Yet more culinary disasters!

Taken during the foam fight from the jacuzzi yesterday - I SO need a haircut!

Hi everyone

Hope that all is well with you wherever you are, if you are in Victoria you will be beginning to feel the autumn chill in the mornings by now I have no doubt. Egypt is still going well, life is kinda quiet at the moment what with the state of play with the search for a company, but that’s OK too – I’m looking on it as a holiday period (and if I get too bored there’s always housework!) Just joking. Masry is finding it difficult not going to work every day I think also. Yesterday we slept in until 11.30 am – unbelievable! Mind you, he stayed up until 4.00 am watching TV but I didn’t have that excuse, I was asleep by 1. I’m beginning to get excited about coming home – one month today until I leave. I have a 9-hour layover in Dubai which will be awful, I get in at midnight and leave at 3.15 I think it is – I hope there’s some spare floor somewhere. I leave to come back on 9th July, although if we needed to change it Emirates seem to be OK about that.

I am looking forward to seeing everyone and maybe having toast and Vegemite. Also looking forward to seeing what’s in the clothing stores although in the big malls here there is a good range of quality clothing, although often not for my size. Masry says for me to basically take an empty suitcase and bring back a couple of suitcases full of stuff and clothes and shoes etc. So hopefully I won’t have much luggage to worry about when I come.

Life is mostly taken up with Mohamed meeting with the lawyer in his search for a company or with the drivers or whatever. I am leading the quiet life mostly in the house. I was never a big TV watcher but now I really appreciate that big 46” of screen and all the channels (although there’s not too many in English).

Sunday we had Rania and Hagar and Rania’s husband Allaa and her boys Lewi, Mohamed and Omar over for lunch. I was up early, cleaned the floors and the bathrooms and then started cooking. Masry cleaned windows. The meal in the middle of the day is the main meal here, when you have meat (if you are having it at all that day) and I had bought meat and was attempting a couple of Egyptian dishes, kabsah, meat in rice and kofta – meatballs in a sort of almost curry sauce. I bought the spices in packs made up and the recipes were on the pack. Thought I couldn’t go wrong. WRONG!!!! The kofta was really a disaster but honestly I don’t know what went wrong. It had yoghurt in it and that sort of curdled but from the minute I added the spices it smelled really bad. I thought it smelled just like vomit but I kept thinking maybe it’s supposed to smell like this! WRONG!!!! Everyone was terribly polite, but Masry gave me the secret signal that told me it wasn’t good and not much of it got eaten. Except that I threw it into the rubbish and put it outside the door overnight for the doorman to collect and a stray cat got in and it was all over the doorstep because it ate all the meatballs and left the sauce everywhere. So the cats obviously liked it. Nearly made me ill to clean it up.

And as for the kabsah – I bought rib fillet to use for the meat and thought that should be excellent but it was SO tough. I have seen Australian meat to buy frozen but it is almost 3 times the price of local meat. I could tell as it cooked up it would be tough, and the rice part didn’t work properly either, the rice was supposed to be all separate grains and fluffy but it must have had too much liquid and so it went gluggy. (The recipe said use 6 cups and reduce it to 3 cups – but how do you tell that in the saucepan?) And it also said use 750 grams of rice and I don’t have a set of scales so I probably blew it on two counts. But everyone ate that (in desperation I suppose) and we did have vegetable soup (and I have that down OK) and cheese and salad and toshi (pickled vegetables, green chillis, olives and lemons, I think it’s delicious and it is eaten with almost every meal) and bread and fruit and juice and tea, so I hope that everyone was full enough. I’ll keep practising. I really need that recipe book and to stock the pantry with spices etc. Next time I’ll make the kofta from scratch if I can find a recipe on the net. (Found one today)

Maybe I need to bring a couple of recipe books back with me for casseroles etc. Mind you one of the big supermarkets has all the Women’s Weekly series of cook books but they are fairly expensive (for Egypt, probably cheap for Australia). But maybe I should pick up a couple.

The boys are beautiful (Omar is SO cute and this week he let me pick him up lots and I even got a kiss) but loud and they like to run and squeal and push each other around. They give Rania a bit of a hard time, Omar smacks her back if she gives him a tap and he’s only 2! I asked her was she going to have any more and she said no no no, these 3 were more than enough and gave her a headache. Mohamed says that the little Mohamed in particular is a problem in the street every day for something. He’s always laughing – I think he’s probably a "ratbag" rather than a bad boy.

It’s always a little bit of hard going as both sisters don’t speak very much English (Hagar speaks more than Rania) so we don’t talk a lot, but I like them both very much and I’m sure it will get better. This week they looked through the photo album of all the kids.

Allaa invited us to their house next Friday which will be nice. Hagar thinks her fiancé will visit her there and it would be good to also meet him. So I hope that works out. But one thing I am learning here is that you have to be very flexible. Yes means maybe and maybe means possibly and no means we’ll see what happens and maybe it will be yes. And if a meeting is set for 11.00 am then anything up to abouat 12.30 is very acceptable. So when Masry says his sisters will be here at 11.00 to 12 and they arrive at 1.30 then that’s all OK. Mind you I was grateful - there was lots of chopping and grating etc. to be done and I wouldn't have been ready on time anyway.

This weekend has been a holiday for Christians but Masry couldn’t tell me what for. But putting two and two together it may have been for Easter as I know that the weekend just gone was Easter for Ethiopians. Yesterday Mohamed went to get himself a special fish lunch – we ate on the roof. We ate on the roof not only because it was a really nice day but also because it was the vilest smelling stuff I think I’ve ever smelt. Even Masry admits it smells revolting but he says it tastes wonderful. It’s called Alte Fork – salt-fermented mugli fish. It looks like sort of a whole half-rotten raw fish in slimy oil stuff and I simply cannot describe the smell. Masry says his hands etc. will smell for about 2 days even though he soaked in the jacuzzi for about 45 minutes. And he had about 3 litres of water to drink – he says he’s still sooooo thirsty. But he did tell me that all Egyptians would be eating fish on this day so maybe that supports my Easter theory.

