Mari Girgis

Into Coptic Cairo. The above, the main thoroughfare.

"Copts" are Egyptian Christians, the derivation of the word is long, winding and very interesting, but I won't go there. Egypt has a Coptic population hovering around 10%, although most no longer live in this area of the city, known generally as "Old Cairo."

I was becoming cagey in the dormitories and Zamalek, and concluded escaping to Coptic Cairo this morning was a low-intensity alternative when still sick. It is, unlike most places, easily accessible via the Metro, pedestrian only, calm and relatively small. And after visiting, I can officially say this is my favorite place in all of Egypt I've visited thus far. Not only does it offer a distressing concentration of major Christian landmarks and relics, but the area's pace is set to a slower rhythm, with more soothing architecture and gardens (ie, places to actually sit down for two minutes to re-group...virtually unavailable in most of Cairo).

Many of the churches are under some form of restoration, but one is free to drift in and out of these churches, some of which are underground, hidden, tucked behind others and so forth. There's no admission or agenda, nor is the place tourist saturated. Many were constructed during the mid 7th century, including Egypt's most notable synagogue, Ben Ezra, which was also spectacular. Again, few tourists, but some legitimate pilgrims, particularly in the Hanging Church. The Hanging Church was built atop a Roman fortress in the 4th century, and has endured earthquakes and church fissures during the last 1600 years, and remains an important location for Christians. I sat in one of the pews for nearly an hour in the Hanging Church, that's how impressive. And there were only a few stray people around. Overall, the place was amazing, like glossy photos out of an art history textbook all to yourself to devour for hours.

And, this place had the most interesting touristic vendors, actually, pilgrim oriented vendors, so, you'll all be getting cool photos of Coptic priests, Arabic scripture bumper stickers of Biblical verses and Coptic address books. Upon purchasing these I had an interesting conversation with a gentleman who should have also been selling Bill Clinton pictures and stickers. Clinton is a near god-like figure here, twice in one day, the cab driver decidely dislikes Bush, and wanted to know if we could put Clinton back in office. I had to explain that wasn't possible. He didn't seem to understand the concept of term limits, or even "terms of office." Nasser, Sadat and Mubarek didn't exactly feel the urge to enlighten their people to that possibility.

Church of St. Barbara (also under restoration, complete with dust and flying particles)

Church of St. Mercurius (under restoration)

Outside the Hanging Church (al-Muallaqah)

Behind here supposedly lay relics of St. George and others

Convent of St. George's pulpit

Pillaging, desecration and vandalism

Huge Greek Orthodox cemetary within Coptic Cairo

Nearby well adjacent to the "holy family's" hideaway

Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus's "hideaway" inhabited for a month after fleeing Palestine

Amoxil and Augmentin in July

Okay...so, bored. We watched the Bourne Identity, Lost in Translation, followed by CNN International (bizarre stuff going on in that country of yours...Minnesota's government shut down today? Kraft gave his Superbowl ring to Putin? Justice O'Connor retiring? Michael Jackson now a few hundred miles away in Bahrain? Has Tom Cruise gone mad?) The news seems so strange and distant, I hadn't watched Bush in nearly a month, and we all huddled round to see him give a speech yesterday. Most of our news revolves around the post election situation in Iran, Lebanon, constant Iraq coverage, the Gaza pull-out and G8. That's about it. When watching al-Jazeera, the fortified walls around Israeli settlements are collectively now referred to as "The Wall." We asked a teacher about this, as it was a new vocab word, and apparently referencing any other wall except for those of the occupied territories requires further explanation.

And, July is here. July feels like summer. School continues through June, but July truly starts the season fresh.

Into the Desert...NOT...by nightfall

With such subdued enthusiasm was the below post made early this morning. An agenda now crippled with a "sinus infection" which doesn't seem right, more like a cold, flu and sinus infection, which myself and three others are now on antibiotics for. Sure enough, those four who I am in closest contact with in my classes. No, no Sinai now for us. We were ill but pumped, but we were fumbling through class by midday, then proceeded to the clinic after school, and were advised against going. My brush with god on Sinai will have to wait. Apparently people begin bawling and breaking into seizures up there. Anyway, we may try later on our own. Back to tissues, moping downstairs before BBC World, which one can do for hours.

Off to Sharm this weekend, along with St Catherine's Monastary in the middle of the Sinai mountain range, where we will climb Mount Sinai to reach the peak at sunrise. I may or may not have internet capabilities, we shall see. Here's my nice little Microsoft paint journey in red.

Before the boy had those Danish blocks...

