Life As I See It - From Egypt

End of the first week....

Still Wednesday, NOVEMBER 12th (LONG DAY) The pollution in Cairo is much worse than anything I’ve seen. I remember being in Los Angeles back in the 70’s and I thought that was pretty bad. This is much worse. You can see it and smell it; actually, on the worst days you can taste it. Thank goodness for air conditioning. I am going to look for an electric air filter for at least the bedroom in the apartment. This cannot be good for my fair complexion or my typically clean lungs! And I must mention the trash. Did I mention that already? Well, I just want to go outside and start picking up all the street trash. It is everywhere, from high priced suburban areas to the poorest of downtown areas. I think it might be worse in the outlying areas because there is more consumerism. On the one hand, they have people sweeping in the streets with brooms and dust pans. On the other hand, they sweep right around huge mounds of garbage as though they are stone monuments. I am intrigued by the psychology of this behavior and will explore its origins and the nature of its universal acceptance. Well, it’s noon. No phone call yet and I am starving! I brought Ron some pretty awful tasting beef jerky from home. It is sounding better and better to me as my stomach rumbles for attention. I’ve yet to try my CD’s for learning Arabic. Guess I will entertain myself with this and hope it takes my mind off food. However, I am longing for some decent coffee. The coffee beans I brought from home could surely be used in some fashion. So, I grind them up. Then I get one of Ron’s old handkerchiefs for a filter. (Old as in aged, not used. Normally you would think to use a paper towel but we have none. Some of the US tissues would probably work but the ones here would just disintegrate.) So, I fire up the electric tea pot, pour the hot water slowly over the grinds and…. Wahlah!! Coffee. Really strong and still sediment in the bottom of the cup but, better than nothing. Certainly better than Nescafe. The handkerchief is now garbage but that is a small price to pay for tasty caffeine. J The phone call I was waiting for all day comes at 4:00p. By now I’m weak with hunger. Anyone who knows me well knows that there is ALWAYS time set aside in my schedule to eat. Seldom does a meal time pass me by without sustenance. Too late now to go out and get my cell phone chip. Since Ron will be home in about 2 hours for dinner, I don’t want to go out and look around for food in a totally unfamiliar environment. So I have some Cointreau (a French liqueur that my daughter Megan introduced me to) and read until Ron arrives. And read… and read… okay, alright already. It is 7:00p and no sign of him. Finally at 7:15p or so he comes in… with a GUEST to stay OVERNIGHT, in this apartment that has no food, no extra pillows and only one small extra towel. I am so happy. And my happiness is further highlighted by my lack of blood sugar. The three of us go out to find food. Ron has a restaurant in mind but we make one, small, teensy tiny wrong turn and that’s the end of that. It is dark and there are few street lights. No way are we going to find this place. So, we drive further. We see a lot of Maadi in the dark. Very interesting if I could think about anything but the lining of my stomach. We opted to try for TGIFriday’s since that was familiar and we thought we knew where it was. No, we did not. Okay, just stop the car anywhere and I will eat anything remotely resembling food. We find fast-food Egyptian. I ate something with beans, pasta, onions, rice and sauce. It was quite good, actually. They had french fries so we ordered some to see what they were like here. Won’t bother doing that again. Cold, kinda limp and rather tasteless. Oh for good old McDonald’s fries! By now it is after 9:30p. As we make our way back to the apartment in the car we realize we had earlier driven for at least ½ hour and ended up within walking distance of the apartment. “Lessons hard learned are long remembered.” And that is how I console myself. J

posted by Teresa @ 6:53 AM