So here I am at the net café while Masry goes to the lawyer yet again about a company and then he says it’s City Stars and a movie which will be nice. We didn’t go to one last time we went coz there wasn’t one that appealed but I hope we can today. It's just be nice to be out.

I’ve got a really sore little finger – we had a foam fight while the jacuzzi was filling up yesterday and in the process I hit my little finger really hard straight on the end – you know how you can do that? It didn’t seem to do a lot of damage, just hurt a bit, but it’s getting harder and harder to bend it and it’s fairly swollen. Hope it’s OK.

Masry says to say hello. I still don’t know if he’s coming to Australia at any stage, but I’m hopeful, although I know it will be difficult. I keep telling him how upset everyone will be if he doesn’t come. But it really will depend on what is happening with the vehicles and the company.

Anyway, I‘d better go, sorry there’s not much exciting news. I expect Masry back at any time and as it's 2.30 we'll both be starving by the time we get to City Stars.

lots of love

Lyndall

The Beautiful Blue Red Sea

Santa Caterina was an interesting side trip but the main intention of our trip was to visit Sharm El Sheikh for a few days. I wasn’t sure what to expect – Masry kept telling me “Wait til we go to Sharm, I know you will like it SO much.” I think he also thinks if ever we could afford it we might buy a unit at Sharm to have as a holiday house – just like President Mubarak. Our summer palace so to speak. Maybe we can be “in residence” when George Bush visits next – or Obama or Hilary or whoever.

We took the long road from Santa Caterina through mountains and more mountains, sand stretches, past what looked like abandoned military structures, past Bedouin camps and then more mountains. But finally we emerged to see the beautiful blue sea in the distance and a low-lying town fringing the ocean, every building white, and Masry announced we had arrived at Sharm. We were actually uncertain if we would get a hotel room as the drivers had told Masry that the town was packed. We did a drive through (the town ribbons along the edge of the sea and is long, not wide – a bit like the GC used to be) and checked it out from the main road. All the big chains are there – Hilton, Marriott, Sheraton, Novotel, Movenpick, etc. etc. – and there are pretty much new cars only, hardly any blowing horns, lawn and trees and flowers all over the place and NO rubbish anywhere. There are also police checks and a seemingly endless stream of aircraft going overhead to the airport. If we couldn’t find a hotel Plan B was to drive the 500 km back to Cairo after a look around.


We tried a few hotels without success but finally at the Coral Beach Rotana Resort we lucked out and got an all-inclusive 4 day/3 night stay. All inclusive means 3 meals, free food during the afternoon at the pool bar, free drinks as well. You get a wristband and that’s it. In fact they gave us two extra lunches as we got lunch before we checked in (check in time 2.00 pm) and after we checked out (check out time 12 noon). Well – coffee in the coffee shop wasn’t free I found out later – 12 pounds!!! Shows how I’m getting used to living in Egypt – that seemed so expensive (very good coffee at On the Run here is 7 pounds 50) and yet it is only about A$2. Tea in the other café was free and I think the best mint tea I’ve had. A shisha pipe wasn’t free but was about the same price as outside at 10 pounds. (Most westerners think that shisha has a narcotic in it but it is basically fruit flavoured tobacco. At this café it was very sweet smelling – apple flavoured. The tobacco is soaked in the juice and then dried again somehow). And Internet access was SO expensive – 85 pounds per hour!! There was wi-fi in the rooms and I did send some emails but that was just way too dear. At the net café I go to in Cairo it is 2 pounds per hour.




I would say the resort was about 4.5 stars; all inclusive was US$190 per day for the both of us.




Everything is quoted in US dollars or Euros (although you could pay for stuff in Egyptian pounds) and the resort was basically completely filled with Russian tourists. In fact, the town was full of Russian tourists. I heard a small sprinkling of other languages and only a couple of times when we were out for the night did I hear English. There were a very small number of Arab tourists; Masry says “the wealthy from Saudi Arabia”. Signs are in Russian and Italian, sometimes with English, sometimes with Arabic.




The view from the balcony of our room – the pool we spent our time at is the one in front here (the Splash Pool), complete with bar. The grounds were immaculate.

Otherwise, Sharm felt like a tourist town that you could come across anywhere, even if it didn’t totally look or sound like it. In looks it reminded me of pictures I’ve seen of Greek island towns but on reflection I figured that was the blue sea, the rocky beaches and the white buildings. There are virtually no residential areas, it’s all apartments and resorts and hotels. And a shopping strip plus a really big open air mall called Na’ama Bay that was packed the night we went there. There’s also an old market but we didn’t get there – but I was happy to save something for next time.



In this picture on the left are all the open air coffee shops, beautifully decorated with lights in all sorts of shapes, stars, traditional lanterns etc. They have low comfortable seats, carpets, colourful tapestries etc. and looked beautiful. No alcohol served - coffee, tea and shisha. (Sorry about the picture quality, we took these with the point and shoot which has marks on the lens from the boys in Ethiopia and their water trip to Lake Langano when a splashing competition marked the lens permanently)

Again, sorry for the quality. You can see the probably thousands of tourists who were walking in the balmy evening with us. Again, lots of big names here including a Hard Rock Cafe and all the designers; obviously tourists with a reasonable amount of money come to Sharm. We did a little shopping including a sarong for me (I left about 4 back in Oz, didn’t think I’d need one here)

Of course the diving is supposed to be spectacular. The coral and fish are accessible from any beachside resort usually from a floating jetty and you can hire snorkels, masks and flippers. Or you can hire glass-bottomed boats for two (US$75). You can also parasail (US$40 for one, $50 for a double), hire a kayak or a private boat (US$110). And you can take diving expeditions. A tour company can arrange a cruise for you for a few days also. I did take a swim from the end of the jetty – the water is a most beautiful sort of navy blue colour. But Masry doesn’t swim and although you can hire life jackets he also doesn’t like cold water, so I couldn’t get him in. He lounged comfortably on a beach chaise under the umbrella and watched.

