Week in Toto

Good day to you, whatever time it may be when you read this.

I haven't had the chance just recently to post more photographs, so I will describe some of the things I have been doing minus the visual aid. Photos to come later, for sure; they're my favorite part.

Last week I went to one of the more well known mosques in Cairo, Al-Ahzar (beautiful, quite, and peaceful, as mosques tend to be), and checked out the surrounding area known as Islamic Cairo. While looking for the metal shop of a local lantern maker, we were led through untraceable pathways, some dirt, some paved, between old buildings where craftsman make the goods that end up in the big market called the Khan. Cars can't make it this far back, and we found the metal shop by the gracious help of a boy who asked the neighbors at every other turn. The lantern maker was surprised that we found the place, learned of by word of mouth, though he has a store in a different part of town. He offered us tea and we sat, sweating as per usual, talking and watching him work in the dusty, cramped shop filled with lanterns hanging and various pieces of equipment and metal falling about. For me, this is my favorite part of medeival and anceint towns--the new life housed in small structures of the old.

Later in the week, as a send off for some folks at work, we visited a fabulously seedy club with a live band and bellydancers. With echo on the microphone (an ever popular feature of amplified music in Cairo), the MC sings what I assume to be traditional songs, since most in the audience seemed to know the words, and the band plays beat-heavy rhythms which one only finds all over the place here. This music I have been trying to record on my camera, only to be captured mildly successfully. With the accompanying film of one of the dancers, I think you'll get the idea. At one point we were pulled to the stage and danced like Americans in our cotton t-shirts, jeans and sandals. Hilarity ensued.

On the other side of the spectrum, last night I went to a moulid, a celebration of the birthday of a Muslim saint in a neighborhood of Cairo not far from downtown. You have to be in the know to find one of these things, and try to keep a low profile while watching the Suffis sway in ecstasy to the music and chanting. Similar to traditional Italian fests linked to a church and its patron saint, and similar in effect of the strewn lights, vendors selling food and trinkets, plus small games and rides for children, the intensity and religious fervor clearly separated this from a good old street fair. Lots of music and vocals (in echo, of course), all in the high voice of prayer callers, often NOT labeled singing, the celebration resembles the chaotic flow of the streets of Cairo. The mosque had lights strewn about it around the minaret and dome, and streams of people were wandering towards it. We were bounced on our approach to it, smartly enough, by a man asking, 'Are you Muslim?' I could not get a single photo of the energy of the area; there was often too much going on to fit in one frame. Also, it is questionable whether or not people want their photograph taken, and it is hard enough being an inconspicuous female foreigner, not to mention one with a digital camera.

This week I also moved into the apartment I am house-sitting for the month of August. A nice place with satellite TV and two extremely cute, playful cats that crack me up with their antics. I can watch the BBC and get my toes bitten at the same time! Pictures are on the way of all of these things...it just isn't the same without.

Keeping cool in the city that really never sleeps,
My love to you all,
Jennifer

P.S. In case you hear of any reports, no, I was not witness to the organized election protest this weekend. The streets are moving with regularity in their lack-of-road-rules style this morning, Sunday, the first day of the work week.