Everything Kaputt

Soon after I moved in, I noticed that many things in the apartment are broken. Near the bathroom, the wood pieces of the parquet floor fall apart. Water enters the floor and the walls in several places. Few days after my arrival, the light in the bathroom broke, only to be followed by the light in the kitchen. The latter took weeks to be replaced - as you could open the fridge's door to have light in the kitchen; while the former was replaced more quickly just to break again soon thereafter. The toilet seat is shaky and the shower curtain is really a curtain and totally powerless to prevent water from penetrating it. When I do my laundry, the water used by the machine enters the hallway after it is done. The antenna of the internet router broke off recently. And one morning, I was preparing my breakfast on the table in the kitchen, when one leg broke away letting the whole table fall over with all the ingredients, spices and oils on top of it. What a mess! 

Too much is broken so that I don't think, my landlord will ever learn. His standards must truly be different. However, wonders happen! He fired the cleaner to replace him with a lady. She was overwhelmed by all the dirt in the apartment and immediately requested more money for the job... 

Nevertheless, broken things remain broken...

What Happend to you, ya Egypt?

Everyday, I take the bus to school. Sometimes, these are from the brand ISUZU. But mostly, they have names like Nasr Auto, Hashim, or others. Nasr Auto is the state owned company that was founded in 1960. But recently, it has been struggling competing with imports of cheap foreign brands, as it itself has not invented any distinct car model (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasr_(car_company)).

Why do I study Egyptian Arabic? Because it is the most widely spread Arab dialect. That is mainly due to the dominant position of Egyptian pop culture and media. This position is increasingly threatened by the gulf states and their money feeding into their own media outlets. Nevertheless, musicians of other Arab countries sing in Egyptian dialect to increase their audience. Egyptian movies are somewhat legendary until today. However, their "golden age" was in the fourties and fifties. My Arabic teacher talked about them with great fondness. Shem mentioned the great attention to detail and aestethics. Her remarks reminded me of the French and Italian cinema tradition that declined as the Egyptian did, just to make room to the sloppier, more entertaining style of U.S.-American cinema.

My teacher talks of the time of the Egyptian monarchy in general with great admiration. People used to take care of their surroundings, would clean the streets and the king would not be corrupt but take care of his people. In those days, between the twenties and fourties, Cairo was often compared to Paris and still today I meet Egyptians of different ages who look back on this era with great melancholy.

What happened that these things changed? Surely, international pressures increased. But something internal to Eypt has changed, too. The attitutde of the people, the degree of education and development. Why are so many things broken? Why is there so much neglect and disregard? Poverty is surely rampant, but does this explain it all? I wonder if there is a comprehensive book on the history of 20th century's Egypt...

Job Search

After a slow start, I have been quite successful in looking up development organizations and networking with people who are active in the field of youth participation and civil society empowerment. Particularly those young Egyptian activists I met gave me the energy to continue despite the difficulties of finding a job opening and enduring Cairo’s street life.

Today, I had the first serious job interview of my life, which was quite challenging and I am not sure about my performance, followed by another informal interview. Being in the area already, I also looked up a German foundation and the regional director would immediately take the time to talk with me because of my Columbia business card… It took a few attempts to find their office in one of the many office towers in this neighborhood:

I also connected to local NGOs as well as international NGOs and foreign foundations or development organizations. So, I can draw a limited picture of the current peacebuilding landscape:

After Hosni Mubarak was ousted, large quantities of money were released. Mainly the Americans invested in the country, but without a clear strategy. Thus, some few consultants were paid high salaries, who were not necessarily the best qualified. Quickly, the money and lots of reputation were gone. Then, fall 2011, there was a crackdown on foreign organizations. USAid staff was put on trial, the German Konrad Adenauer Foundation closed and its country director expelled from Egypt. This put the foreign investments on hold.

With an advertisement campaign claiming foreign conspirators as the organizers of the protests, xenophobia increased and foreign engagement became even more suspicious. The attacks on U.S. and German embassies after the disgraceful Californian Mohamed movie contributed their share to tightened security and less engagement.

