Friday, September 5, 2008

Apreciar, Valorar, Opposites, Samouha, Walking

Girls this is your first time in Egypt however Inshallah it would not be the last. It has being a nice experience although sad at times because I always remember Mio and wonder why she had to leave us...but she is in a better place.
Seeing Egypt and is people has remind me to appreciate and value more and I know girls you are too small but always remember.
There are children who have nothing that have to walk miles and miles just to make it to school with beat up shoes.
Children that don't get to choose what they are going to eat, they don't get to watch ruby and max or dora etc., they live in very poor ways the most heart retching is when this kids have to go and sit under a bridge with their mom trying to sell little trinket to buy something to eat.
Girls always remember there are people that have nothing and we have to be thankful to God and be modest with what we have.
Appreciate everything that is giving to us, and learn to share Baba always says you give and you get double in return...girls your baba is the most giving person, I have always like to share but I have to be sincere, baba is a million times better at this than me.
The next time we come to Egypt most likely you will start asking yourselves why people cover, not very familiar with Islam but I will assume is because it is dictated in the Koran however baba would disagree with me on this.
The only thing I can teach you girls is to educate yourselves and don't judge by the way people dress, they most have motive of wearing a scarf or covering their faces or wearing gloves and is not our business to recriminated them if that makes them happy we have to accept that, like others have to accept you girls by the way you dress etc. One day I will get into more details with this, but for now respect and do not make fun of the way others look, dress, talk etc, not only it is not polite but is ignorance, and that is something I will not tolerate with you girls.
So what have our last days being like:

On Thursday we went to Samouha Club it was empty since is Ramadan people tend to stay home while they are fasting.

From week of 9.7.08


Samia and Gamila had fun, baba and mami just sat around and felt how the table across from us stared at us for about 2 hours and talked about us, not sure what they were saying but is non our business (here in Egypt they all looked us since I am a foreigner for them and Yehia is marry to me, not sure if they see it bad or what but it does not bothers us, we know that is how it is going to be) we actually get a kick of it since we will talk spanish arabic and english they get all confused when we start talking spanish since people are not very familiar with the spanish culture here we take them by surprise.

From week of 9.7.08

At night we went to look for a store that Mio had taken me a couple of years back and I could not find it we drove, walked, girls one thing has to be said baba is the most patient man in this whole world, I have never meet a man than can be so patient, so on the way back we had to stop at McDonald's because Samia needed the potty oh I am not sure if I had told any of you lately but Samia does not use pull up not even to sleep she is a big girl potty trained like she says, so the best part of McDonalds is that delivery part look at the motorcycles park in front ready to delivery your order they should have this in the USA and they would make tons of money, I lived in NYC and they don't even have that there the city were everything gets to be deliver.
From week of 9.7.08

So today Friday Yehia and I left to the man with that is making our chandeliers we left right after the prayer at around noon the streets were empty however after walking for about 10 minutes it was amazing to see how everybody started to hit the streets on the way there we took a taxi and we stop in a few shops is funny how they moment they see me they multiply the price by 10, we went into some antique shops and the man even venture to talk in english and give me the prices in dollars when Yehia was talking to him in arabic...well what can we say they see me like a piece of meat. Our chandeliers are coming out gorgeous on Monday we have to pick them up so Yehia can take them back with him.
On the way back we decided to walk all the way home about 3 miles around Elatareen, Sharee Eilethy, El Soltano Heussein, Sharee Fouad, so this is when I enjoy myself taking pictures of Alexandria:
From week of 9.7.08
This is just one of the many streets we walked
From week of 9.7.08
Very common to find horses carriages, donkeys carrying carts with foods, or horses pulling carts with vegetables you name it they have it.
From week of 9.7.08
Most of the building here are very old and also with the sand as time goes by they get dark, and here they don't have pressure wash, I though it would be a good business (always me thinking business) but Yehia brought it to my attention the paint here would be gone with the first stroke.
From week of 9.7.08
fruit carts, very common here and in Colombia as well reminds me of back home
From week of 9.7.08
you will never find a new taxi, I have notice most of them are Lada brand and the drivers are fearless, well that is how they make a living, yesterday it was the funniest I forgot to mention, here we are riding in a beat up old taxi, the back seat is even loose, so Yehia is in the front and Yehia's mom and me in the back, when we are getting closer to home Yehia gives the driver an old 5 le bill like most of the money here and the driver shouts to him Edema is an old bill don't you have somethign new so Yehia says something like is money he threw the bill on his dashboard stop the taxi and we had not choice but to get off....wow and is Ramadan a time of being humble, nice (I guess he forgot that part) it was funny though.
From week of 9.7.08
this kid beg us to take a picture of him
From week of 9.7.08
Allot of places have this decorations now days because of Ramadan
From week of 9.7.08
One more of the streets we walked by there is always something interesting to take pictures of
From week of 9.7.08
this is the book street is a street full of shops that sell them
From week of 9.7.08
with all the walking we did we ended up in the opera house very nice place here are a few pictures I took
From week of 9.7.08
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as the day went on the streets start to get more and more pack
From week of 9.7.08
this are clay jars you find them allot around the city they have water on them they are name Ola supposedly if you drink this water it takes much better I don't venture we don't drink the tap water only bottle water.
From week of 9.7.08
no such a thing as dryers here everybody hangs their cloths like this to dry
From week of 9.7.08
man sitting in the cafes which are half way into the streets are all times any day of the week, usually they are drinking tea and smoking shisha playing backgammon or dominos
From week of 9.7.08
This I found funny fur hats, coats who is going to wear this in this heat???
From week of 9.7.08
Coptic Christian Egyptian woman there are about 15% of the population are Coptic Christians.
From week of 9.7.08
This is the side of the church not sure why there is a small house next to it but inside there was this beautiful bell very old I was able to take some pictures thru the gates
From week of 9.7.08
Yehia estimates this bell must be 400 to 700 years old.
From week of 9.7.08
This is how they transport the meat here to the meat markets however I do have to say one of the times I went out Yehia saw a cow next to a shop and when we came back the cow had been slaughter in front of the shop.
From week of 9.7.08
this are called Mouaed Elrahman this are tents set out thru many places in the city to feed the people for free for Iftar this is when they break their fasting when sun goes down. They provide the poor, the traveling people a place to have a warm meal and drink tea is a very nice cause.


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