The Pyramids, 2015

It occurred to me that I haven't included any pictures of the Giza Pyramids on the blog this year.  Let's fix that.

The build up of apartments just north of the Ring Road have almost eliminated good views of they pyramids along that route.  But on a clear day (and today was one of those) you can see just how close to the city these pyramids are.


From the roof of a friend's house, the three major pyramids at Giza stood out well under broken clouds.


A closer look shows a number of tourists on the causeway that leads from the pyramid of Chephren down toward the Sphinx.  The map on the right comes from this site.
 

The Great Pyramid of Cheops held the best lighting this afternoon.  It is interesting to note that my picture was taken from almost the same angle as this 19th century shot that is found on the Wikipedia entry for the great pyramid. 




As the sun set, lights came on in the nearby streets and the pyramid silhouettes presented a nice view against the darkening sky.

Bitter Cold with a Dusting of Dust

The forecast low temperature in the 40s described a couple of posts below did not emerge overnight.   We hit a minimum of 53 degrees (F) on our balcony and the wind was blowing the sand around again.  People just decide on their own whether they'll send their kids to school on days like today.  We heard of one class of twenty-five second graders attended by a friend's son that only had ten students show up.

We braved the cold, the wind and the dust to walk up to the vegetable market, however.  We noted the accumulation of the dust on the steps of our building and on nearby parked cars. We also saw that the parking area of a nearby private school was filled with cars and parents were picking up their students.


We made it all the way to the vegetable market and the bakery with no problem.  Several passersby and the workers at the markets commented on how bad the weather was, however.  The bakery goods are all covered with plastic to keep the dust out.  The vegetables - well, we always wash them anyway.

Some Egyptian and World Politics

I realize that with an anchorman "misremembering" everything from Iraqi combat to gangs rampaging through his hotel lobby and Bruce Jenner being involved in a traffic accident, there probably isn't much airtime available on the evening news at home to report on world affairs.  But did you know that Vladamir Putin is spending two days here in Cairo?

This is the first visit here by a Russian leader since the 1970s.  Here is a Reuters article on the two countries commitment to fight terrorism.  That commitment was reinforced with the Kalashnikov AK-47 that Putin presented to president Sisi, shown in this picture.

(Photo from media sources)

Putin also pledged help setting up a whole new nuclear power industry.


Meanwhile, the news on the U.S. - Egypt relationship is not so sanguine.

A story appeared last week in select U.S. media showing this picture of a Muslim Brotherhood party member meeting at the U.S. State Department.  The Brotherhood member had posted it on his Facebook page.  He is flashing the Brotherhood "sign."

(Photo from media sources)

Well, the sh** hit the fan when that showed up on the evening news here in Cairo!  People were wondering why the U.S. would meet with members of this outlawed organization that the Egyptian government has declared a terrorist organization.

State Department spokesperson, Jan Psaki explained.  It was Georgetown University's fault:

“Well, State Department officials meet—recently met with a group of visiting Egyptian former parliamentarians whose visit to the United States was organized and funded by Georgetown University,” she said. “Such meetings are fairly routine at the State Department where we regularly meet with political party leaders from across the world.”

 Georgetown apparently didn't appreciate that.  Two days later, Psaki re-explained:

“Unfortunately, I didn’t have the accurate information on one small piece. The meeting was set up by the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy, a nonprofit. So the visit was not funded, as you know, by us or the U.S. Government, but it was also not funded by Georgetown,” Psaki said.

Continuing on, Psaki was asked:

"Are you—is the building comfortable with continuing to do business with this center, this group?” a reporter asked.

“Yes. Yes,” Psaki responded.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry condemned the visit and expressed frustration with the State Department for hosting the Brotherhood-aligned delegation, which was first reported by the Free Beacon.

“These statements are incomprehensible to me, we do not understand that there will be such a communication with the elements involved in terrorist acts to intimidate the Egyptians,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri was quoted as saying in the regional press.

“The Brotherhood is not a political party,” but “a terrorist organization,” Shukri said.

Just days after the Brotherhood-aligned delegation was hosted at the State Department, the Islamist organization released a statement calling for “a long, uncompromising jihad.”

There is an opinion piece in the New York Post today that will help bring you up to speed.

You can read it at this link.

Bitter Cold in Cairo

Well, that's the forecast from The Egyptian Meteorological Authority (EMA) in this story. 

In Cairo, an average low of 5 C is expected.

That would be 41 F - and doesn't sound too bitter to us.  Right now, at 2 a.m. The thermometer out on the balcony reads  58.


But I have reset the min/max to see what happens before I get up tomorrow.  By the way, that EMA story I referenced at the top of the post has some additional nice pictures of the sand over the citythat I reported on earlier.

It's an Inside Day

With the sand blowing about outside (see the next post below) we are spending the day inside.  Linda is reading on her Kindle and I am putting together another page for my Burroughs 205 computer history website.  But, we could be watching television.

