...yep, we're not done yet! We seem to add something to our to do list for everything we take off! Some days it's a variety of little projects like cleaning up clutter, fixing a light to changing light bulbs, etc. -- but even the little things seem to add more things that we realize we need to buy, and a trip to the store is no little thing! If it's at a store within walking distance, it has to be within a time that we can make the trip--and then we have to consider whether it's a load that we can carry back, or do we have to get a taxi. If it's a taxi, then we have to add to the travel time because there are no quick trips to or from anywhere on the roads.
We make a lot of road trips -- mostly by foot. Each morning we make a 15 minute walk to school--this is always a unique time. I filmed a couple minutes of that journey last Thursday to give you a bit of the sights and sounds that we experience--this is from the morning and we actually got an early start so the roads and the metro station are not so crowded--in fact, as Grace pointed out, this may have been one of the quietest mornings we picked to film. If we leave 5 minutes late, it's like all of Maadi is trying to get somewhere at the same time! (of course, that could be said of just about anywhere)
This is about 2 minutes of the 15 minute walk--Keli and I make this walk 4 times a day--then we throw in all our other little excursions, like the 20 minutes it takes to walk to and from the community church we attend and the shopping trips--and you can see that we are doing a lot of walking! In Cairo, as some of you have heard me say, every road is a sidewalk and every sidewalk is a road--and you can see a bit of this in the movie link. There's also quite a bit of honking; all the honking may seem like it's just impatience (which it mostly is), but some of the honks are to let you know that they are passing (because no one follows lane guidelines), and taxis honk to get your attention to see if you want a ride.
There's also quite a bit of litter--it may be hard to see that in the video, but it is a strange sight to watch people buy something like gum and just toss the wrapper on the ground without a thought. There are few, very few, trash cans for public use available--and when you see one, they are often tiny or overflowing. But, something i didn't see when we were here in September, are number of public workers who are sweeping up debris on the streets and disposing of litter; however, there are far too few for such a daunting job.
The litter among some very beautiful areas is indicative of the sharp contrasts all around us--we may have little kids begging from us as we come out of a store, mothers begging with their babies at the corners, and 6-8 year olds selling travel size kleenex pouches on the train; and, right next to all of them are people who wouldn't give us the time of day because we would be beneath their socio-economic standing!
Contrasts and paradoxes abound here in Cairo! Well, it's late for me and time to turn in--i stayed up to make sure we got this video got up on the blog; i've got another to post soon with a brief interview with one of the national Church leaders, so stay tuned...
...as always, thanks for your ongoing prayers and support!
We make a lot of road trips -- mostly by foot. Each morning we make a 15 minute walk to school--this is always a unique time. I filmed a couple minutes of that journey last Thursday to give you a bit of the sights and sounds that we experience--this is from the morning and we actually got an early start so the roads and the metro station are not so crowded--in fact, as Grace pointed out, this may have been one of the quietest mornings we picked to film. If we leave 5 minutes late, it's like all of Maadi is trying to get somewhere at the same time! (of course, that could be said of just about anywhere)
This is about 2 minutes of the 15 minute walk--Keli and I make this walk 4 times a day--then we throw in all our other little excursions, like the 20 minutes it takes to walk to and from the community church we attend and the shopping trips--and you can see that we are doing a lot of walking! In Cairo, as some of you have heard me say, every road is a sidewalk and every sidewalk is a road--and you can see a bit of this in the movie link. There's also quite a bit of honking; all the honking may seem like it's just impatience (which it mostly is), but some of the honks are to let you know that they are passing (because no one follows lane guidelines), and taxis honk to get your attention to see if you want a ride.
There's also quite a bit of litter--it may be hard to see that in the video, but it is a strange sight to watch people buy something like gum and just toss the wrapper on the ground without a thought. There are few, very few, trash cans for public use available--and when you see one, they are often tiny or overflowing. But, something i didn't see when we were here in September, are number of public workers who are sweeping up debris on the streets and disposing of litter; however, there are far too few for such a daunting job.
The litter among some very beautiful areas is indicative of the sharp contrasts all around us--we may have little kids begging from us as we come out of a store, mothers begging with their babies at the corners, and 6-8 year olds selling travel size kleenex pouches on the train; and, right next to all of them are people who wouldn't give us the time of day because we would be beneath their socio-economic standing!
- You have donkey carts passing Mercedes;
- street produce vendors with scales and kilo weights in front of cellular phone stores;
- pricey coffee shops with exquisite patio seating next door to condemned buildings;
- competing cupcake shops across the street from closet-sized hardware store;
- expensive dog breeds on leashes barking at the pack of wild dogs roaming the streets looking for trash;
- the Muslim women in all black to the young, contemporary Muslim ladies with their stylish scarf wrapped tight enough for their smart phone to rest against their ear like a giant blue-tooth earpiece;
- young men working tirelessly into the night while other young men seem to hang out smoking and looking at girls all day;
- the beautiful green gardens like our own to the dusty, sandy streets right outside the gate.
Contrasts and paradoxes abound here in Cairo! Well, it's late for me and time to turn in--i stayed up to make sure we got this video got up on the blog; i've got another to post soon with a brief interview with one of the national Church leaders, so stay tuned...
...as always, thanks for your ongoing prayers and support!
Wow, minus the headscarves and the Arabic writing, you could easily convince me that this was shot somewhere in Bogotá. I was thinking it even as you described a lot of the contrasts. It's amazing how so many cities can develop so similarly, even though they are thousands of miles apart and their cultural heritages couldn't be more different! Can't wait to see it up close and personal :)
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