My first humseen, winter vegetables, and the bread man on Canal Street

I cannot believe it is the month of March and today was the first day that I could tell that the seasons are changing. We are experiencing the first humseen, or dust storm, of the season. I have been dreading the humseens because I thought they were windy and wild with sand and dirt clogging your mouth and nose but it's just a yellowish cloud over the city. No grit in my mouth, didn't need to breathe through my scarf. March and April are the months for these storms. If I experience anything more exciting then I will be sure to share.

It was a dingy, overcast day. Dave is silly and said it feels like armageddon. I am used to the sun shining and am surprised at how much I miss it when it's gone for even a day.

With the passing of winter also comes the end of winter vegetables as vegetables are not grown here out of season. For me this means the loss of spinach, chard, and kale, my three favorite vegetables. The tomatoes are perfect right now and taste like the tomatoes of my childhood.


I don't know if you can tell but this is wilty, sad spinach. I buy 5-10 packages at a time when available, spend an hour (or more!) cleaning it, then stuffing it into ziploc bags for the freezer. I am still freaky about amoebas and clean my own vegetables just to make sure I kill everything. Then I spray my beloved diluted bleach spray everywhere to make sure I kill everything that might have come off the vegetables!

Forget jewelry! Here are my prized possessions: SWISS CHARD and SPINACH! Almost out of kale, which was woody and tasted strangely of fish. I will never ever EVER take triple-washed spinach, baby kale, and swiss chard from HEB for granted again! I told Dave it is GOLD and he is forbidden to use more than one package at a time. When he comes in the door in the evening and I am cleaning and drying vegetables I tell him that I'm earning my keep.

I love this sculpture! It celebrates the local bread sellers who use bicycles to carry and sell the local bread called balady bread. The statue is also on one of our favorite streets called Canal street, where we fell in love with a house with the orange door that didn't work out. This beautiful street gets its name from an actual water-filled canal that ran through this area more than 50 years ago. I was told that families would go to the canal on weekends for picnics and boating and fishing. I would LOVE to have a photo or drawing of the Canal during that time! Maadi is a very leafy suburb and Canal street with its broad expanse and beautiful tall trees is like the center of Maadi's beauty. Maadi is a very busy place now; we hear all the time how quiet it used to be and how much it has changed. How there used to be so few cars, which is really hard to imagine because it is packed with cars, taxis, scooters, even a Dodge Ram! That thing is HUGE on these streets! I bet he doesn't yield to anyone. Even the crazy taxi drivers.



The balady bread man. They really do ride around the city with a screen holding bread.

Canal Street. The photographer is standing in the middle of what once was a canal.

Things are moving quickly now and we are so excited. We are moving into our villa on Saturday and really begin settling in. Dave cannot wait to start gardening and we have a lot of yard to take care of. We are going to Prague and Vienna in April and then our daughter Sydney is coming for 10 days in May. I am trying to talk Ben into coming before his summer internship...I would be the happiest mom on the planet!

Our new villa

We finally found a villa in December and have been negotiating and now renovating since then. We are trying to be patient; we thought our move-in date would be late February but now we will be lucky to move in mid-March. We both cannot wait to get our own furniture and sleep in our own bed. The reason for the delay is that we are completely renovating the kitchen and the landlord decided to paint everything inside and outside the house and refinish the floors. It will be worth it once it's finished. For the moment we just want to sit outside in a yard or terrace with plants around us. The weather is becoming lovely and I read that February and March are Egypt's best months.

Our new address is 27 Road 81. The villa is 100 years old and is an old English colonial style with 16 foot ceilings, a fair amount of charm, and full of light. Three floors, four bedrooms, roof terrace, yard, and unusually private driveway. Those 16 foot ceilings make for a very long staircase... Yes the house is large but all the villas are large. Our landlord is terrific and easy to get along with. Which I've been told is unusual. Dave and I feel very lucky to have found this house with the people who work there and the amenable owner.

