Advertisement
Published: November 19th 2010
Edit Blog Post
While on the taxi ride back from the Ramesseum I apparently deeply impressed my taxi driver with a visual demonstration of what I imagined the next day, the Eid-al- adha, would be like. My fantasy including families giddily massacring animals in the streets, children playing covered in blood through muddy streets... gloriously my enthusiasm got me an invitation to spend the day with him and his family.
Karim, as I would later find out his name was, lived in a tiny three room hut on the West Bank of the Nile, which is where most of the people who work in Luxor actually live. His home was part of a larger family compound that included a mass array of cousins and brothers and in-laws. His house had a dirt floor, though it was covered with rugs, the walls were made of brick covered in mud, the roof were logs placed perpendicular to one another, covered with palm fronds and dirt. He had two sons, Muhammad, age 4, and Yosef, aged 2. He also had a newborn daughter. His wife was stunningly beautiful, especially considering she had birthed three children in the last four years. They had electricity for the three
essentials that I would find in all of the houses; lights, fans, and a TV. Generally the TV's are turned to Arab music videos which in terms of pure sexual energy are as stimulating as anything Beyonce or Brittany Spears have ever produced. It has consistently proved a challenge reconciling that vision of the Middle East with the extremely conservative people that live here.
After the mandatory Chai and Sheesha we walked down the street and went from home to home giving feast day hello's. Eventually Karim and I jumped in a cart being pulled by a motorcycle and ended up getting a pretty awesome tour of the west bank. It was a world away from the hotels on the other side of the river, with hundreds of men lining the streets smoking Sheesha and drinking Chai, decrepit buildings, trash everywhere, potholed streets, the stink of open sewage, a mass of people milling about, and families eagerly decapitating cows and goats and cooking them for the days festivities.
When we returned from the drive Karim encouraged me to walk around and make myself at home. Not really sure what I was supposed to do I decided to throw
rocks at a tree. Mercifully I was joined by several other young boys, which transformed me from the random stupid white guy throwing rocks at a tree to the cool new dude who likes kids. After a while of this a girl, Mona, came and asked me if I would help her with her English.
We went into a small room in one of the adjoining homes and were soon joined by a handful of other girls in their late teens. Mona had a list of words that she wanted help pronunciating. The list was pretty ridiculous, and I kind of wanted to kick the teacher in the head. The two words that stick out the most were "geothermal" and "coronation"---in 20+ years as an English speaker I don't know if I've ever needed either of those words, why she needed to know them when she couldn't put a sentence together was beyond me. After going through the pronunciation she had a story that she wanted to read, about the British in WW2 of all things. We worked through it very slowly, she did a great job sounding out the words but it was very difficult and very slow.
The story was extremely difficult and I couldn't help but think about the years youths in America spend reading Dr. Seuss before they would ever try and read something that hard, I couldn't believe they wanted her to read it. It's no wonder so many people become frustrated trying to learn a new language, and I remembered my largely futile attempts to learn French and Arabic. While she a did a good job I am not sure she comprehended very much of what she was reading, and she asked what many of the words meant. This led to a drawn out game of charades as I tried to visually represent words like "leader" "invasions" "spies" "hide" and "find," which everyone found funny. I think I did a good job, the only word I couldn't think of how to act out was "radio frequency" which left me baffled. They also asked some interesting questions which I had never considered but I can see why they would be confusing to a non-native speaker. The one that sticks out in my mind was they wanted to know the difference between "on" and "against." A glass can be on a table, a picture on
a refridgerator, a ring on a finger, a man on a mission, but a bed is never on a wall, even if they are touching. After thinking about it for a few minutes I decided that you should use "on" if you are talking about 2 things that you conceive of as part of the same entity, while "against" should be used for two things that you conceive of as being seperate. A picture on the wall becomes part of the wall, but a bed against a wall is still seperate. Unfortunately this moment of clarity and brilliance was all for naught since I couldn't explain it or act it out in a way that they understood. Every few lines she would ask me to read what she had just read, after which all the girls would put their hands over their hearts and say "jameela jameela" or "beautiful, beautiful." I was very impressed with her and really hope that she is persistent long enough to learn the language.
My only mistake was in saying that I wasn't married. This made everyone very interested as to why a man in his mid 20's wasn't married, and became a near
scandal when I said I didn't think I would get married for many years to come. I had to laugh as I got asked about whether I like kids, my family, the whole nine yards. Later in the day the old matriarch would take me by the hand, sit me down and putting her two pointer fingers parallel to one another brought them together saying "inta wa mona" or "you and mona." I could only laugh and respond with the non-committal "in'shallah" or "if it is god's will."
Dinner was absolutely delicious, an abundance of fresh tomato and cucumber, rice, bread, potatoes and some very tender, very freshly massacred meat.
I ended up spending about 12 hours with his family, and left quite a while into the evening. It was probably one of the most interesting days of my life, and the opportunity to get to spend time laughing and chatting with some of the kindest and most open people I have ever met was a real blessing. If the second half of my time in Egypt was as nice as the first half, I will be pretty happy.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.182s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 43; dbt: 0.0385s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Hard Times Tom
non-member comment
Glad to Find Your Blog
Hi Chris, It sounds like you're doing well and having quite an adventure. The pictures are great and you're doing a great job describing Egypt. It sounds like it was a real culture shock when you arrived in Cairo, but learned your way around quickly. It should be easier for you after the initial jolt. I look forward to reading more of your adventures. I could not find your blog because you gave me a different address. It took me a very long time to find it. Tom