Mullahs in their Minarets

When I was a young boy growing up on the farm in Ontario...... the Michigan Central Railway ran along the base of the highland where 20 thousand years ago a glacier bulldozed a big deposit of dirt before it went back home to the North Pole. Our farm sits on the top of the mound and the railway ran below.
From Hamilton all the way to Detroit. Many trains ran along that track for  years a very few carrying passengers mostly freight trains hauling steel from the Stelco plants in Hamilton to the Motor City ..and chugging back with the finished product....brand new cars for us to buy.
The  trains were so regular that no one on our  road needed to wear  a watch. For instance at 11:20 everyday a passengeer train would roll through ...on it's way south....my dad would say "there's 50" ....the number of the train...... you could even hear the whistle in our back field as it blew it's warning for the crossing on 59 highway ....you knew you had another forty minutes of tractor work before you could head up for lunch.
There was another train at 4:30 in the afternoon....time to milk the cows...one at 10 in the evening...time to check the herd for the night and one at 4 in the morning....another hour to sleep before the day began.
It's kind of like that here in Cairo.
Now in place of trains......it's the Mullahs in their Minarets.  There is a mosque half a block  away from the apartment...you can see it easily from the window on the fourth floor....so the noise travels unchecked by trees or other buildings strait to us. The first time I heard it was the day after I arrived ...I was in the bathroom and I thought Kim was listening to something very loudly on the internet...when I came out she wasn't at the desk...I quickly figured out what was going on and she said "get used to it.... it happens several times a day". It's funny how quickly you do get used to things....in the early days I would look out the window when the call came and watch hundreds of men converge on  the church from all directions...I have no idea where they all come from....sometimes there are so many there's an overflow and they end up dragging their prayers mats to the dusty little park beside the mosque and line up there...... heads on the ground pointing to Mecca....
If a guy can't make in because he's looking after his store...then out comes the prayer mat onto the sidewalk and down he goes head on the ground...butt up in the air...like I say...this happens every day several times...once at 4:30 in the morning...oh yes EVERY morning the dulcet tones of the Mullah in his Minaret bringing you out of a nice deep sleep...another at 11:45....time for lunch...... once again at 4:30 and then again at 10 PM. There seems to be no end to the praying. Walking the streets you see many men with dark spots high in the middle of their foreheads....they're callouses from pressing their heads into the carpet in the Mosque....the larger and deeper the callous...obviously the more devout the man...and I say man ....because there are NO women taking part in this ritual...they pray I assume...but I don't know where.
On Friday....their Sunday...there is an hour long sermon from the Mullah in his Minaret....I have to admit that can be a little much...because he can really get himself worked up into a religious verbal frenzy!
In conclusion...I don't really pay attention anymore...but some of the dirges do have a bit of a tune that you can recognize when you hear them often enough...... and some have a riff that's actually quite catchy.
But I don't think we're going to hear the Mullah in his Minaret on the hit parade anytime soon....
Later...insallah....b

