Canuck Abroad - Neil

I met Neil Thompson at Queen's University and worked with him on the International Affairs Association. Last year Neil was an intern with the Parliamentary Internship Program with the Government and is presently working on contract for the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) in Cairo. These are extracts from e-mails that he has sent since his arrival this summer (with his permission, naturally) on what life is like in one of the world's most populated cities.

Letter One

Your Cairo correspondent, Neil Thompson, reporting in for the first time.

It has now been almost exactly a week since I left Toronto for my Egyptian adventure.  Already the experience has been fantastic, unbelievable, and even a little scary (any of you who have experienced Cairo's traffic will relate to this last one).  I arrived last Sunday night, having been awake for thirty plus hours.   Thankfully, I was met by a driver from my work who chauffeured me safely to my hotel where I was able collapse (although not before fulfilling my promise to the driver to watch a few minutes of an Egypt team beating an Italian team at football).

My first forty-eight hours in Cairo had two different people tell me what my lungs already suspected - that it had recently become the world's most polluted city (so there Mexico City!).  Of course, we have to have sympathy for the city planners who have seen their city grow from 3 million to 18 million in just thirty years (an unbelievable sustained 6% growth rate).

On the cultural side, however, the city has been spectacular.   In fact, on the way in from the airport we passed a statue of Ramses (built, oh, THOUSANDS of years ago).  It is now surrounded by three six-lane highways - quite the juxtaposition.  I also went to my first local film yesterday.  "Al Lymbee" is a comedy where the title character must be frequently rescued from his own antics.  You will be pleased to know that in the end Lymbee gets the girl, but not before breaking into song on a number of occasions

(a-la-Austin Powers street dance).  Other than that, I didn't understand much of the movie - although my fellow movie goers (who spoke Arabic) seemed to be enjoying it.

Probably the single thing that has been the most surprising is the traffic. I was previously under the misconception that Washington traffic was just about as harrowing as it could get, I now stand corrected.  As a consequence of a traffic volume that positively dwarfs the capacity of the streets, people drive only a few feet apart, and pass at high speed with only a few inches to spare on either side.   Indeed, it isn't at all surprising to see four or five lanes of traffic driving on a three-lane highway.  I also noticed early-on that very few cars possess side-view mirrors.  This is either a response to the crowded driving conditions (removing them so you can squeeze into tighter spots), or a result of them (perhaps the Egyptian equivalent of stalling your first standard transmission car?).  The rather shoddy amputation job on many suggests that it is probably the latter.  The congestion downtown has also resulted in (what we in Canada would consider) a pathological inspiration by pedestrians to cross the street by thrusting themselves into the street and basically daring cars to hit them.  It will take me at least another week to go that native.

Upon arrival I didn't yet have my accommodations set up but, thanks to the efforts of my coworkers, I was able to move into the apartment of a consultant who was away for two weeks while I searched for longer-term accommodations.  Little did I realize that the consultants apartment is in a beautiful one in Zamalek (an island in the heart of downtown) that faces the Nile on one side and a beautiful country club on the other - it is a tough life.

Sadly, my efforts to live with an Arabic-speaking family came to naught because of both social and economic reasons.  Socially, it is not appropriate to have a strange man living in the same household with an (unwed?) woman.   Economically it is tough because rents in Cairo are astronomically expensive (even by Toronto standards), and thus there are very few people who have an 'extra' room that they could rent out.  So instead I am going to be sharing an apartment with a Canadian who is also eager to learn about the language and culture.  I am also going to be taking Arabic lessons at the American University of Cairo (AUC) so that I can progress beyond my current vocabulary of "mi-seh il-kheyr" (good afternoon), "min-fad-lak" (please) and "maa-salema" (goodbye, literally closer to 'go in peace').  Undoubtedly my coworkers, who are all themselves Egyptians, will be able to help me through the roughest patches in my Arabic.

A view of Cairo.

Well, this is already probably the longest email I have written in five years, so I will just leave you with a story about one of my early stumbling blocks... 