So now, some foreign organizations closed down their country offices in Egypt. Many froze their investments and particularly programs dealing with civil society support, democracy and related topics have been affected. Even the U.N. agencies keep a low profile and, as USAid, do not publish their real address online and put a sign on their door. At the same time, Egyptian activists identify safe spaces for dialogue, conversation and exchange, listening and hearing of all the different political groups as one of the main needs at the moment. There is a vibrant civil society that has been organizing events and proposing projects in this area to be funded – and that with quite some success. Much more activism is going on now than during Mubarak’s time. However, how much more could happen with the resources only foreign donors could supply? An example is the GIZ’s project tackling informal neighborhoods in Cairo. Generously funded by the Gates’ Africa Funds, they seem to have more than enough money. But their focus is on classical development issues, not hot button topics like disempowerment, self-organization, peace education, etc.

In other words, precisely when our support is needed, we refuse it. With good reason: to protect our staff members and not to discredit projects with ‘suspicious’ foreign funding. Nevertheless, we did not refuse to pour money into the country during Mubaraks regime, knowing about Human Right violations and possibly that much of the money would disappear in corruption.

Personally, this situation means that I have to choose. To cover my expenses for health insurance in Germany, I cannot accept any job offer in Cairo. Those openings at local NGOs that pay local wages are unlikely to pay the minimum I need. They are usually engaged in conflict resolution and the topics I find most interesting, while foreign NGOs work in development, but can afford me…

Anyway, I keep looking and have sent emails to all of the big names present in Cairo. From now on, it’s about keeping my fingers crossed and wait what is going to come up. If I won’t be successful, I’d be sad, but can say that I tried my best.

Café Beladi, 3 Midan Tahrir

As my landlord does not care about most things that are broken in our apartment (probably a universal truth J ), I spend a lot of time in places where there is free WiFi. My favorite is Café Beladi, situated in 3 Tahrir Square. Its current owners brag about the fact that Egyptian Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz has wrote many of his works in this place under previous ownership. Since the 2011 revolution, this event is another source of identity of the place, which is a rather Western style café and not an old coffee house (unfortunately). Its WiFi is relatively reliable, the prices are not too high (which is usually the case in Western style cafés) and the waiters are friendly and know me by now. Another great advantage of the place is its large window on the first (Americans: second) floor. From here, one has an overview over a large chunk of Tahrir Square. On normal days, one can visit the crazy traffic and some people arguing or screaming their opinions in the middle of the roundabout.

Today, however, more is going on. As usually, I come to do some internet job search and emailing, while outside protesters are gathering.  But I forgot that today is Friday and it has become sort of a ritual to protest after services have finished. On last week’s Friday, there were violent clashes between opposition and Muslim Brotherhood; while it looks like peaceful protests today.

They started on a relative medium scale, but half way through my emailing and some cups of tea later, the whole square is covered with people. No more chance to study Egyptian driving. Every now and then, one of the customers stands up and looks out of the window, intriguing all the others to look as well whether anything has happened. People carry banners and posters I do not understand. And sometimes a group of people runs across the square. The TV on the wall shows Aljazeera Egypt’s coverage of the gathering that seems to gain in size and importance beyond the usual Friday protest. Their angle on the square is almost exactly the same as the view from our window. They must be only few floors above the café…

Activists pour into the café to drink and eat something. A dozen people share a tiny table and engage in heated conversations. One of them carries a bag with a Tahrir Diaries sticker on it (http://tahrirdiaries.wordpress.com/). As fast as they appeared, they leave and others follow. 

Suddenly, the atmosphere shifts and a crowd in front of the window starts throwing stones. Not at the window of the café, but apparently at the cameramen from Aljazeera. But as correct aim is not everybody’s piece of cake, some hit the window and the owners lower the shutter.

