Mohamed tells me we are going to die. On one level this is true. However, that’s not how he means it. He means we are going to die soon. He means that there is someone out there who wants us dead and he thinks they are not afraid to make it happen. He’s making me nearly as stressed as he is.
It all started almost a month ago. The owner of the building going up in front of ours (between us and the pyramids), from now on called 88 coz that’s the building number, started to add a second illegal floor. He has approval for 4 floors and a roof, 5 altogether. And now he’s up to 7 and still going and we, as well as several other home owners in the building, are losing our pyramids view. Mind you, he’s not alone in this, dozens of buildings around us are of illegal height, but this one directly impacts on us. Anyway, when he started the second one, Mohamed decided enough was enough. So off we went to the local government offices to lodge a complaint.
You don’t need to hear the whole saga, but we’ve now been to either the local government or the governate offices 10 times. And on Thursday we got to see the Giza Governor himself. During all of this there have supposedly been stop work notices issued and notices to take off the illegal work. Nothing has stopped the building, some of it done in the middle of the night (like pouring the slab for the next floor) or at times like 6.00 am on Friday when everything is closed. The building goes on as I write.
As we understand it the governor has now signed a demolition order to take off the illegal floors and the police and government officers will be coming to carry that out on Sunday or Monday. What usually happens is that they knock holes in the walls and floors and order that the owner takes the rest down. Also what usually happens is that it stays like that for months or years, or a little of the floor is taken off and the rest patched up. We see it in lots of places. I guess we’ll see what happens in this case.
The governor was gracious and understanding; he spoke to the police himself and also told his staff we could come to see him any time without an appointment. He told us to take photographs of anything that continued to be done illegally and bring them to him. Very helpful. We hope.
So what has all this to do with dying? Well, this is Egypt. Or a similar thing could happen in any country where there’s a reasonable amount of money at stake and unscrupulous men who don’t like being crossed I guess. Number 88 stands to lose a few million. So far we have had our house and our street under surveillance, been followed, had our car hit twice by two men in a silver Mercedes who followed us from home (from number 88 - this one reported to the police and the Embassy), been threatened over the phone (told to take “very, very good care of ourselves”) and had everyone from the doorman and the man we bought our house from to Sami, the man in charge of the local government office, tell us to leave it alone. We’ve seen number 88 appear with another man in the vacant top floor of a building one street over where he can see into our house, and saw him disappear quickly when he noticed Mohamed on the balcony. And to be honest I do take it all very seriously and feel very threatened and not a little frightened. It’s wearing and tiring and uncomfortable.
Mohamed is definitely on edge, hardly sleeping, spending hours in the dark on the balcony watching what is happening around us, smoking up a veritable storm and barely eating. We no longer let anyone into the house, including the cleaning lady. He’s told his brother-in-law what to do if we are both dead. He seriously believes that something will be done to us – he thinks most likely a bad traffic accident, although I don’t think he entirely rules out someone breaking into the house to harm us. At least I’m sure he didn’t last night when he heard noises on our roof and we sat up for almost 4 hours in the dark with all the outside lights on.
I’m not sure exactly what to think really. I think maybe it’s possible. I think I don’t like living where I live any more and wish I was somewhere else. I hate feeling suspicious of everyone I see in the neighbourhood. I am tired of living in a house with continuously closed and locked windows and doors. I’m glad we’re looking around to buy somewhere else but know how long that will take. I think I’d probably love to fly home for a few weeks and de-stress. Then I would worry about Mohamed, although maybe he can disappear and take care of himself more easily without me around to worry about. I worry that it might take months to be over, or it maybe never being really over. I worry that I’m worrying about nothing and I worry that Mohamed is right.
And if I believe the Facebook quiz, Anne Hathaway will play me in the movie of my life. :-)
Until next time (I hope)
lotsa love
Lyndall
PS And don't you worry - I'm worrying enough for all of us...
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