CBC Prince Edward Island

Egyptian Journey

Old Cairo

August 8, 2009 | Posted by Conor Leggott
 

Egyptian children begin to gather around the UPEI students in old Cairo.We got a late start after the party at the bachelor apartment. Our group was to take a tour of Old (Islamic) Cairo and Coptic Cairo to see some mosques and churches. There was no rousing everyone to go until after a lunch of peanut butter and apricot jam sandwiches, one of two staples here. The other Koshari, is a mix of rice, macaroni, lentils, chickpeas, salsa and onions, and is delicious. We hoped to meet up with others who had already left, but that never happened.

The plan was to meet the others in Old Cairo at Ibn Tulin, the oldest mosque in Cairo. We got to Old Cairo via bus and metro. After much pointing (at us and our supposed direction) and laughing from the locals we thought we were on our way.

One young Egyptian tried to ask Katie if she and I were together, when she told him no he attempted to convince her to partake in a photo shoot with his curly-haired friend. Katie politely declined and we continued on our way.

Hunger set in soon and fate handed us a street vendor selling Egyptian sweets. These are fantastic and consist of varieties of deep fried honey: they remind me of doughnuts. The vendor did not speak any English but was all smiles. We worked out that one kilo was the equivalent of $1.75, and after a successful and tasty transaction we were once again on our way, and with full bellies.

We stopped at a mosque to see what was going on - this was not the Ibn Tulin mosque that we were looking for but a different one with a crowd of people surrounding men singing and dancing. We wondered if the performers were related to Sufism and whirling dervishes. This school of Islam believes that religious ecstasy can be reached through dancing, singing and sometimes wine. This lifestyle makes me ponder becoming a Muslim. Whatever the occasion, this was a marvellous event to witness.

We travelled to another mosque - once again not the fabled Ibn Tulin but looking nearly as old. We were allowed to explore upstairs and climb up the minaret for a fee, cut in half on account of us being poor students. This excuse works every time.

A minaret is a feature of all mosques - a tower from which the call to prayer is made by a muezzin five times a day. At the top we took some panoramic and vanity photos of the sprawling city before us and the dear friends beside us. The call to prayer was made while we were gazing out at the city (not from our mosque, or surely we would not have been allowed up) and the deep Arabic chanting was echoed from minaret to minaret in Islamic Cairo and across Egypt.

Next came my favourite part of the day. We walked down a randomly selected back alley and got what felt like our first real taste of Cairo. Nearly no one here spoke English but we meandered down alleys laughing and wishing peace upon the characters we met.

A notable high point was when hunger struck again passing a hole in the wall eatery making what looked like pizzas outside. The wafting smell alone was enough to make us stop - not to mention we were sick of sweets with half our box of honey doughnuts still left. The pizzas were cheese and vegetables on a flat phyllo-like bread. This was grilled and rolled up like a taquito. It was also the most delectable thing I have ever put in my mouth. Then came the fun part of our day.

Exiting the twisting back alleys we happened upon a small group of children playing on a swing structure shaped like a boat. We started snapping a few photos and were more than happy to oblige with poses and giggles. A few spoke English and asked us things like "whasyour name?" "whereyou from?" thrown in with a few excited exclamations of "hello!" We continued walking and this group of children followed us.

Then, much like rabbits or an infectious disease, they started multiplying and a friendly mob of kids driven by curiosity and giggles ambushed us. They all wanted their picture taken, some were shy and many were brash. Every time we tried to walk away more children seemed to appear until there were at least 40. At one point a smaller mob formed and grabbed me by my arms, dragging me down another back alley. I yelled back to my comrades for help but couldn't keep it up due to too much laughing. The kids took me to area behind some apartments where yet more excited children waited and swarmed me. One youngster who seemed like a ringleader kept yelling "Donkey! Donkey!" I was too busy laughing to take any offence.

We rounded the corner and somehow managed to be back with my group, still under siege from these adorable little nuisances. We finally managed to escape and waved happy goodbyes (Ma Salama) to our new friends.

Monica tries her hand at back alley ping pong.Down a hill lined with piles of garbage we encountered some more kids - these ones playing ping pong. We each joined them in a few rallies on their homemade table - a few pieces of wood nailed together no higher than our knees.

Later we arrived in Coptic Cairo around twilight. This area of Cairo is dominated by Coptic Christian churches. We snapped photos of graveyards and old churches, played soccer with some more kids and had a run-in with the tourist police. These police are among some of the things no one is allowed to take a picture of in Egypt. This group of men with scary looking rifles called us over to take a picture. Addy gestured to them, asking to make sure he wouldn't be thrown in jail. They said no and I sat in the middle of them, just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Before Addy could take a picture of the happy crew, an angry man holding money started yelling at the tourist police. We shuffled away stealthily.

After another bite to eat we started our way back home. We got a taxi, which had to stop at the side of the road occasionally to ask for directions. A few times while we were zooming down the freeway he yelled to other passing motorists for directions. No accidents occurred, much to our surprise.

We collapsed when we arrived home, exhausted.

  •