I think of my friend from Berlin who stayed throughout the beginning of the revolution. It is her policy to avoid such gatherings and protests. She had witnessed the participation of many Western foreigners during the 2011 protests, who later became a target of a advertisement campaign aiming foreign ‘spies’ to be the organizers of the revolution (http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/06/10/219777.html). Particularly from Israel – to destabilize the country. This conviction has prevailed in parts of the society and may delegitimize foreign participation in the protests. At least it makes oneself suspicious and potentially the target of outrage. Therefore, she circumvents anything that could turn into a protest. Now, I have witnessed how quickly peaceful can turn to violent.

I wait till things calm down and then head for the metro entrance situated five meters in front of the café without difficulties and without taking any pictures of the crowd.

We know Everything about you

Shortly before midnight, I returned from the Community Market and "The District" community office space in Maadi. I had met interesting people there and had great talks. Before the metro would stop running, however, I had to get home to Dokki. On the way, I grabbed something to eat: Dolma - filled eggplants, zucchini and bell peppers. The tree guys from the small street restaurant were smiling at me as I was trying out my bits and pieces of Egyptian Arabic. One of them had a dark-brown mark on his forehaed, which is typically worn by religious people who want to show off how hard they pray when they bend over and let their head rub the floor... He asked where I was from and asked me what I was doing in Egypt. I told him, I was German and came to Egypt, because  believe, that there should be more dialgue between Europe, North America and the MENA region. I want to learn about Egypt. He replied that Egyptians know everything about us.

I: "How?"
He: "We have two sources: 1. family members who live abroad who share their experiences; and 2. from the Holy Qur'an."
I: "The Qur'an tells you about Germans?"
He: "Yes, it telly us about all peoples: Christians, Jews, Romans,... Everything is in there. Also all inventions that were and will be made."
I: "Also the TV?"
He: "Yes, everything! Maybe you should read it!"
I: "Maybe I should."
He: "In shaAllah!"

Now, let's not confuse this attitude with Islam in general. I have not heard this argument from other people in the streets before, even though I know it from my studies. But like a Christian or any other member of some ideology, one still has an individual choice of the specific interpretation one holds true. What does it tell about a persons worldview if one believes that not only essentially, but also peripherally (e.g. the invention of TV) nothing has changed over 300 years and that nothing new will happen, as everything is already foretold and static... How can such a person be convinced of social change to serve needs that presuambly do not change over centuries...?

This experience reminded me of a friend who said that currently the greatest threat to the Egyptian revolution is the attitude of many member s of the Muslim Brotherhood to know everything better. They feel to be right in every regard and want to attain the majority in every committee. Convincing all sides to come together in peace to discuss the future of the country on a level playing field is a major task at the moment. Creating safe spaces for dialogue, exchange, listening, hearing and cooperation is probably the major need when it comes to contiuing the revolutionary transformation of the country. Otherwise, the Brotherhood might simply take over in all aspects of political life and just becomes another dicatorship.

Informal Neighborhoods

A friend of mine from the University of Konstanz connected me to friends of his who are in Cairo currently. One of them, I met at a Community Market today. She works in 'informal' nighborhoods. That are neighborhoods where people built their homes on land that does not belong to them. Often, that is state-owned land, land designated for agriculture, or cemeteries. However, I had to laugh heraing the term 'informal' ('informell'). What is formal in Egypt? Surely, I have not understood many of the behavioral formalities. But even making the distinction seems to be a futile attempt. Are the gardens or the animal shacks on the sidewalk formal or informal? Are the street vendors' shops that block the way of the pedestrians? Are the private mini-bus lines that seem to compete with official lines? Are the car repairs that barely keep it in one piece? Are opening hours that usually seem to differ from those on the sign? Are traffic laws nobody obeys?

Why even bother creating such distinctions in a city where order is more relative than in many other cities? In which cases is this distinction held up? Does it have anything to do with the fact, that many informal neighborhoods are populated by the poorest of the poor? (While others cannot be distinguished from any other neighborhood...)