"Tanks" for the Memories

Hey long time no talk....a few things have been happening. We're right in the middle of a referendum on a new constitution....the first vote was last Saturday.....there were 24 hour line ups at the polling booths.... one was just down the street of Kim's apartment so road nine into Maadi was a bigger mess than usual if you can imagine that.
The new President (Dictator) Muhammad Morsi wants to know if people will except his new constitution which is Muslim religious conservative and would more closely follow Sharia law....the progressive Egyptians see this as throw back to bad old times even before Sadat and Mubarak...they mostly live in the cities....the more consertvative Egyptians much like home in Canada live in the rural areas....this first roaund of voting was in the cities...the next round goes in the rural areas. The locals I've talk with say the vote was very close here...so things don't look good if you don't want a more Muslim government.
Anyway....a few of us decided to rent a falucca for a nice little sail on the Nile....this was on Saturday as well....it's good deal....you get this big old beat up dow with lantene sails...it's about 24 feet long and eight feet wide...with a table and cushioned bench seats around it...you get a bunch of snacks and wine and beer and you float around on the Nile for about 10 bucks an hour.
You have to tip the driver a little something...but these guys are right out of the Arabian nights....turbanned long flowing jelibyn and a rotten old Egyptian tobacco cigarettre hanging out of his mouth...he knows his stuff...but all you kind of do is tack back and forth...there was a good wind...but it was cool.
We drove over in a taxi...a long ways (90 cents Canadian) and we get out at the big intersection where the falucca harbour is...and as I got out of the cab I turned around and was staring down the barrel of a big T-34 tank...beside it was a maching gun carrying armoured vehicle with a soldier sitting behind the gun....Kim was still in the car when I said "oh shit" she "what" then she got out and looked and so "oh shit". I looked around..... things seemed normal and everybody was going about their business...so we walked across the busy intersection...and I pulled out my cell phone to take a picture and the young soldier on top of the tank shook his finger and said no....so I took one anyway and disappeared into the crowd. When we got to the boat everyone was talking about the election and the tanks....there were a few old Egyptian hands there ...teachers who had experienced last year's revolution and they said everything was alright...
So after the boat ride we crossed the road again in from of the tank and the armoured car....and the last thing I'll always remember seeing is two tank men playing cards on top of the tank...and the machine gunnner....soundly asleep behind his weapon....only in Egypt....ali akbar!

"Gringo Traps" Et Al

Some of you have heard me in the past refer to the "Gringo Traps" in Mexico.
To elaborate.... we start with a little history of the word "Gringo"...there are many explanations about how this description of caucasians in Mexico came about...but this is the one I like the best.
Back in the 1890's many cowboys would make their way across the border into Mexico looking for work or a good time. A popular song of the time was "Green Grow the Violets" and many of these cowboys would sing the song around the campfire or in a cantina relaxing with a Senorita and cerveca. The Mexican people got so used to hearing the cowboys sing the song...they started referring to them as...."green-grows" as in Green Grow the Violets....and as the years went by "green-grow" was shortened to just "Gringo". So now all white visitors to Mexico are referred to as "Gringos" especially amongst the Gringos.

Now the "Gringo Trap" is essentially one of the many of the little and large things that Gringos can run into resulting in very likely injury and most assuredly pain!

Now the biggest Gringo Trap in Mexico is more often than not the Gringo him or herself! They are quite often dull witted to begin with and when an unfortunate incident occurs they are quite often under the influence of either or booze and drugs. So this makes it much easier to say fall ....down on the uneven side walk..... trip over a piece of re-bar that just happens to be sticking up....run into a street sign that the Mexicans cleverly install at Gringo head level. There also knee high walls...steps that end suddenly for absolutely no reason and loads of broken glass to step on.

Okay....that's Mexico....here in Cairo...and all of Egypt actually....the situation is a hundred times worse..... if it can be imagined..

I almost never put my foot down until I look first to see what's there...loose bricks on the side walk are the worst or  side walks that  disappear into a pile of sand and broken debris. I was talking to one of the teachers at the Cairo American College and she was right at that time recovering from a broken bone in her foot...I asked her what happened and she said I took my eye off the sidewalk for one second and kicked a hunk of cement....the injury wasn't really serious luckily for her. Perhaps the biggest potential for injury is the traffic...because the sidewalks are so bad....depending what road you're on you're forced off the sidewalk onto the street which are very narrow and clogged with parked cars that means you have to walk between the parked cars and

the chaotic traffic....your head has to be on a swivel turning three hundred and sixty degrees watching where trouble might come from...

It reminds me of bringing the sail boat into harbour in Dover on week-end when all of the drunken power boaters are coming home from Pottohawk...you just never know what might happen.

