Ramadan Kareem
The whole month of Ramadan came and went, and I didn't post a thing! Ramadan is the holy month in the Muslim religion. I don't know a lot about it, but in short, people fast from sun-up until sun-set. This means that we only ate and drank in public at places that catered to foreigners. Businesses were often open for different hours, always closing before the evening prayer so everyone could get home to iftar - the meal in which they break their fast. The businesses then reopened two hours later, and people stayed out all night long. I've been used to the quiet evening streets, and waiting for the evening call to prayer. It's an odd adjustment now to eat in public anytime.
I've been waiting to post lots of photos, but many things keep getting in the way. Damon and I rented and apartment for the month of October. We had a blessedly sweet landlord who insisted that we come visit him next time we're in Egypt. The apartment had problem after problem - electricity, washing machine, body lice in the mattress... But we managed! It was really funny now that I think about it. Good thing we've had so much free time to deal with things. Some friends here just moved into a new flat, and needed a temporary roommate for their third room - so we've moved once again! We're still in Maadi, in an even more westernized part of the neighborhood.
I find myself nostalgic for the regular street vendors that would frequent our old neighborhood daily. We could sit and observe the regular activity from our porch. There was a man who would come through the neighborhood on a bicycle powered cart calling out something in Arabic. People would bring odds-and-ends to him, and he would give them money for it and add it to his collection in his cart. There was also a vegetable seller who would bring his truck around almost every day. At about midnight, there was a man who would walk through the streets singing and drumming all through Ramadan. We found out that neighborhood parents would pay him to sing the names of their children. He would sing their names to remind them to have their last meal before sleeping during Ramadan.
This is what the bedroom looked like by the time we were done vacuuming, laundering, wiping things with scalding water, and spraying pesticides (at the request of our land-lord).
Damon spent a lot of time with the laundry machine as it conintuously broke as we laundered every piece of fabric we owned! Note the piles of clothes on the floor!
This is a shot from the porch of kids playing in the street outside our apartment.
This is an old shot of the glow of green lights from the mosque next door to our hostel room.
I've been waiting to post lots of photos, but many things keep getting in the way. Damon and I rented and apartment for the month of October. We had a blessedly sweet landlord who insisted that we come visit him next time we're in Egypt. The apartment had problem after problem - electricity, washing machine, body lice in the mattress... But we managed! It was really funny now that I think about it. Good thing we've had so much free time to deal with things. Some friends here just moved into a new flat, and needed a temporary roommate for their third room - so we've moved once again! We're still in Maadi, in an even more westernized part of the neighborhood.
I find myself nostalgic for the regular street vendors that would frequent our old neighborhood daily. We could sit and observe the regular activity from our porch. There was a man who would come through the neighborhood on a bicycle powered cart calling out something in Arabic. People would bring odds-and-ends to him, and he would give them money for it and add it to his collection in his cart. There was also a vegetable seller who would bring his truck around almost every day. At about midnight, there was a man who would walk through the streets singing and drumming all through Ramadan. We found out that neighborhood parents would pay him to sing the names of their children. He would sing their names to remind them to have their last meal before sleeping during Ramadan.
This is what the bedroom looked like by the time we were done vacuuming, laundering, wiping things with scalding water, and spraying pesticides (at the request of our land-lord).
Damon spent a lot of time with the laundry machine as it conintuously broke as we laundered every piece of fabric we owned! Note the piles of clothes on the floor!
This is a shot from the porch of kids playing in the street outside our apartment.
This is an old shot of the glow of green lights from the mosque next door to our hostel room.
posted by Abby at 5:46 AM
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