Al-Qahir, Misr - Cairo, Egypt

It’s been awhile since my last post and I have heard that people miss me. :-)

I typically have been posting about adventures and new activities, but the truth is on a day-to-day basis my life isn’t all that different then yours or what my life was like in America. I go to work, visit with friends, exercise (ok not enough of that), go to class and go to bed to do it all again the next day. I do try to get out and see new things as much as possible but sometimes schedules and lack of money get in the way.

But, there is still plenty to talk about so I’ll try to post more often. So better late then never, here's some basics about Cairo, Egypt.

Cairo is the most populous city in Africa and the Middle East with a population of about 18 million. That’s about the same size as New York City; but in about ¼ of the land space. So, needless to say it’s a crowded place.

It’s a unique city in that old and new coexist. There are remains of the anciet walls that surrounded and protected the city. There is a modern underground subway. There are skyscrapers next to small hovels. Chauffer driven BMWs and SUVs share the road with donkey carts, taxis that have seen better days in 1920s and tuk-tuks (3-wheeled golf cart taxis)., and delivery boys on bikes and mopeds.

Gorgeous villas stand next to abandoned buildings where squatters have lived for years. And ornamentla mosques dot the skyline. Honestly, the majority of the housing in the city looks like NYC-style housing projects – 5-20 story buildings of plain concrete with laundry and satellite dishes on the balcony. And many buildings are unfinished and never will be finished. Apparently, you only need to pay property taxes when the construction is complete. So many buildings are never finished and owners will continue to build on more floors as needed and when money is available.
There are modern high end shopping malls with all the latest fashion, and typical american grocery stores. But there are also numerous open air markets and butcher shops with whole cow carcasses hanging and live chickens available.

Cairo is also a sprawling city. In an effort to move people out of cramped downtown they are building new “suburban communities” on the outskirts of the city. There is construction absolutely everywhere. These new communities remind me of gated communities at home. One, a lot of them do have gates and they are self-contained in that they have their own schools, malls, restaurants, mosques and churches etc. One community in which I work is call El-Rehab. It has about 150,000 residents (which makes this bigger then my hometown of Brockton) and at least 6 schools that I know about. It was built by a tel-com executive as a planned community (read factory town). The executive is now in jail for some kind of fraud and conspiracy, but the community thrives under his borthers supervision.

Other communities include crazy names like Lakeville - which has got to be a man-made lake, or maybe they will re-direct the Nile, anything is possible around here.