Orphanage improvements

Heres a couple of before and almost after photos from the Orphanage who are happy having some building work done with the money that Kathy Gerrits made for them. They are making a new eating area, class rooms and a room for a jacuzzi for therapy sessions for the kids. Things are progressing in an egyptian sort of way and more money is needed to complete the project so I'm going to do another card sale this week at a charity bazaar (for another charity in Uganda) and we are looking at getting the charity committee at Shell to stump up some cash....

The Eve of the Big Game (Part 2)

Tonight the feud between Egypt and Algeria continues in the Big Match no.2. As the Guardian puts it:

"This is probably the most explosive fixture in international football and comes, of course, less than three months after the teams' duel for a place in the World Cup ignited a bloody and hysterical ruckus involving players, officials, journalists, statesmen, diplomats, students, retailers, clerics, air stewardesses, farmers,

engineers, medics, singers, beggars, bigots, delinquents, ruffians and postmen. What is needed now, then, are cool heads, so praise be to deft-footed Egyptian striker Mohammad Zidan for previewing today's encounter thus: "For both sides this will be a war. This is a matter of life and death."

You can feel the tension in Cairo. I tried to take photos of the flag sellers who line the streets every 100m but with the delay on the camera phone shutter and the speed of the car did not get too many good ones. We did slow down this morning though as a water main had ""gone" (read breached by a workman) and had flooded the underpass - it looked like downtown New Orleans during a tropical depression.

I nipped out of work to grab a Sarnie at "On The Run" and came across the delivery of provisions. if you have never lived in a arabic culture you may not be aware that these guys and gals have very sweet teeth, eye-wateringly so. Coffee or Tea with 4 or 5 or 6 sugars is not uncommon. I came across the sugar delivery by the lift and joked that this was the months sugar usage with the chap, he said it was only half of it and came across the rest of Mount Glucose outside on the way to the garage.

STOP PRESS: By the time I've got around to publishing this Egypt humiliated Algeria 4-0. Honking horns outside, Cairo will be completely mad from now to the Final. The Saints and now the Pharoahs, now all we need is for Ipswich, the Tractor Boys, to start winning a few......

All in a days drive.

On the way back from Carrefour the other day J was sitting shotgun in the Mitsi taking photos with the phone of the normal things that we come across in Cairo on the ring of death. We had to laugh as both passengers and driver were desperately holding onto the large aerofoil strapped to the top of their car....I wonder if they ever got their intact. Following that we had to dodge a tank doing at least 4 mph in the fast lane. Just normal traffic.......

Who dat say???

(photo from Nola.com, the best source for all things New Orleans)

The "Who Dat? Nation" Cairo Branch is celebrating in unison with the City of New Orleans. I watched this morning via the web, emotionally choked up, as the Saints kicker slotted the ball between the white uprights in overtime to take the Saints to their first ever Superbowl. As the coverage reported, Hell has Frozen over! This is not just another game. This means something.

You see although we have our home, family and roots in the UK, for us our other home is New Orleans, Louisiana. Home, not just the word, but the meaning too. We purchased our first house there and watched with the locals every year as large storms brewed in the Gulf. We boarded the windows up and got the hell out of Dodge sometimes, and enjoyed the torrential rains and the pot-holed, uneven streets. We also enjoyed our friends and the food and we still feel a very strong connection to the Big Easy.

The Saints, like the city have been through some rough times, under-performing and disappointing but much loved by the people of this great city who needed something to cheer through tough times, even if it was only the odd win every few months. With a new coach and new quarterback the Saints have rebuilt, and like the city emerging from the Katrina flood waters, it rises again. Its spirit is greater than the sum of all the termite infested shotgun houses and Popeyes chicken resturants and tacky New Orleans souvenier shops. Its spirit is in Mardi Gras and the Saints, and the Saints have finally come good......

We cannot believe what the atmosphere must be like at the moment for this is a city that likes to party for no reason at all. To cap it all the Saints will play New Orleans second team, the Indianapolis Colts whose quarterback is Peyton Manning, a 'yat' himself (born and bred in Nawlins).