Hitler and Mubarak

Today, I wanted to introduce myself to some UN agencies. Not an easy task, because the UN keep a low profile in this country. That means that they do not put a sign on their building. As they also did not update their new address online, it meant two days of wandering around through Cairo... When I found the office today, most of the staff members had already left for the weekend. However, I was successful in the sense that I got a list with lots of telephone numbers on it from one of the security guards inside the office.

On my way back to the metro, I asked an Egyptian for directions. He would walk me to the subway station and engage in a conversation. He was curious what I'd think of Adolf Hitler, being German.

He: "Do you love Hitler?"
I: "No, I don't."
He: "Why don't you love Hitler?"
I: "Why should I?"
He: "Because he was a strong man!"
I: "Mubarak was a strong man, too!"
He: "Yes, he was strong - and a thief."
I: "See, Hitler was strong - and a murderer."

He was quite for a moment and I could see his mind working this one out. I was happy, he was thinking about it and that for the first time I felt, I could make somebody here understand why Hitler isn't exactly the most popular person in Germany anymore. That's difficult in a country where you can buy "Mein Kampf" or other works regarding Nazis, as well as other dictators, litterally at every book vendor in the street.

What am I doing here? – Part II

The same friend also touched on the „well-known “ debate of power and racism. Although her questions were quite provoking and I got a little bit offended, they also got me out of the little hole I dug myself over the past few days. They made me aware again of the privileged position I hold: I take it for granted to be able to come to Egypt, find work here, and earn a disproportionately higher amount of money than an Egyptian would earn on the same position.

Why can I move to Egypt relatively easy while an Egyptian has much more difficulties going to Germany? Why should I earn about five times more than an Egyptian for the same job? Why should I get the job and not the Egyptian? (If there is any one 'Egyptian'.)

These are questions that, fortunately, were raised during my graduate studies. And as undergrad, Michel Foucault and the like reminded us of the impact of power on discourses. The responses always seem to remain somewhat arbitrary, based on one's ideals, biography and desire to deal with such issues. In the context of being an expat, the ultimate question is pragmatic: What to do about it? And the response is personal and political.

The alien to this world that I might be, my response is not based on how the world is, but how I image a better one. Where there are no nations but humanity; where global solidarity is a given; where the earnings of the richer are shared with those who are poorer – on an equal basis; where some version of the Human Rights are globally respected and people can choose where they want to live without restrictions due to their ethnicity, profession, etc. How to reach this world is the next question. By living is already is one response, and by implementing steps to get there another. That's why I move globally, making use of the privileges I was born into, and why am looking for a job that in some way increases peoples' opportunities and empowers people to make a better life for themselves and others. An Egyptian with similar education that I have is better qualified to do so than I am. But being a foreigner unfortunately carries some advantaged when negotiating with international donors. So, my advantage might be to be able to generate more money for Egyptians on their behalf. After all, I was born into a privileged position and can do as little about it as those who are disempowered. Nevertheless, I can act responsibly and utilize my privileges for the redistribution of money, power, and privileges.

However, the straight-forward reality looks somewhat different. Here, I take any job that I can get, which covers my expenses that are higher than those of an average Egyptian. That doesn't bother me so much, because I am convinced that in the end I will be able to do more good here than as a social worker in Berlin, for instance. Plus, living in Berlin, or perhaps in any overdeveloped country, strikes me a relatively boring – useful mostly for changing policies and vacation.

In any case, I feel that reflecting on my role does me good. For that I need an outside perspective. So, I figure, this blog may help.

Difficulties of Being Here

Lack of moral support by friends, higher costs of energy due to a different language and different pace that surround you, different food (that sometimes constitutes a real challenge!), no own income, and an insecure future perspectives. These are issues that confront me here, that drain my energy resources. A friend of mine pointed them out to me, suggesting I should give myself more time. She was right. Adapting to the local circumstances itself is a task not to be underestimated. It may explain why I often feel tired, drained and therefore disappointed by myself. This disappointment paired with other things that come up have manifested themselves in a real depressive phase. I have been listening to the same old songs by Tool, A Perfect Circle, Massive Attack, etc. Now, I feel, the talk with my friend helped. This is only so much I can do – and that much I should do. If that doe not lead to any employment – so be it! Maybe I will figure out another time why I am on this planet. Patience!

