Why Egypt is Cool – Part 2:

It is surrounded by history
Egypt has the great pyramids, numerous ancient tombs and temples, Mt. Sinai (allegedly), the Nile River, the Red Sea, and some ridiculously old churches and monastaries, not to mention tons of ancient relics and manuscripts. Many stories in the Bible took place here, and Egypt played a major role in the history of Christianity.

You are a novelty here
If you are a foreigner living in Egypt, you get noticed by the locals. Possibly just because they think you’re rich and that you’ll send some of your money their way, but it’s also possible that they are curious about you and are interested in your customs and ways of doing things. Maybe you are an opportunity for them to practice their newly learned English phrases. Or Maybe you’re just neat to look at because they’ve never seen anyone that looks like you. Either way, living in Egypt you get noticed.

McDonald’s is better here
I just had a Double BigMac. That’s right, four patties. Do they even have those in North America? And another thing: the burgers here look like the burgers in the pictures and on the commercials! In Canada I see commercials with these tall burgers packed with lettuce and meat and other juicy stuff, but when I go and order that burger, I get what looks like a road-kill. So disappointing. Not here, though. I have to smoosh these burgers down so I can get them in my mouth! Mmmm mmm.

The weather is nice
Yes, it cools down in the winter and feels quite cold to me, but the truth is, the coldest it’s been is about 10 degrees Celsius. I can count the amount of times it has rained since I’ve moved here on one hand. It’s practically ALWAYS sunny out! There is virtually no humidity. Summer days are in the high 30’s or the low 40’s.

I sometimes find money in my bags of chips
Twice in a row I opened a bag of chips, and sitting among the chips was a crisp new bill.
Sure, the bills only amounted to about 75 piasters (3/4 of a pound), but it’s the principle that counts! I got money when all I was expecting was chips! Besides, a bag of chips only costs one pound. And since I didn’t even buy the chips in the first place, I was actually MAKING money by eating them.

Egypt is Not Driven by the Clock
Egypt did Daylight Savings Time at a different time than the rest of the world. Sure, this is kind of annoying, but it’s also pretty cool. Imagine if North America tried to pull that off! You’d never hear the end of the complaining. When Egyptians say things start at a certain time, they are usually just making a suggestion. There are two things I have noticed that actually follow the clock: movies and trains. Trains always leave on time, and movies generally start on time (even early on some occasions).

Lots to see and do
There are countless things to see around the country of Egypt, and even in the city of Cairo itself. I still haven’t seen a few of the major sights here such as garbage city and the cave church. Aside from just sightseeing, Cairo is a huge city and pretty much always has something interesting going on in it. There are opera houses and all sorts of performing arts centers. There are tons of interesting restaurants each with their own styles and ambiance. And once again, everything is generally quite affordable.

Why Egypt is Cool – Part 1:

Everyone delivers
I just had McDonald’s delivered to my house for dinner. I can phone up a local grocer, give them a list of items that I want, and they’ll deliver them! No shopping necessary! Not feeling well? No problem, I can call up the local pharmacy and have them deliver some medication for me.

It is socially acceptable to pick your nose/butt in public
Okay, I don’t know exactly how ‘acceptable’ it is to do these things, but I see quite a few people doing them in public each and every day!

No taxes, no set prices
Technically, there isn’t a sales tax for anything in Egypt (at least not that I know of). When you buy groceries, you pay the exact price of the items listed, no extra percentage for taxes. However, many restaurants add their own ‘service tax’ to the bill which generally ranges from 5% to 15% (in those cases, you tip the server a minimal amount). Aside from restaurants and grocery stores and such, most shops or services do not have set prices. This means that you can barter and haggle with the shopkeeper until you find a price that you are both pleased with. This can be quite fun to do, and is also rewarding when you succeed. Sometimes I haggle over things just for the fun of it, even when I’m not interested in buying anything. On the downside, sometimes you can get ripped off if you are unaware of the value of something, or if you are not aggressive enough with your bartering.

