tourists/foreigners? Anyhow I screamed at him in English "How dare you touch me, what do you think of yourself, what gives you the right to even touch me?" Nothing abusive, nothing indecent. In English and loudly. It was enough to make the people around stop and look and stare at the man. There was nothing confrontational about my attitude. I just made a noise to attract the attention of other people around to what was clearly something this camel guy should not have been doing. He immediately apologised and slunk away. The incident shocked him (I train people in NLP and Body language, so I KNOW he was shocked) and I doubt he will be touching any women any time soon.

But why do foreign women coming to/visiting Egypt allow these men to touch them, hand on shoulders, holding hands (not shaking hands) People whom they have just met in a shop, not people they know. They would not allow men in their home country to impose on their personal space this way, but yet some of them are perceivably ok when it happens to them in a new country. Any theories?

Point to be noted. Most of the harassment, my friends & I have faced, has been in Cairo. Men in Luxor, Aswan, Alexandria (unless during the Cairene summer invasion), Dahab, Sharm el Sheikh, Hurghada, Abu Simbel, Bahariyya, Siwa, Sinai have been way more respectful of women.

Also published on desicritics.org

Is BISC being ethical?

I just heard an extremely disturbing piece of news today.

It seems that the British School in Cairo (BISC) which recently moved from Zamalek to 6th October has come up with a new demand for money.

BISC normally collects students fees in British Pounds. FYI: The going rate for admissions is a one time 85,000LE (yes 3 zeroes after 85) or so. This is over and above the annual school fees which hovers around 50,000LE.

Egyptian Residents who do not work with British companies or get salaries in British Pounds have to buy British pounds to pay the fees. This means they lose some amount on conversion. Imagine the amount they would lose on converting 85K LE to GBP.

This year because the British Pound depreciated, the school has supposedly lost money by collecting fees in British Pounds. Hence although the amount collected in British Pounds was on target, it was not on target when calculating the EGP equivalent. Part of the risk of playing the currency market, you would say.

BISC does not consider this a risk that they should absorb, and hence they have asked the parents to pay the difference AS CALCULATED BY BISC as to the amount the school has supposedly lost by collecting fees in British Pounds RETROSPECTIVELY for the last year!!!

Is this Fair?

Is this Ethical?

The parents aren't saying anything because the cost of moving their child/children to another International school would mean shelling out another non-refundable sum of 85,000LE or more!

This is the story as I have pieced together from multiple reliable sources. Can any action be taken against the school? Is anyone willing to initiate the action?

Its not really MY problem as I don't have children whose education I have to worry about right now. But this was just too unethical to let it pass by unmentioned.

Opinions? Views?

Correction:
Annual fee is about 85,000LE. The admission fee is lower.

Back to Egypt, Back to Reality! - Costa Coffee

After a not so great holiday (dh's gastric problems resurfaced, but at least we got it diagnosed this time - because we were in India - identified as "erosive gastric duodenitis" - now he's on 21 days of high dosage medication and 4 months of low medication but strict diet) we returned to Egypt a day ago.

After spending a day in getting the house liveable and a lot of pending paperwork in order, headed over to Hyper One to refurbish my larder.

Also had confirmed a brunch/coffee meeting with my friends in 6th October at Costa Coffee in the same mall.

Meeting with them was great fun as usual. We googooed at the babies, congratulated the mom-to-be and had a great destressing chit-chat session.

Since it was past noon and I was hungry, I ordered a new item on their menu - "Philly Steak" Sandwich. I was expecting this : but what came to the table was a sandwich with pickles, tomato slices and luncheon meat. There was nothing Philadelphian or any steak in the sandwich!

I thought they must have got my order wrong and tried to explain to the waiter that what I wanted was a Steak sandwich and he insisted that I had received the right order. I then requested one of my friends on the other end of the table, who is fluently bilingual to explain to him in better Arabic than my pidgin version to translate. She had arrived a while before me and said that she had ordered the "Philly Steak" and had the same luncheon slice sandwich delivered and the same conversation, ending in the same result - the waiter insisting that the right order had been served.

