Eat more pigeons!

Friday- 5/25

There is nothing better than waking up in the Cairo Marriott. Downtown Cairo in the morning The view from the balcony is incredible. Even better, however, is the anticipation for their amazing breakfast buffet.

Mosques, Churches, and Synagogues

Once again, today we went to Old Cairo to look at the beautiful mosques, churches, and synagogues. As usual, I was immediately troubled by the double standard between men and women at the mosque but I tried not to let it bother me. I went along with it. I wore a scarf on my head and everything. In mosques, women cover up and pray in a different location because they are put on a pedestal in the religion. They are regarded as beautiful and for that reason they must be separated and covered during prayer so that they do not distract the men. 

At the mosque

I felt much more comfortable when we visited the churches. We visited the church that is built over the location where it is believed the holy family stayed for three and a half years. This happened when Mary fled to Egypt with baby Jesus to escape Herod. Although we were not able to enter the area where they actually stayed (it is used only by high ranking religious officials), we were able to see the steps that lead down to it. The steps were covered with pieces of paper containing prayers. It was very cool.

Pigeons!

After visiting Old Cairo, we went to Haytham’s house for a traditional Egyptian meal, pigeons. Haytham is a graduate student at Drake. He is from Cairo and is one of our supervisors. He also is Professor Hamad’s brother-in-law. It was very generous of his family to allow us to see an Egyptian home. It was beautiful. Also, his parents were awesome. I especially enjoyed listening to his hilarious dad.

Haytham's house!

The food was incredible. There was so much of it! Guess what? I really did eat a pigeon. In fact, I ate all of it and I enjoyed every bite! It was stuffed with amazing rice! It was all so good. I was beyond impressed.

A Female Activist

Haytham invited one of his friends, a female activist, to come speak with the group. She was in Tahrir Square during the 18 days and is still there today. The past few days she has worked tirelessly on the election campaign of one of the revolutionist candidates. She informed us before starting that she hadn’t slept for 48 hours. She wore a shirt with three pictures of young men that died during the revolution. She wears the shirt to protest the potential election of Mubarak-era prime minister Shafiq. Shafiq was Prime Minister during the Battle of the Camel when many young Egyptians were killed. She stated that a vote for Shafiq is a vote for a killer. At the time she spoke, her candidate was in 3^rd place (he ended up keeping this position, too). She feared that the men and women of the revolution will have died in vain if an individual from the old regime were to win.

She definitely shed some light on why Shafiq is doing so well with his campaign. She discussed how during the revolution, the Egyptian people were a united group. Everyone helped everyone. However, as soon as Mubarak stepped down, the group split. There were Islamists, revolutionaries, Nasser revolutionaries, Sadat revolutionaries, the Muslim brotherhood, and many others. Even the pure revolutionaries had two separate candidates.

Her talk was extremely emotional. She watched many men and women die beside her during the 18 days. She was shot at with tear gas and rubber bullets in Tahrir Square. The most incredible part of her talk, however, was when she described what it felt like when she voted for the first time. She took many pictures of the ballot. She described how her hand was shaking and how she was crying as she marked the box. When she was done, she took a picture holding her ballot in her shirt with a victory symbol. The entire drive home, she couldn’t stop crying. It was powerful to hear such an emotional and honest account of the revolution and the election process.

The Opera

That evening we had tickets for the Cairo Opera House. We saw Egypt’s number one pianist, Omar Khairat. He was accompanied by the Cairo Orchestra. Before the show, a few of us were selected to go backstage to meet him. I was one of those people. He was very nice and spoke English. He shook all of our hands, took a picture with us, and signed a few CDs. I was able to get my CD signed!

The show was great. We had perfect seats on the second floor in the center. This orchestra was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. It was full of clapping, dancing, screaming, and fun. The audience clapped along with almost every song that was played. They also danced and whistled during a few. As soon as a song started and the people recognized it, they began cheering. A few songs which were about Egypt received even more cheering and dancing. It was a very fun experience. The music was incredible and I was thoroughly entertained throughout the entire show.

Before the orchestra