Most of the time, except for the middle of the day, we spent at one of the pools – there are 2 at the resort. There was piped music – the best of the 70s and 80s I think so it was easy to sing along – a bar that opened for free drinks at 10.30 am, free food in the afternoon, including ice cream, and great staff. I also found the food excellent except for one day (maybe the last day before supplies came in?). There was a mixture of international cuisine, Egyptian food, hot food, salads and a whole bunch of great deserts. And the bread was fabulous. Only problem I had was that there was not quite enough fruit for me.





The water wasn’t really very cold – the days however were fairly hot at around 33-35 degrees so the water certainly felt cold initially. I noticed the sign said the ocean was 24 and the pool I think a bit cooler. It felt cold to begin but soon became just beautiful. I haven’t been swimming for a while and it was wonderful to have so much time to enjoy it. Sometimes I just paddled quietly and at other times had a good swim.

I also managed to improve my tan a little. Some of the Russians were SO burnt I don’t know how they walked around and almost every woman wore a bikini no matter her age or size, which made for “interesting” viewing sometimes. Masry tried to stay out of the sun; he says it makes him too dark. Now there’s a problem a few of us wouldn’t mind. I was careful enough not to get burnt.







The ocean was, as the ocean always is, wonderful to watch. The Red Sea is a beautiful colour – a gorgeous aquamarine when it’s shallow and an almost navy blue as it gets deeper. The images don’t really do it justice.


The stairs were also excellent exercise several times a day; I used to send Masry on ahead as my tired legs struggled up them at the end of the day. He can always bound up any stairs, at any time, two at a time. Once up past the waterfall you kept climbing up past the Roman Theatre and then up a few more to the units then another 20 or so up to our unit on the first floor.

The resort was beautifully lit at night with lighting effects on the trees and buildings and a couple of beautiful filigree domes on the main building.




The resort also had a small bazaar but it was definitely touristy and definitely pricey. Mohamed always refuses to shop at places like these. So do I now.



On the way to dinner









The view was really wonderful and at night was amazing when the sea was calm. However, without a tripod I didn’t get any decent photos.

So I found Sharm a very relaxing time. Swimming, reading, sleeping, occasionally TV, someone else to do all the cooking and a very welcome knock on the door each day as the man called out “housekeeping”. And the freedom of Sharm was a delightful break for me – I could wear all my Aussie clothes and my swimmers in public, swim, even hold hands in public. Masry was certainly relaxed about the whole public interaction deal and it felt like a honeymoon – romantic, comfortable, relaxing.

I think maybe Mohamed had had enough of the quiet life towards the end of our stay – he sat patiently beside the pool for hours at a time with mostly just his thoughts. I know that by the last night he was missing his friends. In Egyptian culture men are very bound up with their male friends. Masry visits with his friends at the coffee shop once or maybe twice a week and misses his closest friends when he has not spoken to them for a few days. And he loves Cairo – crowded, grubby in places, crazy at times, irritating, frustrating, full of life Cairo. He was so pleased to be back – as we came around the Round Road he said simply, “Cairo – it is…Cairo. It is like nowhere else.” And yes it is.

Lots of love until next time

Lyndall




The wedding ring and my jammed finger – sliding door to the balcony, two days after I jammed my thumb in the car door. I’ll try for another better shot some time.

The God-Trodden Mountain

Last Friday we set off on a delayed honeymoon, well that’s how I thought of it anyway. We set out on Friday morning for the Sinai Peninsula, the south Sinai in particular.



Leaving Cairo via the Round Road we headed for Suez. As you can see you can’t miss the road, or if you did, just follow the power lines. All the power for Cairo comes from the Aswan High Dam and so from every road you can see the massive power lines everywhere, basically following the road. But I had never seen them as thick as they were along the Suez Road. I presume the lines go on to supply towns and industry along the Suez Canal.




I didn’t get to see the famous Suez Canal – you actually take a 2 km tunnel underneath the water. We got to the intersection before the tunnel just after noon and made a stop, along with many other travellers, at the mosque for Masry to attend Friday prayers. All men attending here although women do attend mosque as well. The mosque was not extra large and the crowd spilled out into the surrounds, but the sermon and prayers were broadcast over a loud speaker, as they are from many mosques. (Where I lived in Mohandessin I could hear 3 of them, all in competition at noon on Fridays.)




As you can maybe see it was a beautiful 25 degrees at 12.50 when we arrived at the tunnel. The tunnel is at the bottom end of the canal and the closest I came to seeing the canal itself was a quite incredible sight as we were coming back a few days later. On our approach you could see a ship that looked just like it was sailing along the desert. I’ve seen a similar effect along Golden Beach as the ships go up and down along the east side of Bribie but at least you are close to the ocean there. This just looked completely out of place and very surreal.

As we got onto the Sinai we were on a road that followed the edge of the Red Sea south. We passed many resorts both complete and incomplete including Golden Beach Resorts 1 and 2. None of the incomplete ones appeared to have any building activity going on. All of them were on the sand sort of in the middle of nowhere and many of them gave me the disconcerting feeling that they were not half built but rather half demolished. It looked like it could be the set for some SciFi movie where life on earth has basically come to an end and nature is taking the land back. And in the background you could see the big ships heading down or up the Red Sea, the oil platforms (with small refineries and wells also in the sand along the edge of the water) and fishing boats. And the Red Sea is an amazing blue.








