Mixed Emotions

I am going to preface this post by saying that I am not asking for sympathy, nor am I complaining about life here. But what happened tonight just keeps playing over and over in my head, and while on the one hand I want to totally forget it, on the other hand, I don't want to.

Ooookay, so this post was going to be about Egypt's victory over Ghana in the Africa Cup (wooohhoooo Masr!). We watched the match on a big screen projector in the American Embassy, which wasn't where we originally wanted to end up (we wanted the more "authentic" experience), but ma'alesh (translation: no big deal). Anyway, the game was super intense, and Egypt won 1-0, so of course there was much celebration on the streets and we wanted to go out and participate. We were walking en masse to go get dinner, and like before, there were cars driving and honking, flags waving, people shouting at us from car trunks, "Masr!" There was a huge parade in the street with flags, and fire, and Carolyn, Zoe, a few of the boys, and I wanted to get closer so to try to get some of it on video. Everything started off fine, with people waving at us, and posing for the camera.

But then, I don't know exactly what happened, but this crowd of about 15 boys maybe aged 10 years old up to middle-aged swarmed around first me, and then Carolyn as well. I'm going to gloss over the details, but it was molestation. And it was repeated, and it was coming at us from every direction. I don't know how long it lasted, because it felt like forever, but eventually the American boys with us noticed, and they formed a human circle around us to try to protect us. Even that didn't stop the swarm of men, though. Finally, these older shop keepers pulled Carolyn and me into their store away from the crowd, and we stayed there for a while until the crowd passed.

There are several things about this situation that bother me a lot. First of all, the fact that it happened at all. I understand that people were excited that Egypt won (so was I! I'm no sports fan, but this was an intense game), but why would that excitement manifest itself in this way? And why was that okay? (Well, obviously the shop keepers knew that it wasn't "okay" and eventually saved us, but (1) it took them long enough and (2) it wasn't just one boy doing this-there was a swarm of them, and I'm sure that this wasn't just a one time occurrence)

Did they see me and automatically think that because I was a foreign female, I have loose morals and therefore what they did was called for? Anyone who knows me knows that that assumption is faaaaar from the truth. I try so hard not to prejudge people, so it really upsets me when I'm seen as a wealthy, "liberated" American woman, without morals, and without any respect for the culture here. I mean, I was wearing long sleeves and long pants-completely covered!

I also couldn't help but feel jealous when Scott, another member of our group, was able to just run into the crowd and join into the celebration. He was lifted up on top of one of the cars in the parade, and had a blast. In comparison, all I tried to do was take a picture and I got ambushed and violated. Both of us are American. The only difference is that he's male and I'm female. That just doesn't sit well with me. But what can, and should be done about it? Now I don't want to go on a crusade for the "liberation" of Egyptian women. First of all, if I take the "cultural relativist" approach here, it's not my place, nor should I try to impose a Western view of "liberation" on this different culture. But on the other hand...come on! No one deserves what Carolyn and I went through.

One last thing that bothered me about the situation was my automatic response afterward, when some of our group members who had seen this happen asked me if I was all right. My immediate reaction was to smile and shrug it off, like it didn't bother me. I mean, stuff like this happens here. But obviously I was NOT okay because it is still bothering me, particularly after I started loading pictures and videos from tonight onto my computer and I saw that I had the whole thing on video. You can see the swarm coming at me (while the boys in our group are still laughing and smiling because they don't realize what's going on), and then the camera angle is all over the place as I try to protect myself. When I watched that I felt sick to my stomach, and when I came back to the dorms I walked right past the dance celebration and took a shower instead. I just wish that someone else in the group hadn't just let me shrug it off and asked, "No, REALLY, are you okay?" Because, as I said at the beginning of this post, I don't like feeling that I'm asking for sympathy. I didn't want to dwell on it and bring it up again, but I wish that someone else had noticed that I was quiet for the rest of the night.

Whew. I think that's it. Anyway, while the male/female situation here continues to baffle m, I'm not going to let this experience affect the rest of my time here. I know that a majority of Egyptians are amazing, and are probably the friendliest and most welcoming people I have ever met.