Possible Explanations
1. Costa Coffee the UK based chain whose tagline is "Italian About Coffee" has completely messed up the recipe for the American Sandwich.
2. The Egyptian branch of Costa Coffee has messed up the recipe.
3. Today's delivery to the 6th of October, Hyper City branch was messed up at the production/labeling end.
4. The waiter/sandwich toaster made a mistake with my friends sandwich and to validate his story, he gave me the same "mistaken" sandwich.

What do you think?

If you have tried this sandwich at any of the other Costa locations, what were you served?

Cairo Opera House Schedule

Its been almost impossible to buy the annual opera house schedule this year. This schedule costs about 50-100LE and is a boon when you are trying to plan your evenings and book tickets in advance.

The ticket booking desk does not carry a schedule. They will redirect you to the information desk. the information desk only has the monthly schedule. Some person in the office of the Cairo Opera house is the sole person who is allowed to sell this schedule and HE IS NEVER AROUND!.
I have tried almost every hour between 9am to 7pm to meet him and he is never around. After 7pm, the guards at the inner gate of the Opera House, will not let you pass unless you are completely dressed up for the opera!

The past 2 years, we picked up our schedule when attending a performance early in the year. With our hectic travel schedule this year, we have not been able to attend an evening performance yet.

If you go before 7pm, the security guard inside the office will tell you to wait for this person (Mr Sameh?) to arrive. He also will not let you use a washroom on the premises while you wait.

Its just so bloody inconvenient! Why can't they just have some copies for sale at the information desk or at the ticket desk? Its not like it is some super secret information!

The only good thing this year, is that they FINALLY have a website with information in English, Arabic & French, which I discovered after protesting at the shoddy treatment and run-around that we were being given AGAIN last evening. All these years, it was only available in Arabic. The website is pretty decent.

Check out http://cairoopera.org/

Arabic Adventures in Egypt

Yes, I mean the language, not the culture. Not for this post at least.

This post was triggered by an anonymous comment on my Omar Effendi blog post This comment resonated deeply within me as I have faced the same question numerous times here in Egypt "Why don't you speak Arabic?"

Well I did try my best, I can speak enough Arabic to bargain at the khan, with a taxi driver, shop at a grocery store and order a meal at a restaurant. I can understand a fair bit more, provided the person speaking isn't talking at full speed. But that is the limit of my Arabic language skills and I have not yet felt the need to learn any more than that (If I don't use a language regularly, I forget and I have never done well with learning a language in a classroom setting - blame it on the 3 compulsory languages we had to learn in primary school) My Egyptian friends happily and obligingly translate for me when the need arises.

But do I want to explain this to every person who asks me this question - most often taxi drivers, shop keepers and the like? - NO because it really isn't their business. Unfortunately in Egypt a lot of people do think that it is.

A lot of Egyptians do believe that just because you are here in this country (no matter how short a stay) you SHOULD learn Arabic. Its almost like they believe that Arabic is the lingua franca of the world. (Kind of like the Americans -WORLD SERIES in Baseball)

I don't deny that it is a widely spoken language and it is a beautiful language to learn to read, to be able to appreciate some classical works, but this isn't my calling. I already speak 4 languages fluently and a smattering of another 6 or so and that works for me.

I have no objection to an Arabic speaker not being able to converse with me in English, I will find myself a helpful translator. But I do object to the disdainful and scornful looks that I'm given by some who figure out that I've been here for awhile but can't speak the language fluently!

Plagiarists at agnabee.com

Today, I received an invitation to view a site called agnabee.com

To my shock and horror, my blogposts from this blog are being copied in entirety onto their website without any credit or link back to my blog and without my permission or knowledge from the 25th of Augusut onwards..

While I do not normally have a problem with someone linking to my site or posting a snippet from my blog or copying my blog posts while Giving me CREDIT, what is going on here is PLAGIARISM and Completely Unethical!

This practice hurts my page rankings in google and other search engines (because of duplication of articles).

They are doing this with some other blogs too. I also recognised articles from trailing grouse's blog.

I have written to the people behind the site and I'm hoping for an answer some time soon. This could be wishful thinking, but I still believe in the inherent goodness of human nature.