Sick - Again!

Day 19. I am here for less than three weeks, and almost half of my time in Cairo is over. And I am sick again. Actually, my stomach stared to hurt yesterday and I caught the obligatory diarrhea. Just as I wanted to become more active about my job search and to write a project proposal with an Egyptian friend of mine. So, no hesitation this time and get some antibiotics!

What am I doing here?

I guess, at some point any expat asks her- or himself: "What am I doing here?" That question is particularly prominent among development workers or other people working in some sort of 'foreign help' (or at least I hope it is). Can or should we help other nations by being there on the ground, taking away the few high qualified job openings from the local population? The response to that question may always be a personal, political, and ethical decision. In my case, the response depends on my mood.

These days, I have been feeling quite homesick. (Probably because the job search is slowing down and looking more dim than before.) Thus, existential questions rise again - among them the one mentioned above. Why do I keep leaving those places where I make myself a little home - like Berlin, Konstanz, New York, or even Tel Aviv...? When I feel homesick, I miss my friends. So, these last days I have been looking at some pictures and must conclude that I have some of the finest friends in the world. But I feel that I do not appreciate them enough when I am with them. That is perhas the reason why I keep leaving: to remind myself how lucky I really am! Thanks to all of you!

Sick!

The night after my cleaning orgy was a little better. However, all the dust made me sick. I stayed in bed the last four days and tried different mattresses, pillows and arrangements. Now, I am up again and almost back to normal. I hope, I will adapt so that I can concentrate on the Arabic language course that started today!

Good Bye Tahrir - Hello Dokki!

Dust. It covers all of Cairo. My mom says, it comes from the desert and that it doesn't bother her as much as real dirt. Well, she visited Cairo a couple of years ago. And by all accounts so far, even during the last ten years only, the city has turned much worse. All I can say is: whether the dust comes from the desert or not is irrelevant. By the time you are confronted by it, it has sucked up the pollution of the city and meets you not in orange with a golden shine but in shades of grey, which makes it indistinguishable from regular dirt. Except, there is a lot more of it in this city than in other places I have been to... Recklessly it crawls everywhere and people don't care. Probably, they've just giving up trying to win a fight against the desert. (Who could win it?) But here I am with my European-colonial heritage claiming that one can actually do something about it by cleaning my room this whole day. Or perhaps this is another instance in which my germanness kicks in. Or I simply did not want to have trouble falling asleep a second night because of the dust in my pillow, my mattress, and everywhere for that matter. I hope, my sore throat, which I gained from that night, may thank me this night for cleaning my room!

My new room

Can you imagine rivers of back water coming from a grey curtain that was once white? Can you believe that stamping on a pillow in the bathtub for almost an hour, while it is soaked with water and soap, turns the exiting water from a darker into a lighter brown only? And while a friend of mine in New York told me to watch out for tears in my mattress (as this is where bedbugs live), my mattress here is torn beyond hope.

1 Midan Tahrir

What made me exchange my comfortable room in my hostel with the illustrious address "1 Tahrir Square" for this? Well, this feels more like a home nonetheless as I have some more private space. And I also hope to save some money by cooking for myself. Therefore, I had been checking out some apartments two days ago - and boy I hate that! Any time I look for a place to move in somewhere, there comes the point where I must remind myself to value the experience of seeing different places and meeting strangers in addition to seeing the difficulty of making a decision. This time, a friend from Berlin, who is living in Cairo, helped me. So, now I moved in a shared apartment with two Algerian Berbers in the district of "Dokki" (which the Egyptians pronounce "Do'i").

After my masochistic cleaning day, I needed a treat...

