Winter is here

Today is four weeks since I landed (about this time I was collecting my luggage and looking forward with great anticipation and a little nervousness to seeing Mohamed again) and it is a very cold, windy and rainy day. The sky looks like an ageing bruise; clouds are grey and rain-filled while the air is also full of sand and dust whipped up by the strong winds, making visibility limited. The weather forecast said 13 degrees and I can believe that it might be about that. Whoever would have thought that Egypt – land of ancient tombs baking under the desert sun could be so cold and miserable? This is the most unpleasant day we’ve had so far, although Masry keeps warning me that the end of January and February are uncomfortable and so, so cold. I guess when we go to the house later today I won’t be on the roof.

The house is beginning to take shape a little more. The ceramics man (what we in Australia call a tiler) has now finished the kitchen walls and the toilet off the hall and has started on the ensuite. The tiles have arrived for the large central bathroom and hopefully the ensuite will take 2 days or so and then he can begin on the final job for the walls. Once the walls are finished then there are the floors, which will take about 10 days as it’s the entire place. The cost for the tiler is LE 15 per square metre – or about A$3 per sq. m. And from that he has to pay his offsider and his travel costs etc. We buy all the materials.

Almost everything we do is tied up with the house, although today we went to get me a new visa and that was an interesting experience. At least there was parking! We headed for a big building downtown, two lots of security and up the stairs with hoards of others, all the signs in Arabic, so thank goodness Masry was there. Finally after asking the way a few times, we arrive at a long curving hall with many windows, fortunately labelled in English as well as Arabic. Visas for Arab nations residents, visas for non-Arab nations residents, visas for those whose visa has expired, etc. etc., windows for paying fees, windows for refugees and finally right down the end, residents visas for tourists purposes. All seem to be staffed by women (not the usual).

We wait in a sort of a queue and after a couple of men pushing in front of me (our concept of queuing is not seemingly understood in Egypt) we finally present my passport. Please take this 4-page form and come back with the passport, the stamps to show you have paid the fee and a photo – no wait, I don’t need an original photo, I just need some pages of my passport photocopied. Masry says did I bring a pen? I say “No. Remember I asked in the car what I needed and you said passport and money”. He says, “We are at the government, why didn’t you bring a pen, you must always bring a pen”. So back down to the ground floor where for a small fee we get the pages photocopied. Back up to the first floor and find the window for paying fees and Masry swaps 11LE for some stamps which must be affixed to the form. No pens anywhere so we ask a man in the queue and he lends me a pen. I quickly fill in the front of the form (the only bit in English) and we head back down to Window 14 to present all the paperwork. We give back the pen – the man is still in the same place in the queue.

At Window 14 the lady checks everything over and asks Masry my address, she can’t read my writing. The visa will be ready in two hours and we can collect it from Window 38 she tells us and we look at each other and say “Now what we will do?” A quick discussion shows there’s really nothing to do but sit and wait. To venture out of the car park won’t be at all productive; we’d basically only go round in a slow circle or two and have to be back and then may not get another park. So we take two of the hard plastic orange seats and wait. A man comes past with a tray of goodies for sale. Masry hasn’t had breakfast so I have water and he chooses what I at first thought was a packet of chips but turns out to be bite–sized croissants filled with chocolate. Yum! I force myself to stop at one. Masry also asks for tea so away goes the man and comes back with a cup of sweet tea (he takes 4 sugars in both tea and coffee). Payment seems small. Masry’s phone rings and he heads off to take the call and have a cigarette in what seems to be a designated smoking area in one of the corridors. We’d passed through the blue haze on our way up and (very surprisingly) there are actually No Smoking signs along the other corridors. There are police everywhere in the building so perhaps people actually adhere to the signs here.

While he’s gone I end up in conversation with a French girl on one side (sorry woman, I discover she has a doctorate in anthropology) and an Afghani man on the other, who has lived in Cairo for 6 years studying. He’s now doing his Masters in Economics and will return to Afghanistan to live when he’s finished. The French lady and her American travelling companion had their passports stolen at the train station and so are here trying to get the paperwork done so that they can leave the country tomorrow. This is the first time I’ve spoken to anyone who has had a problem like this. She says the Embassies have been fabulous but they have been back several times to the visa place. Each time they are sent away to get something else they need. They’ve been waiting 45 minutes now after being told it would take one minute. Almost every process in Egypt generates huge amounts of paperwork all of which must be treated most carefully and retained and makes things take an extra long time. (I’ll tell you about shopping in some stores some time when you buy on one floor, collect your paperwork, go to the cashier on another floor, pay and get more paperwork and finally collect your goods on another floor, making sure you have your paperwork! Is it better or worse than at home? It’s slower and sometimes frustrating, but then it also employs a lot more people, so I guess it’s horses for courses.)

The women behind the counter don’t seem to be getting through much of the processing. Trying to fix one of the black light machines has taken up quite a deal of the hour we’ve been sitting here and there’s a lot of conversation with a little paper shuffling. Finally someone else goes up to ask if their visa is ready and they get theirs so Masry also goes to ask for mine and lo and behold I can have my passport back. So there’s more work happening than there appears to be. This time my visa is for 4 months and cost 11 pounds – at the airport I got one without any paperwork in about 10 seconds and it’s for one month and cost US$15. I’m not sure why one is so simple and one so complex. Anyway, I’m legal still and that’s the most important thing. I wish the French doctor “bonne chance” and we are free once more.

PS – I wrote this last Wednesday sitting in the car at the house – after a quick look at the work in progress I was happy to sit in the car given the appalling weather. Since we had those couple of days of rain the weather has been much nicer, sort of like a Sunny Coast winter, much warmer with blue skies and the roof has been once more a very pleasant place to sit and relax when we are at the house.

There is progress. The kitchen has been ordered (will take at least a month) and all the appliances purchased, the TV cabling is in, all the wall ceramics are completed and the tiler started today on the floor of the living area (reception hall). Most of the bathroom fittings have been purchased and tomorrow they will be delivered ready for installation when the tiling is finished. The carpenter and electrician have given us lists of stuff to buy (tomorrow). Also tomorrow the kitchen manufacturer comes for one last measure up now the wall tiling is finished and the curtain maker will come to also measure up and look at the house so he can have some ideas about what we might have, we will choose fabrics and colours but he will suggest styles. The curtains will also take a month. So it looks like everything might be ready in about 5-6 weeks; it will fly by I’m sure.

PPS – Tomorrow (Monday) I also get to meet two of Masry’s sisters after a couple of postponements. Wish I’d been able to get a haircut. Here’s hoping it all goes well. We’ll be having dinner at Rania’s (his oldest sister, pronounced Runya) with Hager (his youngest sister who lives with him) and Rania’s family (husband and 3 boys). I hope it all goes well. I don’t think that anyone has very much English so it might be a little awkward but I hope it’s OK anyway and I don’t make any major Egyptian social gaffes. Will let you know.

Love to all

Lyndall