No rules in traffic
Sometimes there are lines on the road suggesting the possibility of there being lanes. But nobody cares! A general rule of thumb is: where two lanes are marked out, three lanes are permitted. Sometimes even four (depending on the size of the vehicles and whether or not they have side-mirrors). Sometimes there are roads that are only for one way traffic, but it is not uncommon, nor even bad etiquette (so it seems), to drive the wrong way down these roads if it is convenient for the driver. A single lane road with traffic going both directions does not mean that passing is not permitted. Oncoming traffic on a single lane road also does not entail that passing is not permitted. Cars don’t have to pass a safety test (from the looks of it, at least), civilian cars are allowed to have lights and sirens to their heart’s content, and headlights are only for amateurs. I could talk all day about the hilarity of traffic in Egypt, but let’s move on.

Public drunkenness is not acceptable, but public urination is
A few students at a local high school were arrested last month for public drunkenness, yet daily I see people casually peeing wherever it is convenient for them. For being such a ‘conservative’ culture I would think men would shield themselves a little better while peeing. I won’t go into any more details about that.

Things are cheap
This is true. In Canada it costs around $1.50 to mail a letter to Egypt. It costs me 1.50LE (Egyptian Pounds) to mail a letter to Canada. An Egyptian Pound is worth roughly 1/5 of a Canadian dollar. A taxi ride here costs between two pounds for a couple minutes, or fifty pounds for anywhere in Cairo ($0.40-$10). The most expensive pair of jeans I’ve seen are $20. The average restaurant meal I eat costs roughly $5 or $6. Gas costs about $0.20 a litre.

The Lowdown on Parasites

I am coming to the end of day six of The Multi-vitamin Challenge as I write this blog entry. My cold is beginning to go away, but that usually happens at the end of a two week period period of being sick with or without vitamins. If the trend continues, I’ll feel okay for a week or two, sometimes even three, and then I’ll come down with something else. Only time will tell if these vitamins are actually working. But there’s still one thing these vitamins can’t help me with. The danger of ingesting a parasite. Yes, one of the many things we have to watch out for in Egypt are parasites. Parasites are most commonly contained in water and certain forms of vegetables. Lettuce is the most notorious vegetable for housing parasites. Whenever we go to restaurants here, we only eat the lettuce if it is a respectable restaurant where we’ve heard good reports about the lettuce. Even then, some people simply refuse to eat the lettuce here. I think the most common parasite around Cairo is the amoeba. When someone houses an amoeba in their body they will exhibit flulike symptoms, but rather than having the symptoms disappear after a day or two, they will continue until treatment is sought out. Ideally parasites are expelled from one’s body within the span of a month, but there are exceptions to this rule. Let’s have a look at my friend, Cam Stutters, for example.

You may recall him as the one who challenged me to start taking multi-vitamins. I accepted his advice, not only because he was willing to pay up if they didn’t work, but also because he has done extensive research of food, nutrition, and health over the past year. Why has he done all of this research? Because Cam has a parasite. Cam has had this parasite for well over a year now and has undergone numerous treatments in an attempt to rid his body of his parasite(s). After a year of being on a special ‘rice-only’ diet and visiting specialist after specialist regarding his health, Cam grew weary of unhelpful doctors and began researching things for himself. He has now turned to the world of alternative medicine to seek out a solution to his problem. Cam now has a naturopathic doctor who advises him as to whether or not is plan of action is satisfactory. Earlier this week I interviewed Cam about a few of his alternative medicine treatments and I must say that I have some very interesting things to pass on to you (yes, I even have a few pictures for you as well).

The first treatment I am going to describe to you is called Aqua Chi. Aqua Chi is a process by which you immerse your bare feet in a tub of water which gets ionized by an external machine. This procedure stimulates the elimination channels of the body at a very accelerated rate (by giving the water a negative electron charge which attracts the toxins in your body and pulls them into your feet). Once the toxins are in your feet, they come OUT of your feet and go into the water. A typical Aqua Chi procedure lasts for about thirty-five minutes. Below are pictures of Cam’s feet at different intervals throughout the procedure.

After 5 Minutes

After 35 Minutes

I asked Cam if he felt anything during the procedure. He said that all he felt was a light tingling sensation.