And the traffic circles....I have to laugh when I think about the issue new traffic circles are causing back home....at the TV station we did reports with no end about how to deal with these bloody new fangled roundabouts...they've been here for a hundred years...and the Egyptians have only one way to deal with them..... attack! There's one intersection that you have to navigate when walking or taking a cab to the school...or the drinking club...it's called "Victoria Medan" I call it ``Victoria Mayhem``....the only way to get into it seems.... is to just drive right in cutting everyone else off...and when you're in ....employ the same method to get out...it's unbelievable that there isn't a crash every second....you have to do the same thing when you walk through it....just step in and hold your breath hoping people will stop....it comes down to a test of wills...you kind of have to lock eyes with a driver and the make a tacit agreement that'll he'll stop...slow down or veer around you....it is VERY nerve wracking..

All the while you  hear ...car horns...car horns.... car horns...like 24 hours a day...here`s why. Egyptians always seem to be in a hurry and can not tolerate for ONE SECOND anyone stopping in front of them or cutting them off....the automatic reaction to this is hand on horn and press long and loud!

Also....the regular intersections  have no stop signs...what drivers do is beep their horn before they enter ...hoping that will signal  other drivers of their intention...it seems to work...but Jesus is it dangerous...especially for motorcylists who I must say  live a charmed life around here...

Gringo traps....watch out for the donkey shit....the dead cats...and rotting fruit and vegetables....this latest issue with garbage in the streets I think is an out come of the revolution..the old government at least made a half hearted effort to get the garbage out of the city...the new religious regime obviously dosen't adhere to the tenant that ``cleanliness is next to Godliness``...I leave you now with the dulcet tones of the Mullah in the Mosque half a block away from the apartment urging the faithful to prayer through the big loud speaker located in the very top of the minaret...he`s been going for an hour now ...oh to be a `Gringo`` in Cairo....

When "Tomcats" fly!

A bit about the political situation...I've had many emails from family and friends wondering how safe it is here with what's going on....the answer is, it's pretty safe.
Tahrir Square is about fifteen kilometers away from where we are in the Cairo subdivison of Maadi....but I can often see helicopters flying over the area where the protests are taking place from out of our apartment window.
The situation in Gaza seems to have died down...but it had a lot of people worried...it has really nothing to do with Egypt...except that the new president Mohammed Morsi helped broker the ceasefire....that got him some political points here...and of course the admiration of foreign leaders including Barak Obama who gave him a big "way to go" pat on the back.
All well and good...but it seems Mr. Morsi may have interpreted that praise for an opportunity to make some moves here in Egypt.
He is a member of the "Muslim Brotherhood" an organization that was formed about 80 years ago by an Arab school teacher to kind of consolidate the faith and give it a rallying point in the Middle East....it now has millions of members and while it's not supposed to be a political entity...it has fostered a number of political parties including the "Freedom and  Justice Party" here in Egypt. In it's past the organization has provided education and health care for muslims in poor and oppressed countries...and still does....it also started out with a vow of non-violence....however throughout it's history there have been many acts of violence that have attributed to it's members....so it's just like everything else it seems in the Arab world , no one can really say for sure what it's all about or capable of.
Here in Egypt after this last rebellion...Mr. Morsi narrowlly defeated an old crony of the former ousted President Hosni Mubarak....however there are plenty of Mr. Mubarak's cronies still around....and they make up the Judiciary...including what could be called the equivalent of "Supreme Court" in Canada. From what I can understand and surmise is the judges are trying to block much of the legislation and or changes Mr. Morsi is trying to bring in....and it's really pissing him off.

So the other day....as a I menioned earlier, Mr. Morsi...armed with this new good will he garnered from his Gaza success threw the judges out and said from now on all the decisions that he's made since he was elected in June and all the changes he's going to make will proceed without opposition.

This makes him a defacto Dictator...and that really sticks in the craw of a lot of Egyptians who just got rid of a Dictator....and have no interest in having another.....