When we visited a friend's house a couple of days ago, they had the local cooking channel on.  Linda asked which channel that was and we were told, "CBC Sofra."  This fairly new channel offers up strictly Egyptian fare for the Nilesat market.

Yes, but where is that on our satellite receiver? Our host checked and we were given the transponder code on Nilesat of 11.488H, 27.500V.  Last night we looked it up and added it to the "Hobby" group on our receiver.

The format of the shows will be familiar to anyone who watches the Food Network at home.  Here's the webpage for CBC Sofra.  The broadcast is all in Arabic and watching may be a good way to learn the language.

Last night, chef Sherbini (apparently very well known here) was preparing shrimp panne with a rice and vegetable side dish that looked very appetizing.  We began watching as he finished up the side dish.


Here's the dish with an ingredient list and the chef's kitchen.


Unfortunately, the ingredient list turned out to be for the shrimp, not the accompanying rice dish that was prepared in the first half hour.
 

Breaded Shrimp Ingredient List

• Big Shrimp
• Garlic - cumin
• Lemon
• Hot Peppers
• Vinegar - oil
• Corn Flakes 
• Flour - eggs 
• Mustard
• Salt pepper

As on Food Network, the chef was all smiles as he finished the show and they cut to the commercials for cooking oil, ghee and hair cream. 


Note the color coordination of chef Sherbini's wristband, coat trim and glasses - part of his signature "shtick."

MIDNIGHT UPDATE:
I added the chef's name and a couple of links to this morning's post.  You don't have to ask many people to discover that this is chef Sherbini.  He is definitely a star in the local market.

Those Shifting, Whispering Sands

"What's the weather like in Cairo?"

That's a popular question when people find out that we spend our winters here.  It is generally in the 60s or low 70s during the day in January and then begins trending upward.  By the end of March, there might be an occasional day approaching 90.

Today, when we checked the local weather in the morning, we saw this:


The Khamasin season doesn't usually begin until April.  So maybe that is why the forecast only says "sand" and not "sandstorm."  A 19th-century account of khamsin in Egypt goes:

" These winds, though they seldom cause the thermometer of Fahrenheit to rise above 95° in Lower Egypt, or in Upper Egypt 105°, are dreadfully oppressive, even to the natives. When the plague visits Egypt, it is generally in the spring; and the disease is most severe in the period of the khamáseen."

A few days ago I captured these images to compare the weather report at home, at the lake and here:







Aside from the temperatures at that time:

• minus 5 in Bloomington
• minus 14 in Hayward
• 68 above here 

the biggest difference is in the number of reporting stations.  Back home, a lot of Minnesotans have their own weather station and have them on-line.

Since we Minnesotans have such an obsession with weather, I am adding a weather tag to this site.  Just click on the "weather" label below this post to locate other weather-related posts.

Here's the current view from the front balcony, by the way.

Raising the Microwave

 Counter space is at a premium at Cairo Condo. We use our microwave a lot but it takes up precious counter space.



I've dreamed of elevating the microwave and finally that dream has come true. I thought of attaching a shelf to the wall but Tom reminded me that we don't know where the electricity runs through the wall. Wouldn't want to accidentally drill into the 220 volt wiring. Then I thought of attaching a shelf to the underside of the cabinets. Again Tom brought me to the realities of Egypt when he said the cabinets might not be sturdy enough to handle that. Aha! How about a microwave stand? We thought about taking measurements back to Bloomington and bringing the pieces to Egypt next winter for assembly.

As you've noticed in previous posts, we've not been too keen on the local workmanship but our latest dealings with a carpenter (Sammy) proved more than satisfactory. We decided to give Sammy the job and save ourselves having to pack boards in our bags next year.



Now for the design. I sat down and drew what I wanted and it surprisingly turned out to look just like a little table. We took the measurements and a friend relayed them via phone to Sammy. What color did we want, he inquired. Not being particularly fussy about the color, I said, "medium brown". He said it would be ready in three days.


Three days later our finished microwave table was delivered. It's sturdy, is the perfect size, the color matches the cabinets and the workmanship is excellent. We can see that much of it was done with hand tools not power tools. It's exactly what I wanted. Cost-$33.00. Couldn't be happier!

Vegetables and Fruit

With so many fresh vegetables available at modest prices, you can imagine that they are incorporated into many Egyptian meals.  And, you would be right.  There tend to be tomatoes in many dishes as in the potatoes on both of these tables.


The picture on the right, above, also shows three plates of mahshi or "stuffed."  Mahshi is frequently served in the form of stuffed cabbage leaves or stuffed zucchini and eggplant. Sometimes, you might even find stuffed carrots.


The concept of easy preparation has taken hold here too.  You can find your vegetables hollowed out ready to stuff in the vegetable section of Carrefour, at a premium price.


Most meals will be accompanied by a fresh green salad, too.


