Getting Accustomed to Life

Here’s Life: Getting a 5:20 wake-up call from the five local mosques in our area as they sound the call to prayer. As I sit out on the balcony drinking an early morning cup of coffee I can hear the chorus of sounds from the 6^th of October bridge, one of the longest bridges in the world, as drivers, mainly taxis, offer up what sounds like their version of a sonar location system. They can go no-where without sending a few honks on their horns to either decipher the absolutely ridiculous traffic or else to let the other billion taxis know where they are, and the more rapid the honking the more aggressive the taxi is driving.

As I sit on the balcony, I realized that the Orientation week we are on is just about over. It has been quite an adventure involving several mosque visits, scavenger hunts around our neighborhood area, a felucca ride down the Nile, a visit to the famous tourist bazaar in Khan al-Khalili, as well as unnoticed areas in Khan al-Khalili – the Egyptian area with the most beautiful structures of the Old City.  All of these activities and other short assignments were to familiarize us with the local area and get us accustomed to dealing with the Egyptians despite the language barrier.

I have realized already how friendly and overly helpful the Egyptian people are. It takes a simple grin to light up a face, and a question the willingness to assist. They often drop what they are doing to guide us where we need to go, hail down taxis and haggle for us, or find an English speaker to bridge the language barrier, and trust me, there have been no shortage of random questions to strangers on these ‘assignments’. There is one note of caution: In order to be hospitable hosts, they will often provide you with directions even if they have no idea where a place is, so it is always a good idea to ask several people.

At no time, in any part of the city, have I ever felt unsafe, and I have been in several taxis and have ridden on the metro. The city itself is safe; it is the area outside of Cairo, the small villages, that often breeds the civil unrest or fighting between Christians and Muslims. It has been an interesting week so far, full of a variety of sights, sounds, and smells, locating local markets and street stands, haggling prices, trying different foods, and learning the most basic of Arabic bringing many laughs and awkward moments.

Ahead are a few more activities for this week, including a visit to Garbage City, but mostly to prepare for the start of classes. We will get our syllabi, meet the teachers, start our service projects, begin the process of purchasing food for dinners, in short, the regular rhythm of the study abroad. In a few more days our tourist visit ends and our regular lives begins.

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