Fabulous Walk Downtown and Islamic Cairo

Kathy Cain, Karl Lorenz and I took a taxi downtown today at 4:45 pm for a 5:30 pm walk advertised in Cairo Listserv. You never know how traffic will be but Kathy was right, if we left early, it would only take ten minute to get there but if we left at 5:15 it would take 45 minutes. We didn't want to be late so we hung around the KFC for half an hour - our meeting point where eventually 14 of us took off trailing rather quickly, I must say, behind Mohamed our lively walking guide. The group was made up of a variety of people, a British couple who had been here a month and would be here for two years while Lara studied at AUC; some Cairo young men, hoping probably to meet American or British women, American professors, an Egyptian professor, and some students of different nationalities.

It was there that I started talking to a young Egyptian woman named Amira who is an arts journalist for Al Ahram weekly. I couldn't wait until I got home to look up her articles. Now, after I looked through the two weekly English papers I had at home, I found an article she had written about the area around Saqqara. She says she likes to have a theme, an off the beaten path kind of journalistic essay. She is a fabulous writer and a charismatic and interesting woman. She lives in Giza near the Pyramids. She had driven downtown to take the walk. She told me about the Hash House Harriers who sponsor hikes which she participates in because she loves hiking and enjoys nature. I'm tired now from the walk but I would like to elaborate later on this gem of a woman. She is putting me in touch with an NGO in Cairo where the women and girls sew clothing designed by her, clothing with an "edge" for better market appeal.

We decided to eat at the completion of the walk since she had been fasting all day and as we had ended up in Islamic Cairo right near the Khan el Khalili, we eventually found a place. Absolutely inexpensive, tammiya (aka felafel) was only 1.5 LE with bread. My water was 2.25 LE so for less than 4 LE I had a pretty good dinner = less than $1. I paid for dinner for three of us for 20 LE which is less than $4. Wow, it was fun experience and one of the nice things about our upstairs room was that I got to sit directly under an AC - it was especially humid in Cairo tonight.

We went to the Hussein Mosque so that Amira could pray. Naturally, I was thrilled to accompany here, a rare opportunity; I draped my scarf over my head and neck in preparation. The women pray in a separate area from the men in the mosque. She told me to keep my shoes with me (you have to take then off you see) before you enter a mosque. I sat next to Amira and meditated taking it all in, the women and girls in different kinds of clothing, different ways of praying. I told Amira that she looked like an angel in her white veil that she donned before we entered the mosque - she really did, she had such a beautiful glow about her. After she had finished praying she explained what the prayers meant, what she had said in her prayers and how Hussein was a brother of the prophet Mohamed so that going to this mosque is a reminder or an inspiration from being in a holy place where a saint is buried. The point in Islam is not to pray to Hussein or any other prophet, even Mohamed since one has a direct and personal connection to God but to be in a place where you feel more spiritual. While there, an older woman tried to give me some kofta (ground cooked lamb) to eat and luckily Amira was very politely saying no thank you for me. How sweet that was to offer me food in a mosque when she obviously didn't have much. Still, I was happy not to have to accept. Amira told me that she prays anywhere and we agreed that of course, you can pray while being out in nature, at home, really anywhere but she feels nostalgic after being away from home sometimes and going to a mosque is appealing because it is a tradition.

We grabbed a taxi to go back downtown to get Amira's car which she had parked relatively close to the KFC - she wanted to go to a kind of flea market on 26 July Street - not the one in Zamalek but one where second hand clothes are sold. This was like having a little treat, to buy herself something for the holiday. The traffic was absolutely nerve wracking but she drove with the skill of a seasoned Indy 500 driver. Anyone who complains about traffic in the U.S. has no idea how crazy it is here and how hard it is to cross a street with taxis, regular cars and motorbikes whizzing by. Some drivers will actually stop for pedestrians but not many. Amira told me that in winter you can get a fur coat for very little money in this area. I may just do that since I am going to the land of frostbite in January - Davos, Switzerland before I leave Cairo. We wandered around but didn't speak English because then, she explained, it was harder to bargain. She ended up with a bright yellow tank top and a pair of white pants trying on the pants while I felt like I was guarding the dressing room from straying male voyeurs. I so enjoyed this peak at the underbelly of Cairo with Amira of walking through crowds of the poor and lower middle class people out in the streets, looking at clothing, buying and eating packets of popcorn - it was more fulfilling to me than the walk. She's a Reiki practitioner too. Did you know that metal blocks chi and that wearing a watch blocks the energy which starts in the toes and goes up the hands? Well, I immediately took off my watch. I can use all the energy I can get! The walk, however from downtown Cairo to Islamic Cairo, was just what I needed in terms of exercise.

When I got home, I immediately took off my shoes, peeled off my sweaty clothes and took a well deserved shower in my luxe Fulbright apartment in Zamalek. I took the jasmine flowers threaded in a few loops out of my purse and put them in the living room. Life is good.