Wednesday, February 02, 2011

The Egyptian Revolution

Egyptians have never felt so empowered in all their lives.  When the police quit on Friday, the people took it upon themselves to form neighborhood watch groups, clean up the trash, help each other out.  I have been living in Egypt for nearly 6 years now and have never seen people come together as they have in the past week.   

What you watch on TV is just a microcosm of what is taking place.  All the satellite channels show Tahrir Square and Alexandria along the Corniche, they don't show the neighborhoods, the suburbs, the small villages where neighbors help neighbors.  A military truck was in our development yesterday selling water to anyone interested in buying it. Cigarettes were the first commodity to go, followed by eggs, bread, sugar, flour.  There still seems to be plenty of water available in the stores.

More to follow soon.

Ma'salaama,

~Marian


Wednesday, January 26, 2011

January's Winds of Change

When January 2011 began I thought - what a great year this will be.  On the morning of January 1, 2011 I awoke to the news that a bomb had detonated at a Coptic Church in Alexandria, Egypt.  I was in complete disbelief.  I thought this can happen maybe in another country but not in Egypt.  Sure enough someone or more than one person set off a bomb that has killed 24 innocent human beings to date, not to mention those who are injured, and their families.  Protests ensued following the church bombing Christians and Muslims together as one, as Egyptians.

A lot of news was swirling around the discrimination of Coptics in Egypt, how Coptics are not given the same rights as Muslims.  This was entwined with the recent police action in December 2010 that stopped a Church from being built so the parishioners took matters into their own hands and started building the Church.  The police in turn arrested those parishioners who disobeyed the police.  As it turned out the government only gave permission for a parish hall to be built and not a church.  No one reported this in the news - they only reported that Christians were being arrested.  Alhamdulillah everyone was released so they could celebrate Coptic Christmas with their families.

Then not long after that some police officer or former police officer had "mental issues" and opened fire on a train in Upper Egypt, killing one man.  There are rumors as to how he went about doing this.  Some say he separated the Muslims from the Christians, or maybe he separated women and girls in hijab from those not in hijab.  

It is sad that these events are taking place in Egypt, in a country where people are peaceful, welcoming, and friendly.

Following the recent events in Tunisia, activists used twitter and facebook to call for a protest the January 25th (Police Day) holiday downtown.  Protest the government's actions, lack of actions, cost of food, lack of services, and high unemployment.  Maybe the government didn't take the calls to protest seriously but the 25th saw an unprecedented amount of people from all walks of Egyptian society turn out for the peaceful, nonviolent protest.  Protesters remained in the streets well into the night.  Because of the protests, the Egyptian government blocked, twitter, Facebook, mobile service in certain areas as well as other media outlets. 

I knew this was going to be quite a January because we've had three ice storms, thunderstorms, with extremely cold temperatures for this time of year.   The coldest and most violent weather in my close to six years in Egypt.

I don't know what will happen next, in the next few hours, days, weeks.  

I pray for peace.

Ma'salaama,

~Marian

Friday, July 16, 2010

Summer Days and Summer Nights



Life in Alexandria, Egypt is much different than Cairo life.  The people are different, the food flavors are different, the weather is different.  Because of the way the streets are laid out in Alexandria, you can be at the sea within a matter of minutes depending upon traffic of course.

We have been spending most of our summer in Alexandria.  The cool weather is relative to Cairo because while Alexandria is cooler, it is very humid compared to Cairo which is stinking hot without any humidity.  In any event, most people stay up all night and sleep the heat of the day away until late afternoon arrives only to repeat the night before and so on and so on.....I have never been able to adapt to this summer schedule and will not even try to keep up at this point. 

I have been overdosing on fresh figs from the North Coast while Mira has been overdosing on the 57 varieties of mangoes.  

We managed to spend one day downtown with Hassan's family.  We started the day at 3 p.m. by having "breakfast" consisting of fuul and tama3a (falafel) followed by Brazilian coffee, and winding up with a late night dinner of kebab.  It was too much even though I didn't eat much. 

We left Alexandria and came back to Cairo two days ago because it was just too humid for us in Alex.  We need our air conditioner "fix" until we can go back and get the a/c installed in our flat. Hopefully, we will be able to cool off.

Ma'salaama,

~Marian




Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Isn't the school year over yet?!!

Tomorrow is Mira's last day of regular school. It's been one long exhausting disappointing school year. I am restraining myself from writing about the school and everything that went wrong this year.  Mira is finishing 6th grade. She starts her "exams" next week so she will go to school from 8:00 to 10:00 everyday with a different exame everyday.   I just want her to finish - get it over with - begin summer vacation. I'm tired of the school. I'm the one burned out.  The school year was very strange. It was almost the school year that wasn't because of the swine flu.  Hopefully the next school year won't begin until after Ramadan, which will be mid-September.

Come on summer vacation - I want to sleep in!!

Ma'salaama,

~Marian

Sunday, May 23, 2010

My Photography Obsession

Ever since my wonderful husband bought me a professional digital camera, I have been shooting photos everywhere we go. I have been thinking about how best to display the photos:  Facebook, Flickr, my blog.  I have decided to use Flickr for the most part, but post some here as well. My personal photos are on Facebook mainly to share with my family and friends in the US.

Here are some of my favorite photos.

Sunset in February on a Nile Cruise from Aswan to Luxor.


Philae Temple, Aswan, Egypt.

Valley of the Queens, Aswan, Egypt.


Karnak, Luxor, Egypt.


Mira won a Galabayya contest on the Nile Cruise. How lovely.


Sultana Ahmet (The Blue Mosque), Istanbul, Turkey


Anyone interested in viewing my photos can access them at www.flickr.com/photos/marianamin


Ma'salaama,

~Marian