In Mr. Morsi's defence, he says this new power he has given himself will only last until a new constitution is developed and put in place this spring....

But what if he's lying the Egyptians say????....

Dictators have been know to do that....and on top it all off....some of the changes he has in mind adhere more closely to the harder line Muslim way of thinking....and once again a heck of a lot of Egyptians most I say, don't want that.

So in large part that's what this round of protests are about...but that's not all.

Since the revolution...many western interests have pulled out of Egypt because they don't want to lose everything they have here...that means fewer good jobs now and fewer possibilities for the future for Arab youth especially....so many of these young hot heads take to the streets to vent there frustration at everything in general.

Some tidbits.....a forty year old computer guy came to the apartment the other night to install wi-fi....the English Egyptian Newspaper was open on the table he looked at the headlines....and called Morsi and idiot.

The Canadian Embassy has shut down while the demos take place....and has warned us to be careful .The American school where Kim teaches is staying open but warned parents it may shut down if there's any sign of danger.

Once a week a stick of  twelve F-16 Tomcat warplanes fly over the city....they're only at about two thousand feet and the noise they make is incredible.

There are a number of reasons for this I think...one is to show everyone that they have them...two..to show everyone that if you cause too much trouble they'll turn them loose on you...three to show everyone that Egypt can still defend itself from outside forces if need be...and four to give the pilots some flight experience. Gas isn't cheap...and these planes while great fighters in their day..( I flew one with the American Thunderbirds at the London airshow a few years back) are getting a little long in the tooth and the Israelis would have them for lunch if push came to shove...but it's an impressive spectacle!

So as I write this.....(Tuesday Nov 27 ...10:30 am) Mr. Morsi is meeting with the judges to see if they can come to terms....this is a good thing...I think maybe he has realized he's bitten off a lit more than he can chew....so I'm going to stay out of the downtown and keep my head low...and continue to enjoy life in Maadi....and besides Luci the Phillipina cleaning lady wants to start on the floor and wants me out...until later!

Silent Night......Almost

I woke up the other night...and it was....quiet.
No dogs barking, no cats fighting no jets flying over head....
Have I gone deaf?
Have I died?
Did the world end while I've been sleeping?
Ah yes.... a car in the distance...coming closer.....Beeeeeep.
Why the horn....there is nothing else out there????
Oh yes.....I forgot....I'm in Cairo.

If you can't stand the smoke....stay out of Cairo!

"Smoking Please" ......well not exactly....but it seems like there are signs like these all over city.
If you have a burr up your butt about second hand smoke the you should definately stay away from Egypt generally and Cairo specifically...
For instance it's not surprising to get into a cab and see the driver has a fag hanging out the side of his mouth...fruit and vegetable vendors cigarette ashes go flying all over the pommagranates  as he explains the price of his produce..meeshie! (no problem)
Motorcycles riders with wife or kids on the back...now there's an art...cigarette stuck in his pate ashes and sparks flying.
There maybe a chance they think cigarettes are a cure for cancer.
Of course you all know and have seen this pictures of men sitting in little outdoor cafes drinking strong tea or coffee while sucking away on hooka pipes. They read the paper or chat and laugh with friends the smell of the aromatic tobacco is sooooo enticing...as well...a young waiter hurrying down the street with a hooka in one had a perforated ladle in the other  carrying burning coals, rushing to service a customer....perhaps a store owner or some other type of business man where he works....on the street this is fine.
The principal of Kim's school invited some people to join her and her husband for a dinner out on Friday night last. It was a generous offer and a good deal, we would each pay for our meal...but we would go to downtown Cairo (about 15 kilometers) she was laying on the transport, a small bus she gets for free every now and then as one of the perks for being principal.

The restaurant is high end....it's called "Sequoia" and it's quite famous here abouts....it's on and island in the middle of the Nile..the island is named "Zemlak"  it's famous too....and it's very big...ultra rich Cairenes live and play there...

