Life As I See It - From Egypt

Egypt.... continued

Tuesday, NOVEMBER 11, 2008 We are still in Marassi. The resort where we are staying is beautiful, overlooking the Mediterranean. The water is turquoise-blue up close to the shoreline and deep navy on the horizon. The sand is white and today it is breezy, 75 degrees with sunshine. It is the off season and we are practically the only (if not THE only) guests. It is rather weird. The staff is very accommodating. The food is good and so far I have no intestinal issues. I’m sure it is only a matter of time. Wednesday, NOVEMBER 12, 2008 About last night….. We drove back from Marassi beginning at 4:30p. It is a 3 l/2 hour trip (frighteningly reminiscent of the Branson drive in that regard) that we made in a fashionably record time of 5 hours. Foremost, it was raining when we left the coast. It seldom rains, so they don’t plan for it to rain at all. Don’t ask why, just know. There is no drainage off the highway. In fact, they have 8” high curbs along the side of the highway that actually keep the water IN the roadway and it creates a temporary river. One of the resorts was using a front loader to push water out of their driveway. Really, you must see it. Anyway, the going was slow because of hydroplaning concerns. After about 45 minutes of heading inland, the rain stopped. However, now it was dark. Only some of the vehicles deem it necessary to use headlights. Why, I don’t know. So, every moment you are keeping eyes alert for a stray auto appearing out of nowhere. The speed limit on this road, the best one in Egypt (mostly 8 lanes) is 100 kilometers per hour (62 mph). Not particularly fast, but you don’t dare go much faster for fear of crash results. Yes, they do have radar and speed traps. More about that later. Driving in the right lane is not desirable. First, people just STOP in this lane. To let out passengers from busses, change drivers, who knows what? Maybe even to fix a flat tire, try to re-attach a front axle or relieve their aching kidneys. Why not use the shoulder for these activities? I will let you know as soon as I get an answer. Also, some drivers decide to take shortcuts and just drive on the shoulder the WRONG WAY. So, traffic comes at you from two directions, with or without lights on. In case you are wondering…. Yes, this is stressful! Good thing Ron has sharp reflexes. Okay, so we made it half-way to Cairo. We stopped for dinner at an “Italian” restaurant. I had a Margherita pizza crepe. I’m not sure what the crepe part means… I guess it’s that they don’t use yeast in the bread so it’s pretty flat and the dough is really hot but tastes not quite done. Ron had penne with red sauce. The sauce was so fiery, his bald spot was sweating! I think they put chili peppers in the Italian red sauce. Anyway, we continue our journey.…. We make it to the big bridge over to Cairo. Traffic is dreadful. (Although I’m probably not experienced enough yet to know if this is TRULY dreadful or just semi-dreadful) Is it volume, an accident or broken down cars? There are numerous broken down cars here, especially the old taxis. We went 5 kilometers in 45 minutes. You can imagine our delight. We’re still not sure but we think the backup was at least somewhat created by two taxis broken down within about 20 yards of each other. It’s hard to fathom the audacity, but some people actually ride motorcycles through this traffic. They weave in and out and around like nothing you’ve ever seen. No one wears a helmet, not a soul. They all wear sandals and some have their robes and headdresses flying behind them. There are usually at least two people on each cycle. Often they are carrying something. If not a small child on their knee then groceries or a boom box or maybe a TV…..Almost every driver of every type of vehicle is male. I have seen probably 30 female drivers so far and all of those were in Cairo in small private vehicles. Okay, now we are in downtown Cairo. Only about 8 kilometers to go to get to Maadi and (only) another 45 minutes. Finally we arrive. I, who have not driven one mile, am wired for sound but have not a drip of energy left within me. I send up a prayer of thankfulness that we have arrived alive. It takes effort to keep the days straight. There is certainly no excess of English-speaking television stations and so far no newspapers. Marassi doesn’t have any newspapers at all and I haven’t located a shop in Cairo yet. I could go out, of course. But I’ve no cell phone and am expecting a call. So, I stay. I have water and chocolate covered pretzels and Coca Cola Light. Should get me through ‘till dinner? I had one cup (okay, two teeny tiny cups; they don’t use coffee mugs here, evidently) of Nescafe instant coffee this morning. We had it left over from the hotel. Usually I turn my nose up at it but, when it is all you have, you appreciate the bird in the hand. I brought wonderful coffee with me and I have a grinder. However, I need filters and a coffee pot. We asked the guy to get us a coffee pot and he brought us an electric water heater. Not the first or last of our lost-in-translation exchanges. The maid is here. What does she do, exactly? Well, she does the floors each time, that I know. And she dusts. These are critical tasks, as there is fine sediment from all the sand here that creeps in though the tightest of windows and doors. There is a dishwasher but she washes by hand. That’s all I can determine thus far. Oh, and she makes beds and cleans the bathroom. I’m told she will take the housekeeping laundry (sheets, towels) to the laundry for us. I suppose she will take our clothes to the laundry too if we can convey that desire. Under most circumstances, I’m sure I will want to do it myself anyway. So, that’s that. Our sheets do not fit the bed here. The beds are in between queen and king size. I brought one set of our queen sheets for some semblance of home. Well, we wound up putting the flat sheet on the bottom and using the fitted sheet for the top sheet. I’m sure the maid was dumb-founded when she saw that arrangement. I don’t think she could figure out what we were doing with the fitted sheet … not common here as I understand. When she changed the sheets she put the flat sheet in the laundry but folded the fitted sheet very precisely and left it on our bed? J Ron’s boss is British. His wife is here until November 16 and she has lived in Cairo before. I am very much looking forward to meeting with her at length to gain insight. We are to go to the cellular phone store later today to get my new mobile phone chip. You must have a passport to get cell phone service. Interesting! American society is so incredibly open. I still have no internet here in Cairo… very frustrating but, ONE day won’t kill me. Two days and I will be suffering… If I don’t have it by Friday, we will be trekking to the Cairo office so I can do some work from there. Friday is the first day of the weekend so no one else will be in. I’ve thought before, in the States, how ridiculously dependent I have become on the internet. Now, it is a vital connecting filament to the familiar part of my world.

posted by Teresa @ 6:51 AM