10 observations on Ramadan

1. Ramadan started August 22nd. For those not familiar with it, Ramadan is a holy month in the Islamic calendar where all Moslems fast during the day......they fast from eating, drinking, and sexual contact from dawn to dusk and devote these energies to spiritual reflection. It's one of the five pillars of Islam along with the confession of faith, praying towards Mecca five times a day, giving alms, and a pilgrimage to Mecca.

2. So they get up before the early morning prayer at 4 AM to eat and drink, then come together with friends and family for iftar which is the meal after sundown...around 6:30 pm. Actually, sunset was 7:30 but Egypt has instituted Daylight Savings time for Ramadan so people don't have to wait so long to eat. :) (Correction: David just told me that actually they've temporarily suspended Daylight Savings Time until after Ramadan....I always forget whether we're in DST or not. The point is that sunset occurs an hour earlier. :)

3. August is a particularly tough time for Ramadan.....imagine not drinking water during the hottest month of the year!! Children, pregnant women, and the elderly are exempt and I guess you can use disgression if you're sick. Last week, Laila, who's the secretary for David's team, had the flu and was talking about how tough it was to recover when she can't drink to keep herself hydrated, but then a few days ago, Samia wasn't feeling well and asked for some juice during our Arabic lesson. She said God would understand. :)

4. I just read an article in today's paper about 155 Egyptians who were just arrested for eating and drinking on purpose during the day. They were arrested as part of a campaign in the Aswan governate,which started at the beginning of Ramadan, to target the disobedient among "those who profess". Human rights activists have complained, stating that there is no law against non-fasting Moslems. Apparently, in more conservative countries like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, you can be arrested for not fasting and thrown in jail for a month.

5. Last week, we were driving into Cairo right around 6:15 pm, almost sunset, and we saw vendors getting ready at medians in the middle of roads with little sandwich bags filled with sugar water, fruit juice, or soda so drivers can buy a little sugar rush as they drive home to iftar. That's one thing we were warned about by those who've lived here for years: watch out on the roads during Ramadan. There are lots of sleepy and cranky drivers out there!

6. I don't know how common this is, but the Egyptians who work on the compound here as well as those David works with have been working shortened hours,, so there's more time to spend with family and at home. The meal of iftar is a time to eat well and celebrate with family; actually Samia told me that they don't get a whole lot of sleep because they stay up and eat throughout the night (this is also why they don't lose as much weight as one might expect!).

7. Not only do they stay up all night eating but apparently it's a Ramadan tradition to be glued to the boob tube. There are sitcoms, soap operas, and miniseries which only show during the month of Ramadan. Tony, the bartender, said that all Egyptian women are addicted to these shows. :) We went to a outdoor cafe and they had set up projectors and large screens in order to broadcast the television lineup.

8. There's also a tradition of hospitality in Ramadan. Wealthy people offer meals for the poor and you can find banquets set up in the streets or in tents in Cairo with free iftar meals. Many of the hotels have set up tents as well, so I imagine it's conducive to a party atmosphere.

9. From what I've gathered, as oftentimes happens with holidays and traditions, the original intent of Ramadan can get lost in the culture which has risen around it. I've noticed Ramadan sales in stores and I read some criticism in one of the Egyptian newspapers of how commercialized Ramadan has become as well as disapproval of some of the immoral themes featured in Ramadan television shows.

10. It's also a tradition to hang lanterns, like the one in the photo above, from your business or house, though I've mainly seen them perched on the porches of wealthy houses. We were staying the night at the crashpad in Cairo and I couldn't sleep so I went out to the balcony, hoping to see thousands of lit lanterns, but really didn't see any at all. I did see plenty of lights turn on around 4 AM....I'd be up early to eat too!! :)

My Middle Eastern rug

A few days ago, a group of us went to one of the flagship stores of Oriental Weavers, a rug manufacturer here in Egypt. We looked at wool rugs, acrylic rugs, big rugs, little rugs and I realized that, unlike the others, I really wasn't interested in rugs as a practical floor covering as I was in a piece of ART. Especially since I don't even know what our next house is going to look like. They had silk rugs from Iran and India and I loved those but they were several thousand dollars just for the 5 x 7s so I had to settle with running my hands over them, oohing and awing.

Then right as we were leaving and the others were paying for their purchases, I saw it. It was pink and it was shag, but I loved it! For the pics, I laid it over the bed in our guest bedroom which gets a lot of light, but the photos still do NOT do this rug justice. It's sort of a lavender-muted pink color and there are hundreds of little pieces of satin interwoven throughout the shag which look like little flowers. Oh well, you'll just have to see it next time you visit us.
















