Visited Katameya Heights Resort

Dave braved the roads on Saturday and drove us to Katameya Heights resort where everyone escapes to golf, swim, get massages, and relax. It is north of Maadi and we had to drive on the chaotic roads and highways of Cairo. I was a wreck on some parts of the roads because the traffic is claustrophobic and getting into an accident without being able to speak Arabic would have been awful. Here are some photos of the ride out and then of the resort. It's beautiful there and the air is cleaner than in Maadi.

Apartments along the way. Most people live in apartments. This seems to be a nicer once because I can see air conditioners. Notice the color of things? Everything the color of the desert sand: pale yellow and yellow-brown. They must use the sand to make the buildings and roads.

Driving on the Ring Road. This is the most frightening road. The truck to the left is piled high with diapers. Although you may see lane lines, they do not use them. I counted 6 lanes of cars in a lane meant for maybe 4 cars.

This is how close the driver was to us.

A military police section. We slowed down but they ignored is. They did pull over some other people.



Katameya Heights

Our tour guide. He was so honored that I wanted his photo and rats if I didn't forget to write down his name. Egyptians are so friendly.

Date palm trees. This is where our dates come from, dried of course. I am going to buy this fruit at the market and try it out.

Driving home, here are some sand dunes. I think that's a military installation.

Roadside vendors. There were many of them lining the road selling fruits and vegetables.

Typical rubble alongside the highway. You can see buildings and then just plain old rock/sand. There is a lot of rubble, rubbish, and sand along the roads.

Lovely Friday in Maadi

Friday and Saturdays are the weekend in Egypt and Friday is the holy day. Traffic greatly reduced and much quieter. Dave and I walked around the corner to a restaurant called Asian Corner and had a nice lunch. We ordered Indian food the other night and what I've noticed is that Indian and Chinese restaurants include both Indian and Chinese food on their menus. Dave had kung pao chicken and I had an Indian dish.
 
We then walked the streets to Cairo Kitchen, a lunch and dinner place, to pick up a whole rotisserie chicken and side dishes for dinner. Next door is a bakery named Fino's where we got some whole wheat bread and cookies. The shop owner was sitting and enjoying his lunch and said hello to us and welcome to Egypt. He knew we were new! Dave thanked him for his greeting and said that we were new and the owner said "I knew that." He went on to say that he knows everyone who comes into the shop and can tell the new ones. He was delightful and so friendly. We loved it. I asked for 3 cookies and he told the young lady behind the counter to give me 4 because he wanted Dave to have one because he is a good guy. He could tell. Egyptians are really lovely people.

We then walked to Seoudi market and got eggs, balsamic vinegar, frozen spinach, Clairol herbal essence shampoo, red onions, and ziploc bags. Honestly I think I can get everything that I want; when I find sauerkraut it will be perfect.

On Fridays the curfew is 7 pm so we have to be home by then. I want to walk some more in the neighborhood to get a feel for the place. The streets are chaotic and run both on a grid with roundabouts and then crazy cross streets. I unlocked my iphone last night and am so happy to have maps now!


My stomach is much better! I had only 3 days of mummy tummy; in June it lasted 5 days. I must be getting used to the new bugs.  

Cairo Kitchen cafe and restaurant. You can eat in or take away. They also deliver. Their menu included rotisserie chicken,  rice pilafs, hummus, stuffed eggplant, lamb, green beans, salads, cucumber-tomato salads, etc.

 

We are safe here in Maadi

As you may read about, there was a bomb blast in Nasr City that targeted Egypt’s Minister of Interior. Nasr City is far northeast of my area called Maadi. Things are calm here and we are safe.

Cairo is a huge city: "With a population of 6.76 million spread over 453 square kilometers (175 sq mi), Cairo is by far the largest city in Egypt. With an additional 10 million inhabitants just outside the city, Cairo resides at the center of the largest metropolitan area in Africa and the Arab World." (Wikipedia). I include this description so you can get an idea of how large the city is. It's easy to worry that anything happening in Cairo is happening to us directly but it is not. So please don't worry.

Apache monitors everything 24/7. If we are ever in danger they will evacuate us. We get regular security updates with what kind of travel is allowed and what is not. I feel very safe here.

But I am not going to lie. I am very concerned about the US bombing Syria--and whatever else crap they do. It's like taking a stick and hitting a hornets nest. And it makes me CRAZY to see people like Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner smiling and patting each other on the back and congratulating each other for getting the lawmakers on board. And John McCain wanting to have the options of "putting boots on the ground." Are you kidding me?? What is WRONG with him?? All of them!! It's not our business. I saw a great photo of some type of military person holding a handmade sign in front of his face that said "I didn't join the Air Force (or whatever branch) to help Al Qaeda in Syria." Well put. Because that's what it boils down to.

I got the exchange rate backwards

Of course I did. I originally posted that it's 7 US dollars to the LE. It's actually 1 US dollar for 7 LEs. So when I went to Alfa Market yesterday and spent 1,000 LE, for a second I was freaked out because I wasn't sure I had that much money. Turns out it was $143.00. Probably best for me to stop thinking in terms of US dollars!

Really and truly, I will be happy just to learn and pronounce Arabic words and phrases. Today I am practicing "Salam aleekum" --peace upon you. That is a very nice greeting to an Egyptian and I get giant smiles when I put forth the effort. Egyptians are so nice!! I've got "thank you" down although I can't spell it right now. The realtor will be here in 10 minutes.

Salam aleekum!

The guest flat that we are staying in for the next 2 months

Our sea shipment will arrive around the end of October so we will be in this Apache guest flat until all is settled. Today we are going to look for houses. Here are some photos of our flat which is very large with high ceilings. There are 3 bedrooms, a large living room, large dining room, kitchen, 2.5 bathrooms, another large living room area upstairs, and a laundry room. It's a split level apartment and not like apartments in the US. It's almost like a house.