Another interesting procedure that Cam has gone through is called Biofeedback Therapy. This is a rather intense sounding procedure. In Biofeedback Therapy, the patient is hooked up to a computer and is treated ENTIRELY by the computer!! Using the theories of quantum mechanics, the computer stimulates treatments and sends electrons into your body which kill parasites. I know this is a fairly vague description, but I think the workings of this treatment system are a little over our heads anyways. A typical treatment of Biofeedback Therapy takes three hours and costs about $100 an hour. These treatments are very intensive and can only be done once every three weeks. The machine kills the parasites in your body and then your body excretes them naturally. Cam told me that after the treatments you feel very tired and sleep for a long time. After Cam’s first two treatments they estimated that around TWENTY parasites had been eradicated from his body. Cam described himself as being “a parasite zoo” as he is still not free from parasites. A number of months ago Cam decided to name his parasite(s) since they had been with him for so long. Roy is the name that he gave them. Roy’s one year birthday was sometime in January, if I’m not mistaken. And still, Roy endures. I have not heard the results of this week’s Biofeedback Therapy that Cam went through, but we’re all hoping that Roy has finally been put to rest.

The Multi-Vitamin Challenge

Back in November I caught a nasty cold. Ever since then my health has been wavering between well and unwell. It seems that every couple of weeks I get another sore throat, which leads to another stuffed up nose, which leads to another full blown head cold. Yes, right now I am in fact fighting off yet another wave of the neverending cold (Sidenote: watch the Neverending Story, it’s awesome). Apparently my immune system can’t handle the onslaught of pollution and germs in the air here… at least, not by itself! Yesterday I was chatting with my friend, Cam Stutters, who also did an overseas internship (his was in Laos). He told me that what I need are multi-vitamins. He was so confident in this that he told me, “If you don’t feel better after thirty days of taking vitamins, I will reimburse you for the money you spent on the vitamins.” That sounded good to me! There was no way I could lose! Well, I suppose if I was still sick after the thirty days I would be a loser, but that’s besides the fact. At any rate, last night I went out and loaded up with thirty days worth of multi-vitamins and vitamin C. For the next thirty days, I will be taking:

One 500mg tablet containing Ascorbic acid (Vitamin C, apparently)
and two Vitamax Plus tablets, each containing… far too much to type out. Looking at the ingredients of this pill makes me think that eating will no longer be necessary for me. I think I will continue eating, though, merely as a hobby. I do enjoy it from time to time. Especially when we get together for our newly begat bi-weekly Thai night. But let’s get back on topic here. Since this blog entry is about health and such, I should take the time to address something that is plaguing Egypt right now. The Bird Flu. If you haven’t been keeping up with the news lately, cases of the Bird Flu have been found here in Cairo. This means that the poultry market here is rapidly crashing. Very few people want to buy chicken now for fear of contracting the deadly virus. Since few people want to buy chicken, most markets won’t even stock chicken at this point in time. A few minutes ago I was told that there are warnings on the television and radio that nobody in Cairo is to drink the water here. Apparently loads of animals that have died from the flu have been thrown into the water (or something to that effect). You normally don’t drink the water in Cairo anyways, at least not without a filter, but even with a filter we have been told not to drink it now. Nor are we to cook with it. Apparently even boiling the water won’t rid it of whatever has gotten into it. It’s hard to say since facts don’t seem to travel around Egypt with much integrity. Nonetheless, it looks as though beef is going to be the only meat left for us to eat here for the next little while (pork is not a kosher meat in the dominant religion so it is also very hard to find in Egypt). Let’s hope the mad cow disease doesn’t find its way here as well. If it does, I’m gonna have to go tell Pharaoh to “Let my people go!” (They did, in fact, have a plague of locusts here last year). Stay tuned for my next health entry about parasites!

The Deaf Unit

As I reflect on the various adventures I shared with my friends during their new year’s visit, one of my most enjoyable moments spent with them was when we visited ‘The Deaf Unit’ with my host family. The Deaf Unit is where my host parents work. It consists of a boarding school for children, a vocational training center for adults, and a social club. It is estimated that 2 million people in Egypt are hearing impaired due to intermarriage, poverty, and poor healthcare. The Deaf Unit seeks to reach out to such people and to provide them with education, vocation, and interaction. I decided to bring my friends to the Deaf Unit so we could purchase some of the products manufactured by the deaf workers, and by doing so, support a worthy cause. As we spent time at the Deaf Unit, though, we found that the wares for purchase were in fact the least of the attractions there.