If someone had told me that morning that by the end of the day, I would have bought a pink shag rug, I would have thought Impossible!! But here I am. I just can't wait for the future conversation where I'll say "Oh....that??? I got that when I lived in the Middle East" :)

P.S. David liked it too!!

A Day in Old Cairo

Last weekend, we walked around a little area in the middle of Cairo called Old Cairo or Coptic Cairo. Old Cairo consists of the remains of a Roman garrison called Babylon dating from about 110 AD; inside the Roman ruins are about ten churches built by the Coptic community here.

This is one of the towers at the gate. If you looked over the handrail, you'd see that eye-level is really 30 feet above the base of the tower.....we're standing on centuries of mud and debris!! At the base of the tower, excavations have revealed traces of a drawbridge because the tower was built on the bank of the Nile. About 700 years ago, the Nile changed course and you have to walk about a half-mile to see it today. The photo on the right shows some of the Roman wall surrounding the fortress.
















Historians don't know when the churches inside this Roman fortress were built. My guidebook said that we don't have any information on the churches in Babylon before the Arab conquest in 641 AD. There is, however, a record of Cyrus, as the bishop of Babylon, attending the Council of Ephesus, held in 449 AD. So we know there was a Christian community here at that point.

I'm not even going to bother posting our photos because they're so awful but the churches were interesting and beautiful. One of the churches is called the Hanging Church because it was built over the South gate of the Roman fortress. Another church, dedicated to St. Sergius, is famous because it was built over the crypt where Jesus, Mary, and Joseph purportedly took refuge when they came to Egypt. (Note: this information isn't found in the Bible but from the writings of Pope Theophilus who saw the route of the Holy Family in a vision). Here's a mosaic at the entrance of the hanging church:



Again, no pictures, but there is also a beautiful synagogue in the complex dating back to the 9th century. In the 19th century, they discovered the synagogue's treasury which included thousands of letters, promissary notes, deeds, and contracts dating back to the 11th century. Apparently, the records were so complete, the collection was compared to the Domesday book. It, of course, like so much of Egypt's treasures was spirited away to institutions abroad.

Egypt does however have a wonderful collection of historical pieces from the Coptic community held in the Coptic Museum. What a wonderful museum!! Great English descriptions, wonderful display cases and layout, even handicapped accessible!! No air conditioning but we survived. :)
It was fascinating to see how Christians used the Greek, Roman, and Egyptian symbols around them for their own purposes. Pharoanic ankhs have been morphed into crosses, the Roman eagle was used as a symbol for Christ, one frieze shows two nude Roman cherubs holding up a laurel wreath which encloses a cross. I was surprised that a good number of items came from the Fayoum area down where we live (about 2 hrs south of Cairo). Actually, there was a Bishop of Heracleopolis, an ancient city down in the Fayoum delta, who was sent to the Council of Nicea in 325 AD!

Curiously, throughout the second floor of the museum, there are many alcoves which don't have windows but instead feature the mashrabiya wooden lattice work. You may remember seeing an example of this in the post about Islamic Cairo about a month back....the wooden lattice work was designed to allow women to look outside without being seen. This is Islamic design and I wasn't sure why they would make a point to build these into the Coptic museum, BUT they were beautiful!! And I finally had a chance to stand behind them and look out. I was surprised by how little you could see!

I am not making this up.......

Our oven isn't heating up as it should so we called in a service request for someone to look at it. The guy called us back this morning, asked if it was convenient for him to come in 5 minutes. When he looks at it and tests it, he says "The thermostat isn't working on it but because I know you need to cook for the BBQ pool party this afternoon, we will take out this oven and bring in a new oven so you won't be late."

I had a brand spanking new oven in my kitchen 20 minutes later.

How are we going to adjust to normal life again after this place???? But now it's off to the pool for some BBQ and volleyball................................... :)

Deutschland!!

This past weekend, David took a four day pass and we flew up to Germany. This satisfied my VISA requirements plus we were so excited to see our old stomping grounds in Wuerzburg and our beautiful friend Ingrid. It couldn't have been a more perfect weekend. It was just what we had hoped for: lots of time to chat with Ingrid and her friends as well as become reacquainted with our old friends knodeln, cabbage, bratwurst, cheese, and the wonderful Franconian wines. I announced after one dinner that I wasn't sure but I believed I may have eaten a pound of bread and cheese! :)

Also it rained. Ingrid felt apologetic; we thought it was a gift from God Almighty. :)

Ingrid's apartment is surrounded by vineyards on one side and an orchard on the other....here's some views from her place. Isn't it beautiful and GREEN??

















