Our blog got a bit of a "fix". We had problems with our pictures being cut off at about half way. However thanks to our very good friend Andrew its now all fixed. Thank you. Sorry for the inconvenience. We do suggest taking a look at the Heiss blog at: http://www.heissatopia.com/
Thank you again An-rew and *sniff sniff*.
Cairo really doesn’t disappoint. It’s a city where lepers can still be found. And as we learned today they still butcher animals in the streets. Today we went for a walk in downtown Islamic Cairo. Carolee, a few friends and I went to check out a few mosques during the Muslim Eid Feast.
Our first stop was the Mohammad Ali mosque in the famous Cairo Citadel. It was my second time going into the Citadel and I’m still impressed by it. I've read a few travel book reviews on this mosque and heard some disappointed tourists say its not worth your time. I however believe its still quite an impressive site. However the day’s adventures became truly insane when we were on our way see the Ibn Tulun mosque. As we walked down the side walk we could see the streets were full of puddles of goat, sheep and cow blood. As we walked further down the road we saw piles of animal skins, hooves, heads and entrails. The smell of all the blood was very thick in the air. As cars passed through the large puddles of blood it would get sprayed so we had to take cover on the sidewalks.
The Muhammad Ali mosque
Carolee and I inside the mosque
Carolee just peeled an orange and wasn't ready for this picture. It still looks good though.
The view from the top of the Citadel. Can you see the pyramids? Thanks to the Cairo pollution its a bit hard. Look closely in the middle of the picture.
Blood in the streets of Islamic Cairo
A pile of guts on the sidewalk
A goat hove on the sidewalk
Piles of hides at a butcher. You can see a cow about to become dinner.
Much larger puddles of blood near the butcher.
Yes, that is ALL blood. The butcher didn't want me to take a picture of his place. Opps.
Some butchers having fun.
Up on the roof of a mosque in Cairo
At the top of the mosque's minaret.
A nice view from the top of the minaret.
This is the minaret we climbed. It was modeled after a famous minaret in Iraq.
This is a butcher we met in Maadi a few blocks from out house. The hand prints are obviously blood.
I made the decision today that it was time to start a diet. Ever since I was living in Rexburg I made worthy attempts to loose the weight I'd been slowly gaining. But ever since we moved to Egypt I've been really "putting in on". I came to Egypt with only a few shirts and pants. I don't plan on buying more clothes. And at this point I need to either buy bigger or get smaller.
So I'm here to proclaim the "Days of Fat Are Over"! No only do I plan on eating less but I'm also getting out and running at least once a day around our neighborhood. Since we live on the 4th floor and don't have an elevator I also plan on running up and down the stairs.
Some bits of news in the Schilling family never quite made it to the blog. Part of the problem was that the blog was just recently created and therefore some important and slightly interesting things happened just before its creation.
Originally we decided to stay in Egypt until the end of the year. I would study Arabic at AUC and then we would return to the States. As time progressed and we got more comfortable with our new home in Egypt, we decided to extend our stay a bit longer. I was accepted to BYU in October and would start in April. So we figured why not stick around “Sand Land” a bit longer. One thing was for certain: If we do stay we need to move out of Zaharaa’ al Maadi. Maadi is a big town. It’s nothing like Cairo of course, but fairly spread out. The church building, shopping and all our friends all live in downtown Maadi. From Zaharaa’ al Maadi, which is like a suburb of Maadi, you need to take a 5 minute cab ride. That may not sound like a big deal but when you have to pay 20 L.E. roundtrip it can quickly add up. More importantly, Carolee really had nothing to do in Zaharaa’ al Maadi.
There are really no stores, no people the visit, no interesting sites to go see. Zaharaa’ al Maadi is a new town that’s built right up against the desert. On the other side of our apartment building was another apartment building. Past that was desert. Our street in front of our house wasn’t paved. Packs of wild dogs roamed the streets just outside our front door.
