There is less than a week left for us here in Bab el Loq, downtown Cairo. We decided it was about time we started compiling a list of memories so that we don t always dwell on the mice, the roaches, the two broken sinks, the creepy bahweb, the skeezy cab drivers, the mysterious unmarked EgyptAir plane and the pollution. So here goes.
A few Saturdays ago was the African Cup, something which I m sure very few Americans know about, since soccer (real football, if you will) is such a fringe sport. It was a huge game, between Cairo s Ahli team and Tunisia. For one night, people came to coffeeshops not to sip tea, slap backgammon chips and smoke sheesha, but to stand shoulder-to-shoulder and watch the game on tiny 10-inch TVs perched perilously above counters.
The bakery, the juice store, and electronics stores all had crowds affixed to the game. And the most amazing part was the cheering. When Ahli scored, we really could hear the entire city cheering.
Being in a place where the juice guy, the grocery guy and the laundry guy all know you and genuinely care that you came back.
Eating an entire fish dinner for two with salad and tahina for LE60, or about $11. Not only is the exchange rate really great, but things here cost a lot less than you think they should.
This, of course, is a double-edged sword. It s great for visitors, but for anyone living here on an Egyptian salary, it can make day-to-day living tricky. Suddenly that LE60 dinner is a huge splurge when it takes the better part of the day to earn that much, and when the street sweepers here only make LE80 each month.
The poverty here is crushing, and seeing kids wandering the streets on their own scrounging for food really makes you feel like a terrible person for having eight pairs of underwear to choose from. But the woman and her daughter who always sell tissues and random odds-and-ends on the sidewalk in front of our building smile at us every day. Even when I stroll out with my iPod playing.
The bakery in Maadi with pita bread for 20 piastres (4 cents) each, warm and with a little bit of coriander.
I already said the cab drivers suck, but that s not quite true. Most of them do.
One guy sang along to Bob Marley playing on his tape deck with us when we went out to Islamic Cairo.
Our first day here was one of the most overwhelming experiences of our life. We had no phones, no Internet, and I carried around a kilo of bananas in a plastic bag all day, having paid 50 cents for them.
But our thoroughly Western dinner in the otherwise-empty Hard Rock Cafe Cairo was one of the more surreal experiences of my life. Buffalo wings in Egypt, check.
Getting out of Cairo was always a good weekend, wherever we went.
Pancakes on Midan Saad Zaghloul in Alexandria and biking out to the Valley of the Kings in Luxor are at the top of the list.
Horseback riding around the Pyramids at night, watching the sound-and-light show from afar. We still couldn t see any stars, but getting away from the city noise was a good start.
Our first month here was Ramadan, the Islamic holy month that includes fasting during daylight hours. We went to a bunch of great iftars which I will never forget, all on the roof of m. s apartment in downtown.
That s where we met a lot of our other friends, too, and where we whiled away hours upon hours drinking tea. The walks to m s place (or anywhere right at sunset, for that matter) stand out, too. In the half hour before sundown, the streets are filled with cars honking and careening more than usual, rushing to get home.
But the calls of the mullahs from loudspeakers all over announcing sunset also bring an incredible calm. The streets are nearly deserted and the only sounds are the voices rising from mercy tables set up on the sidewalks outside of every restaurant. As the night progresses, the city comes back alive, with families window shopping and guys gathered around tables with tea.
The Ramadan lights, strings of full-size lightbulbs in red, yellow, blue and green chasing each other, add to the energy.
There s a cookie shop near my preferred wifi haunt, Beano s, that has amazing macaroons and other baked goods. So amazing that I may well bring some back to the U.
S.
We already miss our Arabic teacher, M., and we aren t even supposed to be done with lessons yet.
He s fluent in Japanese and English is his third language. And he loves Basbousa.
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