I'm also curious to see if this blog post will also make its way to their site ;)

Egypt Voices : Sexual Harrassment

From the BBC

Seven Egyptian women talk about their experience of sexual harassment on the streets of Cairo. It is an increasingly common problem, with a recent survey suggesting more than four out of five women have been sexually harassed, while nearly two-thirds of men admitted assaulting women.

Noha Wagih TV announcer "I usually don't answer back, but this time I did"

Posy Abdou Shop worker "I get harassed 100 times a day "

Nora Khaled School pupil "I was so scared and embarrassed, I cried"

Nancy Fakhr Engineer "When colleagues asked what was wrong, I lied"

Zeinab Boulaki
Auditor

"My mother says I shouldn't answer back but I think this is wrong"



Read the entire article and all interviews here

Almost half of Egyptian women harassed daily: poll

From Yahoo News

CAIRO (AFP) - Almost half of Egyptian women are sexually harassed on a daily basis with more than half of Egyptian men admitting lewd behaviour, the Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights said on Thursday.

The group polled 2,020 people -- including men and foreign women -- in Cairo, and the centre's director, Nihad Abul Qomsan, said that the figures showed harassment was on the rise.

Of those surveyed, 83 percent of Egyptian women and 98 percent of foreign women said they had been harassed at some point, while 46 percent of Egyptian women and 52 percent of foreign women said they were harassed daily.

Most women said they were harassed in the street or on public transport, with harassment defined as "any unwelcome behaviour of a sexual nature which makes women feel uneasy and gives them a feeling of insecurity."

Abul Qomsan said that almost two-thirds of Egyptian men -- 62 percent -- admitted harassing women, including those wearing Islamic headscarves.

"This shows that the belief that harassment is linked to women who wear indecent clothing is false," she said, condemning the fact that in the deeply religious country women often feel responsible despite being victims.

The centre said that last year only 12 percent of women went to the police with a harassment complaint.

In 2006, women's rights activists angrily spoke out against what they called the authorities' acceptance of sexual harassment against women, after a mob of men openly molested women in central Cairo.

The interior ministry said it did not receive any formal complaints and has never admitted any mass harassment occurred despite the incident being widely reported in the press and some bloggers posting footage on the Internet.

Warning : Al-Diwan language school, Nasr city

This post is actually by a friend of mine, Linda who came to Egypt to study at the Al-Diwan language school in Nasr City.

Following is her experience studying at this particular institute and in the area surrounding the institute.

To put her message in perspective, (she isn't a naive student away from the US for the first time in her life! She has traveled to Syria, Palestine, and Jordan and never experienced it like this. This is not a rant against Egypt or Arabs or Muslim societies. This is information that any female expat considering studying at this school should be aware of)

I'm at the Al-Diwan language school here, and while the language school is great, the surrounding area is not kind to females who don't wear the hijab or niqab.

I cover everything save my hair and arms, and get harassed every single day, several times a day by men and even children who jeer and say disgusting things. The day I decided to wear the hijab for my own safety, I was followed and groped by four males in a car as I was walking to school. I decided not to wear it again.

I've spoken with other international female students living in Nasr City, and I've heard similar horror stories: taxi drivers exposing their private parts; men slapping them on the ass telling them to cover up; not being able to go outside to the corner store without being chided for walking the streets alone. To say that we're treated like prostitutes is not an exaggeration. A friend of mine was offered money for sexual favors by a taxi driver as she walked home.

Al-Diwan is a great school, and because I can't get a refund even if I wanted one, I asked to transfer to the Garden City branch. The Nasr City manager said he could not transfer me for several weeks so I decided just to cut my time here short. I hadn't been informed that a Garden City branch existed and didn't find out until the first day I arrived, as it wasn't advertised until the Nasr City branch filled up.

I've since heard of an unhealthy competition by the two branch managers which is quite unsettling, seeing that I had requested a transfer once I arrived and was denied until the day I was groped ten yards from the school and walked in, in hysterics.