I am happy today because one of the cleaning products I bought yesterday is exactly what I was hoping for: just a plain bleach spray. I got a migraine last night from using the overly smelly cleaning products and this morning tried the clorox spray. No harsh smell and bleach to kill things!! Plus I can re-use the spray bottle and make it as strong as I like. 

Our kitchen. There is no light in this room; I think the windows look into an opening with wires and such. Kitchens are not important to wealthy Egyptians because everyone has a maid/cook. Only the help goes into the kitchen. Very unlike the US where kitchens are central to the house and entertaining. That's what the large living rooms are for. 

Living room. There is a large dining room on the opposite side. We have limited cable and will rely on Amazon instant view to see our shows--like The Bridge! Such a good show. 

Air conditioners controlled with a remote controller. See the white thing on top? You are supposed to turn off your ac when you leave your apartment. It actually doesn't get too hot in the house. We use the ac only in the living room, kitchen, bedroom, and a living area on the second floor. The kitchen one stays on but otherwise I turn them off when I'm not using the room for a long time. They say to do that because the electricity can be dodgy--no grounding and such with a greater risk of electrical fires.

The four things on the left contributed to my migraine. The clorox bleach on the right is what makes me happy.

The living room upstairs. There is a computer desk on the right side. This is where we hang out because the wifi only works in this room. They are going to run more wires in the downstairs living room so we can use wifi there as well.

My bathroom. See the big white container near the ceiling? That's the hot water unit. There's a shower to the left. bob and Helen, this reminds me of the bathrooms in England except for the bidet. 

Obsessed with washing my hands

It's dusty in Cairo because we live in the Sahara desert. It is dirty because Egypt has different views about cleanliness and hygiene and dirt and germs and everything germaphobes think is important. I am a moderate germaphobe and although I think I will be OK and not progress to crazy-person level for now I am obsessed with washing my hands. If it involves money or food I am washing my hands before and after. And nagging Dave to do the same.

Money
It is a cash-based economy with little use of ATM and credit cards. That means money passes through a LOT of, ahem, dirty hands. It is only half jokingly called poopy hands and you can figure that out for yourself. My friend Jennifer who lived in Cairo 13 years ago told me that Dave would have to bring his own tp to work. Things have progressed and there is tp at his office I am happy to report.

The money is called Egyptian pounds, LE, and the exchange rate makes my head spin: 7 US dollars to the LE. 7? Really? Who easily divides 340 LE into 7s? NOT ME. So I am trying to remember that 70.00 LE is 10 US dollars and go up/down from there. For expats it is cheap to live in Cairo.

Food
Last night I was reading about the local customs and dos and don'ts. The first rule about food:

If you can't peel it or cook it, don't eat it.

Apparently lettuce is a risky food to eat, even if you buy it yourself and sanitize with bleach (1 tbls bleach to a big bowl of water for 10 minutes to kill things) BECAUSE apparently noticeable parasites can be found in the veins of lettuce--they advised cutting out the large veins. Dave laughed at me because he knows by the time I get finished with removing every vein (better get the little ones too) that it wouldn't be recognizable as lettuce. But I do know people who eat lettuce so we will see. Right now I'm in the parasite-microbe freaked-out stage so no lettuce for the Jennettes!

I am trying my best to be careful but I can already feel the twinges of stomach stuff. I am hopeful that I will adjust to the different intestinal flora in Egypt.

p.s. It's not just Egypt. I managed to get an intestinal bug within 2 days of travelling to Europe for a week! I had a stomachache for 5 days and I wasn't even in Egypt. I was so mad!!

Egyptian pounds. The smaller denominations like the 5 LE note at the bottom are usually dirty and well used.

Starting our lives in Maadi, Egypt

We arrived in Cairo at 5:30 am on Monday, September 1. We were taken to an Apache guest flat where we will stay until our furniture arrives in late October. Our first very important task is to find a house. I am not going to lie; the guest flat is grim and dusty but we have Internet so I am not going to complain. I will clean the daylights out of it when I have some time. Today I am going to see houses with a lovely French woman named Helene.
 
Yesterday after a short nap Dave and I got a driver and visited two places: the Community Services Association (CSA) and the closest local food market, Kimo. The CSA is a community center for expats with fitness classes, coffee bar, gift shop, library, and offers lots of classes and tours and events. It will be my home away from home and is close enough for me to walk to from the flat. We then shopped at Kimo and got some frozen spinach because we haven't had proper green vegetables for more than a week. It will be a challenge to continue eating leafy green vegetables in Cairo because of the bugs and parasites. Dave went to work around 2 and I decided to walk back to the store for cleaning supplies. It was a short walk although I was afraid of getting lost. The streets are chaotic with few street signs; I will have to use landmarks to get around.
 
In the next few days I will get a SIM card for my iphone and unlock it. I am so happy to have switched to an iphone before I left Houston because I've been able to take lots of photos of our week-long vacation in Switzerland and Italy. I will post some of those photos later. I used wi-fi in the hotels and could communicate and send photos the whole week. Thank goodness for the Internet; 22 years ago when we moved to London I could only communicate by letter and rare long distance phone calls.
 
Here are some photos of our flat and my route to the market.

Dave in front of our apartment building. Our address is 50 Road 84, New Maadi, Egypt



This is our road, 84. Streets commonly have numbers instead of names. The road is dusty and filled with potholes and other diversions. You have to pay attention to nearly every step you take.




Kimo market. It is one of the smaller markets but a 10 minute walk from the flat. The people are very nice. The market is small and very compact with every nook and cranny filled with food and basic household supplies.