More Cairo Observations

1. Methods of Transportation

I talked earlier about traffic, but I was totally neglecting all the forms of transportation. In China they have a saying that they eat anything that flies except airplanes, anything in the ocean except submarines, and anything on four legs except tables. In Egypt, this would apply to methods of transportation. In the streets of Cairo, I've seen all of the following used as modes of transportation:

- the typical: cars, buses, bikes, motorbikes, taxis, etc
- donkeys/horses
- camels
- donkey-pulled carts
- donkey-pulled tuk-tuks
- "trucks" (in quotes because these trucks are smaller than my dad's Prius - basically a car without a roof)
- dogs (no joke - I saw a bunch of kids "riding" dogs on one street)
- vacuum cleaner (just kidding, mother)

2. Food

I know you were all wondering when I was going to get to the food (Lowen, I can see you making fun of me from 10,000 miles away). I've had some issues with food, in the sense that for the first few days I was only eating at the hotel (not such a bad fate, as there are 15 restaurants in the hotel, though they're pricy) because I hadn't been able to find anything outside of the hotel.

But then, on Thursday, I met the one true love of my life: the man in the hole in the wall sandwich shop who gets me delicious shwarma sandwiches for 50 cents. Our affair promises to last forever, or at least until I leave Cairo for Alexandria next weekend and have to find a new place to eat. My new sandwich shop is fantastic - nothing but a guy behind a counter making food (actually, he mostly just stands around, they don't have many customers) and the cash register guy. They're my new friends. The most expensive sandwich is shwarma for 50 cents. The cheapest is ful, which is Tony's dream food (ground up lentil and beans in a paste, mixed with hummus and put in a pita), and the falafel for 10 cents. Have I mentioned how much I love developing countries?

Aside from my sandwich shop, I've been pretty impressed by the food. I have free breakfast at the hotel, which includes everything you could possibly ever eat (cereal, oatmeal, fresh fruit, 10 types of bread, made-to-order omelettes/eggs, steak, sushi (apparently the hotel is big with the Japanese), lox and bagels and cream cheese (and the Jews), danishes, etc). And best of all (Rush, don't read the next sentence): a new, fresh smoothie every day that's just fruit in a blender.

In case I get sick of Egyptian food, there's also Otlob.com, the website where I can order free delivery from about 100 restaurants in Cairo, ranging from sushi to Italian to Lebanese. And I can do it all online! Egypt is so far ahead of the US. Who cares about advanced weapons technology when I can order food online and have it delivered to my doorstop?

3. Security

I can't count the number of people who said "be careful" and "stay safe" to me before I left for Cairo (more than China and Indonesia combined). I can understand the fear, but to all of you - don't worry! I've never felt more safe. Every building I've gone into (government buildings, hotels, restaurants, etc) has a metal detector and x-ray machine (and they actually check, unlike in US government buildings, ie when my mother took a heavy-duty pocket knife into the Dept of Labor about 8 times). When cars drive up to a hotel, they're checked twice before they get close - once with a metal detector and once by circling the car with dogs. All cars have to open their trunks.

In addition, buildings are designed for security (removed from the street, etc) and surrounded by tons of security guards. Anything can happen anywhere, but in Cairo they've got security down to a science.

4. Being an American woman traveling alone

To those of you who were more worried about my travelling as an American woman by myself than worried about bombs, there is again nothing to fear. The first day I was here, there was a lot of harassment (hey you, etc) which I wouldn't have gotten were I either male or with another person. Now though, it's not really a problem. There's a lot of staring and occasional comments, but more than harassing me, people are just curious: Why is there a Western woman walking by herself? And why does she wear those funny sunglasses? And why is she going into the random sandwich shop instead of eating in the hotel?

Being an American is also interesting. EVERYONE asks where I'm from, and so far I've always said America, and I haven't had a single negative reaction (my favorite interaction was when I said America, the man - a random security guard at a museum - said "America number 1!" I replied, "No no, Egypt number 1!" and he immediately stood up, looking very distressed, and said "No no no. Egypt number 10."). Several people have asked what I think of Bush, and I'm honest. But no one has said anything negative about America or Bush to me. So, throughout my travels, still the place where I got the most negative reactions about being American was... in Canada (followed, with a close second, by France).

On a side note, I had a long conversation on Thursday with a man we're working with here who studied in DC. He teaches a university class in Egypt on human rights after 9/11. He said that in his mind the most negative aspect of GWoT is that "all" Arabs used to dream of America and the "American dream" (his words), and now that hope has been taken away. Something to think about.