15th of February to 31st of May, 2019.
The other day I finally went to the Egyptian Museum (more about it in the end of the post) and “down town”. I was with Amira, Nada’s tour guide friend, and I learned a lot from her. But in the end, is not the same thing when you are alone. When you take your time just to walk while admiring the whole thing. So I just did not fell as great as I thought I would be. And then after, we just walk a little bit at the street market and went to a very old and beautiful place, El Fishawi (with the most expensive black coffee of all times), quite hidden in the market. But that was all.
And what about life in Egypt, Lei? How is everything going on? It is difficult for me to talk clearly about that because I was in a specific kind of situation, living with a high class family in a nice place, so I was not very into the ordinary people’s life. Something that make me a little upset because I could not actually be with the locals and experienced the other side of the Egyptian life.
The cities look quite abandoned, with buildings falling apart. The huge malls, all over the place, are the opposite though. All new and fancy and expensive, they are built to give the impression of power and money but they can just create a totally fake image of the country, because you just need to step outside to face the reality.
So most of the women I’ve been in contact, they don’t work. They just stay at home, taking care of the kids or with nanny / Aupair. I couldn’t understand how they can keep their lives like that but maybe that is just me, who needs to be doing something, keep moving in kind of having a purpose in life. Maybe for them it is fine and they are happy like that. Most of the time they wear extravagant clothes and strong make up.
The man though, are in this constant search for a big mussel body, and try to show it in very small and tight t-shirts. All of them kind of follow a same style: always done hair, big watches, and the car. The advertisements on television just reinforce that ridiculous “status”, as a need and a way to be popular and get beautiful woman.
I stayed in the month of Ramadan, May, and I don’t know exactly what to think about it. Maybe in other Arabic countries they behave different, because apparently everything is so different in Egypt. Here, what I saw were the flags and decoration all over the places, which is kind of cute; people feasting from 3a.m. until 6p.m. and they should pray during that time because after all Ramadan is a religious holiday and it should be about reflection, hard pray since your body is getting purified from the things which can distract and make it sin, like food (but not everybody does that, a lot of them pray a few times and sleep most of the day); the times for public activities it change so you must be aware of that; and in the roads, people prepare meals, or just water, juice and some dates, and go to distribute to the buses, to make sure that people will have something to eat / drink when the feast time is finished. I was not feasting but since I’m always in need of water and something to eat, that was wonderful!
I was taken care of the twins for the whole time and sometimes it could be a hard work. They were full of energy and even being at school for several hours a day, my time with them was hectic enough to make me tired. I was going with them to almost all their extra activities as well, like swimming, gymnastic and football. They could be so lovely sometimes, really understanding and good behaving, as much as sometimes they would behave bad and drive me crazy! I think that is quite normal from kids at their age. I was very happy because they really liked me, I knew that, so they listen to me, and learn from me, which is basically my purpose when I am working with kids: be able to help them in some how, make a good difference in their lives, and not just play around. Which we were doing as well. A lot!
I made friends with almost all the workers of the house and from the other parts of the family. All of those who were so kind and helpful to me. Such amazing people I met. Featured to Lydiah, the Nanny for the uncle of the boys. She was a lovely lady from Kenya, and having her as a friend was a balm for me during my time in Cairo. We could have our little conversations when we had the luck to spend some time together. Working, of course. But was nice to share our feelings about so many things. And we laughed, oh, we laughed a lot!
I think that Egypt, in the opposite of all other Arabic countries I staid, it is more fifty-fifty when is about good people and bad people. Maybe is because of the situation of the country. The economy is not good at all. You can find very cheap things to buy everywhere: food, hygiene and pharmacy products, cosmetics, tourist stuff… But that is probably because people are not being paid enough to live, just to survive.
P.S. 1: The entrance fee is costing 160 EGP for a simple tour. You can pay an extra free if you want to go in the mummies room. There are other mummies in the museum, of course, but those ones belong to “important people”. I did not pay for it, of course. The museum it was much less crowed than I thought. Including the Tutankhamen special room. Beautiful golden mask, by the way. Unfortunately, so many stupid people keep taking pictures even with all the signs showing that is forbidden. The Museum opens at 9 in the morning and it closes at 5 in the afternoon.
P.S. 2: In my first week we took a trip to Alexandria. I could not see much since we were most of the time at the Hotel (a nice 5 stars one, called Helnan Palestine, just behind the amazing Palace of King Farouk, called Montaza Palace) and all the times we went out was to go eat or to go for night life… ? But I was staying with the kids, of course. I met Lydiah in this trip. But even seeing so little of the town, I think I can say that is not as much as I thought in my head. Not even mentioned the new Library which makes the fans of History (of course I am talking about the original Alexandria Library) cry out of the intestines.
P.S. 3: The food in Egypt can be fascinating! It is beyond of any other Arabic food I had before in Africa and after in Israel or Jordan. The traditional Arabic flat bread, Aish, it is truly delicious and reminded me our Brazilian pão de queijo, but without cheese. My favorite and most famous Egyptian dish is the Kushari, is a must to try. It is a mix of rice, macaroni, tomato sauce, black lentils and deep fried onion on top. Molokhiya it is a green and gooey soup, probably the only Egyptian food I did not enjoyed. One thing that the Egyptians love to do with their food is stuff it. So they call Mahshi all the legumes they stuffed with rice and spices. Is quite good if is done nicely. Their falafel I did not like too much because for me it was too much oily. Their version of our Brazilian kibe is actually made with nice mince meet and it is done on fire, like grilled. It is called Kofta. I tasted and it is actually nice. Macaroni Bechamel usually has chicken or mince but it is still very good. Rozz Me’ammar it is a creamy and quite sweet rice, which can be with liver or no meat at all. Humus and Tahina à la vonté! They also love to add this white, smelly and creamy cheese to everything. I did not like of the taste. What I did like a lot it is Halawa. A delicious kind of sweet which is sold in block, between smooth and solid, that you can cut in slices and put inside your Aish (in my opinion the best way to have it) or simply cut in small cubes and enjoy as a dessert. Talking about desserts, the Egyptians also love them. My word? Just go for it and try as many as you can because they have hundreds of different types. Their traditional coffee, some kind of Turkish Coffee as well, it was to strong for me. For drinks, my favorite is this coconut and milk one, mainly served on Ramadan, which is to drink with the eyes closed as so good. The name is Sobia. At any family event and big occasions, they will always have Kofta, a lot of grilled chicken, spicy chips, and a delicious rice which become yellow from the spices with toasted nuts on top. In this events there are always a table of tea and coffee during the whole time. People drink a lot of Pepsi. Not Coke, but Pepsi. And a lot! Now you see how nice I ate in there because I had all of this! And definitely I had even more but those are the ones I think it worth to mention.