Looks like we will be staying up for Superbowl this year.....if only we could get some Abita Amber and some crawfish!

Who dat say dem gone beat dem Saints? Who dat? who dat????

No. 39

Spent the day out in the western suburbs of Cairo supporting J and the young football teams of NCBIS. J went on the team coach, I went on a magical mystery tour of half-built building sites with Ahmed Da Driver using the poor map we printed off the internet of the British international School. Our cause was not helped by several street and places being mis-labelled as well as north not being up the page. Typically egyptian and very frustrating. Got to Sheikh Zayed City to see the last group match against Alexandria (win 4-1), then the the team went on winning through to the final with a last gasp winner in the semi-finals scored by Mohammed who bears a striking resemblance to Micky Quinn, maybe not the most mobile but he would run over his grandmother to be first to a ball in the box. T turned up for the final a close fought game win a last minute goal against. The journey back was far less fraught with detours. Still nice to see another part of the city of Cairo.....

Winter Rain.

P had to go over to Damascus once again this week for what turned out to be a few stressful meetings. Cairo was cold (14 oC) with a stiff wind when leaving. Syria is always a few degrees colder but boy, when we landed it was 4 oC and raining, it looked and felt like London on a cold wet miserable Janurary evening. Still Damascus is still plesant in the damp and (again forgetting camera and having to use poor camera-phone) I took a few arty shots of the gleaming, puddle-strewn streets of the Hamadeiya Souk as we walked to Khawili, my favourite resturant (not only for the food but for the sir-ly head waiter who looks like "Reg" from On the Buses - only the 40yrs + UK readers will know who that is).

We also managed to come across a shop I have only caught a fleeting glance of before - its contains a macabre collection of stuffed animals, like a bad road accident, both fascinating and horrible at the same time. The art of taxidermy in Syria obviously seems a bit more rudimentary, they seem to go for the "snarling, starteld" look on every animal, and there seems to be only one set of standard teeth available (probably for Halloween supplies) making them look like some kind of rabid dracularian carnivore. Even the antelopes etc have these teeth, I would be tempted to take a rabbit home with the dental fixtures of a Great White just ofr the novelty value. Apparently the sign on the door says "Only for foreigners" so in support for my Syrian borthers and sisters I decided not to go in, until equality is met and they have the right to buy a Sad looking monkey too (see photo) smiling coyly with what looks like a set of old peoples dentures.

The journey back was enjoyable only for the entertainment afforded by EgyptAir (or Egyptscare as the are locally know). I love the way the common set of air line rules that are pretty much enforced around the global are seen as loose guidelines in this part of the middle east. Each safety announcement starts of with a Koranic prayer on the video, in the ususal deep, mystical voice. Because we missed our slot everyone was bundled on the plane hurriedly and we taxi out onto the runway with people attempting to stuff thier one piece (read 4 pieces) of hand luggage (read major family size suitcases) into already full over head bins. As the captiano put the boost on for take off and we started accerating there were still people arranging bags and bodies and also typcially both my seat neighbours merrily chatting away on phones. They were still fighting to get bags in as the plane rose at a 60 degree angle. When I came back during Iftar once (the meal that they break thier ramadan fast with) we were coming into land as the sun went down. No "put your seat table upright" here, as the crew were handing out the meals and had the trollies in the aisle as I could see the numbers plates on the cars below, and we landed like this. Hilarous and entertaining in its own middle eastern way, and they have not killed me (yet).

Actually the grainy nature of the camera-phone does give some atmospheric, art-house like quality to the images..... This is the closed-up souk and "Straight Street"

The entrance to Khawili resturant, hidden down a side alley, an a row on Shishas in the resturant.

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Lastly there are these small bakeries that sell, what I would call Crumpets, cannot remember if there is a similar thing in the States, but they looked good and they are open apparently 24/7 for those late night Crumpet-cravings (there a joke there about Nigella Lawson).....next time

Deep Down in the Delta

This weekend was long, due to the fact we celebrated christmas again, this time due to the Coptic Christmas, which gave us a day off on 7th Jan. Lovely.

