I hadn't noticed that our neighborhood in the Southwestern corner of the Cairo metropolitan area had a name until a couple of days ago when a blog reader asked what city she should put into her weather app to follow the temperature here. Glancing at my own phone, I saw that we reside in the Al Haraneyah District of Giza, Egypt. It's a nice compact area just outside the Ring Road that surrounds the city.
Plug that into your weather app and you can follow the temps here, too.
Yesterday, we walked up to our favorite bakery, about a half mile from home. I paused to take a picture of Hekma Barbecue restaurant, named for Al Hekma Street where it stands at the northern end of the district.
At first, I didn't notice Hamada, the owner and our friend, standing nearby. He immediately came over to welcome us back to Egypt.
After giving me a hard time about still not learning much Arabic, he posed for a picture with me.
The overall picture of the area shows some interesting details. A lantern, for the soon-to-arrive fasting month of Ramadan, is already hanging high above the street. A dentist's office sign is visible above Hamada's restaurant and a new shwerma restaurant has opened across the street with chicken roasting on a vertical barbecue rotisserie. We will have to go back and try that our for lunch.
Another question we have been asked is "what fruits and vegetables are available currently?" On the corner of Al Hekma Street there is a market with most of the fare. Click on the photo and judge for yourself. We were surprised to see the watermelons already out. In the past, they have not arrived for sale until a week before our departure at the end of March.
Strawberries are still available. No garlic appears to have arrived - that usually shows up at the end of March along with the watermelons. Prices are definitely higher this year. Most of those signs read 6.50 EGP per kilo, versus 4 or 5 EGP last year. But 6.50 equates to about 25 cents for us; so, still quite a bargain.
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