Back from Fayoum

What a weekend it was going to the Fayoum. First of all, we got a ride with two guy friends of Shayma's. I didn't realize that Islam (yes, that's his name) had just gotten his driver's license. I thought he just got his official driver's license and had driven for a few years before. He didn't even take the exam since he knew a friend of a friend who worked at our version of the DMV or PennDot. He drove a Russian Lada car with a stick shift. I remember when I learned on my Datsun 280 Z back in the day when I bought the car used but had to have the dealer drive it home for me since I had only driven an automatic car. Well, the driving was stop, start, stall and go. When he swerved a few times, I thought, well this is due to crazy other cars cutting him off to the side. But it was an inexperienced driver. They say to beware of drunk drivers at home, this was insance. But we got to Tunis in one piece.

We were dropped at our "Ecolodge" the Zad al Mosafer Guest House and got our double room. We had two beds, a single mattress atop a palm frond built foundation, palm frond open closet and hot pink mosquito nets for each bed. A powerful fan overhead and at least for our first night, a portable air conditioner. The lodge has a pool but I had no suit. Friday night there was a Germanic looking family with three tow headed kids splashing about in the pool. The place is owned by an Egyptian writer who has used local materials of mud brick for the place. At 75 LE for the two of us not including taxes, it seemed a bargain. We ordered much food for dinner and vowed to go easy the next day.

We walked to an artist acquaintance of Shayma's - Mohamed Abla who runs a winter artist program from February 1 to March 15. Artists can choose to work in printmaking, painting or sculpture. Nearby, is another artist's studio, a man we dubbed Morgan Freeman because he looks just like him. His wife, Reem Saad is a professor of Anthropology at AUC. She sent me an article she had written on traditional crafts in Upper Egypt. Her daughter Tamara is four, very cute and smart. We communicated in my broken French as I cannot understand Arabic well and she didn't speak English. That worked well enough for us. Mr. Saad was running a wood puppet workshop for Islam and his friend which is why they were going to Tunis.

There are many villages in the Fayoum. Tunis, Fayoum city (on our way to Fidimin in search of another craft weaving school, we passed with difficulty through its crowded streets, crowded because Monday was market day - more on that later.