Once again, we were remiss in our picture taking....didn't get a photo of the Residenz palace, the BBQ Ingrid had for us and her other friends, hardly any from the downtown area, not even one of the three of us. These represent a small sample from our happy weekend. :) Hopefully, it won't be another 8 years before we see Ingrid and Germany again!

































































Even though we've only been in Egypt for 3 months now, we did experience a bit of a culture shock in Germany. I mean, if a country could have Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder when it comes to being orderly and clean, Germany is it. I'm not sure where Egypt would fall in the psychoanalysis dept. but let's just say it has other priorities. We instantly noticed how everyone stayed in their own distinct lanes on the autobahn even in a traffic jam and were amused at how people would stand on the street corner of a small little lane, waiting for the crosswalk light to turn, even when there was no traffic!! I don't think I've seen a crosswalk yet in Egypt. :)

Tahrir Bridge

For you readers of the Christian Science Monitor, do you remember an article about a year or so ago featuring the Tahrir bridge in Cairo?? The article described the bridge as teeming with people at night, groups of teenagers, young married couples strolling along as a romantic cheap date or engaged couples using it as a place outside the watchful eyes of parents or chaperones. Anywho, the Tahrir bridge was next to the hotel we were having dinner so we decided to go have a look.

But first, the views from the deck of the Italian restaurant we went to. Those boats are feluccas where you can book a Nile sunset cruise. In the sunset pic, you're actually looking at the Tahrir bridge over the Nile.




















After dinner, we walked over to the bridge. And although our photos don't show it, the article was right. Tons of people, great party atmosphere to walk through. We liked the lion statues too!

Wendi's appt. with the Ophthalmologist

A few weeks ago, I had a lot of swelling around my eye and it was constantly watering. I went to the PA here on our compound and he thought maybe some antibiotics were in order. I took those for about a week which helped the swelling immensely but didn't really clear up the other symptoms so he referred me to an Egyptian ophthalmologist in Cairo. Our guess was that, while the antibiotics took care of the infection, there was still something lodged in my tear duct.

SO, last week David and I found the clinic, the name was translated as the "Eye Subspecialty Clinic" and I walked up to the check-in counter. The woman spoke pretty good English and asked me to fill out a basic form and pay 80 pounds (about $15). When I brought my form back up, she pointed to the line on which I'd written my name and said "We need both your last names". Huh?? I explained that I didn't have two last names. I pointed out my first name and last name and asked whether she wanted my middle name, though that really falls within the category of first name in my book. She said "No, I need your two last names". I wasn't sure what to tell her so she talked to her colleague in very fast Arabic and then reassured me that it was OK. Later, we were talking to Tony, the bartender, and he explained that Egyptians have two last names. One last name is their father's first name and the other is their grandfather's first name. So apparently they don't have a family name??

Anyway, I was then ushered into two different rooms where they looked at my eye and asked questions. Then I was called a third time, this time, I gathered, to see the eye doctor. He wanted to know how to pronounce my name and where I was from while he was looking at my information. Then he checked my eye and asked what antibiotics I had been taking. I had only been in his office for about 3-4 minutes when he started writing out my prescription and said "I want you to take these eye drops 6 times a day and also apply the ointment 6 times a day, but wait to apply the ointment until 15 minutes after the eyedrops. There's also an ointment you should only apply before bedtime". I was a little befuddled, trying to process what he was saying....more antibiotics was not what I was expecting. I asked "What do you think the problem is?" And he looked up from his writing, looking surprised I'd ask such a question, "you have cellulitis!" Oh, of course, Cellulitis...which is???? I then asked "So there's nothing in my tear duct?" "No" "So, the discharge and eye watering I'm experiencing??" he looked up, a little exasperated, "it's from the infection in your eyelid!" My eyelid???? "I want you to come see me next Wednesday at 11" And that was that....I was quickly ushered out and immediately thought of ten more questions I wished I'd asked. (I did have to go back and ask one more essential one "Where do I pick up my prescription?") I ended up going back and googling Cellulitis and reading up on all the medications I was taking.

I bring this up not as an update on the grisly details of my eye infection but as an example of how different the doctor-patient relationship is from the West. I went to a fertility specialist for several months when we lived in Korea and it was much the same experience. I came to him with a problem, he provided an answer.....no explanation needed. I got the feeling that to ask him questions implied that I didn't trust his expertise. He would tell me what I needed to do and when he needed to see me next and I was ushered out quickly....my appointments rarely lasted more than 5 minutes and that included an ultrasound! There was none of the back-and-forth conversation we expect in Western medicine. I talked to one of the Egyptians here on the compound and she said this is very typical of their doctors. It's interesting.....I wonder if it's because the knowledge gap is larger in these countries?? Or is it that authority is just not questioned?? I think Western patients definitely expect more from their doctors...I mean, I honestly think that the eye doctor wouldn't have told me my diagnosis if I hadn't asked! I'm going back for my follow-up on Wednesday and I'll be better prepared this time. :)