The first thing we did at the Deaf Unit was a tour through the Vocational Training Center. We were introduced to each of the workers as we made our way through the different areas. An introduction would simply consist of shaking one’s hand and sharing a warm smile with them. It is also customary to give the thumbs-up sign when greeting a deaf person. I think it means that you are doing well, or something like that. Ineke, will probably comment on this post and correct any inaccuracies I may have. I remember that their smiles seemed to beam so brightly as I was introduced to each of them. I meet new people on a daily basis, but the smiles accompanied with those introductions don’t seem to compare to the sincerity of these smiles. They all seemed genuinely happy to meet us, and in a sense, spoke to us through their smiles. I think my cheeks almost started hurting because I was smiling so much with them. A few times I would attempt some simple communication using hand gestures, but I was always afraid I would accidentally ‘say’ something rude or embarrassing. I hope I didn’t insult anyone when I itched my nose. Something as simple as wrapping the fingers on your left hand around your right thumb and then wiggling the fingers on your right hand means “I farted” (or so I’m told). That’s American sign-language, though. I think it probably means something to the effect of “I’m a stupid foreigner” in Arabic sign-language. Either way, I gathered that a lot of the women either liked my long hair, or thought I looked like a woman.

Just as we finished meeting all of the workers it came time for the morning break. A couple of the workers expressed an interest in playing a bit of soccer with us. I took a quick inventory of our talent: Tom plays soccer on our college team back home (when his grades are high enough, at least), Frodo looks like he could play soccer, and I suck at soccer. We agreed to play a game - foreigners verses locals. There were three of them, and three of us. The three of us Canadians had running shoes on, while they had flip flops and other non-soccer shoes, so one might think that we had the upper hand. Don’t be fooled, though. Soccer is a big deal in Egypt. Kids here grow up playing it in the streets with whatever ball they can find. A couple of twelve year olds probably could’ve worked us over that day. We decided to be good sports and play anyways. After a good thirty seconds of running around I had nearly had it. My lungs were burning, my muscles were aching, and my heart had somehow lodged itself into my head. Some might say that I just need to get in shape. I would say that I need to stop breathing in Cairo air. Some people say that living here for five years does the same damage to your lungs as smoking a cigarette every day for your entire life. Other people say that breathing the air in Cairo is similar to smoking a pack of cigarettes each day that you’re here. I don’t know how much of this is factual information, but the fact that I often feel the need to brush my teeth after ten minutes of cycling must say something about how dirty the air here is. At any rate, we played hard for a few hours (or maybe it was only 20 minutes and it felt like a few hours), and got beat senseless by the Egyptians. Apparently being deaf isn’t a huge handicap in soccer.

Thankfully, after twenty minutes or three hours or however long it was, break time ended and everyone had to go back to work. It was great fun playing with these two guys, despite getting pulverized by them. As we sat down in the shade, trying to catch our breath, a wave of little Egyptian children came running towards us. Apparently it was recess time for the boarding school. Once again we shook a lot of hands and gave a bunch of high-fives and such. One of the children noticed a cross on my shirt. He then proceeded to pull a cross necklace out of his shirt to proudly display to me. Then all of the other children revealed their own cross necklaces to me and gave the thumbs up. There were five of us Canadian guys there, trying to carry on conversations with fifty deaf Egyptian kids, all at the same time. Two women stood among us, attempting to translate a few things such as our names, but for the most part, it was up to us to figure out how to communicate with the children. Eventually it became apparent that the kids wanted to play with us. A few of them took the liberty of climbing onto our backs for piggy back rides. Suddenly there we were, back on the soccer field, running around like crazy… only this time we were carrying kids on our backs. I decided to pull out my camera to get a few shots of this hilarity. As I brought out the camera, it was like a magnet to the kids. Suddenly they were swarming around me like bees. I kept trying to back up so I could get a proper shot of them, but they kept trying to get as close to me as possible. It was pretty funny. There was such a glow on everyone’s faces. We were all having so much fun. I think a part of us were all wishing it could last forever. It reminded me of that scene from Mary Poppins where they are visiting that crazy old man who loves to laugh. They all floated around his living room, laughing themselves silly, wishing that they could spend the rest of their lives laughing with that crazy old man. I don’t know how the rest of the guys were feeling, but I wanted to stay there all day to play with those kids. It was such a fulfilling moment, as if life were created for moments like these; pure joy and happiness. Looking back on that day, I have come to the realization of something. Those who have a lot appreciate little, but those who have little appreciate a lot. If you go to a normal boarding school filled with rich kids, they would probably be sitting around playing with their PSP’s and IPods and they would hardly even notice someone new coming into the school courtyard. If they did see you, they probably wouldn’t give you much more than a curious second glance. But there we were at a boarding school for poor, disabled children who had very little, and the mere sight of us seemed to fill them with joy. Spending time there, among those people, was in my opinion much more enjoyable than checking out the pyramids or some of the other sights around Cairo. Sure, I nearly had a heart attack, but it was worth it. Now I am going to leave you with a few of the pictures I took that day. I am not going to caption them or commentate on them like I usually do. Instead I thought it would be fitting to let the silence of the pictures speak for themselves.