We passed through a number of police and army check points as we travelled south. At each we needed to produce the car licence, Masry’s ID and his licence, my passport and our marriage certificate. As a man and a woman alone in a private car together we must be able to demonstrate that we are married. And with me a westerner we seemed to be under even more scrutiny. Sometimes we’d hand it all over together, sometimes Masry would decide to play a small game and just hand over a bit at a time. At one I didn’t need to know any Arabic to understand. The guy was plainclothes and armed (a number of the police were plainclothes, all armed) and he was the only one to come to my side of the vehicle. He checked the licences and ID and passport and then in Arabic he asked Masry why he had a tourist in a private car (not allowed, must be tourism registered vehicle). And Masry said (in Arabic) she’s not a tourist she’s my wife. And I just KNOW the guy said, “Come on, pull the other one.” And he said it with a smile. So Masry also smiled and pulled out the very impressive piece of paper that carries our photos and purple thumbprints which I handed over also with a smile. And with a small chuckle he handed it back with a BIG hand-on-heart apology and we all smiled as we went on our way.

As we got further south and in about the middle of the afternoon we made a left turn at yet another check point and headed into the Santa Caterina Protectorate, a large tract of mountains and desert peopled by scattered Bedouins. In its heart is the Greek Orthodox monastery of Santa Caterina (St. Catherine) and some of the big biblical sites. While the road had been fairly deserted it became almost completely empty now and we hardly saw a vehicle. But – perhaps this one is only in Egypt….








At times it seemed that there would be no way through the rugged mountains. The geology was really interesting with layered rocks and bands of what looked to me like a sort of dark rust-coloured ironstone, obviously harder than the rest of the stone as it often rimmed the ridges, projecting upwards like a row of teeth. And there was yellow and red and gray stone, sometimes in tilted layers. My guide book said the mountains of the southern Sinai are granitic, but they weren’t what I expected. It also says this is the home of the wolf, the hyena, the wild goat, the gazelle and the eagle; however I saw none of these. However, there were many wadis and even running along beside the road at times were what were obviously sand-filled watercourses, sometimes with acacia or date palms or other small bushes growing in them.




And we passed a few villages around oases, poor-looking, rough villages (although occasionally there were stone houses) which Masry says are peopled by Bedouin. We saw many men lounging around and occasionally women, fully covered, working around rough homes. Many children, playing in the sand. And when a vehicle without any registration passed us Masry explained that these cars and utes belong to Bedouin, who have no ID and therefore are unable to register their vehicles. The predominant clothing colour for the men was a beautiful jacaranda colour – sometimes pants, sometimes long shirts like gallibiya but most often head scarves. I didn’t see it on any of the women.




All-in-all, for such an apparently desolate land there was much to see and be fascinated by on the trip.

We arrived at the very small town of Santa Caterina in the late afternoon and found a room at the Catherine Plaza, a hotel full of Asian and European tourists. Many were wearing crosses and appeared to be Christians who were visiting this biblically significant place.



I think that this is Mt Horeb but it's difficult to tell in this rugged mountain range



A lone date palm grows at the foot of this mountain just near the monastery. It’s hard to see how it survives.



At the entrance to the grounds of the monastery, you can choose to take a camel ride, a taxi ride or walk up to the monastery itself. This is also the beginning of the hike to Mount Moses (as the locals call it). We walked, I can’t imagine that Masry would ever pay money to ride a camel. 



The monastery has been here for 1700 years and has both extensive gardens and an orchard.



Wall detail





According to the Bible, at the age of forty, Moses left Egypt and came to Mount Horeb, which sits behind the monastery. Here’ he found Jethro’s seven daughters watering their father’s flocks at the well, which is still visible to this day on the north side of the monastery’s Abbatical Church, the “Katholikon”, within the fortress precinct of the Holy Monastery. After marrying one of Jethro’s daughters, Moses then lived for forty years in the Sinai Desert, pasturing his flocks with his father-in-law. Here God revealed himself to Moses in the Miracle of the Burning Bush and ordered him to return to Egypt and to bring the Children of Israel to Mount Horeb. And of course there’s the whole Ten Commandments thing as well. Six hundred years later the Prophet Elijah also came to this area and on Mount Sinai you can still see the cave in which Elijah lived.

The Holy Peak of Mount Moses is situated a two hour walk from the monastery and can be climbed in one of two ways. The first entails going up 3,750 steps built with rocks by the pious monks. The other is a meandering road which was created and cut into the mountain in the nineteenth century by the Viceroy of Egypt. All in all it’s a significant climb and you commence around 2.00 am so that you experience sunrise on the mountain. I think much to Masry’s disappointment I declined to make the climb – I really didn’t want the sunrise to be the last I ever saw. He says it’s OK; he’ll wait until the kids visit and climb it with them. If I go on a really intensive fitness program before then maybe I’ll be able to attempt it next time.

On the top of the mountain is a chapel dedicated to the Trinity, built with rocks that had been previously used by the Emperor Justinian to build another church there. To the north of the chapel is the small cave where Moses, who saw God but not his face, entered and stayed for forty days and forty nights.

The Katholikon also houses the Chapel of the Burning Bush and the altar stands above the roots of the bush. My book says that the Bush flourishes several yards from the Chapel, where it has been transplanted in order that it was possible to consecrate the altar on its roots.

