Day 2: Cairo

At the end of the day today, I'm left with a lot to think about. First of all, I feel that I was unprepared for the Egypt leg of this trip. When I was younger, I learned a lot about ancient Egypt from my mother and from school, but I have forgotten most of it. I saw the pyramids both great and small, I saw the Sphinx, I saw several temples - and I remembered practically nothing about their history. However, our guide, Osama, was very knowledgeable - he gave us a lot of information about each site we visted. The pyramids were both more and less impressive that you would imagine. The Great Pyramid is truly a world wonder, it's a man-made mountain of rock larger in scale than I thought it would be. But at the same time, so much has been destroyed by time, vandalism, or the government. Most statues are missing from the sites (presumably transferred to museums), and most ancient writing has faded or been replaced with such wisdom as "Mohammed (heart) Julie 2006".

In general, the city reminds me of Mexico even though I've never been to Mexico. That statement is ridiculous, but I don't care. The poverty level is high, and there seems to be no middle class. It seems like there are almost no billboards - presumably, no one has excess cash to spend on the kinda crap that billboards usually advertise. Also, certain shops seem to rely upon an interesting "captive audience" sales tactic wherein the tour companies drop tourists off and you have to sit through a demonstration of whatever product the store sells. As an individual traveller, I probably never would have chosen to go to a "flower essence" shop, a papyrus art gallery, or an oriental rug school. I appreciated and even enjoyed some of the demonstrations. However, I felt guilty after accepting "Egyptian hospitality" in the form of free water or hibiscus tea, and watching a demonstration I didn't even ask for with no intentions of buying of the products. It's confusing because I usually choose where I go to shop and most shops in my country are very low-pressure (other than car dealerships). In Egypt, I am dropped off in a shop and pushed to buy the product. Also, the population is very homogenous - there are Egyptians and there are tourists. When you drive through the city, you see only Egyptians, when you visit anything historical or one of these special shops, you see only tourists. Oil and water.

As I was being led around by our guide today I kept trying to discover what life for a normal Egyptian was like. Where do THEY eat? Where do THEY shop? What prices do THEY pay? Why is there so much segregation? Do they eat out? Maybe the poverty is so bad that only tourists eat out... But there must be some rich Egyptians somewhere - do they just have in-house cooks? I have travelled thousands of miles to visit a different culture and here I am eating mediocre Western-style buffet food (think Luby's or Golden Corral) in restaurants filled with only tourists. And I'm paying US$20 for it. Twenty bucks to wait in a line to slop my own room-temp imitations of American food onto my plate? And yet, where would I be on my own, with no tour guide? He flashes some tourism bureau card and we all walk through metal detectors, each of us beeping, with the guards just waving us on. He communicates to various guards at the historical sites for us. He makes our lives easier, but WHERE DOES HE GO FOR SOME GOOD ARABIAN FOOD? I can't seem to get him to tell me...

This leads me to more questions. He leads us through his city and it's monuments and tells us we must see everything because we will only see them once! Admittedly, this is definitely categorized as a "once in a lifetime" experience, but as a tour guide, I wonder whether this is a wise way to conduct business? I feel like we're expected to only visit one time. I feel like like we're expected to give as much money to them as we can afford on this one time through. And I feel like this world is completely different than the one that the other 25 million people living in Cairo are living in. Would it not be wiser to treat the tourists with genuine hospitality? Give us free perks, but don't make us feel guilty. Show us a good time. I can go to wikipedia to learn about your history, and I can go to a much closer museum in America to see your artifacts. I'm here because I want to live in your shoes for a week. If that means weird food, fine. Yeah, your city is dirty and hot, but I didn't expect anything other than that. Take me into it, not through it. I don't want to feel like a special guest. I want to feel like a fellow human being, a friend.

I gotta say though, those hand-made rugs were pretty sweet, and the 12 year old girls making them seemed happy. Sweat shop? Didn't seem like it. "Egyptian carpet school". That's something I don't have in the U.S. I don't think ACC offers classes on carpet-making. Why is it these small things that leave the biggest impression on me? I feel guilty for not being more impressed by the ancient ruins... But I cannot be anything other than myself - we will just have to learn to deal with it. Show me a great painting and I'll probably find myself appreciating the frame it's in instead...

A few more impressions before I sleep... Our driver is a man of true skill, but the lives of ourselves and MANY pedestrians were endangered today. Egypt traffic continues to amuse and scare me. LA is laid back by comparison. Also, whirling dervishes are awesome! Luisa has pictures. I would have taken video if my camera battery hadn't died.

Check out my links to the right for photos and videos.

Ma'salama (Arabic for "l8r").