Egypt and America

Its now President Mubarak's turn to visit America. Below is a link that briefly describes the situation. I didnt know until I saw this article, so it is not as important for Egyptians I guess?? Who knows.

http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC05.php?CID=3104

Also, I just returned from Dahab (resort on the Red Sea) and the North Coast (Mediterranean Sea). Updates and pictures are to follow.... :)

Garbage people of Cairo

There is a new independent film being released about the Zabaleen or people who sort and organize the trash in Cairo. The people comprise a whole community, hence the name Garbage City. I highly recommend trying to see the film, and you can find more information at www.garbagedreams.com The movie will show you another side of Egypt and in my opinion it will be really interesting because the people are facing new problems. After the outbreak of the Swine Flu, the Egyptian government culled all the pigs in Egypt. Some people weren't upset because Egypt is predominately Muslim and pork is forbidden in Islam. However, the slaughter of all the pigs caused lots of problems for the Zabaleen because they use the pigs to eat up all the excess trash, and now without the pigs, trash is quickly accumulating. I dont know much about the Zabaleen community because they are on the outskirts of Cairo, but there is a man who worked at an NGO that installed solar water heaters for the residents in Garbage City. Apparently he is guiding tours to show the newly installed heaters and give people a chance to witness life inside Garbage City. I am hoping to be able to take that tour in a couple weeks. Then I will know more information and will be able to show you pictures.

In the mean time check out this link:
http://bikyamasr.wordpress.com/2009/08/08/bm-news-egypts-garbage-city-in-photos/

It contains some photos and a brief summary of the city.

My Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow another birthday in Egypt! I still can't believe I was in Egypt a year ago. It seems much longer than that. Anyway, I had another great birthday with great friends, and I celebrated my birthday in 3 different locations! The first place was at a restaurant called Crepaway. We stayed there for a couple hours and I was supposed to bring my own cake but my roommate and I had problems keeping the cake together. We made a 2 layer cake but when we were taking it out of the oven, part of the cake broke. We started gluing the cake together with frosting but the frosting kept melting because of the heat and there is no AC in the kitchen. After several failed attempts we decided to abandon the cake in the freezer, which was probably a good idea because it would have been tricky to cross a busy street with a cake and then find a taxi. Hahaha this year I'm trying to stay away from too many stupid adventures. Instead of the cake, the restaurant gave me a brownie and ice cream and then sang to me. 3 songs!!!!!! It was crazy but fun. After that I met some friends at the Cairo Jazz club...and they were playing classic rock songs. It was nice! I'm getting tired of Arabic and hip hop music :) Then...my roommate and I met another friend and we rode a faluka on the Nile River. I finally made it home around 4 am and then called people in America....and then passed out on my bed from exhaustion. It was a great birthday and I had loads of fun!!!

Hope you enjoy the pictures. I'm enjoying my lazy summer. I have been sleeping a lot, going to the gym, and meeting people in cafes....but I need the rest, because fall semester will be MUCH harder than summer semester. Oh dear. But I've been improving a lot so its totally worth it!!!

birthday

The Arab world: Waking from its sleep | The Economist

The Arab world: Waking from its sleep | The Economist

Shared via AddThis

Apparently I have exceeded my image upload quota. The problem is that I created this blog and google pictures with my yahoo id....so I had a limit. But now I have a gmail account so I wont be as limited, but I'm having problems converting everything to the gmail account. I'll play around with it, but if any of you are experts let me know!

The washer

I lost part of the battle with the washer. The biggest problem I had was that I had to pay for the repair even though I specifically wrote that my landlady would pay for the maintenance in the apartment. And then (after two weeks of waiting) the repair man finally replaced the timer in the washer and a bunch of other parts (which I never know about, nor would have agreed too)...and so I had to pay more money. And then the washer didn't work! I completely lost it. I was trying to study for finals and take care of one of my roommates. It was too much to handle. But my dad had a great idea...after I finished my well deserved cry, I went down to my landlady and explained the problem. The washer was finally fixed the next day and I had no more problems with her. I did have to pay money, but I did split it with my roommates. It was frustrating, but I good lesson. I have decent negotiating skills but it is really hard to be stern, nice, and respectful to an old lady even though she is clearly ripping you off. ...another skill I will have to perfect. Also, while the repair man was "looking" for a new timer the landlady gave us an non-automatic washer. I didn't think it would be that bad, but it was hard! Filling it up with water by yourself and draining the water a couple times and then ringing everything out by hand. I now truly appreciate automatic washers!!

And now I have clean clothes:)

Hi,

I actually wrote this a while ago but didn't have time to post it!

kfc and university

Once again I’m not sorry for writing a lot. The Arabic program that I’m in is hard and it takes up a lot of my time, but I absolutely love it. However, I still manage to meet new people and undergo new experiences.
I met an Egyptian girl, we’re supposed to be language partners, but I’ve been busy. During our first visit we met at KFC. Yes I know, fast food restaurants and not healthy meeting places…but this KFC is a special KFC and she was the first person who was willing to go with me This KFC is special because all the workers are deaf. It is a community shares restaurant and its goal is to help people with disabilities find work. Its truly a great concept and the workers are really really nice. They taught me some words to say in sign language and they are really funny. I went there to watch the US vs Brazil soccer game and they were all making fun of me the whole time. I really like hanging out there and trying to talking to the workers (if I can’t understand, then the manager explains it to me) but going to KFC every week will be a really bad habit!! Hahaha. If you are interested in learning more about this restaurant, you can read this article:

http://www.egypttoday.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=7783

Hopefully I will go there again. I miss my friends.

I also met some people (friend of a friend and brother of a friend) who are learning American English at Cairo University. So I met them there and they gave me a tour of the campus. It’s big and nice. Haha I thought it was crowded, but apparently it wasn’t that crowded. Oh dear. Anyway, I was able to see the building that President Obama held his speech. Unfortunately I couldn’t go inside, but I could take a picture outside the building.

Those are my two main adventures so far. I will write next about my washer and my fun time with the Landlady who manipulates the writing in the contract. But my bowab and my friends helped me….lol but I have NO clean clothes. Gross.