Arrival!

8/27/09

Salaam malaku! Greetings from Cairo! I am now sitting in one of the oldest cities in the world and I am being continually amazed by it. We arrived yesterday afternoon at Cairo International Airport and got on a bus and drove through the length of the city to Agouza, the “suburb” that we live in. We got to Agouza and were split up into our four living groups. I am with a group of seven other guys living in one flat. Our flat is amazing! It has three bedrooms, a full kitchen, full dining room, sitting room big enough for all of us, a living room, two bathrooms and a patio with an amazing view. We overlook one of the busiest streets in Cairo, which might not sound like much, but here it is amazing. We had our first dinner with Kareema, the chef, and we were all in love with right away. Then we did a little intro session with basic information and headed off to bed early since we were all exhausted from the traveling (some people had been traveling for over 50 hours!).

Today was our first full day in the great Cairo. We all met for breakfast and then had devos and then a survival Arabic course so we could at least make it home if we got lost. We then had a bus tour of Cairo and got our first glimpse of the pyramids (pic below). We came back and unpacked in our rooms.

One thing that is really interesting here right now is that the city is on a different schedule than it usually is because it is the holy month of Ramadan. During Ramadan, people don’t just abstain from food, but also from water, caffeine, nicotine, and sex. Since almost the whole city fasts from sunrise to sunset, stores and businesses change their hours and families meet for meals at the most seemingly ridiculous hours. Sunrise is about 6 am and businesses open about 9 or 10. Then they close about 2 or 3 so that people don’t have to put in a full day on an empty stomach. Then everyone is home and the either sleep or just sit around til sunset, around 7 or 8. The they eat a huge meal as soon as the sun is down, then one at midnight and then they go to sleep. At 3 am, someone walks around with a drum or a siren and wakes people up so that they can eat once again before sunrise. Then people go back to bed until they have to be at work at 9 or 10. We saw a futball game across from our flat going on at 1 am! How awesome!

Until next time, Maa a salaama!