My First Reflections on Cairo (The Victorious)

Hello all! This is my first blog post even though we’ve been here for almost four days now, and while I know this means I’ve probably already forgotten quite a few noteworthy things and will not include everything in one post that I would have in four, I just needed some time to get my bearings. Egypt hits you all at once, and the idea is something akin to taking a picture of a beautiful object moving fast by you. I’d rather experience the moment without a lens first.

 Still, there is no depth to an experience without reflection. The moment I stepped out of the airport, I immediately thought of Pakistan. There’s something about that odd combination of the smell of rotten eggs, petroleum, and dust that makes me nostalgic for the country I spent very few years in. Ah, but I won’t spend much time on our first introduction to the city. The other blogs do a great job of it and I’d highly recommend reading them. Military holding guns as casually as their soviet-era walky-talkies (fingers carelessly resting on the triggers), officers following us home from the airport for our “security” because they really have nothing better to do, areas with blocks and blocks of unfinished yet fully occupied apartment complexes because if they are not finished they technically do not exist and thus do not obligate taxes, and pyramids. No seriously, the pyramids, they’re right there. We haven’t visited them yet, but next time you’re casually driving down one of the bigger highways of Cairo (or getting driven, you won’t be able to drive here), you will glance up and there will be the pyramids. Not far off halfway into the Sahara or anything. Google map it. In fact, Google map Cairo. Remember in those cartoons when some lovable character would almost be dying of thirst in the middle of the desert and just in the nick of time would chance upon a surprisingly lush oasis? That’s Cairo. Palm trees and all. There is no gradual transition. One of the organizations some of our group will be working with is in the desert (also where the suburbs are. I suppose I should know that the suburbs of a desert-locked city would naturally be desert, but did you think about that? OK then). As we drove out of the city, there was literally a line of palm trees marking the boundary between city and sand dunes. Never have I seen such a stark scenic contrast.

 Last night, we were invited by some friends we have in the area (yeah, we have friends in Cairo. No big deal.) to a concert by a pretty famous and popular Arabic band called Al Wast Al Balad, which translates to The Center of the City. The music was great in itself, but it was really interesting to see college-aged women in hijabs dancing wildly, relatively speaking of course, to a pop band. And I know with that comment I risk sounding like an ignorant American that thinks women who cover their hair are not entitled to enjoy themselves, but that’s really not what I’m getting at. Cairo seems to have this fascinating combination of modernity and tradition, liberality and conservatism, advancement and antiquity. I feel like I can’t say much after four days, but I’m really interested in taking a closer look at these dichotomies.

 Oh goodness, I did exactly what I didn’t want to do, and that’s write a giant blog post that mentioned everything but today, which is the day I’m actually really excited to talk about. Well, I know no one reads super long posts, and it really feels like a different subject entirely, so I’ll just go ahead and start it on a new post.

 Thanks for reading, and if you’re interested, please definitely check back periodically to see what my colleagues and I have been up to. Ma’Salaama!