When we walk into this sprawling restaurant with low tables and seats and benches Arab style, waiters and busboys in nice white shirts black vests and ties  scurry around looking after lots of diners.

The left side of the restaurant is wide open from floor to ceiling to the "Eternal Nile" ,the moon dancing off the water..... tour boats cruising by and in the restaurant..... an aboslute fug of smoke from top to bottom carried around  the whole place by the evening breeze...the air was so thick with smoke you could cut it with a scimitar! I mean everbody was smoking a hooka.....young men old men...young women old women...maybe even little children I don't know.....and those without a hooka going full blast had a cigarette in their hands.

Finally..... night time at the "Ace Club" ...at the honkin' big bar under the tree outside.

Lot's of people at the bar ....everyone has a cigarette going and a pack and lighter ready to go right by their hands. Nubian Whores and lots of other people have hookas going pumping them like bellows....across the bar I see two guys maybe in their middle thirties I`ve seen them at the club many times....I think they`re British....this is just a guess but an educated one because they`re big...one guy is in fact huge and he`s wearing a rugby sweater with the name``SPENCE`` on the back...it looks like a highway billboard. Anyway...these guys are sucking away on hookas and the smoke they`re inhaling defies belief....Nanticoke quantities of it...their upper bodies disappear after they blow it out of their lungs....I didn`t think such a thing was possible...
Once again smoke hangs all around and you can`t get away from it....No....if you can`t take the smoke...stay out of Cairo.

El Alemein: 'The End of the Beginning'

 After the battle of El Alemein Winston Churchill said ``this isn`t the end, it isn`t  even the beginning of the end.....but perhaps it is the end of the beginning``.

Brent in front of the memorial to the fallen German Soldiers in he  battle of "El Alemein"

Kim in her totally inappropriate orange dungarees poses in front on the memorial to the German soldier.
Thirty years ago when I was in Alexandria, Egypt last .....I wanted to visit the El Alemein battlefield.
It's about an hour west of of Alex....back then the roads were horrible...and everyone I asked said there was nothing out there...no hotels or restaurants and when the bus dropped you off another might come by the next day or maybe not!
I had been backpacking for close to three years by then...and had travellers fatigue...so reluctantly I said ``stuff it``....I wouldn't go...but spent the next thirty years regretting my decision.
Now unbelievably I was getting what most of us don't.....a second chance...this time on my visit to Egypt I was going out there no matter what.
The plan was to hang a  week or so at Kim's apartment planning the campaign....I would take the Metro down to the station.....train to Alex....get a hotel room there for a couple of days.....and then somehow go out to  El Alemein for the day...back to Alex for another night...then home...away for maybe three or four days...
But I'm also a great believer in waiting around to see what happens...something usually does and something did!
Kim came home from school one afternoon and said the teachers of the history department  are planning a day trip to El Alemein on Thursday...and said you can go along if you want.....I wanted. It was 150 Egyptian pounds (about 25 dollars Canadian) we'd leave at seven in the morning from the school and return at seven in the evening.
Travel time to the battle site three and half hours ....three hours at the site...a meal along the way...then home. Perfect!
Kim wanted to go as well....so I froze a big bottle of water overnite...and packed up some sandwiches and trail mix....and of course a couple of tall boy cans of beer.
I was hoping for a nice big travel coach to take us there with seats that kind of flattened out with a dunny in the back of the bus.....no such luck...
What greeted us was a little Mercedes 20 seater with strait back benches and not much leg room....but I wasn't about to complain....I was just glad to be a part of it all.
We of course had a driver....and to my surprise a tour giude....bonus!
Off we go....almost an hour of the three and half hour trip is just getting out of Cairo.....obviously a city of twenty million people is huge and we must have passed a five thousand large and small apartment buildings some finished ...some  under construction...some abandoned...just about everyone is Cairo lives in an apartment...all the room they have is a few kilometers on either side of the Nile.
Out we go....so almost another hour on the what the call the Great Desert Highway through a canyon of buidling construction...this the guide knew about....they`re building another city just outside of Cairo to take the pressure off the old city, either side of the hiway for kilometers and kilometers is road and building construction...I don`t know where they get the money....the last I heard Egypt owed about ten billion dollars to just about everybody.
Whoosh we go in our little bus....dodging two and three lanes of slower traffic...out into the desert. But here they Egyptians have discovered how to sink wells thousands of meters into the desert bringing up water they use mainly for irrigation....on either side of the highway for many more K`s vast fields of market gardens....valuable fruit and vegetables for the city.
Then the desert itself...as Doctor Phill says ``there`s a lot of gone between here  and there``to the south nothing but desert into the heart of Africa.....
The hiway is not that bad a little bumpy and after narrowly avoiding a hi speed back end crash with semi truck we made our way into El Alemein. Thirty years ago there may have been nothing here...but ``the time`s they are a changing.The upper middle class has discovered the Mediterranian Sea.....the beaches sweep far east and west along the  impossibly blue Mediterranean water....so developers are busy putting in hundreds of condos and a few elite resort hotels for the well heeled Egyptian consumer....this is a fairly new development and not much of it is ready yet.....but when it is I think it will be something.

