One benefit of all this sitting and waiting for people to respond to emails or to call back is that I have a lot of time to read, write and wander the streets.
Sat out on the balcony, I try to make sense of the complex process of buying and selling government subsidised bread that is taking place outside the wooden shack on the street below. It's relatively quiet right now, with only 15 or so men, women and children huddled patiently around the shack. They, like me are waiting. Every so often there is a hushed excitement as the thick armed baker brings the bread from the out-of-sight oven to his wooden salesfloor.
The hundred or more coarse, dry flat breads disappear into customers arms in a flash, each person seemingly wanting twenty, thirty, forty loaves.

The waiting, however, is not over. Taking the just bought, fresh bread, customers drift over to two nearby cars and dispearse the bread on every inch of the roof, bonnet and boot. A dusty old lada lies permanently in the street dedicated to this unexpected role. Turned occasionally the bread is left (to cool?) for five minutes before being dusted off and shoved hurriedly, protectively, into a carrier bag, the customer leaving with a "salam" and the process beginning again with the next in line.

The sociable serenity of the scene is barely recognisable as the frenzied chaos that was widely reported in the international press just over a year ago. It is, though, hard to exaggerate the importance of this bread here. At 5 piastres (£0.005, $0.01) a piece it is a vitally affordable staple food it's easy to see why trouble breaks out when supply can't meet demand. Thankfully, business here is booming. Long may it continue.

Just a quick post today, in honour of Egypt's masterful mauling of Italy last night. Watched the game with the CASA kids in Gad (budget kebab and kofta chain) Maadi, the place went crazy at the final whistle after an outrageously tense final 15 mins, where Hadari kept Egypt's hopes alive. With performances like that against Brazil and Italy, should have no problem brushing aside the US and qualify from the group on their march to the final! Yallah Misr! I can't think of anywhere else I've been that a group stage victory in the Confederations CUp would have been celebrated with dancing on the street, it all brought back wonderful memories of the African Cup of Nations victory 18 months ago.

CASA kids were nice, went for a few drinks after the football at one of the seediest bars I've been to in Egypt. Al Horreya was, however, cheap and had a good atmosphere and, all importantly, very close. I'm sure I'll be back there before long.

Great news: at long last we have in-flat internet! It's not an ideal situation (running a 30ft cable from the landlord's flat through our window) but the exhausting routine of trekking around 4 or 5 internet and wireless-capable cafés is finally over. This also means that I can once again return to Tom in Egypt, as for the past few days whenever I've been near an internet connection I've been hooked to following what's going on in Iran. As if I didn't have big enough Twitter addiction problems already....


This week has mainly been about settling in to the flat, and I've started sending out a few emails about jobs etc. Last night I stopped by the Cairo Refugee Film Festival, an event put on in celebration of World Refugee Day (June 20th). This time last year I was helping out at Tucson's festival and it's great to be able to see how the day is being celebrated around the world. I'd really like to do some volunteering with refugees here in Cairo, if nothing else it'd be an excellent way to pass all my free time until I find a job. Tonight I'm going to a CASA 'Ahwa party in Maadi where I'll hopefully meet Andrea's coursemates and find somewhere to watch the football. I wasn't too sure what the Confederations Cup was, but they're taking it very seriously over here and by the look of the Brazil team that narrowly, undeservedly even, beat Egypt on Sunday, so is everyone else. Tonight the Pharoes come up against world champions Italy, and after their performance last match, the locals are expecting big things of their boys!

Here are some photos of our place, though I'm not sure they really do it justice.



Also, some housekeeping. If you're viewing this site on Internet Explorer then you won't be enjoying TomInEgypt in all its glory. Who knows why but IE pushes everything on my sidebar to the very bottom of the page. This is the most important of many reasons to switch to Firefox or Chrome ASAP! If you have a Gmail account and wish to follow my blog more easily then click "Follow Blog" up there on the dashboard and if you wish to be added to the list of people I email as I update then send me an email at: tom.trewinnard@gmail.com

..is leaving, and the view of the beautifully lit Citadel by night on the way home. I’d naively forgotten the nature of the Carrefour beast and was actually looking forward to the trip in the taxi on the way there. Initial excitement fast evaporated as I saw the ant-like hordes entering the mall and flocking towards the hypermarché. After an exhausting hour or so hunting for things for the flat – pans, knives, bins and the like – I retired to the nearest restaurant and abused their bottomless drinks, tortilla chips and salsa offers and waited for Andrea to get back with the other food items we needed. It’s difficult to explain the Carrefour madness to people who’ve never been as it’s really unlike anything I’ve experienced anywhere else. There have been times, I admit, when I have rushed to Carrefour in Alex as a safe-haven to buy some reasonable cheese and half-decent bread, but every time I go on a more concerted shopping trip the experience is somewhat soul destroying. Picture trying to do food shopping on a match day at Old Trafford, or Boxing Day sales with trolleys. I can see its appeal to middle and upper class Egyptians who can justify the inflated price tags because they can buy everything they need there, like at Tesco Express. But one of the things that I enjoy most about wandering through places like the street market on Mohammed Farid, next to our apartment, is that you can find a shop for everything. One man sells plastics, the next sells eggs. One man sells bread, the next is more of a lime specialist. I also love the way that shops group together here: on our street there are maybe six shops selling glasses and sunglasses in a row of seven. In other neighbourhoods I’ve seen stationery, kitchen supplies and even prosthetic limbs sold this way. Happily, Carrefour won’t threaten these shops too much any time soon, I suspect – with only a handful of stores it doesn’t have the presence to enjoy the stranglehold Tesco has on the UK market – but one feels it may only be a matter of time. For now though, I’m happy to enjoy buying onions and carrots from different shops.