Woohooooooo Misr!

Well we just got back from watching the Egypt vs. Algeria game in a local qahua (coffee/shisha shop). We wanted to get a more authentic Egyptian experience so we chose a more "shaabi" (meaning "local") place, and we definitely got what we asked for. We all crammed into this small smoke-filled room full of men (there were maybe 3 women outside of our group) who were constantly banging drums and chanting. It was impossible to see the small tv, so I only knew what was going on by the crowd's reaction. And boy did they react. All I can say is that those men were very emotionally involved in what was going on. Anyway, Misr won!! And then all hell broke loose on the streets. There were crowds of men with flags, lots of fire, cars speeding around with people hanging out of the trunks...At one point we crossed into a traffic circle and these 5 cars kept speeding around and around the circle honking and waving their flags, so it was impossible for us to get out (eventually we had to get Ali to walk out and stop traffic for us). We were finally able to find taxis, and took a very circuitous route to get back home, but there was still soo much traffic and dare I say it but the driving in Egypt was actually WORSE than it usually is (I didn't think that was possible). At one point, our taxi driver actually sped up into the crowd of people on the street so that two of them fell onto the hood of our car! He drove in zig zags for a while trying to throw them off, and we all gasped, but then our driver laughed and explained that the men on the hood were "ashaab" (his friends).

This blog post was interrupted by a half hour chanting match/dance party with the other girls on my floor.

Can't wait for the next match!

Pictures

To the left is our lovely bathrooms (the washer destroys clothes so I plan to wash mine in a bucket). To the right is the room I share with Habiba. It's pretty comfortable and a nice size. Below is the view from my window.

Some things that I forgot to mention in my post yesterday...

First of all, I forgot to mention the constant supervision that as females we are under here in the dorms. The formal rules for Egyptian female students living here are that they are not allowed to leave the dorms after 7 pm any night of the week, and if they are already outside of the dorms at that time, must return by 10 pm at the latest any night of the week (I've heard horror stories of people being locked out and having to sleep outside, which seems somewhat counterproductive to me...). As Americans, we have a curfew of 11 pm on weeknights and 1 pm on weekends, although they won't give us (much) trouble if we come back late in a large group, especially if we are accompanied by males. Additionally, the "Supervisor" has a roster with all of our names in it, and checks off that we return each night. The other night, I checked in when I got back around 9:30 pm, but there must have been some mix-up and I wasn't marked off because the Supervisor herself actually called our floor at 10 pm to make sure that I was there. My roommate Habiba describes it as feeling like "chickens in a cage." I'm not a huge fan, but I appreciate the fact that we are given more freedom as Americans. I would be so frustrated if I were in her position (the only added bonus is that if our Egyptian roommates are out with us, they are subject to our curfew instead of theirs).

Last night we watched the Egypt versus Cameroon match in Halwiyaat Misr ("Sweets of Egypt," a dessert place) which was very entertaining. Egypt won, so of course there was celebration on the streets afterward. Everyone is eagerly anticipating the match between Egypt and Algeria which will take place this Friday.

Al-Hiyaa Al-Yawmiya (Daily Life)

Well I've been here for about 2 weeks now (it feels like so much more), and things are starting to settle down. I decided on my classes, and I'm pretty happy with all of them. I'm taking Classical Arabic, Colloquial Egyptian Arabic, Islamic Politics (Like my modern Islam class at Tufts, but in Arabic!!!! It's my first time reading Islamic theorists in Arabic, taking notes in Arabic, discussing in Arabic, and writing papers in Arabic. Both invigorating and intimidating...), and a "one-on-one" History of the Middle East class, which is basically the same deal as Islamic Politics as far as doing readings, writing papers, etc. but it's just me and the professor, which on the one hand is even more intimidating, but on the other hand helps because I can ask him to stop if I don't understand something or if I need a word explained. It went pretty well today until towards the end when I think he got excited because I understood him so well, and in his excitement talked at rapid speed. But all in all, I'm excited to see how I improve this semester.