We have not been getting very far buying the remaining furniture we need to help fill up the house and stop us rattling around. Arabic furniture tastes are lets just say a little gaudy to the average western eye. There is no arabic translation for minimalist or plain! If they can put gold lacquer and curls, frills, and any other assortment of adornments onto a piece of furniture to make it look like it got rejected from the Palace of Versailles on grounds of being "too over the top", they will.

We had a plan to get past this lack of suitable furniture and this was to go to the source, Damietta. This town in the central Nile delta near the coast and manufactures pretty much all of the furniture in Cairo and much of the arab world beyond. The cunning part of our plan was hatched by Ahmed Da Driver and P.

The plan: Ahmed is getting married soon, and its tradition for El Hombre to provide a house load of furniture for the new Mrs Da Driver. Thus Ahmed Da Driver, being a man who 1) knows a good deal and 2) is from the delta, was then man to take us. In addition the plan included meeting up with Ahmed Da Furnitureman (the man making Ahmed Da Drivers martial furniture) 20km outside Damietta so he could accompany us and advise on quality price etc. etc. Also if we were to get something made then he could do it. Ahmed Da Driver would also invite his uncle, you guessed it, Ahmed Da Uncle, to help negotiate price should he be needed. As with anything and everything in Egypt nothing is straightforward – this is furniture shopping Cairo style, 400km round trip, 3 Ahmeds and a car full of family T, ah for an IKEA.

We set off bright and early and headed down from Kattameya into the smog of the Cairo ring road. Going clockwise past the invisble Giza Pyramids shrouded in the fog we popped out along the Cairo-Alexandria Agricultural Road (no I-95 or A12, proper road names here). Heading north we passed through the industrial and frankly slightly depressing northern suburbs of Cairo. Further out and leaving Smogsville behind we turned off at Banya on the road to Mansura and we started to enter the delta proper.

The soil is remarkably productive, supporting at least 3 crops a year. We passed though areas of orange groves, grapes vines, potato and onion fields, rice paddys, and tomato fields. These were mixed with the regular Stalinist-like building that are apparently chicken farms. The road was clogged with the normal flow, horse and cars, donkey and carts, buffalo and carts. Additionally we met and came into close proximity to tractors, lorries, tuk-tuks, cars, taxis, mini-buses, graders, bicycles. Unfortunately the speed we were travel coupled with the road condition was more condusive to milk-shake making rather than high speed photo taking! We passed an area of brickworks that presumably supply the enormous efforts going on at Kattameya. Id like to go back and do some serious photography. The un-fired bricks were all lined up like some great domino knocking over attempt, now that would have been a good photo....

Roadside fruit stall and typical road scene, watchout for oncoming donkey....

We were following a tributary of the Nile through identical village after village until we stopped at a bridge 20km from Damietta. We called Ahmed Da Furniture, who turned up in 15mins (not bad for an Egyptian), a happy chap with all his fingers (apparently not a common character amoung old furniture makers, Egypt has pretty lax HSE rules when it comes to circular saws!). I love it when a plan comes together! Onto Damietta town.

Roadside butchers - Ahmed say No Good. Nice mosque.

Typical delta scene and high speed fruit and veg delivery.

One of the brick works...those bricks are just asking to be knocked over....

The furniture industry dominates here and as we reached the city more and more small workshops and large wood traders became apparent along the road. Numerous half-finished chairs, bedsteads, coffee tables stand in piles along the side of the road. We stopped at the first shop, a large place with even larger furniture. As suspected huge ornate, beautifully-made pieces on 3 floors. It was like seeing a supersized Coke for the first time in the states - this furniture was just oversized to the point of being made for some other species. Some of the wardrobes were a large as the living room in the house in the UK. We explained to the boys this was not what we wanted and took out the pictures we had for both Ahmeds. Nod, nod. On into Damietta centre, we reached the Nile passing though the busy city and stopped in the large furniture Emporiums along the Nile. Again looked like a close out sale from the Hapsburg family heirlooms or the Romanovs yard sale. Upstairs 4 floors of amazing furniture, a sight to behold, but not in our house, in a palace maybe! "No no, Ahmed". One more store, again 4 floors (this one included a trip to the top floor in a rather under-engineered lift from the 1930 with a slightly absent roof – both Ts looked scared, and so they should.