However, I didn’t see any of these biblical wonders. There was a large crowd when we went up to the monastery and although we stood in the first line for quite a long time to get into where we thought we would see the remains of St. Catherine, when we got through the door we saw we were just the last in an even much bigger line to get in so, as we had the drive to Sharm El Sheikh to make, we opted not to wait. Again, maybe we’ll organize ourselves better next time. However, the monastery is interesting even around the outside and I was pleased that we made the trip through this rugged but fascinating landscape.



From the monastery looking south (I think)



And I was on the road as well







And the road stretches on and on - no traffic worries here



These appeared to be abandoned military installations



A Bedouin camp we passed with camels and goats. I have no idea how they survive.

Saint Catherine, born in Alexandria in 294 AD was martyred in the 4th century AD by the Emperor Maximinus. Again, according to my book, following her decapitation, holy angels took her body and deposited it to rest at the peak of the highest mountain in Sinai, which now bears her name. About three centuries later, guided by a dream, the monks of the monastery which had already been erected by Justinian, found her body and brought it down from the mountain and laid it to rest in a marble casket in the choir of the Katholikon. I quote: “The sweet fragrance of her sacred remains is up to this day a continuous miracle.” The devotion of St. Catherine was promulgated in the west by the Crusaders and she became a major saint. Thus, ever since the 11th century the Monastery of The Saviour’s Transfiguration has been also known as Saint Catherine’s Monastery or the Monastery of Saint Catherine at the God-Trodden Mountain.

I must admit that I would be fascinated to see inside the monastery as it appears to be filled with amazing religious artifacts, art work, icons, mosaics and architectural features preserved since the building of the monastery so many centuries ago. Again, maybe next time.

When you come to Egypt, put Santa Caterina on your agenda.

This is enough to wade through for now. We had a pleasant and relaxed drive to Sharm El Sheikh, taking the long road, but I’ll tell you all about the beautiful Sharm next time.

Love to everyone

Lyndall

PPS Forgot to say that one of the most amazing things close to Suez is that you come upon these farms in the middle of the sand. Rich green crops and ripe grain, orchards etc. Once again I reminded of how rich the sand is obviously you just need to add water.

Two weeks on

Today is an anniversary – two weeks today since we fronted up at the Ministry of Justice and got married. So how is married life in Egypt?

Well, in many ways I guess it’s like married life anywhere, but in other ways it’s very different and I’m still not sure sometimes if things are so different because I’ve married an Egyptian, I’ve married a Muslim or I’ve married Masry. When everything is not what you expect it can be tricky to sort out.

For example, when I had to stay in another part of the house for 6 hours because 5 men were here installing the kitchen, which was that? After much thought I think it was a bit of all three. Regardless of the reason it wasn’t a great day given the only room in which there was furniture was the bedroom.

And I still can’t get used to having to be covered up, even at home if there are visitors of any sort, especially men. And I mean covered, long sleeves, long pants or dress, shoes. And there’s some distinction of which I’m not sure, sometimes a gallibaya is OK and sometimes not, sometimes it should be western clothes. Maybe one day I’ll figure that one out as Masry doesn’t seem to be able to explain it. And it seems to be more important that I’m covered now that we’re married than it was before.

But on the whole we’re enjoying life as any newly married couple would I guess, getting to know each other better and enjoying each other’s company. Maybe even more so in this Muslim country where contact between a couple is so restricted before marriage. And remains very restricted in public even after marriage.

The kitchen is in and all working and so far I’ve cooked 3 times with 2 disasters. First of all there was the egg – stainless steel frying pan that everything stuck to and well… eggs have always been so simple but not this lot!

And today there was the pizza; again, they’re so simple. Everything looked set to go until I realized that the oven has no way of telling you what temperature it is. I thought that green light was it – off when the oven reached the right heat – no such luck. Actually, it’s there to show that the oven is in operation. So the pizza ended up burnt on the bottom and not properly cooked through. The other interesting thing about the gas here (as well as the fact that the gas bottle sits in a kitchen cupboard near the stove – Masry has at least bought us two decent fire extinguishers) is that the supply of gas is variable; you can turn it up or down. Oh, and there’s no indicator to show you that the bottle is empty. So when the pizza wasn’t cooking even though the oven was flat out we turned the gas up and in a couple of minutes the pizza was burnt on the bottom! And still not properly cooked on the top! Masry wouldn’t eat it so it’s all mine although he did find it exceptionally funny. I refuse to throw it out – it’s not really that burnt! I’m not sure how I’ll manage for the future; I guess it will be like an old wood stove - trial and error for starters – more disasters for me to eat and more cause for hilarity for Masry!.

Friday
Masry has gone to the mosque, to see his sister and collect more clothes and to the barber and I have done a few bits of housework and now have settled down for a while to relax. One thing about this house and this environment is that there is a great deal of housework to be done. I remember my mother talking about “the dust” and how everything needed to be done every day. And I used to think she was obsessed.  Maybe we really do turn into our mothers! Between the desert and the wind the sand roads and all the building activity around us, the floors, the kitchen (I’ll never have this much stainless again) and furniture need cleaning every day. So given that housework has never been my strong point – it is not a natural inclination, it’s a learned skill – sometimes I get a bit frustrated and I suspect that sooner or later we will have someone to help do some of this or I will go crazy. When I start work I suppose.

But apart from the housework, I really like living in the house. The roof is having some work done; the pergola poles are being painted as well as the door being finished for the bathroom up there, so I haven’t been up on the roof for ages. I’m looking forward to it being complete and being able to get up there, back to my pyramids view.

March has been and gone and the khamseen that Masry predicted didn’t come for 3 days but did for 1 day, one very miserable day when a strong and cold wind blew and the sand was thick in the air. It looks so miserable when it’s like that and you really wouldn’t want to be outside. The house didn’t seem to absorb any more dust than any other day but we certainly had to retract the awnings, I thought they might blow off the wall.