Nouredin = Hero. Two long afternoons trailing round in mid-afternoon heat finally paid off as we found an excellent little flat 10 minutes walk from Andrea’s bus stop that is excellently air conditioned and generally very homely. It’s in a really great part of town that is very Egyptian – we live in front of a subsidised bread stand and above a makeshift coffee shop – but that is also not too far away from the trendy cafés of Tahrir. Everyone we’ve met here has been extremely friendly and welcoming and people are trying to help us with everything from the internet to the washing machine and to the sofa I broke after being in the flat a mere 3 hours. Guinness World Record anyone? I think it may be the result of 2 days of kosharee and one cheesy bites pizza.
This morning we went shopping in the local street market for some groceries and cleaning products, which I then deployed in expert fashion in a revival of my pro-lifeguarding days, “squeejee-ing” the floors with meticulous accuracy and speed. It’s looking good – I’m reluctant to upload pictures just yet as we have some work to do putting up posters, buying throws etc. but I’ll sort it ASAP. We also have plenty of space for people to stay, so Ahlan wa Sahlan!
Right, off to Carrefour to buy towels, bedding and all things nice. More soon!

After taking a couple of days to enjoy Cairo and kosharee the exhausting search for an apartment is now well and truly on. As previously mentioned, the dirty Americans at the AUC have swine flu (although there are now some unconfirmed rumours on Twitter that there has been a first Egyptian infected) and her classes were cancelled until Monday, which means she can help look for a place. We visited Maadi (location of suspected Egyptian swine flu case), which is closest to the AUC after its move from the handily located Downtown campus, and decided that it was very beautiful and would probably be a nice place to live, but that we'd actually prefer to try the Downtown chaos for a while. In that vein we hiked round the areas surrounding Meedan Tahrir led by an energetic and resourceful simsar - the man who finds people a flat. The way the simsars work is amazing, they seem to be able to know someone in every building and a phone number to call to see whether a flat is available. Their local knowledge and networking ability is truly astounding - I have no idea how Nouredin (our simsar) manages this whilst studying for a law MA. Speak of the devil, we're off to meet him now (Nouredin not the devil) and I've killed two laptop batteries in the time it's taken me to check emails and write an update. More soon, love and peace.

This update is being written from Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport – an oddly designed bike wheel shaped place with a landing runway so far from the terminal I could swear we were in France – which, yet again, has no free WiFi access. Astonishing. The journey thus far has been pleasant enough and I had enjoyed a long morning with my family before I set off buying last minute essentials such as swimming shorts and Earl Grey and eating croissants. They (my family not the croissants) came in particularly handyy when I belatedly discovered that my baggage allowance was not the meagre 20 kilos I’d previously bemoaned, but rather a generous 2 piece deal each of which could weigh up to a hefty 23 kilos. At this point I hoisted my darling brother into the loft to dig out a hard case for a guitar which (Inshallah) will still be in one piece on arrival in Cairo and will not cut the solitary, unplayed figure I described in my previous missal.

Worryingly, all the news this morning on the Twitosphere was of a swine flu outbreak at the AUC which had led to the short term cancellation of all classes but I couldn’t get hold of Andrea to find out more details. After a difficult first few days back with lost luggage and an excruciatingly long flight I think pig flu might be one straw too many on the back of a proverbial camel. It seems the tactic of burying pigs alive in their thousands hasn’t paid off then. Who knew? Interestingly, the guy sat opposite me is wearing one of those ominous looking face masks that became “de mode” at the height of the outbreak. I say he’s wearing it, he’s posing in it – round his neck as an attention seeking salute to swine flu. I’m just guessing, but I don’t think they are particularly effective unless they actually cover your mouth and nose. Maybe he got his info from the same source as the Egyptian government.

More later from Cairo when I arrive and secure some internet, for now here’s what I’m listening to and here’s what I’m reading.


(Later) Right, arrived in Cairo after a long taxi ride with a guy who had no idea how to get into the centre of town from the airport - it's scary that after a year away I still knew the way better than him. Off now for some much needed food - there are rumours that my first meal is, very appropriately, going to be the spicy sauced carb fest of kosharee at Filfila. Wonderful. Flat hunting starts tomorrow - I'll provide a more comprehensive update at some point later on.

With just three days until I leave, the time has come for me to pack up my belongings and my memories from my student life here in Manchester. Trying to fit a life into 20kg of suitcase is outrageously tricky and there's something very surreal about sorting things in order of importance, usefulness and weight. As you pack you have to remain almost as an outsider looking in on your life, objective, ruthlessly discarding the important and irreplaceable for the practical. Would that I could take my guitar or my wall hanging or my books! Leaving my books saddens me immensely, it seems such a waste that they sit lonely in a box until my return - but the odd sense of possession I feel towards they doesn't allow me to give them away. I've read them all, and may never read some of them again, but there are too many memories and thoughts and ideas tied up in the pages, too personal. Into the box it is then...

Whilst the tragedy of the boxed books and a guitar unplayed marks a definite closing of a chapter, I'm so pleased that my next journey will be in Cairo. Seeing Andrea there on Skype, hearing the Egyptian accents and the Cairo traffic makes me jealous I'm not there already. A few days will fly by, and I'll be a part of the chaos again - I can't wait. Welcome back to Tom in Egypt - I hope you enjoy the adventure.


 

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