With a group of other international students and some of our Egyptian classmates, we went to Wadi el-Ryan (valley of the whales), so named due to many ancient whale skeletons found in the vicinity, the remainder of when Egypt was covered with a large sea millions of years ago. The attractions are the highly-saline lake and the only waterfall in Egypt (a completely pathetic 4 meter drop). We went to swim, take out a boat, and have a picnic--general funness. By the end of the day, we had bought a lot of pottery, caused a scandal by going in a forbidden area of the nature reserve by accident, and caused a second scandal by wearing swimsuits. Unlike in the US where the forbidden area would be termed as such due to migratory birds or something similar, in this case it just had sticky mud (which the whole lake had) and that was the extend of the forbidden rationale. But see we were there in order to avoid people so that we could go swimming in our swimsuits. So attempt #2: we go in the opposite direction from the main beach, where there are no guys and therefore nothing is haram, and strip down to swimsuits. Next thing we know, a soccer ball is accidentally kicked across the beach and a 5-year old is sent to chase it... with a full entourage of 10 older males. The Egyptian girls accompanying us had stayed on the beach and proceeded to give them a tongue lashing that Vanessa, Kate, and JoAnna would be proud of. Meanwhile, Saquina can't leave the water because she's Muslim and it is haram (despite the fact that her bathing costume covers more than any of my clothes have ever covered) for them to see her and so I, in my bikini, have to leave the water to bring Saquina a towel before she can leave the water. Slightly traumatizing...
But while slightly sketchy at this point, earlier in the day, and again later, I definitely did my part for international relations. I'm telling you, those 15 years of soccer have absolutely payed off.
Condie (Madam Secretary) may be making an ass out of America by telling Egypt it's okay to deny the consitutional rights of anyone who might be against Mubarak (aka el presidento) while they run around promoting his presidentness with loud pop music and oversized posters, but I am working to ensure that in the agricultural heartland of Egypt, the word "America" has connotations of getting your ass kicked by a nice girl.
It was American University Cairo (aka 3 American guys, 1 Egyptian guy and me) versus 5 guys from the Fayoum and at the end of the game (actually, when we got tired and went to eat lunch) the score was 6-5. I scored, had 2 assists, and for the rest of the afternoon received handshakes and awed stares from my new friends, who pronounced my name "lan-sea", but whatever works.
This was also one of the many major hints I have received that class differences are an entirely different matter here than America. In Egypt, socioeconomic status is everything and social mobility is considered utopian and naive. As we were informed on our first day "don't date the gas station attendent, because he will always be a gas station attendent", but they're not just poor you know... they're dirty and bad and stupid (too stupid, in fact, to vote in a democracy), and a lower, darker type of human. Don't worry, I haven't turned into a bigot, no chance of that ever happening, but in the past week I have seen appaulling displays of class-based discrimination that are rivaled only by my horror at the police. Yes, the protecting police who not only arrested ten of my Egyptian colleagues who protested the constitutional reform amendment, but raped three Egyptian girls after chasing them down Sha'aria Talat Haarb and cornering them in a building.
In other news, kitty #3 has died (I had to pick it up; it was horrifically gruesome) and we have adopted kitty #4. Giving a kitty a flea bath is get another addition to my list of "things I didn't think I would be doing in Egypt, but apparently will despite my better judgement".
Back to schoolwork--just thought I'd send this off so that you all can see the paradox and the chasms and the little joys and horrors that make me love it here so much.
Just when everything has gone wrong, something beautiful happens, you learn a lot from an internship, you get offered a position doing experiential environmental education with small kids, or the 6 degrees of separation between you and a new friend dwindle down to one or two.
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