There were actually two battles of Al Alemein.....one in July of 1942...when the vaunted ``Africa Korp``led by yes the notorious``Desert Fox`` General Irwin Rommel...which up to this point had chased the British army across the desert of North Africa so that the British..Australian and New Zealand troops had their backs to the wall....if defeated here the next stop for Rommel would be Cairo and the riches of all Egypt...

But the British who in General Bernard Montgomery ``Monty`` had a new commander and what he lacked in flair he made up for dogged planning.

So that when in July, Rommel threw his army against the Commonwealth forces....they were ready and threw him back.

For the next few months....stalemate.... while Monty built his strength up..the Afrika Korp waited for the inevitable ....running out gas and ammunition and time.

The Allies attacked in late October...and a vicious  where no quarter was given and none was expected 13 day battle ensued....when it was over fifty thsouand men were dead or wounded and  Rommel had finally been beaten....but not broken.

The first stop our historical tour took us was to the memorial of the fallen German soldier...a beautiful but austere rotunda which when you entered gave way to an open roofed area that allowed the sun to stream in lighting up the crypts ......walls stamped in steel with he names of the thirty thousand poor bastards who were killed in this virtual hell hole of a place.

Kim poses in front of the German "wall of death" the names of German soldiers stamped in bronze and laid in the wall.

Kim found the name of ``Rudolf Kramer``on the wall (her last name) I took a picture of her next to it. The guide though he tried hard...I think he was used to guiding people like Japanese and Koreans who didn`t understand English very well....and when I found out he didn`t have a clue what he was talking about I walked outside and took in the unbelievably hostile environment these soldiers had to fight in...the heat the flies every drop of water gallon of gas every bullet every morsel of food would have had to dragged over thousands of kilometers of desert..as always you have to wonder what it was all for...

Brent at the memorial to "Commonwealth" soldiers who wee killed in the battle of "El Alemein"

The beautifully tended cemetary to fallen Allied Commonweatlh soldiers.

Cemetary for Coomonwealth soldiers.

The next stop...just a few kilometers closer to El Al town....the Commonwealth Memorial..... an achingly beautiful monument to the 13 thousand or so casualties of the battle.

Ten thousand British....22 hundred Aussies and Kiwi`s...the diggers came a long way to die.

About 30 Canadians...all airmen.

There are rows of thousands of graves neatly tended with lots of shade and two huge sand stone monuments all in about twenty acres.

It was the nicest thing I`ve seen in Egypt so far.....some one is taking this thing seriously!

I wandered out to the desert again and looked around..the Med to the North the desert to the south and two armies stuck in between.