Outside of class there have been activities organized for us, for example every other week we learn popular songs in Egyptian colloquial, so a few days ago we went to a concert for the band Wust Al Balad, whose songs we learned in class. We also had a scavenger hunt in the city, and have celebrated one birthday already at the somewhat westernized restaurant/sketchy dance place called "Mermaid."

I still haven't gotten to dance yet, but I'm in the process of remedying that...the program might offer Raqs Shaabi (Middle Eastern folk dance) classes to us at a reduced price starting next week. I had really been hoping for belly dancing lessons, but it turns out there isn't really any organized instruction here, only in Cairo.

Life in "the Medina" (literally "the city" in Arabic, it's the place where students who are from out of town live while school is in session, and where we Americans live), takes some getting used to, but is definitely manageable. I have a mattress that isn't like a rock this time (in comparison to last summer...), however my bed sags in the middle, so its like I'm in a hammock. This is the case for most of the girls. The bathroom consists of 3 toilets (only 2 of which work) and 2 shower stalls for the whole floor. There is no toilet paper, and no soap. Which means you need to remember to buy toilet paper, and to take it with you every time you use the bathroom. If you forget, well...you learn the hard way. Also, there is really poor drainage, so every time someone takes a shower, the whole bathroom floods. So you need to remember to always wear shoes (you also learn this the hard way).

Food also is a little rough, but definitely tolerable. For breakfast we usually have some type of hard bread, jam, occasionally plain yogurt (which I dump honey in), hard boiled eggs, plain cornflakes, and either milk or juice (but we're not allowed both, unfortunately). I still haven't figured out why the milk and yogurt don't need to be refrigerated....For lunch we're on our own, and we usually run to Abu Rabia, a tiny restaurant close to our school where you can get a fool (bean paste) pita for 75 piasters (you do the math: 5.5 guineas in a dollar and 100 piasters in a guinea, so obviously very cheap by American standards). For dinner we usually have some sort of fried chicken or fish, rice, occasionally some vegetables with lots of oil, sometimes soup, sometimes noodles, and sometimes fruit. All I can say is I've learned to be a lot less picky. I now eat eggplant and cucumber because they're basically the only vegetables we get, as well as oranges and tangerines, because they're basically the only fruits we get.

The Egyptians that live with us are very friendly and very sociable. My roommate has had exams this whole time (yes, the education system in Egypt is pretty rough. They had final exams that stretched this entire past month), but we went shopping last night together which was really nice and a great way to practice my speaking. They are all very nocturnal as well. I don't know when they sleep, but obviously not at night. The combination of thin walls and loud voices (soooo much louder than the dorms at either Tufts or Carleton) woke me up at 2:30 am this morning. There's just this sort of sisterhood, I guess. A friend compared it to freshman year in college when everyone travels in packs and is always in each other's rooms. Except some of these girls are in their 5th or 6th year of school (at least in the case of the medical students).

I suppose that's enough for now. It's really difficult to balance keeping in touch with people and trying to immerse myself in this new language and culture. I've been trying more and more to think in Arabic, but that's somewhat difficult because every time something out of the ordinary happens (which is basically every day here), I want to share it with friends and family at home so I automatically start thinking about it in English.

Ana Ma Baatkalimsh Al Ingleze

Yesterday we took the language pledge, which means no more speaking in English. It feels weird to be talking to my roommate in Arabic right now and typing in English. It isn't toooo bad yet because we're all pretty much in the same boat. Lots of hand gestures and simplified vocabulary...

In general, the good seems to be outweighing the bad here. I'm definitely not a huge fan of the food (I'm tired of oil!), and yesterday I was almost groped in the crotch, but I saw it coming and managed to dodge it in time. I appreciated the reaction of one of the boys in our program, who was walking behind me, and immediately asked our head of the program how to say "How would you like it if someone did that to your sister?" in amiyya (Arabic colloquial). Like I said, I appreciated that, and I appreciate how chivalrous the guys on our trip are being in walking us home at night, etc. but I still haven't been able to figure out this part of Egyptian culture. Men here are so protective of their sisters, but there's daily harassment, catcalls, whistling, etc whenever you leave the house. It's definitely not all men, but I'm not really sure where the need for this arises from. Maybe it just helps release...frustration...because they're usually separated from women in this society. And women are so withdrawn when they're out on the streets and usually don't respond to harassment, but when you're inside the home with them, it seems like they have a completely different personality. The Egyptian girls in my dorm are extremely personable and loud all hours of the night. Strange...