For dessert, you are likely to be served a plate of oranges and bananas, although a mixed fruit dessert cup may sometimes appear.





Linda is still working at collecting recipes for our favorite dishes.  They appear to be closely-held family secrets and not written down.  Measurements are "by eye," and not by the measuring spoon. She is currently working on perfecting this eggplant and garlic combination that is one of our favorites.




.

Another Accident on/off the Ring Road

I thought I heard the elevator door creaking and the neighbor's door shutting yesterday evening.  Linda said, "That's a crash - sounds like a pile up!"  We moved to the windows but it was hard to see much in the dark.  At first, we thought it might involve the car facing in the wrong direction (the right arrow in this photo).


But that appears to just be someone who stopped, turned around and came back a bit so see what was going on up by the left arrow.  Driving customs are a lot more casual here than in Bloomington.

If we zoom in a bit, there are those telltale signs of a problem.  A missing section of guard rail and onlookers peering over the edge of the road.  In just a few minutes several emergency vehicles appeared on the frontage road below and tended to the problem.  During all the years we've lived here we've never seen any accidents on the Ring Road and now we've witnessed two in a matter of days. It's winter but it's not as if they're driving on ice or snow. Can you imagine that? It would give me nightmares!


In the morning light, the broken-out railing supports are visible.

At the Vegetable Market

We have been looking for a good one-stop vegetable market near our apartment.  This one opened nearby last February but had already shut down by this year.


I asked my neighbor across the hall for some advice.  Like many men here, Mohammed does the grocery shopping for his family.  It is not at all unusual to see a car stop at a fruit or vegetable stand and the man get out to shop while his wife stays in the car.  Mohammed recommended the produce stand near our favorite bakery up the street.  We didn't realize that they had a large vegetable selection in the back.


The vegetable selection was not only superb, they let the customer choose and bag their own items.  We also weighed them on one of those ancient balance arm scales that I described back here.This honor system is extremely rare in Egypt. In all supermarkets where we've shopped, a store employee must weigh all produce selected.


I kept all the half-kilo bags in my left hand and the one-kilo bags in my right.  Linda carried the two heavier bags of strawberries and cucumbers up to the "cashier."

Calculating the total was a job for two men. (father and son)  We had ten items.  The total came to 51 Egyptian pounds (a bit under $7).  I gave the young man in charge of arithmetic a one pound coin and a hundred pound note.  The older man (dad?) reached into his galabeya pocket and pulled out a half-kilo wad of cash to get my change.  Both were smiling and very patient with their foreign customers.  All the while, other customers were stopping in to buy a kilo of oranges or tomatoes and so forth.

We arrived home and took a picture before putting away the vegetables and fruit.


That's roughly

• 4 pounds of strawberries
• 2 pounds of carrots
• 2 pounds of Yusef Effendi (mandarins)
• 1 pound of red peppers
• 1 pound of green peppers
• 2 pounds of bananas
• 2 pounds of potatoes
• 3 pounds of cucumbers
• 1 pound of tomatoes
• 1 pound of onions

for a total of $6.80

  

Food on the Go

Since posting this picture of tomatoes coming to market, I have been looking for a truck delivering another fragile commodity.  I found it a couple of days ago when we were walking up to the vegetable market.


Yes, those are eggs.  I don't believe I have ever seen this method of transport used back home, but it seems to work here, in spite of the potholes and speed-bumps.


In the larger stores, eggs come packaged in a clear plastic container - good idea!  You don't have to open the carton to see how many are broken.  They are frequently sold by the ten - after all, we're metric here.  But "half a ten" don't package well, so they also are sold by the six.


In smaller stores, you pick your own eggs from carriers like those on the truck and place them in a small clear plastic bag.  Carry them carefully!  We always pick up the eggs last, just before checking out, in that case.

An Accident on the Ring Road

After raising the stove with those blocks described in the previous post, we were discussing another carpentry project.  We plan to have the carpenter build us a microwave table to raise it above the counter.  As Roshdy and I wrote up measurements for the carpenter, Linda said, "There is something interesting going on out on the Ring Road."  She went over to the window to check it out.


Yes, traffic had stopped in both directions and a crowd was gathered out on the road.


More ominously, a crowd was also gathering below the ring along the canal.


When Roshdy left an hour later, he suggested that I come down to take a look.  A community effort was underway to pull a small bus out of the canal.  It had gone through the railing and plunged into the canal.


The red truck loaded with dirt on the left side of the photo had a cable on the bus and was pulling it up the bank, as several of the men helped clear a path for the wheels.

The next day, only some orange cones and the bus skeleton below remained to show that there had been a problem.


UPDATE:
It was reported by eyewitness accounts that the bus was empty except for the driver who died in the crash.

UPDATE 2:
It was later reported that while the local forces never found the driver, the police came the next day and were also unable to find him.  The army came a day later with divers who located the body underneath the steel grate that is an ineffective guard rail.