Results of Humiliation

Today, I met another German at the hostel. I don't remember why I started to talk with him. He had been working in Egypt to set up radio antennas - I wasn't entirely sure what that meant. But I imagined German engineering at work... We got into a conversation that took us downstairs to Biladi Café, back up to the lobby and later to Kazan, where we had a late lunch together. Since he had been in Egypt for each year for fifteen years, our main topic was what had changed. He underlined that less women are wearing scarfs now than three years ago. While I pointed out that I heard the rate of rape and sexual harrasment has gone up recently. Last night, he spent in a liberal bar with some Egyptians. They were making fun and so on. He asked him how much longer they'd think, a liberal place like that would be tolerated. They responded: 'five more years'. We talked while watching the never ending stream of cars that twists around the green circle of Tahrir Square. Some things never seem to change... And our understanding of the revolution and Egypt in general certainly did not suffice to come up with a clear answer. The situation is far too confusing and the bandwidth of political opinion far too wide to make sense of it all that easily.
Then we talked about his past. How he grew up in East Germany and tried to leave the country via Hungary and Yugoslavia in the late seventies. He got arrested in Budapest and sent back to the GDR. His hand was shaking while he was eating his chicken and talking with me - as it has been doing since his 2.5 years in prison. After that, he made it to West Germany and worked for a government agency after the wall came down to persecute his former opressors. With little success.

Tonight, I met a charming group of people. Like-minded people from various countries including many Egyptians. It was a very stimulating meeting of great personalities and I am glad I could join. In a creative way, this group was discussing how collaboration can be increased among organizations in Cairo that work with civil society.
All perfectly speaking English, this meeting could have taken place anywhere on the globe. The difference, of course, were the references to the recent revolution. The need for a meaningful dialogue between all the different stakeholders, different worldviews and different members of society was repeatedly mentioned. But people don't talk. There is fear of disagreement, which may be due to a cutural disposition that favors harmony. However, another important reason is that people don't trust each other and are very suspicious. Probably the heritage of oppressive government and the secret police.

The German went to a doctor to ask whether he could do anything to stop the hand from shaking. But the doc responded that the problem is in the head and that he couldn't do anything about that. Let us hope that the situation of the Egyptian people is less futile and that they will find a way to overcome their past humiliation and reach out to another.

Maps

It might be a particularly German trait to value a good map. That trait - or should I say tic - stole two half days from me. I found some great book shops on the way. For example Lehnert and Landrock, which had books in Arabic, English, French, and even German. You could already tell by the store's outer appearance...

Their map shelf was so well organized to put the map for South Sweden right next to the map of Cairo. However, the maps of Cairo they had were either in English or in Arabic. Never both. Those which were better were bulky and one was designed as a book, which was handy, but still only in English.

Today I went to the AUC's bookshop. They had lots of great books that I wanted to buy, but no good map. Finally I went back to the very first whop I tried out yesterday and bought a map there for 25 pounds (a.k.a. 3 EUR):

Yeah, one more thing off my list!
(Sorry for this boring entry!)

The Street Art Festival

Find more information at: http://www.masterpeace.org/Action.aspx?id=195

This was the line up of the bands:

4:10 to 4:40 Alwan Band
4:50 to 5:20 Kayan Band
5:30 to 6:00 SimpleXity
6:10 to 6:40 Shawari3na Band
6:50 to 7:20 May AbdelAziz
7:30 to 8:00 Shady Ahmed
8:10 to 8:40 3lama Band 
8:50 to 9:20 City Band
9:30 to 10:00 Zap Tharwat 

I loved the 3lama Band with its 'metal':

Check 'em out: http://www.reverbnation.com/3lama -- unfortunately, I haven't found a good video with their songs I liked most... :-(

Signs of Protest

This is a wall of the AUC campus. It is the corner of Mohammed Mahmoud St. and Tahrir Sq and was the epi centre of violence during the revolution:

The metro station's name that you cannot read used to be 'Mubarak'...

Note: It's fairly close to 'Sadat' station...

What a day!

