First news – the visit with Masry’s sisters went well I thought, hopefully from their point of view it was also fine.
We actually didn’t go to Rania’s but to Masry’s house that he shares with his sister Hager. Up to the 7th floor with no lift is a little challenge that ensures I arrive red faced and out of breath. An aroma of mouth-watering food greets me at the door as does Hager. I discover she has a little English so that’s a good thing and better than I hoped. We sit and after a few minutes Rania emerges from the kitchen and we also shake hands and exchange a kiss on both cheeks. I’m delighted to meet them at last and they say likewise. Rania’s two oldest boys are in another room watching TV but Mohammed gets them and introduces them – Lewi (pronounced Lew-eye) and Mohammed. We shake hands and exchange a greeting but they don’t have any English so that’s it for the boys – they look about 7 and 5. Omar, the youngest at maybe just under 2 is asleep. The boys quickly head back to the TV and Masry takes them the Smarties I bought. I’m not sure how many westerners they’ve seen; the youngest seems a little awed or maybe even frightened. Masry tells me they are “crazy tommy boys” – I presume he means what we would call tom boys, loud and active, but today they are quiet and not seen in front of the TV.
Almost as soon as we are settled (it is almost 4 pm by now and getting a little late even for Egyptian lunch) Hager draws up the coffee table and starts to lay out a large amount of delicious-looking food. Masry says to begin so he and I start on delicious vegetable soup. There’s no ceremony for starting a meal – Muslims rather complete their meal by saying “Thanks God”. All the dishes are vegetable except for a small plate of meat for Mohammed. There’s stuffed okra and stuffed chillis and a delicious rice mix wrapped in cabbage leaves. There’s a lovely flaky pastry sort of thing with salty cheese and vegetables in it that’s soooo good. And also a hot (not spicy hot) soupy broth that they tell me they have no English for but I figure it’s very finely chopped spinach, oil, onion, salt and water, it’s very tasty. It’s almost boiling and you take a piece of your bread and dip it in – Masry says it’s always served very hot. There are potato chips (not French fries), Arabic bread and also a salad of finely chopped tomatoes, cucumber, peppers and parsley and onion I think, with oil and I’m sure a little vinegar but no one knows that word so I can’t confirm.
Rania also has some English so we can talk a little. I have to compliment the food and also ask for cooking lessons. The ladies assure me that they will not only teach me to cook but also teach me Arabic. They both seem delightful even though we can’t say a great deal to each other. Masry sends Lewi down to the car for the laptop and we look at photos of the house and of my kids. Everyone agrees that both are beautiful. I tell them when the house is finished they must also come for a meal but they will have to have some Egyptian food and some Australian dishes. And I’m not thinking of a meat pie and a vegemite sandwich either, although I’m not sure what I do mean – maybe roast lamb will do it.
While speaking of food – there’s a food outlet here called Malkys that specializes in rice and cous-cous – Mohammed tells me crossly it’s Egyptian (not Moroccan or from anywhere else) and it’s called cous cousy. So baked rice hot (just like mum used to make), baked rice with ice-cream and fruit, cold or hot rice with milk in all sorts of combinations and it is delicious! The first night we called in – you park in front and the man comes to your car – we had cous cousy – you get a large bowl of hot, dry cous cousy, a cup of hot milk, a container of icing sugar and three packets of additions – nuts, dried fruit and coconut all in separate packets. You put it all in and mix – it is very sweet but SO good! But it also makes a huge amount – I could only eat about half of mine and I was completely stuffed. To fill me up like that – LE9 (LE = Egyptian pounds) or just over A$2. I’ve also had cold baked rice and ice-cream and fresh fruit, also delicious and the same price. And an excellent rice custard and ice cream (almost my favourite).
Where was I? The rest of the week has been house again – we’ve bought door handles and light switch plates and looked at curtains and ordered shower cabinets and bought the satellite dish cable and chosen metal work to make the grilles over the windows that may be accessible from the roof and all the small downlights – all 110 of them - (but not the major light fittings) and toilets and hand basins and the sink for the roof kitchen etc. etc. It all seems a bit back to front to me at times, there’s no such thing as a plan or a drawing, but I’m sure it will work out in the end and be beautiful. There’s still a lot to go but every day now sees something else completed. All the ceramic work is to be done by Friday night and then the painter and plasterer moves in to complete his work. The electrician is here today, the man has been here to measure the shower cabinets and the metalwork man will be here to start work on adding some struts to the pergolas on the roof.
Thursday
At the moment the ceramics man is busy putting in the equivalent of skirting boards, also ceramic, the same tiles as the floor. Once he does that everywhere then he grouts and all is completed. Given that he is the only one laying the tiles and he has two offsiders mixing mortar and cutting tiles and sweeping etc., he moves pretty quickly. And he seems to have good attention to detail which seems to be lacking in a lot of things – that and an ability to finish off properly. Still, I’ll see when it is all complete everywhere, maybe I’m misjudging in regards to the finishing off thing.
I had a nice surprise today. I had spoken to Masry about dimmer switches and he told me that they didn’t have them in Egypt and I was having trouble explaining exactly what they did anyway, or he was having trouble understanding, so I figured that was not going to happen. Then we saw one when we went to look in all the lighting shops down town and I guess that the man in the shop explained what it did. He tried to get one there but it all seemed too hard and I told him not to worry, they weren’t essential (and of course they’re not). Today when I came to the house I found that he had located some in another shop and now on the main lights in the living area we have dimmer switches. He is very good about things like that and often when I think he hasn’t been listening or doesn’t care, I find that he later has taken it all in and has found an answer that he thinks I will like. I sometimes forget that the whole cultural differences thing must be as difficult for him as it is for me even though I jokingly call him Mohammed “No problem” El Masry at times. When I was here the first time one of my guides told me that in English the word Egypt means “no problem”. It’s certainly something you hear a lot – even when you can tell that it really is a big problem.
So now that the ceramics will be finished the next main player will be in on Saturday for us to choose paint colours – I hope that will be fairly simple – something neutral – there will be a lot of strong colour in the curtains and furniture – dark red, gold etc. and rich woods. Maybe the ceiling detail will have a colour but I’m not sure yet. We’ll see on Saturday.
Egypt plays in the semi-final of the African Nations Cup (football) tonight – so there’s excitement building all around Cairo, including lots of flag sellers on the streets, and flags being flown from taxis, buses etc. We’re going to City Stars today and hopefully I can finally get a haircut (which I am really wanting but dreading at the same time, I hate going to a new hairdresser) but I think it will be an early day so that Masry can be home in time, or we may have to find a café in City Stars for the duration of the match. Tomorrow of course, being Friday, is a holiday and Thursday night is usually busy (like Friday night in Australia) but if Egypt wins tonight I’m guessing it will really be a big night on the streets.
Battery is running low and no way of charging it up here yet, soon I will be able to access power but not yet. Hope everyone is well,
Love to all
Lyndall
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