I have read about this battle in history books and historical novels probably thirty times....and thought about getting back here for thirty years....now standing here trying to take the nothingness of it all in....imagining always imagining.

We went to the museum where they wanted 20 pounds admission....yeah okay...plus another twenty pounds if you want to take your camera....ya right....I wonder which of

the guards at the gate thought that one up...

The museum and had a display room for each army and what the weapons were like and what the guys wore...like I say it was tough for them.

They had a small scale mock up under glass and and a recording to explain the battle that sounded worse then PA system at the airport...so that was usless.

Brent in front of a German 88 millimeter "howitzer" ......arguabley the most fearsome and feared weapon of the second world war...

Outside was an interesting array of the heavy weapons used by both sides...all the tanks including the dreaded German 88 millimeter canon...perhaps the most fearsome weapon of the war.....it was the first time I`d ever seen one....that in itself was worth it....

That was basically the end of the tour we climbed back into at this point the fly blown bus....and cracked open a cold tall boy...

We stopped into one of the crazy Egyptian hiway rest stops for a meal....that was bad but really expensive and the long journey back home.

We got back to the school at seven....which fortunately is only a couple of blocks from our drinking club....where we retired for a few cool ones...and congratulated ourselves on a day

endured for the right to cross  another one off the bucket list.....but for me it was actually a lot more.

*****

``Before the battle of El Alemein we didn`t have a victory....after the battle we never had a defeat``....Winston Churchill

***********

The next installment: Cairo Drinking Clubs and the one eyed Nubian whore.

Cairo...getting there continued

  

 So there we are me and "Ahkmed the Intrepid".....driving off into the Cairo night.
    He has precise instructions from my  friend Kim I saw them in his hand about how to get to her apartment in a Cairo subdivision called Majjdi.

I asked him if he knew English and he said he was learning it....and pulled an Egyptian-English work book out of his glove compartment so he was giving it a shot.
    Just to make conversation I asked him how long it will take to get there...he didn't understand me
 ...I asked him if he had a wife or a girl friend......he didn't understand me....
I asked him if he was a giraffe...he didn't understand me...

Okay so Ahkmed dosen't understand English. 

   We go tearing down Cairo's version of the 401 or 403 and everyone is behaving.....but when we get to the off ramp where two cars should be  making the turn
there are four cars vying for the two lanes....fortunately every one seems to know what's going on and there's no crash tonite...
Down we go....Kim phones to find out how were doing "Akhmed the Invincibal "tells her everything is fine...I get on his phone and say yeah things are looking good the airport was a breeze...and I'm seeing Maadi signs all over the  place...so we must be getting very close..
She says well if you have problems call me....not sure what good would that do..
Off the brightly lit highway we go into the darkness of the the suburb....the first thing "Ahkmed the Not so Sure" does is stop at a little local store and yells out the window across me to anyone who will listen wanting  directions,
Lot's of Arabic ensues and wildly gesticlulating hands......alas Allah.... everyone has an opinion of where we should go...but no one knows for sure...
I'm thinking here we go....Ahkmed "The Gifted Navigator" assures me  he "understands"
A half hour later we are still trapped in the nether regions of this town...with no hope in site.
Off to my right on this little side street I see a sign that says...."Irish Nursery" on the side of a building....I say to "Ahkmed the Confused" pullover here...call my friend.
He says no "I understand I understand"....I said no Ahkmed you don't understand where we are....call my friend.
He got Kim on the line....and I said...we`re like totally lost...but I think we`re near ...there`s a buidling here with a sign on it that says ``Irish Nursery`` ....can you give us a hand ....she says she knows the building....YES!

We just have to drive straight for another block or so past the Mosque.

I say to "Ahkmed the Lost One"..we go past the Mosque...What??? the Mosque past the Mosque...what?? I say never mind just go ...GO!