Our place was nice. Pink couches and walls are hard to pass up. Certainly the extremely narrow kitchen was hard to leave. But by the second day of looking for an apartment we had found our new home: Rd 87 Building 20 Apartment 47. I know Carolee realized this sooner than I did, but it wasn’t until the next morning did I realize how close our apartment was to everything. We were less than 2 minutes away from the Sharps and Heiss’. I was less than a minute away from my school bus stop. The church and Rd. 9 (the main street where all the stores are) were also less than 5 minutes walk away. No more annoying fights with cabdrivers over prices. We haven’t regretted our choice to move.
Our entryway
Our living room with our very attractive furniture.
The front door
Our alabaster toilet, sink and tub
This nice tile picture is right next to our front door.
Back in America we’re so used to things being “politically correct” and “non-racist”. Double standards do exist of course, but not like they do here in the Middle East. I was told in a restaurant that the Chinese Buffet was only for Chinese Customers. Apparently the buffet food was too good for my American blood. This concept was brought to my front door when our land lord messenger man came to collect the monthly rent on Tuesday. After exchanging the appropriate amount of cash, the messenger asked me if I had any problems or questions with our apartment. I explained to him that I had just acquired a TV satellite receiver from some friends of ours who had just moved back to the states. I wanted to know if our building received satellite TV reception from off the roof. Almost all apartment buildings in Maadi have this so I assumed we weren’t an exception. He told me that not only do we have regular Egyptian satellite BUT we also have European satellite too. He said he would be happy to install it for me.
So I agreed. He was a nice guy and I so I figured he would just install it free of charge. After looking at a few things he determined that he need to go buy a special cable to connect from our receiver into the back of our very old tv. When he returned my Egyptian neighbor came over and I mentioned that we were getting our satellite hocked up. I asked my neighbor to ask the guy (in Arabic) how much he was planning on charging me for all this. The guy replied 200 L.E. (That’s about $40) My neighbor flipped and said that he had angered me with such a large service charge. I was quite shocked at my future bill. 200 L.E. could buy you a lot in Egypt. But I was being charged what I like to call “The White Boy Price”. Americans get a special price here in Egypt.
Right after my neighbor told the guy that I was now upset with him for wanting 200 L.E. he became very apologetic. He suddenly became very embarrassed and apologized. I agreed to pay him back 30 L.E. for the wire he bought and 20 L.E. for the work he had to do on the roof. He was happy with 50 L.E. I imagine he would have been ok leaving my apartment with nothing after seeing him so embarrassed.
Egyptians really like to charge you for anything they can. We went to Saqqara last week and this old man wanted me pay him before I left one of the old Egyptian tombs. Usually if they are nice I’ll give them their Bakshish (tip) but this guy wanted money for doing nothing. It was like his job was to stand at the exit of the building and asking for money as you leave. He followed me out of the tomb pestering me for money. But as usual I ignored the guy, pretending they’re not there and then he left.
God Bless America; The land where you don’t have to pay to use the bathroom or to use toilet paper. Last week we were at the Khan al Khalili market in Cairo. And the funny thing is, is that your body always seems to pick the worst possible time to have to use the bathroom. As I’m with my wife looking at jewelry and Arabic calligraphy from a guy who may or may not be affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood I had that familiar feeling of needing to use the bathroom. And it wasn’t one of those feelings where you know that if you wait, maybe hold out, you might buy yourself some time to get to the safety of your house… but no. This feeling was the one where all you can think about getting to the jon NOW. So after seeing and turning down some toilets that might have been installed around the time Christ was living in Egypt, which by the way were just holes in the ground. I was taken to one that actually had seats. But with no surprise to me there was no paper. After summoning a Khan employee I had a huge box of tissues at my disposal. But of course I had to pay for the tissues. I gave the guy 5 L.E. ($1). Can you put a price on clean underwear? I know I can’t. Because I know that if I didn’t get to that bathroom in time that’s what it might have come down to.
So if you come to Egypt to visit, bring a little extra money for Baksish. And don’t be surprised if you get charged the “White Boy Price”.