I'm on a fellowship from the U.S. Department of Education, and this school is approved by them. I will be recommending to them, as I did to the Nasr City manager, that female students be advised of the problems of sexual harassment that are being experienced here. From reports I've heard of Egyptian friends who live in Nasr City and do not wear the hijab, the situation has gotten much worse for them in the last ten years, and it's getting worse every day. I encourage anyone who knows of a female thinking of studying in Nasr City to pass this message along.

Best,
- Linda

Another One of those Horrible Days

Picked up 2 more relatives from the airport yesterday to add to the 4 that were already at home and went for a nice round of sightseeing. Thorughly exhausted we reached home at 10pm to find that the lift wasn't working!

Let me clarify: Our building has 2 lifts. Lift No1 was for general purpose and use and lift number 2 was only for the house owners above floor no 5. It needed (yes past tense) a key to be operated and could only be summoned to the floors by a button located inside the flat.

Lift No 1 after constant sputterings and false starts, completely gave way in December. Yes, December 2007! It has still not been repaired. Seemingly not all the flat owners were willing to pay the required extra sum for the repair of lift number 1.

By February, the key mechanism of Lift Number 2 was disabled so anyone could press any number inside the lift, but the lift could still only be summoned to the floor by pressing the button inside the apartment.

Since I live on the top floor with only the terrace above me, I constantly have workmen who have accessed the terrace ringing my bell (10 times in quick succession, like they OWN my FLAT and ME!!) to get me to press this summoning button for them. Nobody rings the bell of the woman opposite me (2 flats per floor only) as she is a known harridan. It is very frustrating to be summoned to the front door from all corners of the house in the middle of a nap, cooking, eating, sleeping, typing, consulting, writing, phone conversations, guests in the hall by the persistent and insistent and adamant ringing of my front door bell by all and sundry!

I have put up with that for almost 4 months now on a daily basis!

The final straw was when after all the walking about of the day yesterday, we came home with my husbands parents who had also walked around with us the whole day to find the lift was not working and the lift repairman had not appeared for over an hour and refused to answer his cell after originally agreeing to come.

All 8 of us made the painful trek to the 13th floor with some of the smaller bits of luggage and souvenirs purchased during the day.

We had an additional floor to climb since I have shifted to the upstairs annexe right now. Once I climbed the extra floor inside our apartment, I was confronted with a kitchen cabinet filled with my landlady's glass & ceramic crockery (that she had left to be used by us, but I was using my own stuff and had stored it upstairs) that had fallen off the wall and crashed to the counter below. Smashing up all the glass and ceramic ware in the process and strewing minute splinters all over the room.

I had kept some of the extra pickles and masalas that had arrived from India on the countertop below the cabinet. So those were crushed and added to a sticky mess!

That took a nice couple of hours to clean and mop multiple times with little bits of wet kitchen roll - to ensure no little splinters remained to hurt any human or our cat - who still refuses to use shib-shibs!

Just one of those days when nothing goes right. Anyway that put paid to an early morning start today for more sightseeing, but will be headed out in a while.

This is the first time I have seen/heard of a kitchen cabinet coming right off the wall and crashing below! (No extra weight had been added inside that cabinet) Only in Egypt!

Omar Effendi - A case study in Inefficiency

A lot of hype surrounded the reopening of Omar Effendi after the takeover and its make over.

While the makeover has been significant looks-wise, that is exactly where it ends. The level of service remains non existent and the amount of inefficiencies in the system are mind boggling.

Such strong words from me? Well the situation merits it. We went to Omar Effendi yesterday to buy a couple of plastic buckets.

Our first look inside the store was a pleasant surprise. The same sky blue theme on the outside continues inside too, alternating a bit with sea green. The display looked very smart and upmarket. I would liken it to Shoppers Stop/Lifestyle in India and midway between K-Mart and Macy's veering closer to Macy's.

Well, this was a pleasant surprise. But unfortunately, that was the end of the pleasantries.

We were looking for plastic buckets. There were no clearly marked signs to say which floor housed which items. An ignorable problem. We walked around and figured it was up on the 2nd floor. We figured out the floor and the section on our own by walking around and checking areas.