The house is still not quite finished but has relatively few teething problems. We need more power into the kitchen to run the water filter and the ensuite is up to leaking tap number 3 while the big bathroom had virtually no water to the shower to begin with. I think of all the workmanship the plumbing is the worst and the plumbers certainly did the most damage while they were working, things like cracked tiles etc. I still can’t get all the grout off the black floor and don’t really know what else to try to get it off. Hopefully it will wear off in time or I will find a miracle product.

We’ve had Masry’s family to visit to congratulate us on the new house, and to see it of course as they hadn’t been out at all. After my day of getting the house spick and span, helped by Masry after he came back from the mosque, we were ready to receive about 7.00 pm. Masry had told me they were coming for dinner so I had thought roast lamb etc. – Masry says “Meat for dinner? Where are you from?” So dinner is food like cheese, Arabic bread, salad, fruit, eggs and because it is a celebration there is juice and soft drink, for once not tea. (“What, they come to say congratulations and you would serve tea? Where are you from?” says Masry incredulously when I asked. One day I will get the nuances right I hope.) And I did a little Ozzie thing with potatoes and sweet potatoes in the oven with rosemary and garlic. Haga cooked the beans and the eggs and I watched, so at least I know exactly what I’m doing with the eggs now! And the beans (very simple – fava beans, a little corn oil, salt and pepper and lemon. It’s called “foul” and pronounced “fool”). There’s lots of ways to cook them, all different sorts of things to add in but this way seems pretty simple to me and Masry likes them this way. And we used the non-stick frying pan, which helped the eggs a great deal. (It’s a bit like fried eggs but you mash them around and soft cook them so that it looks like a damaged omelette - sort of.)

I told Hend I need an Egyptian cook book in English which I haven’t been able to find yet and she said she would take care of that and I will be very grateful if she finds one. I am kicking myself because I saw one in the airport when I was on my way home last time and I didn’t get it because I thought it would be easy to get it when I got back. I should know by now that when you’re travelling you get it when you see it! Hend was my guide when I was in Egypt the first time – she was such a delight and my first friend in Egypt.

Anyway, we had a really nice night with Rania and Allaa and the three boys and Haga. Omar, the two-year old, is so cute and finally got a bit comfortable with me, even sat on my knee for a while. My big surprise was that Haga was wearing rings on her right hand, what looked like a wedding ring and another band with sapphires and diamonds set into it. I asked her did it mean what I thought it meant and she said yes, that her boyfriend (also Mohammad) and his family had been to see Masry and Rania and Allaa two weeks before and it had been agreed that they would be married. I couldn’t believe he hadn’t told me! And neither could she. She tells me she will be married in about 2 years; Masry says it will not be the summer coming but the one after. When she is married the rings move to her left hand. I am very pleased for her as her future will be secure. Masry tells me that she met him in Aswan when she and Rania went down there just before Christmas. I hope that soon Haga will be able to come out to stay some of the time; I am counting on my new sisters to help me learn the language faster and I would really like to get to know them better.

I think that’s enough for now, Masry is out talking to yet another man about another company. Several have seemed promising but each time something happens to preclude the sale, most often a change of mind on the seller’s part, just as we found it when looking at real estate. Hopefully soon. I hope it is sorted out soon because the status of the company purchase (or establishment) will determine whether or not Masry comes with me for any part of my visit to Australia in May-June. Lahni is doing well and still on schedule to have Baby Bunting in the third week in June. Linc moves to Melbourne (where Lucy is already working) by 21st April so a trip to Oz will also mean a visit to Vic – who knows I might even get to make a trip for a day (or two) to Port Fairy! I really want him to meet the kids and to see Australia, so I am very hopeful that the timing will all work out.

Lots of love to all

Lyndall

The purple thumb of marriage

Well folks, I know that I haven't posted for a while but I have been busy - moving in and settling in and doing other things! Here's the whole story. Oh and Judy - I can't return an email when you post to blogger so can you send me your email address in a post and I'll write to you direct as your old Caloundra address doesn't work any more!

So this is now a bit old but I haven't been to the net much so forgive me. Hopefully SOON I'll have the net at home (Telecom keep saying "in one week" and have been for almost 4 weeks now)and then I promise to be a better correspondent to you all! So here goes -

Thursday 20th March – The Prophet Mohammad’s birthday

My text message yesterday to all the kids read:

Well, when we left the house this morning it wasn’t with the thought that today would be our wedding day. But guess what? A visit to the Ministry, we thought to check out some paperwork, became a certified marriage agreement and now it is for real. Masry says hello to his new family. I am wearing the purple thumb of marriage…, am very dry in the mouth, and desperately need to go to the loo but I feel VERY happy. Lots of love, Mum, aka Lyndall El Masry.

Now pick yourself up. Shall I begin at the beginning?

For a few days over the past month or so we had done some of the things needed for us to get married. We had been to the Australian Embassy and got all the paperwork needed from there, basically a couple of documents that certify that I was free to marry etc. in both English and Arabic. We had also bought the wedding ring (for those ladies reading – wide band with a slight curve, 4 rows of diamonds (around the ring, not across), 1 row of tropez cut on the outside each side and 2 rows princess cut on the middle, about 2.5 carats all together, set in white gold) and we’d made arrangements about the marriage contract.

So yesterday we set out to go to the Ministry of Justice (the place you have to get married if you are a foreigner) to find out what else we needed for us to be able to get married and to see about making a time to do so. We were going to go shopping for an entertainment unit for the TV etc. after that, so we just dressed in ordinary clothes: jeans and a shirt each, no makeup for me and Masry hadn’t had a shave for a few days. So you can see we really didn’t have any intentions of getting married this day.