Anyway, like I was saying, there are good things as well. We visited Montazeh the other day (the President's summer residence...there's a huge house there, beautiful gardens, and a beach), I had the best juice of my life, which turned out to be some sort of coconut and milk concoction (I'm not really a fan of coconut and wouldn't have ordered it if my friend had explained to me what it was before I drank it but it was AMAZING), and was only 1 guinea which is the equivalent to 20 cents, and we watched the Egypt vs. Mozambique soccer match last night in a cafe. That was pretty crazy...Egyptians are very into soccer. I'm happy that Egypt won.

Today was our first day of classes. I'm lucky in that there are two classes at my Fusha (classical Arabic) level, and I ended up in the one that has a manageable homework load, whereas the other class has hours and hours of it. My professor seems nice, and we only have 6 people in our class. I also had my Amiyya and Media Arabic classes today, so it was a long day.

All right, I suppose that's enough of an English break for now...

The Curse of Cairo Airport

Finally made it to Alexandria. Apparently I am cursed when it comes to traveling to and from Egypt. Not only was my flight late taking off in Germany, neither of my checked luggage pieces arrived, I couldn't find the man supposed to take me to Alex, and, well I guess those were the two major things...So basically, I was luggageless, phoneless, and alone in Cairo airport for 2 hours last night. I think it was really the last part that was the most scary...At least last summer when I was stuck in Cairo airport for an extra day and had to sleep in a Burger King I had Liz to take charge of things and Chris to provide comic relief through his sarcasm. This time, it was only me. Other passengers had their tour leader figure out the missing luggage information, but I had to take charge and use a combination of English and the little Amiyya that I could muster up (something about tiredness+stress doesn't lend itself to speaking Arabic...) to a) call someone, b) register my luggage as missing, and c) find my ride to Alex. So I, once again, asked random Egyptians to use their cell phones (just like good times, right? Oh last summer....) and called all the emergency contact numbers I had been given from Middlebury, but no one answered. At this point, I must have looked very upset because an old woman came up and gave me a hug and asked me what was wrong. After explaining things to her, she told me to stay in the line for lost luggage, and then she went looking for the Middlebury driver. She came back about 10 minutes later saying that she had found someone holding a sign for Middlebury, but he shook his head when she asked him if he was waiting for a student like myself. I really didn't know what to do at this point, so I left the luggage line, and went in search of him myself. I asked him in Arabic if he was supposed to be waiting for me, and this time he said yes (apparently he was confused and thought the old woman wanted a ride). So, finally at 9:30 pm (note: I was supposed to leave Cairo airport at 6:30 pm and had already been traveling for about 20 hours), after getting a tracking number for my lost luggage and being told that it would arrive the next day at 10 pm (in shah'allah), I left with him for Alexandria.

Next began the 3.5 hour car ride to Alex, punctuated by repeated phone calls from Khalid, Lizz, and Nehad who didn't know where I was and had apparently e-mailed my parents saying so. Everything eventually got figured out, and I got to the women's dorms at Alexandria University a little before 1 am this morning. A few other students also arrived about half an hour after I did, but I was exhausted and had already gone to bed at this point (after meeting my very friendly roommate, Habiba).

This morning, Nehad let the other late students and myself sleep in late and in about an hour we are going over to the center for lunch and to meet everyone.

All I can say is, there really just is something about Egypt...Or, when I think about my experiences last summer (lost luggage again, wallet incident, left behind snorkeling in the Red Sea, stuck in Cairo an extra day), maybe it's just me...

Of course, at the same time I'm happy to be here. Just very tireddddddd....