There were no service staff in the plastic/kitchen section. No problem, we are used to walking around and selecting the items we want like in Carrefour, so we did that. Then we picked up all the items that we required (trolleys, baskets and service staff not in sight) - 3 buckets, a plate drying stand and some other bulky plastic items. Between the 2 of us we made a couple of trips and took it to the cash register (computerised) manned by a smartly dressed employee (herein after referred to as CRG- Cash Register Guy) in the store uniform and stood in queue. (i.e. behind the one person who was already at the counter)

As we waited in line, a salesperson materialised from somewhere and handed a slip of paper to the CRG. This was a new trick to cutting the queue, but we tried to maintain our patience. The CRG billed the person who was tagging along to the salesperson even though, we were next "in line"

When we reached the counter, the CRG signalled one minute to us and disappeared for 7. During these 7 minutes we solved the mystery of the disapparating staff - they were all huddled in the TV section watching highlights of the football match that had taken place earlier that evening on various sized screens.

The CRG came back after 7 minutes, took a look at our unwieldy stuff and then asked us to wait again, while he served the person who was next in line to us but was actually standing at our side demanding to be served.

At this point my husband insisted that he serve us first as we had been waiting in line more than 20 minutes. (each billing cycle was taking about 10 minutes) So he told us we need to wait for the arrival of some guy. Locating this "guy" took another 15 minutes as cleaning staff and others had sporadic conversations on where this "guy" could possibly be. The "guy" finally arrived and with the help of the cleaning staff, picked up our intended purchases and headed back with all these unwieldy items back to the spot we had originally started from - halfway across the floor.

Then started the hunt for "the book" The book was one of those old fashioned bill books where every bill is filled in triplicate. Next step, the cleaning guy rips off the dual language (English & Arabic) bar codes from the intended items and handed the bar codes to "the guy" who then read out the code and item name to the "book guy" who painstakingly wrote down the details in arabic and then - hold your breath - stuck the bar code sticker on top of the page where he was writing. By the time he finished with our items, you could not see any of the writing.

Then we had to take the lovely set of triplicated bills to the cash counter with the cleaning guy providing us an escort service to the counter. The CRG now scanned the bar code stickers that were stuck on to the bill and printed out a computerised bill. Our escort had by now disappeared and we were told to take it back to the book guy.

We walked back to the book guy with the computerised bill. He stamped something on it with a rubber stamp and then sent us back to wait with CRG. The cleaning guy, was somehow located and pressed into delivering the items that were in "book guy"s custody to CRG. After a few more stamps being pressed all around, we were finally released from the brain numbing exercise to successfully walk out of the store after 1hr 20 minutes clutching our purchases.

Time taken to locate items - 8 minutes
Time taken to select items - 7 minutes
Time wasted at CRG due to our ignorance of billing etiquette @ Omar Effendi - 20 minutes
Billing process including waiting time - 45 minutes!

Overall verdict - Items @ Omar Effendi may be cheaper than other airconditioned locations, but the amount of time wasted and duplicated work effort is TERRIBLE!

Vodafone messes up

Had my international calling suddenly barred on my Vodafone mobile last Friday.

Since I don't speak enough Arabic to sort out/escalate the problem, my husband super-efficient secretary called them on my behalf.

Seems that, all the cells in the office are taken as a bundle package and in this bundle not more than 50% of them can have international roaming activated. Only in Egypt!

My international roaming is always active because of my travel schedules and last week a lot of my husbands company employees left on an International conference so they needed their International Roaming activated.

Since I wasn't traveling at the same time, the company approved that International Roaming be temporarily withdrawn from my cell number.

The geniuses at Vodafone withdrew my International Dialing instead of my international Roaming!

Only in Egypt!

Fortunately the Super Efficient Woman was able to make them see the error of their ways and within 15 minute of me telling her my problem, she got me my international Dialing restored and I was back in 'talk-2-mom' paradise :)

MBC4 - Noor ?

All my regular programs that I used to watch on MBC4 (One of the few free to air English channels in Egypt) seem to be replaced with an Arabic daily soap - NOOR!!!

Why oh why can't they just stick to English programs on MBC4?