After my second night in Cairo I already experienced a day packed with experiences and stories. For example, there is the story of me continuing my search or a good map of Cairo - and repeated failure. There are Marwan, Jakob and the Molsem who studies the 'Holy Bible' whom I met in the street and who, in contrast to the many others, did not want to sell me anything. In fact, Marwan helped me to finally get my Egyptian SIM-card! Then, there is the story of the tension in the air and the ongoing protest. It's Friday and one could hear the prayers everyhere. Blocks around the American University, that also include other official buildings, have been massively barricaded and guarded with armored vehicles - probably in fear of new protests in response to that strange inflammatory movie... (Therefore, I did not find the bookshop of the AUC.) And indeed there were some protests at the wall of the grphitties, but I couldn't tell abut what. And then there is the story of music in Cairo, which is probably the most interesting one. At a "Masterpeace" street art festival, I listened to something like American protest songs, Egyptian Metal, and a contemporary band that was inspired by classical Egyptian music and witnessed the crowd go wild. (Many were young Egyptian ladies.) And at night, I joined an acquaintance and her friends going to the "Cairo Jazz Club" which was playing electonic remixes of 'Western' pop songs. Behind eah of these tags, there is a story I am too tired to tell right now. I feel, I made the most of today! Good night!

Logistics

Last night I had to cut short my attempts at catching up with emails, as my two dorm-mates went to bed early. Therefore, I got up relatively early today.
The better part of the day I spent checking online which cell phone company to choose... There are three major companies in Egypt that offer prepaid plans. The difficulty o deciding for one of them results from the fact that each company is some mulit-national corporation with all its disgusting practices. In the case of Vodafone it is tax-exemption and in the case of Orange their connectedness to cases of suicides among France Telekom employees... What a choice! If you want to live a life "in peace" on this planet, it is quite a challenge if you don't want to retreat completey.
I decided to postpone my decision and by a mapof Cairo first. After I noted some bookstores in my agenda, I tried to find one in English and Arabic, which is small and handy. But this, also, appeared to be rather difficult. So, I skipped that too in order to be in time for my first appointment. I met with a German expat, who was of great help in connecting me to other activities on the ground and turned out to be a like-minded person that reminded me of a friend and former classmate from college.
We met in a relatively pricy location in Zamalek, the expats' Nile island, so I waited with dinner until my return to cheap downtown. Continuing my search for a bookstore and a SIM card, I ended up only with some eggplant and tehina in a pita and a Seven Up in my hand...
Back home, I am quite tired and won't do anything else tonight. Same procedure tomorrow, I guess!

Sufi dances

Arrival

Cairo airport lets you know that most of this country is desert. Its runways, covered by black rubber from the arriving and departing planes, are amidst the sand. They are quite long and spread out so that it takes a while to get to the terminal. It feels as if this airport is too big for the demand - or have the airlines decided to wait for calmer times? As far as I could tell from the bus ride from the airport to the hostel, everything is pretty calm and not much different to the last time I visited this country. The hassle of taxi drivers offering their services remained the same, but so did their politeness. They even helped me find their cometitors: the public bus stop. (Visitors who come to Cairo: Don't listen totheir advice to haggle cab prices down to 20 dollars or so... Take the bus: it'll cost you only 1 Egyptian Pound (= 16 U.S. cents) for you and 1 for bulky luggage!) On the bus, I experienced the same feelings of being in Egypt as five years ago. A mix of excitement, fascination and other emotions - before I fall asleep.
We arrived behind the Egyptian Museum, where it is only a short walk to the now internationally famous Tahrir Square. It is also the address of my hostel - guess what... It's the same one as five years ago. (Gosh, am I conservative!?) Some smaller structures on the square are being rebuilt, yound trees are there and a new KFC and Mc Donald's. Besides that, not a lot has changed. Even the guy at the reception remembers me.
My dorm-mates are a young oman from Taipei, who travels like crazy (She intends to go to Somalia!) and a guy from Eisenach, who is a photographer... After a cheap Kushari (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kushari), I fall asleep. Istanbul Airport was not a very hospitable place to sleep... Tonight, we plan to head for the Sufi dances...