Sadat City

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This is one of the satellite cities of Cairo, and lies halfway along the Alexandria-Cairo Desert Highway. It really is a desert highway, running through the easternmost part of the Sahara the Egyptians call the Western Desert, just outside the lush Delta region. Either side of the road is sand, apart from the modern shopping complexes like Carrefour and Dandy Mega-Mall and the produce orchards further towards Sadat City. The project we are working on is being built at the northern edge of the city. Sadat City is much nicer to be in than Cairo, as the buildings are more spread apart, and not as high, so that frequent breezes cool the city. It's a real blessing to feel a cool breeze. It is an industrial city with about 120,000 inhabitants, with no tourist attractions, so no allowances are made for tourists, such as signage and menus in English. We hope this will help us with our Arabic. Sadat City is divided up into numbered residential Areas. The major shopping areas are Area 1 and 4 Markets. We asked what we should say to a taxi driver when we want to go home. “Residential Area 8, opposite the mosque” as apparently it is the only mosque in this area. Later we found out that wasn't true, more about that later. I got the address written in Arabic just in case. Our building is 5 stories high and beige stucco, just like most of the other apartment blocks here. After moving our stuff in, we realised we would have to do some cleaning, as the benches hadn't been wiped and there was still food in the fridge. The Diocese guys came with us to show us the local shops, but looked at us blankly when we said we needed cleaning equipment. We had asked for a cleaning spray or disinfectant, and sponges, but they had no idea where to get such a thing, and the dairies and pharmacies they tried in Area 4 Market only had glass cleaners, furniture polish and dishwash. They tried to tell us to use those (to wipe a bench and clean the toilet?) and that there was no such type of cleaner, and so did all the shop owners we came across. We realised it was because they were all men - not being in the habit of cleaning anything at home they had no idea what we needed or how to go about it. We found a suitable product ourselves browsing shelves. The floor in our flat is porcelain tiles covered in small rugs which keeps it nice and cool. The bathroom has tiled walls as well, and the water comes straight out of the shower head onto the floor. The toilet and a basin is in the same room. Then you use a rubber mop to scrape the water towards the drain. Fortunately the shower is far enough away from the toilet so that it doesn't get wet when we shower. Unfortunately, the stench of sewerage from the drain permeates the whole flat and nothing can be done short of shutting the door. Erin is happy that our toilet has a good "bumwasher" - toiletpaper being used for drying after washing. We have satellite TV with 400 or so Arabic channels. The American movie and TV series channels have Arabic subtitles, and there is an Iranian news channel that is in English. The other channels include Arabic music video channels and Koran channels. We don't get the camel channel here. There is a cooking channel called Fatafeat and we find it a good way to learn Arabic as we can see what they are doing and what ingredients they are using, while hearing the Arabic. It is very quiet around home during the day, nobody comes out until the evening when it is cooler, and then they are out very late, children playing in the sand outside and people sitting on the grass by the mosque until the early hours. Sadat City seems like quite a conservative place, many women are fully veiled and we haven't seen any girls in tight tops like in Cairo. The other thing is that there are no donkeys or stock in the city (although we have heard chickens clucking and we saw a goat in someone's grassed front yard). A few days after moving in, I came down with a tummy bug. I wondered if it was the termis (boiled salted bean snacks) I had bought from a little girl (Erin didn't have any) or the water that was served to us at the shisha cafe (we saw them serve it out of a bucket on the bench). Not nice, but thankfully it didn't last.

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Photos

Sadat
Erin lolling in the lounge

Sadat
Our local mosque as viewed from the lounge window. First call to prayer is at 4am.

Sadat
Adjacent apartment block as viewed from my bedroom window.

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Out little kitchen

Sadat
This is out the front of our apartment block, yes that is sand.

Comments

[sharon]

your apartment looks nice. must be nice and loud having the mosque right across the street. erin is a loller.