As always the traffic was awful and the parking situation even worse, but in one of the small side streets near the Ministry we jagged an excellent park and Masry left me in the car while he took all the paperwork and our passports to see what else was needed. He was back fairly soon, dropping our passports onto the seat and walking off. He eventually came back with a stamp valued at 50 pounds (LE) which we must have and copies of some of our documents and parts of our passports, including my visa. He also said that we needed 5 passport-sized photos each and we had to have 2 witnesses (2 men or 4 women - interesting in itself) with us and we could come back the next day, or any day they were open. Masry already had 5 photos in the car from when he got his new ID and by chance we’d parked in front of a photographer’s studio so we decided to get mine done straight away. That didn’t take long and then Masry made a phone call to his brother-in-law and said – tomorrow morning at 10.00am. Then he said as we drove off, as he often says about things, “Last choice. What do you say, yes or no?” So I said, “Last choice for you too. Yes or no?” “Yes for me,” he says and I say, “Yes for me too.”

I immediately feel nervous – maybe like waiting at the dentist. My mind is racing, thinking, I’ve nothing to wear. So soon? Am I really ready for this? And so on and so forth as perhaps you can imagine. As we slowly make our way round the block, Masry’s phone rings and he’s looking a little down and saying, “Oh, oh, OK.” When he hangs up he says – “It will be Sunday. Tomorrow is a holiday for the Prophet’s birthday, then Friday and Saturday all government is closed. So it will be Sunday. Unless it is today.” I can see him calculating how we might manage to get married today and not wait until Sunday. Strangely enough, my nerves have totally vanished; I must have really made a last choice. Masry’s brother-in-law is at work of course. So I ask do the witnesses have to know us. No, he doesn’t think so; we just have to have 2 witnesses. Surely there would be men willing to witness the marriage somewhere in there I ask? OK says Masry, we will go and see. By now we’ve nearly gone round the entire block and are back where we had parked, but the park is gone. Maybe there’s no park and it will be Sunday. But suddenly, there’s another one in front of us, double parked to be sure, but a gap in the double parking. So we park. I put on some lip gloss and off we go.

I hope that I can take you there, as if you were our guests on this important day. You’ll find yourself at no wedding like you have been to before (well, I think you’ve probably already guessed that) but I hope you’ll enjoy being with us regardless.

Let’s go up the stairs at the building entrance and through a small crowd of people gathered for no apparent good reason and to the two small lifts (very small) to wait for a ride to the 4th floor. I see tattered signs everywhere that forbid video or photography, so there’ll be no wedding photos here. All squeeze in to the lift – and yes it is a tight squeeze, one man in a galibaya and head scarf is a little upset at being unable to fit in. The 4th floor is the first stop and of course, we’re at the back of the lift but after everyone in front of us gets out to let us out, we can make our way from the lift lobby through a door with a sign in Arabic and into what looks like a waiting room.

The room, nothing very flash, a bit grubby and with chipped and fading paint, is about 10 metres by 10 metres, has benches and small tables and is already full. Immediately I can see some other western-looking faces both male and female, and I’m glad I didn’t get dressed up, everyone is dressed pretty much as we are, some daggier and some a little smarter, but not much. I take a seat on a spare bench and Masry tells his name to a man seated at a small desk and hands over some of the paperwork we have including our passports and Masry’s ID.

After a few minutes he joins me on the bench. I ask him how long he thinks we might wait given all these people in front of us. He shrugs but tells me he has given the man fifty pounds to help speed things up. Along comes a sort of waiter and we order tea and water, Masry’s tea with 4 sugars and mine with none. You can order one as well if you like, or a coffee or maybe a Coke. Meanwhile, let me tell you about some of the other people sharing this day with us.

To my immediate left are two older women and two older men. One of the women is crying and they are speaking in a language that sounds to me like Arabic. After a few minutes Masry tells me they are Iraqi. Next to them is a large party of veiled women, as well as children and men. They have come prepared. There’s a takeaway bag from a fish restaurant on their table and while I watch there’s the delivery of a box of meals, each individually wrapped. Sudanese says Masry. Directly in front there’s a group, bride in a scarf, western man, both young, and two men speaking in Arabic who I presume are the witnesses. There’s another young man with two women, one older, one younger. On my right there’s a western woman with 3 Egyptian men. The men are talking at a great rate in Arabic, the woman is reading a book – in English I notice. Another group arrives and also sits on my right, all the men older, the woman fully covered. They all look Egyptian to me but at least one person must be a foreigner. Could be from anywhere says Masry, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Sudan etc. etc. There are two other groups of men on the other side of the room and a few people standing around.

Meanwhile down the corridor to our right there’s quite a lot of coming and going and every now and again the man calls out a name (usually Mohammad). There is a series of small rooms down there with people milling outside the doors and lots of to-ing and fro-ing. Suddenly a young couple comes out and joins the group of older people on our left. The girl looks happy and excited and she and I share a smile. Two older men also come with them and there’s lots more smiling and excited chatter, I figure they are married now. We wait for about half to three quarters of an hour maybe, and Masry gets up to check. Come on, let’s go he says and we join all the others down the corridor. You have to stay in the waiting room I’m sorry, unless you’re one of our witnesses.

We go to Room 1 and wait outside the door. Inside there’s a man at a desk as well as a couch and a few chairs. And about 5 other people, all men. While we wait outside we are joined by another 2 couples and their witnesses. One couple is older; the man asks me if I am Italiano. No, German? No, Australian, I reply. He is overweight and perspiring heavily, he sounds maybe American to me. So now there’s a bit of a crowd gathered around Room 1 and as well, staff with files enter and leave on a regular basis. There also seem to be a few of what look like “helpers” who accompany a couple with their files and answer questions, or ask them. We stand for maybe 5 minutes before Masry says let’s go. While we wait I hear some ululating from the waiting room – my guess is it’s the Sudanese.