Last week I found out that my office does communal lunches.   Everyone kicks in money at the beginning of the month, and then each day lunch is brought in.  Well, since I was only going to be there a little over a half of this month, they suggested that I kick in twenty Egyptian pounds (half the monthly LE40).   But, while getting my money out, I figured that since I was there for a little more than half the month, I should instead contribute twenty-five.  And, being very proud of myself for learning their numbering system I recognized the symbol on the bill as meaning "25".  My elation was, however, short-lived as my boss informed me that I had just given her 25 piasters (cents).  Nothing like declaring your generosity as you fork over a quarter.  My coworkers still get a good laugh at that one. 

Letter Two

I am pleased to say that your Cairo correspondent has not met an untimely demise due to the traffic, and thus can continue his commentary.

I have recently shed my temporary accommodations overlooking the Nile, a moved to a Cairo suburb named

The Nile River in Cairo.

Maadi.  The move was definitely a mixed bag.

Sadly, I am giving up my downtown location where I was a ten-minute walk from everything.  On the other hand, I have also rid myself of pollution that was so bad that I couldn't exercise outside.  Indeed, the smog was so bad that in the morning I couldn't make out the buildings on the opposite side of the Nile!

Another plus is that the ride to work has gotten more interesting, as I now take the subway.  The system is used almost exclusively by Egyptians – owing to a combination of the exchange rate and lack of air conditioning therein.

The result, however, is that I am often the lone tuft of blond hair in a sea of black.  Happily this was one of my original goals in deciding where to go this year: to experience being a visible minority (or as much a white westerner can).   Let there be no doubt, I am a visible minority here.

Indeed, whenever I glance around in the subway, I always find that I am the subject of numerous inquisitive stares.  Children are the best, as they just stare openly.  This experience, while new to me, has been relatively innocuous and indeed sometimes fun as I often get a chance to use my fledgling Arabic.

The tough part of my being a visible minority here occurs when I walk in the more touristy part of downtown.  There people approach and make small talk based entirely on your ethnicity/nationality (you have no idea how many Canada Dry jokes I have heard), and then invite you to go with them to their shop, gallery, etc.   I definitely struggle with this, and find the white-equals-rich phenomenon depressing (as well as a stark indictment of the falloff in engagement and humanism outside of our national borders).

On a lighter note, work is going well.  As some of you already know, I am working as a consultant for the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) doing background research for the New Partnership for Africa's Development (an Africa-owned plan for how the continent would like to develop and what they will need to do it).  In a happy coincidence, there was not desk space in the Canadian embassy, and so I am working out of the Program Support Unit, an all-Egyptian body that helps the embassy coordinate local arrangements.  This has proven quite a boon as they're all native Arabic-speakers, but with strong commands of English - making them great teachers for my linguistic studies.

Simultaneously, of course, I have been trying to absorb and observe the culture: by talking to people, reading Egyptian literature, etc.  Thus, I thought that I would end this email with a few of the tidbits I have taken in:

Firstly, because faith plays a much larger role in both day-to-day lives and in national law and politics, Egypt is a fascinating intertwining of culture and religion.  For example, there is a strong prohibition on pre-marital sex for both genders in the Qu'ran, but socially the prohibition against men has all but reversed itself, and the same 'stud' image that exists in the West is propagated here.

Similarly, the oft-quoted provision in the Qu'ran that allows men to marry four wives, says more precisely that a man may only marry more than one wife if he will treat them all equally - and that this is impossible (i.e. it is essentially forbidden).  This second paragraph is, however, omitted in the cultural practice.

The famous Sphynx.

Finally, perhaps the most interesting combination of culture and religion are the trends in women's fashion.  In a re-affirmation of their Islamic culture, it has become increasingly common for women to choose to wear veils (a general term that can include just wearing a scarf over the head).

However, acting simultaneously has been haute-couture in all its spandex-laden glory.  The coalescence of these two trends in individuals can be very odd, especially when the head covering (making women less sex-objects) is all but defeated by the rest of the outfit.

Maa-salema, Neil

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