Ramadan in Maadi, Egypt

It's Ramadan in Egypt, June 6 through approximately July 6. This is my third Ramadan and I enjoy being around for the sights and sounds. The lack of sounds to be precise! Everything slows down during Ramadan: the traffic, the people, businesses tend to open later in the day and restaurants stay closed until the evening until it's time for Iftar. This year I think it's been a bit more difficult for the people fasting because of the unusually hot daily temperatures of 100+ degrees. As much as 112 degrees so far this Ramadan! With no food or water or cigarettes for nearly 16 hours!

Here's a typical day during Ramadan for a Muslim. Even during normal times there are five prayers a day and the call to prayer is announced at the mosques using a loudspeaker. There are thousands of mosques and it's an interesting sound to hear several of them all at once. During Ramadan, before the first prayer of the day around 3:30 a.m., the people eat sohoor, or what we would call breakfast. Eggs, beans, bread, cheese, leftovers from the previous Iftar but no meat because it's hard to digest. The call to prayer is heard soon afterwards and everyone either goes to the mosque to pray or prays at home. Most people will then try to sleep a bit.

During the next 15-16 hours they cannot eat, drink, or smoke tobacco. Most people still go to work but are allowed to arrive a bit later and leave earlier, usually around 3:00 p.m. Around 7:00 p.m. the fourth call to prayer signals that they can eat and drink. They start slowly with a few sugary dates, some fruit juice, sips of water. They go to pray and then it's time for their big meal called Iftar. It's a time of joy and celebration and commonly includes extended family. If you don't know this, Egypt is a country of night owls and especially so during Ramadan! People visit, pray, read the Holy Koran, and watch the newly released movies and soap operas on television. You will also never ever hear a Muslim complain about fasting. It is their joy to do this for Allah. Muslims love Ramadan.

A display of nuts, dried fruit, figs, raisins, etc. for Ramadan.

My bowab loves to decorate the villa for Ramadan and it looks quite festive with the lights and bunting. This year I bought two large fanooses (lanterns) to add to the decor. The shops with all the Ramadan lamps, lights, and decorations are so fun! Fanooses are a very important part of Ramadan and it's my understanding that long ago, before electricity, children were given fanooses so they could play outside at night. Fanooses are also given as gifts and I was lucky enough to receive two this year! I will keep them forever.

Ramadan fanooses at Alfa Market.

Ramadan is also the time of giving to poor people, both food and money. To help with this many people buy pre-made Ramadan bags from grocery stores or make their own Ramadan bags. These bags (boxes also) contain basic food items for Egyptian cooking: oil, ghee, tomato sauce, rice, several types of pasta, sugar, tea, dates, beans, and anything else you might like to add. I give Ramadan bags to my employees, the workers around my villa, a few of the policemen and military guys that work outside the villa, Egyptian friends, and poor people. My driver and I stopped at a busy intersection one day to give bags to the poor ladies with their children. Within a blink there were tons of people running to the car to get a bag, even a guy on his bicycle. They seemed to appear out of nowhere! I said "quick Mohammad we have to go!"

Typical Ramadan bag.

In keeping with the tradition of helping the poor during Ramadan, businesses sponsor free Iftars that are held inside decorated tents throughout the city.

Iftar tent. There are some really beautiful ones and I will try to get a photo.

Inside the tent. 

My twin sister and niece visited me in Cairo

I finally convinced my fraternal twin sister Patricia to visit me in Cairo!

I was sneaky--after nearly three years of begging it finally occurred to me that if I could get my sweet travel-crazy niece Alexandria to visit then she would hound her mother and the deal would be done! My plan went perfectly. We had so much fun! Nine days of sightseeing, shopping for souvenirs, and a three-day trip to see the temples in Luxor. Like all our guests, they were really sad to leave. A funny side note is that Patricia named my niece after Alexandria, Egypt. Who knew? It never occurs to you while growing up in Louisville, Kentucky that you would ever have a twin sister living in Egypt.



Visiting a mosque in Cairo and wearing hijabs.  

There were two delightful Muslim women
at the mosque who answered
all our questions about what it's like
being a muslim woman.

What I've learned is that most people are afraid to visit but once they get here they have a wonder-full time and quickly see how kind the people are and how interesting everything is. Life is so different here and I love the adventure and sharing it with others. Although you try to describe what life is like here to family and friends people don't understand it until they experience it for themselves. 

Patricia and Alex loved the community of my villa--my bowabs, driver, and gardener treating them like family. I loved taking them to the local shops to meet the people I see throughout the week. They were overwhelmed at the friendliness of everyone and for me that's the most special thing about visiting Egypt. I love showing people that part of Egypt that doesn't exist in Houston, Texas or Louisville, Kentucky.

During their visit we managed to get interviewed for an Egyptian talk show while shopping in the Khan; got ripped off by a souvenir seller in Luxor; ride camels at the Giza pyramids, see King Tut's exhibit at the Egyptian museum; and sit by the pool at King Farouk's Winter Palace hotel.

And the best part of their visit is that now I can share my ongoing adventures with them here in Cairo and they get it!

Just normal tourist stuff. See how much fun we were having? I miss them! They were perfect guests.

Being interviewed. I was asked "What makes Egyptian men better than all the other men in the world?" My friend Penni was watching the chaos and getting a good laugh. How do you answer that? How does she suppose that I know about all the other men in the world?

Our other visitors were our children Ben and Sydney in December 2013 and then Sydney and Jared in January 2016. They loved Egypt also!! Sydney and Jared were lucky enough to go on a Nile cruise. They loved everything I described above, our villa, the people. Jared got to go mountain bike riding in the Wadi as well. I wish they could visit for a month!! My only regret with Patricia and Alexandria was not going on a Nile cruise. Staying in Luxor for three days paled in comparison to the wonderful cruises. Sorry Patricia and Alex!