We brought over a 20-foot container filled with two bedrooms, a living room, patio furniture, and gas grill. Now that I have a driver I have been busy visiting stores and figuring out where I am going to buy things. It's very common to have furniture made here and I've already got plans for that. There's an interesting place on Road 15 where they make furniture from old doors and things and for those of you who know me well, you know I just love that kind of stuff!!

Part of our yard. The gardener is great though Dave can hardly wait to start his own planting.

Our private driveway, which is very unusual. The steps to the right at the end lead to our kitchen. It's unusually convenient to have a private driveway that will deliver you to the kitchen. Unfortunately that also means we will most likely use the kitchen for entry and exit because the front door is kind of out of the way.

Our front door, which is rarely used. We plan to have a stone path put down that leads to the front so we will use this door. I was standing on a landing that is halfway to the 2nd floor.

Standing in the dining room, looking into the living room. See the little cubby at the end? I'm going to have a Turkish divan made for the area and use it to read.

A "before" photo of the kitchen. It's not the worst kitchen we saw but we like kitchens so decided to remodel. The owner wanted us to use a designer they knew and she did a great job. Right now the room looks like a cave with dirt floors...

Building our life in Egypt and the people helping us

Life is very different in Egypt and there are many people that most of us hire to help us. Dave and I will hire a lot of people because we have chosen to live in a villa and I do not want to drive myself around town. That means a driver, bowab, night security person, gardener, and maid. Yes, we are setting down roots in Egypt. And hope to have visitors!!!



Ahmed our bowab (left) and Noor the gardener. They are wonderful people and we feel lucky to have them.

Our villa comes with a full-time bowab named Ahmed and a part-time gardener named Noor. A bowab is someone who watches the house, greets people, washes the car if we ask, and generally makes sure that everything is ok. They are both wonderful. Ahmed has worked at the house for 12 years. He knows everyone and everything that goes on in the area. The police station is down the street from us and he knows all the policemen. We are so happy to have him work for us. He works from 7 am to 7 pm, six days a week. We also have a night security man whom I have not met. 



Hamsa, the main bowab for our current building

This is Hamsa, the main bowab for the apartment building. One of his biggest responsibilities is helping to manage the parking lot for the tenants as we live across the street from the American school. It's crazy at 8 am and 3 pm because of all the drivers dropping kids off or picking them up. I greet Hamsa and the other bowabs as I go in and out of the building throughout the day; they are always so kind and welcoming.

Apartments and villas in Cairo

I love having interesting conversations about how the average Egyptian lives their life. I learn a lot while driving around town and pestering the drivers about things I see out the window. There is always something new and interesting-- and sometimes really crazy. When I say the average Egyptian I am referring to the drivers, maids, cooks, secretaries, shopkeepers, and working class in general. Those are the people I see and talk with on a regular basis. There is a huge wealth divide and the wealthy Egyptians live quite different lives, at least as far as luxury.

Most Egyptians, and really I think most people in the entire Middle East region, live in apartments. And it's really interesting how that works. Housing is very expensive for the average Egyptian and they have to save a long time to buy an apartment. Families commonly live in the same apartment building and share meals and social time with each other. The father, over the course of his working life, will strive to buy apartments in the same building for his sons and families. Sometimes there is just a really large apartment with separate bedrooms for the married sons. The daughters are expected to move into their husband's building with his family.

The apartments that the families buy are completely unfinished because it is cheaper that way. No plumbing, wiring, windows, walls, etc. You buy the apartment and then make it into what you want with the money you have. That is why we see half-finished apartment buildings around town and why each apartment is unique.

I have learned a lot from Nadia, the sweet young lady who works at the nail salon that I go to. She and her husband are working to save 60,000 LE ($8,500.00) for her own apartment, which is a huge amount for her. They have to move every three years or so because every time the lease comes up for renewal (3 year lease) the rent goes up too much. She is tired of moving and dreams of her own place. Maybe she doesn't live in her father-in-laws home/apt because she is coptic and they do things differently.



Apartment building. See how the balconies and windows are finished differently?



