Saturdays...

I meet Jen on Road 9. (We refuse to do this alone).

We cross to Road 7, still in Ma'adi, which we call "Real Egypt."

We walk past the fly covered fruits and veggies stands.

The vendors are used to us, they do not make inappropriate comments or bother us to buy from them.

There are live chickens squawking and running everywhere. Jen wants to pet them but says "that's how I get sick."

We go to 'our vegetable guy.' When he sees us he jumps up from his chair and shakes our hands, saying 'why so long since away?' He entertains us with the EXACT SAME story every weekend in Arabic and English that we still don't understand (something about Canada and Alaska), and we buy our vegetables. Today I paid about the equivalent of a dollar for my peppers, carrots, limes, and cucumbers.

He gives us a gift of a bright green pepper. Every week.

We return to the fly-covered fruit stands and pay another 2 dollars for kilos of bananas, oranges and strawberries.

We each buy a rotisserie Chicken that we can eat off all week. These are sold in an outdoor 'shop' underneath an overpass that is never without hundreds of honking, loud cars and trucks. We assume that the previously mentioned 'cute' chickens all end up at this shop.


And this is all completely normal.

How did you acquire your fresh produce this week???

Well that was fun!

For the past 11 days I was host to four Very Important People from Canada: The Marcus' (my parents!) and the Bakers. These people have been friends for a very long time, and have created a lot of mischief together, but perhaps nothing as far-away and foreign as Cairo.

If you know my dad, you know that it was amazing just to get him here. When I signed up for this gig, he said "I won't come visit." The night I flew out he changed his mind.

The biggest highlight for me was seeing Cairo through their fresh eyes again. It reminded me how far I've come in terms of familiarity with this city and with my understanding of the Egyptian way of life. Of course I still have a very long way to go too!

We hired "Mostafa the driver" and his '87 Peugeot station wagon for most of our transportation needs, but I still managed to lose the Bakers at least once to the only taxi driver in Cairo who couldn't find the Nile.

Our brave travelers were at my mercy, only occasionally reminding me that they were here for a holiday, not an olympic competition in site-seeing. All four tried stuffed pigeon, and countless other dips and sauces. Meals were a high light of the trip. In one day we visited all 3 pyramid sites: Sakkara, Dashur and of course Giza.

Hugo, Marilyn and Sally all took their turn "riding" a camel while I took videos and snapped away. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the Executive Director! :)


The favourite for all was a 4 day cruise on the Nile from Aswan to Luxor. We sat in the 38 C heat, and when absolutely necessary we left the boat to explore an old temple or the High Dam. The Nile is a source of life and energy for this country, and that was seen so clearly from the deck of the Jazz Mervat.

Visitors are always welcome here in Cairo, and although I can't guarantee as much of my attention as these four got last week, I can guarantee a million memories and about that many laughs as well.