My bowab Ahmed

Dave and I live in a villa and employ several people to help us with it. We hired most of the people already working at the villa including the maid Beth, the day bowab Ahmed, and the night bowab Mohammad. We hired a full-time gardener named Mohammad. I have a driver name Mohammad and Dave has a company-provided driver named Mohammad. If your first name isn't Mohammad then your second name is! 

Everything runs relatively smoothly at our villa and I love the early mornings with the bustle of gardeners, bowabs, and drivers milling about. They visit with one another and drink tea and I love the community of it all. Egyptians are very very social and always stop to greet one another and ask how they are doing. 

R to L: gardener Mustafa, main gardener Mohammad, and Ahmed. Our gardener does not have a vehicle and gets around town on the style of bikes you see on the left. So interesting to see gardeners on bicycles holding brooms, rakes, and even lawn mowers. Very inventive. 

Ahmed and his son Mohammad outside bowab hut. 

I will quickly describe everyone but Ahmed as he's our most interesting employee. I will save him for last. 

Bowab is the word used here for essentially the doorman and watchman--some prefer to be called Security--who stays either just inside your villa walls or just outside and watches over everything. They work 12 hour shifts, six days a week. Our bowabs open/close the gate, help bring packages from the car to the back door, wash down outdoor furniture, wash the car if asked, change outdoor lightbulbs, and let us know when we have visitors. They are the guardians of our gate and help keep us safe. Some bowabs are more helpful than others and ours are really great. 

Our gardener Mohammad has a crew of about three men, one of him his son, and they come to the villa every morning, six days a week, to water, weed, trim, and whatever else we ask of them. Our night bowab Mohammad is awesome and we appreciate him so much for being outside all night. My driver Mohammad is, I believe, the 5th driver I've had and I'm just so happy he's my driver. Safe, respectuful, and drives slow for me.

Ahmed our day bowab holding his tea tray.
He's got his pants rolled up ready to wash some outdoor chairs for me.

Our day bowab Ahmed is 45 years old and has a family with four children. We attended his daughter's wedding a year ago and that was a fun cultural experience. Of all our employees he is the least content to mind his own business and not create problems. He loves drama and is quite good in the role of passive-aggressive instigator. Generally I find it to be funny and I almost never see it coming although now I'm half-wise to his antics. He is very jealous of the other employees and watches how Dave and I treat each and every one. Which is why he is different than all our other employees. Everyone else does their jobs and don't get involved in drama or gossip. Unfortunately, from time to time, our other employees and even madam (!) become entangled in Ahmed's drama and then everything is a kerfuffle. Then it passes and everyone waits for the next scene in the drama of Ahmed because we all know it's just a matter of time. 

Quite possibly the most irritating thing that Ahmed does is he goes through my garbage. I thought this was a normal behavior for bowabs in Egypt because they don't make a lot of money. But this is not true. It's just Ahmed. He has been told repeatedly by me and my favorite Apache driver Nasser to stay out of madams garbage. But he's stubborn as a mule. I see bits of my garbage in his little bowab hut outside the gate and in the area where he makes tea and coffee. I've given up trying to change that behavior. But it creeps me out.

Last spring everyone at the villa had just HAD IT with Ahmed and I set out to replace him. We couldn't find anyone and I decided that I had to look on the bright side. I do like the shock effect of his antics. It is expanding my horizons by creating new pathways in my brain because it's always something new and different. I've learned how to better manage his drama and feel myself becoming less of a push-over. I still get ripped off but am getting better about it. lol

This view is from my second floor window and I enjoy watching all the activity below. Here Ahmed is holding his tea tray and yapping to the military recruits. 

What I appreciate about Ahmed is that he will do almost anything for us. We are "family" as he loves to say. He gestures wildly and has an actor's persona about him. He loves center stage and as bowab at our villa he is the master of ceremonies and conductor for all. Our street gets a lot of vehicle and pedestrian traffic because of our proximity to the police station. And Ahmed is in the middle of it all, giving directions, directing traffic, and negotiating unbelievable traffic jams. He loves it. And the icing on his cake was the police setting up a barricade on the street just outside our villa to better manage the flow of people and vehicles around the police station. Every day, all day there are several policemen and military recruits outside the villa watching guard along the street. Ahmed is a grand host and loves helping them in any way he can. He makes tea and coffee for them and entertains with his love of talk and gestures. I love to watch everyone out my second floor window--there is always something going on. And Ahmed is always always talking their heads off. As a capitive audience they sit and stare at him with a glazed look in their eyes. I don't know what they think of him because he's a conniver for sure. But an entertaining one that serves tea and coffee. 

I asked Ahmed if I could take their picture and he happily obliged, grabbing one of the rifles hanging around. The man in the white uniform is a policeman and the one in the black uniform is a young military recruit. Most of the recruits come from villages outside of Cairo and don't seem to have a lot of experience with foreigners because they stare at me and David like we are aliens.
By the way, the small gray cylinder in front of the men is an old air filter that I threw into the garbage a week ago. They use it as a tea table.
And another funny thing is that Ahmed has a pecking order. The policemen reign supreme, not so with the recruits. I bought a small table for everyone to use at Iftar and now it seems only the policemen are allowed to use it. Ahmed makes the recruits eat their meals sitting on the curb. It is hilarious. 

Ahmed loves his job so much. I would feel terrible if I took that from him. He provides a service to the community around the villa and makes it interesting and bearable to the policemen and recruits who sit there all day long under the hot Egyptian sun.

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.