Umm, nice, do you have it in Silver......

Suggestions for what IKEA would call this bed anyone?

Plan was starting to bend a little so had a talk to the two Ahmeds (similar to the two Ronnies). "Lets cut our losses, head back to Ahmeds workshop and get him to make the furniture". Approving nods.

More and more thrones.....hope they pack our furniture a little better



Scene in Damietta and T picks out an understated desk for his room....

So we headed back to the village 20kms south of Damietta, passed over the bridge into the little town and down a single unpaved (in fact nothing was paved) side street where is located the world headquarters of "Ahmed Da Furniture Incorporated Company Limited". These workshops were full of wood, sawdust, half built furniture and several craftsman and boys beavering away (now thats appropriate pun) at the wood. We got some curious looks, not many white faces turn up here (or for that matter ginger-haired boys). Mrs T was getting admiring stares (I told her they were more like “curious stares”, but she preferred admiring).

Ahmeds workshop and planning discussions with Ahmed Da Driver, how do you say 2 be 4 in Arabic....

The finished articles and more workshops

T and J take a break whilst price negotiations go on.......

The Three Tenors, now the Three Ahmeds.....

Ahmed Da Uncle turns up, an older type Ahmed with a nice leather jacket. a friendly chap we shake hands and swap greetings. We get down to describing the furniture we want made. Between Ahmed Da Drivers poor English, Ps few Arabic numbers and colours, some pages cut of out “Home and Garden” magazine and numerous arm-wavy movements and pointing at things we manage to order about 15 pieces. Who knows what we get back at the end of the day! The three Ahmeds go off and discuss price in a American football-like huddle. Five minutes later Ahmed da Driver announces 11k EGP, but no wait, heated discussion starts, I love Egypt. Da Uncle wades in, Da furniture sucks air through teeth and shakes his head slowly, Da Driver says something about Feb or Jan. and so the conversation starts again. Ten minutes and the deal is done, 9.5k EGP, delivery in 6 weeks. Stonking!, what a deal!, whatever we have order!

Da Uncle invites us back for a drink and a little bit to eat. Now my alarm bells go off. Arab cultures have a tremendous sense of hospitality and sharing. A short visit will inevitable turn into a long one and its getting dark, but heck it will be fun and interesting. Also culturally we could not really say no and Ahmed Da Uncle did just save us a few hundred so what the heck.

We passed though this small town (Kafr Sadr?) along with the tuk tuks, horse and pedestrians, our white faces causing curious stares, suddenly down a small side street and park. Follow Da Uncle down a maze into a “typical” small house. Upstairs to be greeted by Ahmed Da Drivers extended family, it’s a bit of a blur but there were several men (Ahmed Da Cousin, Mohammed Da Cousin, et al.,) and several women (Aunt, wifes other others), and some kids (Little Ahmed, Omar, Selma and Abdul Raham).

Ahmed 'n' Da Boys in the Hood and T leaving the house

Tuk-Tuk slip-streaming a lorry in the village and roads hazards on the way back

As expected and typical Egyptian hospitality they invited us into there small apartment and treated us like long lost relatives. Like last time I was in a similar situation you cannot escape until you have been force fed beautiful food. We had nice rice and tomato-meat combo, another rice dish with meat in that looked like rice pudding, vegetables and beautiful bread, that is only made in Damietta that Aunt made. We then had tea (chai!) and then told them we had to leave. They gave us an enormous bag of bread (we could not get it in the freezer) and we parted saying our marsalams like old friends. Really friends people and a great cultural experience. We hope to send the kids some presents and old clothes when Ahmed Da Driver returns there as some form of thanks.

Back in the car as the sunset over the Nile fields, the traffic was bad, a good 5 hours to return but a successful day on a furniture side as well as a cultural one. Da Cunning plan hatched between a man with little English and another with next to no Arabic has come off. At least we think so till the furniture is delivered!

New and old building along the Nile, followed by sunset