Uncle Ryan - February Edition

Dear friends,
I recieved a letter today from my sister Holly. For those of you who are not avid readers of my blog, Holly is the sister who has 'a bun in the oven'. For those of you who do not speak in crazy metaphors, she is pregnant. Anyways, I won't bore you with the contents of the letter she sent me. It was just a bunch of "baby" this, "baby" that, and "I promise to write more often". Pshhh, like I haven't heard that from nearly everyone I know (except for Shirley Bierkos. She is my mom's friend and has written me more letters than anyone else). Now, the reason this letter from Holly was interesting is because... well, ok, the letter wasn't that interesting, it was just about nasty stuff like amniotic fluid and other sick stuff... but also enclosed in the envelope (quick fact, I pronounce it 'on'velope) was a picture of her ultrasound. Now, I don't know much about these things at all, but I would still like to share the picture with you anyways.
Yes, this blob of goo on the left is apparently my sister's baby. Personally I think it looks like a bad case of indigestion. From the way food moves around in my stomach, sometimes it feels like I've got a baby inside of me as well, but it always turns out to be indigestion (thank goodness, how would I explain THAT one to my parents?). So who knows, maybe my sister swallowed a watermelon seed and is now sprouting an awkwardly placed watermelon. I would actually prefer that to a baby, though I doubt I'd eat any of it if it came out of a human being. That's just gross. Anyways, I would like to point out a few details about my sister's severe case of indigestion now. If you look to the left side of it, you'll notice the watermelon, also known as the baby's head (man, she's gonna kill me for this! What are little brothers for, though?). Covering the top right portion of the watermelon-head is what I am going to label 'the hand'. At this stage of the pregnancy it appears as though babies only have one hand, but it is quite large (nearly half the size of the head), and thus, already has some fingers. From what I can see, this baby is clearly giving the 'rock on' sign with its hands. Pictured to the right is a digitally enhanced closeup of the fetus (what a nasty word). Now that I have enhanced it, I can clearly see that the baby does in fact have another arm, which it is using to rub its belly (also known as the lower portion of the watermelon-head). Now let's review to make sure you're still with me here. With its left hand, the baby is giving the 'rock on' symbol, and with its right hand, it is rubbing its belly. But wait! I think there is more going on here than we realize! If we digitally enhance this picture even more, I think we will see what is really going on here. Take a look for yourself:
From this picture, we can clearly see that the baby is playing the air guitar. I have drawn in the imaginary guitar in red in order to help you see the picture in its entirety. I have also taken the liberty to outline certain details such as its hards, arms, and face with yellow ink so that you can pick them out of the gooey mess a little more easily. While outlining the features of this baby, I noticed that its tongue was sticking out. Clearly this baby is rocking on its air guitar quite heavily. From this fact, I am willing to go so far as to deduce that this baby is going to be a boy. Either that, or one pain-in-the-neck girl. At any rate, I don't think I can look at this gob of amniotic fluid any more. I am quickly losing my appetite. As soon as the power comes back on, I shall post this blog and get on with life! There we go, the power is back!