...he was visibly distraught. Since my life is, ahem, calmed excitement with studies...how's about a congratulations to my little brother, Sam, perhaps in the process of fulfilling a lifelong (13 years) dream in Billund, Denmark this week at the Lego factory. No matter how many times I had to step on them (if you're not in the know, charred coal is the sensation), how many hours in Harrods or Hamleys walking in circles, or how many apocalyptic losses of the tiny gray block on the left wing flap of a starship trooper whatever thing I witnessed, I am glad to finally see you there. Peace to the little brother.

Youssef Ali hits a Roxbury 7-Eleven

Drowning in Arabic, once more, enjoying it. I think I finally may have transcended the elusive "threshold" of Arabic learning--and something "clicked," as I am often told happens. It is difficult to explain, but it is a sudden surge of empowerment and realization this is no longer harder than learning another Romance language. Which is thought provoking, as once one deconstructs down to the skeletal level of beginning a language, you start noticing things aside from common declensions and grammer. Cultural things. Across all languages. A very bleak, black and white, prejudice laced and psychologically rigid picture is formed in the commencement of a language. What are the first items one learns?

Their name. Their nationality. Their address and home. Their level of education. Their travel experience. Their occupation. Tell me this is not racial and socio-economic chess. The grainular and superficial reign supreme when beginning a new language. By speaking the facade of your identity, you are faced with the task of re-evaluating that which we idealistically deem irrelevent in the broader picture of humanity.

You learn big and small. Hot and cold. In and out. Man and woman. First class and economy. Beautiful and ugly. Good and bad. Every day, our teachers walk in and ask us how we are, and every single day, we sit and say "good, thanks be to god." Because that's what you say, and in many cultures, unless your arm is ready to fall off or something, you always say "fine."

Our textbook is centered upon an Egyptian man by the name of Youssef Ali, who is studying Arabic in Khartoum (Sudan) and has Sudanese heritage, once worked as a manager in a food market, drives a Peugeot, dresses in only blue, never received an education beyond high school and has a wife and grown son. It's very bizarre. And in the first lesson, he is contrasted with a Lebanese teacher and Egyptian engineer.

It's immensively constrictive, and expanding upon the gray is nearly impossible now, and may be for some time. And despite our collective enlightenment, we are lessoned at the elementary level in unrealistic clarity and perfection. Perhaps words of ambiguity, reticence, mediocrity, uncertainty, multi-racialism, creativity or internal psyche would be more adequate.

And yet again, it brings you back to a blissful state of naivite. You are granted the opportunity to discard all that is perplexing and quarrelsome and return to so-called basics.

Provocateur au chocolat

For a conservative Muslim nation, ice cream advertisements present a comical and contradictory commercial sentiment. Every American or European manufacturer possesses their own cast of models striking risque poses with accompanying text transgressing PG-13.

Today our lecture was provided by a member of the Shura council within the Egyptian Congress, by the name of Muhammed Mustafa Kamel, a modern and brazen, Johns Hopkins educated, veritable pariah in Egyptian politics. What I found most interesting were the invisible barriers of personal opinion and perspective predetermined by a government who could easily have him impeached in the blink of an eye, as they have done with so many others. He was however oddly emphatic in stating Mubarek is at the core of all foreign policy, with side-tasks delegated to his closed associates.

Other interesting points included his belief in Egypt's role as the leader of the Arab world, due to its unparalleled homogeny (basically Sunni, sole nation-state status), the fact Egypt is a player in the Arab world, the Muslim world, the Mediterranean community and EU with whom a free trade settlement will be attained by 2010. Additionally, a fact which had become ridden with dust in the back of my brain, was project "Bright Star." Bright Star is a war game held every two years somewhere in Western Egypt in which US troops hold an intensive military training venture, one which many have stated was the seminal force in "success" in the Iraq wars. And, the US provides Egypt with 1.2 billion USD in military aid alone each year, and yet nobody is certain of Egypt's WMD capabilities because Egypt refuses to disclose them until Israel signs the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. When you give your kid lunch money, you have to make sure it isn't going toward candy bars, clear? The US has however struck an intriguing deal with Egypt along the lines of the "Qualified Industrial Zone Agreement" in which any joint Egyptian and Israeli project or manufacture with an Israeli involvement of over 12% (I'd love to know how that number was widdled out) is exempt from taxes or tariffs in the States and other agreed upon nations. And lastly, during our Q&A session, a few people were eager to pummel him with interrogating inquiries into the upcoming election, asking if Mubarek would receive a dictator's vote in the high 90's...Kamel reiterated these would be fair and democratic elections, but any new candidate would be hard-pressed to beat the incumbent, as his experience trumps all corruption.

And another point of interest--it appears all of the Mubarek murals and signs around Tahrir Square have been removed. The once omnipresent image was replaced with different ads before Condi came to town, and the remaining have since been yanked.