We get the two chairs at the desk while the man completes another file and clears his desk a bit, lining up his stamps etc. I can see my blue passport on the top of the heap of papers in front of him. After dealing with another file brought to him by a staff person, he gets out a fresh and thick wad of papers, A3 size that are folded in half, and a clean white cardboard folder. He writes something on the top of the papers in Arabic and red pen and then gets our ID to check it.

He speaks to Masry after looking at his ID and there seems to be some sort of problem. Masry digs out his wallet and another ID. The man turns to me and makes a gesture for a moustache. I understand. The ID Masry gave has a photo of him with short hair and a moustache, now he’s clean shaven and has a shaved head. I’ve told him before that I wouldn’t recognise him on his ID and obviously neither does the man. He pulls out another with a recent photo and after careful inspection the man starts to write. He asks me will I marry this man. Yes I say (wondering if this is it). He doesn’t do a great deal, although he attaches our 50 pound stamp, but puts all the papers in the folder and we pay him 30 pounds and he puts that in his drawer and gives us a receipt which also goes in the file.

“Let’s go”, says Masry. Then I know this isn’t it because our file doesn’t look like the others I’ve seen and we haven’t used our photos yet. We go to Room 4, over the corridor. There are 3 desks in here with 3 workers, two women and a man. We are directed to one of the women first. She’s using her mobile phone to text someone and it takes a minute for her to take our papers and do what she has to do, which seems very little. As soon as we are finished she goes back to her mobile. We take the file to the man at the next desk who fills in some of the spaces and takes more of our money and adds his receipt to the file. He and Masry have a quiet conversation but I’m not sure what it’s about. Meanwhile the lady at desk 3, with another couple, is having a loud discussion about the file she’s handling. I’ve got no idea of course but it eventually seems to be sorted out.

Out the door, file in hand, to Room 3. The man here slips his shoes on and moves to a second desk and we take seats and I suspect he has been at prayer. He takes the file and begins to complete the details, asking me something in Arabic. When I look blank and apologise he asks do I have any Arabic. I say no and so Masry gets to answer the questions. I sit quietly through a few things here; Masry goes to copy something else. People come and go and the man signs off on other files. One of the couples that come in is an Egyptian man and a western woman wearing a head scarf that looks very awkwardly arranged. I suspect (although I don’t really know) that this is something new to her. She too is asked if she has any Arabic and she says no. She has an American accent. She also looks very serious. I guess this is a serious business.

I look around the small room as the man writes. It has a window that I can’t see anything through. It has filing cabinets in two tone brown along 2 walls with dates on the front of them. There are two very grubby oriental rugs on the floor, one with holes, and none of the furniture matches anything and the chairs are battered. The man’s prayer rug is thrown over a spare chair, and although it’s fraying at the edges it’s the nicest thing in the room.

At one stage the man asks me in English will I marry this man? I say yes again. Our photos are fixed to all 5 copies of the papers. Our names are filled in. I am asked for my father’s first name and my mother’s first and second names. They are put down in Arabic somewhere on the papers.

Now everything is filled in and Masry is asked to sign all the copies of the papers and also two of the other pieces of paper that came from the Australian Embassy. He is asked to repeat some words in Arabic. And then his right thumb print is added to each photo, using an ordinary old-fashioned purple ink pad.

Next it’s my turn. I go through the same process. I write not my signature but my full name. As my thumb print is added to my photos I also get to repeat some words in Arabic. Goodness knows if I’ve said the words correctly but it seems to suffice. (I ask Masry later what I was required to say. He says it’s something like I am freely marrying this man.)

Two men that I’ve seen in the waiting room come in and also begin to sign our papers. Obviously these are our witnesses. Masry speaks with them and shakes hands with them and I say thank you in Arabic. One man seems concerned he’s missing something as he goes out of the room for a while in the middle of signing. But he’s back to finish off after the other man has completed his bits. Finally the Ministry man adds his signature, circles a few a things and then puts all the bits of paper into a file and puts it in his drawer. “Let’s go,” says Masry. And with that it’s over, we’re married.

Masry still has a paper to copy and he goes and does that while I wait near the windows, feeling like it’s all a little unreal. A woman beside me asks me if I’m German? American? I say no, Australian. And she is clearly a Scot. She asks am I here to get married. I say I just did, about 3 minutes ago. She tells me congratulations. She talks about her holiday romance that was supposed to end and didn’t. She tells me all her friends and family think she’s crazy, but that she knows this is right for her. I tell her it’s something I didn’t ever imagine me doing, but I know this is right for me too.

And then I hear Masry’s unmistakable footsteps. “Linda, let’s go,” he says. And I go, my purple thumb, a tangible sign of today’s events, going with me.


Love to all

Lyndall

PS. We get a copy of the papers in Arabic and one in English in about a week and then we can travel out of Cairo together – probably to Sharm El Sheik for a few days honeymoon. It’s on the Red Sea, it’s supposed to be beautiful.

PPS. We forgot all about the ring until today, but I have it on now.

PPPS. If you are an Egyptian couple a man comes to you and conducts a similar sort of paperwork signing. After that, either then or at a later date, you have a wedding party with friends and family when everyone is dressed as we would expect, gifts are given and the party goes all night long with food, music and dancing. When the house is fully completed it is likely that we will have one too. You’d all be welcome.

PPPPS. Masry has just come in and asked if I am writing another one of my stories. He asks if I have written his name. I say that all my stories have his name in them somewhere. “I am your hero?” he asks. “Absolutely” I reply.