...I ask Kim to stand in the street ...and that`s how we found her.
We up pull Kim is with the doorman....a funny looking little guy with a bent wing...she says Brent I want to introduce you too....I said no let me guess...Ahkmed...she says how did you know????

I said...."it is common".....
Remembering names isn't going to be a problem here.

A hot shower several cold beers...sleep...life is good.

 

Next: Cairo's drinking clubs et al...I think you can comment if you want
 

Cairo.....getting there!

 Hey from Le Caire as the French are wont to say...the flight obviously was long...but other than doing my penence in airports waiting for flights it was uneventful...
Air France is pretty good they serve free booze as soon as you're in the air and you can actually order food from a limited
menu...my last meal was canard...imagine duck as airplane food!!!
One minor issue....I got off the Air France plane in Paris for a short layover before I boarded another Air France plane for Cairo so I'm came down the stairs in the same airport about a half hour after getting off the plane...and there was a bank of security gates to go through so I mentioned to one of the security guys that I just got of an Air France plane and obviously hand't been out of the
airport...so there really was no need for me to pass through security gates again...."I don't understand you" he said...okay I went over to the woman who seemed to be charge...and explained my situation again she was very sympathetic..."It dosen't matter" she said "you have to go through"!
Okay again well I tried...so off comes my shoes.... belt ...money belt...my watch ...everything out of my pockets..my jacket
before I go through I mention to anyone who might listen that the security gate is definatley going to go off because I have a metal pin in my knee..."oui oiu..just go".
I go in and the secuirty gate goes off......"mon dieu" consternation all around....a guy passes a wand all over me and it cherps at my knee....I say "I have a metal pin in my knee" no matter....he calls over a big guy with rubber gloves and does a full search....no bomb...thank God I left it at home this trip...I'm allowed to go through....and do the one legged stork dance with all the other passengers who are trying to put on shoes standing up....you'd think they would get wise and have chairs and tables on the other side so you get dressed again with a little dignity....but they obviously don't need the business!
So we land...my school teacher friend Kim has thoughfully phoned up the local Thomas Cook Travel office and paid for an agent to meet me as soon as I get off the plane....as well as a driver to take me to her apartment...for which he has explicit directions.
Things are going swimmingly....the guy is standing at the arrival gate with a sign with my name on it....good...he introduces himself says his name is Ahkmed..."do you have your passport"? Yes Ahkmed I just happened to bring it along...."do you have a visa"? Yes I do....we go right over to immigration stamp stamp stamp....I'm out...grab my bag which has miraculously made it from Toronto to Cairo with out going "walk about".....``Ahkmed the Great`` at this point loads my bag on a cart...I say I have to stop at duty free.

Note: booze is hard to get in Egypt...especially liqour of any kind.

Kim has told me the rules are that you are allowed to bring four bottles of spirits and you can get it all at duty free at Cairo airport  ....my man Ahki says "meeshi" (no problem in Arabic).....Kim wants three bottles of Grey Goose vodka and I can get a bottle of Scotch for myself....well that's nice of her!
But while I was cooling my heels in Paris and I bought two forty pounders of Absolute vodka and stuck them in my bag....so when I got to duty free in Cairo I didn't mention that........ and got the four bottles that Kim ordered.....okay that went well...let's see what happens at customs....so "Ahkemd the Magnificent" and I approach the customs barriers...the agents don't even want to acknowledge my existence....."Ahkmed the all Knowing" and I want walk out of the airport...I'm through...the whole thing has taken about 15 minutes....unbelievable!!!!
There's a young Egyptian fellow standing there with a sign with my name on it....Ahkmed knows him...he says "this Ahkmed your driver" shut up!..... his name is Ahkmed too????
"Yes yes " he says "it is common " well any friend of "Ahkmed the Infallible" is a friend of mine...I give Ahkmed four U-S dollars baksheesh (bribe...tip) and "Akmed the Intrepid" driver loads my bag into his car and off we go into the Cairo night...

More later...