They have a range of channels for Arabic programming. The MBC series MBC4 (English serials) MBC2 (English Movies) and MBC Action (Action based serial and movies) are the only free to air English channels in Egypt other than Dubai One.

I just watch an hour or so of TV in the evening if I get the time and to have all my regular programming Ghost Whisperer/Medium/So you think you can dance on primetime 9pm-10pm replaced with a soap and an Arabic one at that, and daily, is no fun at all :(

:'''' (

Juhayna Milk Tetrapack tops

Does anyone know what is up with Juhayna and their milk tetrapacks ?

They seem to have changed the design at least 5 times in as many months.

First was the plain plastic flip top with an additional foil+plastic seal inside that could be torn away. That wasn't extremely convenient but it was usable.

Then they switched to the red screw top extruding caps which were very convenient to open and pour.

Then they added a plastic+foil seal on the inside, which was redundant as the red top itself could act as a seal., but it was still manageable.

Then they added a white plastic ring to the plastic+foil seal. The first version of it was easier to pull out then just the plain old plastic+foil seal, but then it started getting tougher & I needed to use a scissors to break that seal.

Now they have gone back to a design similar to the initial flip top plastic seal but with rubber. This is the worst design -ergonomically- of the lot. Its tougher to open (requires more strength and a scissors at times) There is no plastic+foil seal so if you jerk the top open too hard, you have spillage. And the worst problem is that these rubber flip tops don't close tightly once they are opened. So if you consume a small amount of milk over a couple of days, the risk of the milk going bad or absorbing refrigerator odors is very high.

I wish they would just go back to the red screw tops. They were the most convenient of their designs.

My worst Day in Cairo! Ever!

Today just has to be the worst day I have ever had since we moved into this city.

We normally sleep in on Fridays being a holiday. I leave enough dry food and water for the cat on Thursday nights, so she doesn't have to wake me up on Friday mornings for breakfast and I wake up in time for her lunch.

dh was up half the night with food poisoning. He just kept rushing to the bathroom. Finally with his stomach emptied from the retching, he was kinda resting in the early morning, but the cat kept driving us bonkers and not letting us sleep. She scratches the headboard and the skirting around the bed when she wants to wake us up. So at 6am, I fed her some whiskas from the box on my bedside table, which I store there for expressly that purpose (to stop her scratching when I wanna sleep)

That kept her quiet for awhile. but by 10 am she was scratching up a storm again. dh was still retching, couldn't even keep water down, so I woke up and mixed him some ORS (the medicine cabinet is next to the bed too as is a bottle of water on each side for us to drink in the night.... see a pattern here?)

Then I walked into the kitchen to get some more water for him and to check if the cats food and water bowls were full. I almost slipped and banged my head, but stopped myself in time to realise that I was wading in a couple of inches of water.

A plumber had come in yesterday to change the washer on my hot water tap in the kitchen, but he decided it was unsalvageable and bought me an entirely new contraption for 120LE which he promised would not give me any trouble. 25 minutes after he left it started to drip a bit, but being a Thursday evening, i would have to wait until Sunday to get this fixed again!

By the time i did the dishes at night, I moved the taps around a bit and the dripping seemed to be temporarily solved. But it seems the drip came back with a vengeance at night and had a full 10 hours to flood the kitchen.

The water had gotten under every wooden cabinet and electrical appliance in the kitchen. Many of them unmovable and so I had black water all over the kitchen. There were glass pieces from God knows how many years ago which were stuck under these unmovable pieces of furniture, dust bunnies disintegrating in the water and of course cat fur and little bits of her dry food that she manages to kick under these impossible to reach surfaces that had turned into soggy lumps!

Took me 3 hours of cleaning to mop up 90% of the water. 3 buckets full. A family pack of kitchen rolls (thank God I had them in stock - toilet paper is woefully inadequate for cleaning up large water spills) and the kitchen is finally semi dry.