Rows and rows of apartment buildings. Can you see the empty ones?



This is our boawab named Ahmed standing in front of our new villa. He works from 6 am to 6 pm and has worked at this house for eight years. He knows everyone in the neighborhood and knows everything that goes on.

 

We have finally found a villa to live in. When Maadi was first established in the early 1900s it was a leafy suburb of Cairo with English-style villas and an English-style life to go with it. Now it's a mix of apartment buildings and villas, and the apartments are winning. Landowners can make far more money renting apartments than having a single house. We will employ Mr. Ahmed above, plus a gardener named Noor (who has taken care of the gardens for years), plus a night time security person that I have not met. We just hired a driver named Zakaria and an  Egyptian maid named Sonia. It's just wonderful to be able to make plans and settle in.

We all love going to the Khan

The Khan el Khalili (1382) is an open place market area also called a souk (sometimes also the grand bazaar) and is a tangle of alleyways and walkways with vendors selling all kinds of things. It's in an old, old, part of Cairo and was off limits to us for months so getting there now is just that much more fun. The more experienced ladies have their favorite shopkeepers and without them you could easily get lost in the maze of old streets and alleys. They also know the more reputable vendors and have established warm relationships with them.

It's always exciting to go to the Khan with a bunch of ladies. In the days before the revolution (I hear that phrase all the time; things have changed a lot since then and not for the better) large groups of women would spend the day shopping and then enjoy a delicious lunch at a local restaurant. The restaurant is now closed and we are told to leave the Khan before 2 pm because the traffic is a verifiable nightmare. So going there now is a mad dash to visit all the good vendors. And you are warned not to drink water because there are no restrooms.

One of our most favorite vendors is M K Jewelers. He makes beautiful silver jewelry and has a tiny room that contains a desk and filing cabinet in which all kinds of jewelry is kept. You simply paw through the drawers and plastic trays until you find something. You are usually squeezing around several other ladies as well. It's almost like a scavenger hunt but lots of fun. The jeweler will adjust the lengths for you and then weigh it to give you the price. The prices are great for unique, beautiful, Egyptian jewelry.

Another favorite shop is owned by a retired professor who makes and sells beautiful wooden things and specializes in boxes made of ebony (or some dark wood like ebony) with inset white camel bone and mother of pearl. His boxes are unique in Egypt and come in all shapes and sizes.

And we always go to the vendor who sells beautiful handmade glass items. You can place orders for anything and he will make it. Wine glasses, figurines, christmas ornaments, etc. He also sells clothes and galabeyas and it's easy to buy from him because you know you are paying a fair price.

Shopping with my friend Lori and the very experienced Betsy (yellow sweater) at the glass man's shop. He will custom make anything for you and is just delightful.

I love the light fixtures and will have similar lights in our villa.

Walking and shopping the alleyways. Clothes, souvenir things, pottery, glass, rugs, old Bedouin things, old pewter and copper things, jewelry stores, bead stores, some furniture.

A necklace and bracelet from MK. I love my bracelet especially.

Khan el-Khalili is a major souk in the Islamic district of Cairo. The bazaar district is one of Cairo's main attractions for tourists and Egyptians. The souk dates back to 1382, when Emir Djaharks el-Khalili built a large caravanserai (خان khan in Arabic) in Cairo under the Burji Mamluk Sultan Barquq; the eponymous khan is still extant. By the time of Barquq, the first Circassian Mamluk Sultan (1382–1399) much reconstruction needed to be done within the walls of the city in order to repair the damage incurred as a result of the Black Death. When Barquq started his madrassa in Bayn el-Qasrayn, markets were rebuilt, and Khan el-Khalili was established.^[1] It was also known Turkish bazaar during the Ottoman Empire.
The Khan el-Khalili was built on the site of the much older and historically significant Za’afran Tomb, the burial place of the Fatimid Caliphs, founders of the City of Cairo.^[2] The Za'afran Tomb was part of the Great Fatimid Eastern Palace (built AH 358 / AD 968) constructed upon the founding of the city.