So, it’s Friday again and so Mohamed is out and I am at home and have some time to write. Two weeks today and by this time I will be safely tucked up in Lahni’s house in Maroochydore, having spent over 24 hours on the road and in the air and having kept a couple of appointments on the Sunnie Coast, hopefully managing to stay awake all day so that I can get over the jet lag a little quicker.
As I said it’s a long way home – I leave Cairo at 7.30 pm on Wednesday night and I get to Dubai at 5 minutes past midnight on Thursday (actually only a three hour flight but I’m moving forward through time). I get to spend a fabulous 8 hours at the Dubai terminal which, regardless of the fact that is it the middle of the night, will be packed and buzzing and I will be very lucky if I find a spare spot on the floor to catch some sleep. At 8.45 am (Dubai time) I take off for Brisbane via Singapore, a journey of around 16 hours flying time, landing me at Brisbane at 7.00 am on Friday 30th, seven hours ahead of Cairo time (now we are on daylight saving here). A quick trip up to Maroochydore in time to get me to my first appointment at 10.30 am I hope.
While one part of me gets more and more excited I must admit another part of me recognises that I will really miss Mohamed, I mean really miss him. He will go and stay with his sister Hagar so I know that he will be extremely well looked after, better than I look after him I’m sure (even though I am getting the cooking under control), and with the exception of the massages. Still, it’s amazing how quickly he’s become quite indispensable to me and it will be hard to leave him behind.
It’s been a pretty good week with a few ups and downs. First there was news that the Hyundais wouldn’t be available for 2 months, reversed later in the week by the news that we could have them in the next week, imported from Dubai. Then there was the office that was on the market and off the market. And there were the turtledoves nesting behind one of the air-conditioner units that we have been really enjoying watching and feeding. On Tuesday the mama vanished and on Tuesday night the first egg hatched. Unfortunately we’ve had to watch the poor little baby struggle and finally succumb. If I hadn’t been leaving I would have tried feeding it but it wouldn’t have been self-sufficient in any way in 2 weeks. And last but certainly not least for me was the realisation that Mohamed wouldn’t be able to come to Australia at all. By the time I leave we will have 5 cars and drivers all depending on him to find the work and keep the books, collect the accounts and pay the bills. Unfortunately, there just isn’t anyone else who can do it for us at this time. For a number of reasons I’m really very disappointed.
And of course world news has covered those two huge disasters in China and Burma. Such incredible loss of life and devastation, so much tragedy on such a grand scale.
Today we had a really nice day, after the mosque we met Rania and Hagar and the boys (and Allaa after he finished work) at Felfela, well one of the Felfela chain of restaurants. This one has a large area with a stage and on Friday afternoons and evenings it has a floor show of middle eastern music and dancing and a man with an excellent balancing act. It was sort of the first place Masry took me out when we were just beginning to discuss marriage, so it brought back some nice memories as well. It was so good to see the ladies again, even if we hardly share any conversations there’s something very pleasant just being in their company. Perhaps because it is the company of women. And the boys are so cute of course. When Omar fell asleep today I took him from Rania and I had a wonderful long snuggle – about an hour. Before that we played some hand games and I got lots of smiles. Before I leave for home I really want to take the camera to the house (or have them come here again) and do some portraits of the boys as they are all beautiful looking children with real character – ideal portrait subjects.
I’m sorry I can’t put any pictures of them with this – Masry has asked that I don’t put any photos of either his sisters or the children on the net.
This week I also found another copy of my favourite magazine – Egypt Today - and read some really interesting stuff about the Egyptian economy and society that surprised me. Here’s a quick recap of a few of the latest official statistics:
- inflation is running at 14.4% as at March (6.9% in December last year)
- bread and grain prices increased by almost 50% in the first 3 months of this year (UN figures)
- 20% of Egyptians live below the poverty line of US$2 per day and another 20% hover just above it
- approximately 50 million people eat subsidized bread every day at an average of 3.2 pieces per person (220 million loaves)
- smuggling, selling or hiding subsidized bread is now a crime
- 29% of GDP is spent on food subsidies (75 billion Egyptian pounds)
- the export of rice has been banned until October
- around 40% of Egyptian marriages end in divorce (this one was a big surprise)
There is a food crisis in many countries (particularly African countries) of course but I must admit, although I’ve seen the queues at the government bread outlets I hadn’t realized the extent of the problem, as I don’t see any news in English except on BBC World, for which both Egypt and Australia do not exist – unless George Bush visits Egypt or Australia is playing cricket. According to my magazine source there was a shooting in the queues in February and someone standing in the queue was also run over. They estimate the number of deaths attributable directly to the queuing problem to be between 7 and 15. Obviously the bread and grain shortage and sharply escalating food prices are serious national issues and although the government has put a number of strategies in place to fix some of this it may take a little while yet to significantly improve the bread situation and of course even longer to resolve the inflation issue.
What I do see on a day-to-day basis is that many Egyptians live on a tiny wage and add to their quality of life with the tips they receive for almost every service or transaction. Of course there’s the usual tip on top of your bill at restaurants or coffee shops. Every visit to a bathroom anywhere means a 1 pound tip for the attendant (and interestingly no-one minds if you just go into a shop or food outlet to use the toilets). When you sit in a parked car and the man sweeping the street comes along past you, it’s a 1 pound tip. You pay for your food at the street takeaway and add a 1 pound tip for the man who fills your order. There’s a 1 pound tip for the man who makes your coffee, packs your bags at the supermarket, fills your car with petrol or the child who wants to wipe over your windscreen when you stop (especially if your car has just been cleaned and you don’t want it done). There’s the one pound tip for any man who helps you park in the street or in a car park. There are bigger tips for the tradesmen, the men who install your appliances or come to fix them, who deliver your furniture or clean your car, who cut your hair or the women who wax your legs. At the current exchange rate for Oz dollars, one pound is equivalent to 20 cents. But if you live on around 5-12 pounds per day, one pound makes a huge and significant difference. But also over the course of a month it also makes a hidden difference to our cost of living by probably two or three hundred pounds. But it’s worth it and I’m glad each day that Mohamed has a good heart and is happy to share what we have with those who so obviously have less.
Time to go to bed – I’ll be in touch again as soon as I can
Love to everybody
Lyndall
No comments:
Post a Comment