During the process I realised that no matter how much water I seemed to be emptying into the kitchen sink, there seemed to be more coming out from somewhere. I opened the cabinet under the kitchen sink and found that the sink itself was leaking (not at the joints, not near the pipes, the damn metal sink itself was leaking in over 15 places! In all my life and the 30 or more houses I have lived in (I've moved around a lot) I have never had a problem like this, nor have I ever heard of anyone having a problem of the sink itself leaking. But this is Egypt, so "Maalesh"

The drip wouldn't stop, so I had to turn off the mains for that circuit - this means no water in the kitchen sink, the washing machine is temporarily useless and the bathroom next to it has the water supply turned off too. Now remember hubby is still suffering from food poisoning and rushing to the loo every 15 minutes. Which effectively leaves the 2nd bathroom in pretty bad shape too and I don't want to be using water from this bathroom for cleaning dishes or washing anything else kitchen related because I don't want the bug in his system finding itself into something else in the kitchen.

So kitchen closed. The water that flooded the kitchen has seeped into the wooden shelves and cupboards and the wall skirting. I can't turn on anything electrical until its all dried out - because we all know how fantastic the wiring in these buildings are & I can't risk electrocuting myself.

the tilt of the kitchen floor ensured that the maximum water collected under the refrigerator. And the plug for the refrigerator is behind it and can only be turned off when the fridge is pulled forward. Catch 22 situation - I can't touch the fridge without turning it off because of the water all around and under it. I can't turn the fridge off because I can't pull it forward!

So..... I can't access anything in the fridge either. anyway, with hubby's food poisoning, I don't have much of an appetite left myself, but I would have liked a cold glass of milk :(

Today being a Friday, its obviously impossible to get anyone to come in to fix the damn sink and taps! i hate my situation here! All i can do is clean up the mess instead of getting it fixed!

Kitchen is semi dry, the cat has gotten off the microwave and is eating her food and drinking her water. Husband is sleeping quietly, so temporarily things seem to be ok.

But I still have a useless kitchen, a temporarily unusable fridge, no water supply in half the house, no more kitchen towel rolls, no washing machine, the knee which has an old injury (3 torn ligaments) is acting up and I can't get myself a glass of cold milk! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

Taking a deep breath, I resort to my highly over-used coping mechanism in Egypt of thinking - "what are the positives here ?"

1. well its summer so things are drying faster.
2. I could have fallen and hurt myself really badly in my sleepy state which I didn't.
3. the cat hasn't electrocuted herself - although she did cough up hairballs on the carpet too which I had to clean this morning.
4. the flooding was restricted to the kitchen.

So if you call me and I don't answer, please forgive me, I'm in too p!$$ed off a state to have a conversation with anyone (just as well the dh is fast asleep and has no energy to talk when he is awake, else he would have been at the receiving end!)

Accident - Bloody Cairo Taxis !

Met with an accident today.

Was carefully opening my door at Kimo Market in Maadi where the driver had stopped to the side of the road. There was a car approaching in the opposite direction, I had enough margin to open the door without him bumping into me. There was a taxi behind us who had slowed down as we stopped, my friend was getting out from the door on the right and I was carefully opening the door behind the drivers seat.

Suddenly the idiotic traffic guy gets a burst of adrenaline, fancies himself as the next Bruce Willis in Die Hard 5 and decides to squeeze through at full speed. He banged into my door which I was carefully opening almost dislocating my shoulder with the force at which he hit it.

Fortunately with the grace of God, I suffered no more than a sore shoulder and broken fingernails from the impact. Can't say the same for the car though. Since he hit the door at the handle point where it was opening, the door isn't shutting completely although it can still be locked, but it has been bent out of shape, so it doesn't seal shut.


I'm just thanking God, that his rash behaviour happened a few seconds earlier, before I put my foot out of the door.

This is our first major accident in Cairo after more than a year and a half. We have had the regular bumps and scratches when the car has been left in parking but nothing as big as this. We are extremely careful passengers and we have a very safe and careful driver who has been with us for over a year. Unfortunately in Cairo, damage to you and your car is never in your control with all the other crazy drivers on the raod.

The taxi guys are quite a menace on the streets. Not all of them but most of them.

This particular taxi fiend just buzzed off with a noncommittal "maalesh" and little more than a scratch on his car ! (Nothing visible over all his pre-existing dents and scratches)