What is Egypt?

So this weekend, as almost every day, I ponder, "what is Egypt?"

A general disorganization, a pervasive apathetic laziness, a warm welcome, force-feeding, an elitist attitude, a hopeless attitude, a trust-in God attitude, a street brawl, the people who intervene to stop the street brawl, a ridiculous multitude of cats, the most ambitious people in the world, a giant problem composed of a million little problems, sheep grazing in the garbage piles, a display of religious piety, double standards and hypocrisy underlying it, a world drenched in sugar and honey and diabetes, a giant family composed of multiple little families, a network of gifts and favors, vanity, modesty, tight clothes with headscarves, the place where the world began, an obsession with color, an imitation of western culture, a staunch pride in Egyptian culture, a rich elitist separatism, a poor desperate separation, a propensity for gossip, a protection of what is private life while appearing completely open.

I have no idea. One thing I know is that Egypt, as in life in general, but perhaps more than most places, is full of ridiculous contradictions. Teaching my students oxymorons was quite an easy task, Egyptian arabic is full of them. My favorite Egyptian Arabic phrase is Mushkilla Lazeeza (delicious problem). I learned this phrase when my co-worker told me with a mischevious grin that Alissa and I were a mushkilla lazeeza. I like that. When Gigi was complaining over how much her new baby was a problem because she cried all the time and never let her sleep, I reminded her she was a mushkilla lazeeza, she smiles and kisses Myrna on the head. As I've written before, this baby has caused immense difficulty for this family, and especially Gigi (for this child's sake she has had to stay with her abusive husband and now go back to live with him), but its all worth it, this child is beloved. Mushkilla lazeeza.


This weekend I found myself caught between Egyptian worlds again. Thursday night I filled in as substitute wingwoman for my roommate who found herself attending an Iftar with this perhaps too interested male co-worker for the sake of talking to his grandmother. I couldn't miss this. This home involves pueblo style architecture and the grandmother is fluent in Spanish! She showed us her Qur'an that she personally wrote and decorated in Spanish from hearing the Qur'an recited in Arabic. Weirdest experience ever to be downing pomegranate juice, talking over fish names and American politics with this old woman in Spanish! (I didn't know how much I knew)

Maasara, where I saw a dog carrying around a dead cat (Julianna: "its the circle of life"), said goodbye to my sister maybe for a very long time because she is being forced to return to her monster of a husband, heard about the men vying for my sixteen year old sister as their wife, and was given an excellent hair cut and curl styling as well as a jelly jar full of tea.

The weirdest thing ever was experiencing the "house party circuit" of Cairo. I was on a houseboat on the Nile, listening to American pop music, candles burning, all speaking in English, watching people drink beer (delivered for a fee) and hip hop dancing, even some mild grinding. Besides the mild rocking of the house boat and the fact that the people were mostly Egyptian and I was able to sit on a railing and look out on the freakin Nile, it was like being back in college, exactly. I found myself sociologically studying this phenomenon while I was there, as I often do when I find something strange, and conducting qualitative and quantitative studies in my head. I started interviewing these upper class Egyptian guys about how this house party thing works. Evidently its kind of like a cultural event / club. Everyone knows each other and they send out word about these American style imitation parties through text messages. One guy said that he got involved through his friend and now he goes like every week. The house boats are a prime location for this. Now in my over-simplified mind, Egyptians live with their families, they don't drink because its forbidden in he Qur'an (which during Ramadan has a little more credibility), and they don't socialize this way. This world should not exist in the Egypt in my mind, but it exists! Everything exists here evidently, o the contradictions.

And then last night I went to see my host family. This family is a ridiculously welcoming, sort of conservative but not at all legalistic family. I love them to death, also because each personality is so different. Let me describe them: The father is dead since a little before I met this family, but I hear about his integrity and sense of humor and love for his family and neighborhood all the time. The mother is laughing all the time. She loves to spend her time cooking in the house and standing on her balcony looking out on the neighborhood, saying hello to everyone, taking care of the widowed woman who lives alone in the apartment with the balcony directly across from her. She knows everyone on thes street, says they are all good people, Muslim and Christian. Last night she was on her way to a funeral for her Christian neighbor at the church. The oldest brother, works in a bank and feels guilty about the whole charging interest thing that banks do because its forbidden in the Qur'an, but not guilty enough to give up his job that he loves. He is the head of the family now without his father there but he hates his neighborhood and wants to live where it is quiet. He loves his family immensely, but thinks his youngest brother is the only one with a really good mind. The sister is hilariously funny, loves to make fun of everyone while simultaneously displaying her love for you. She was engaged a while ago but the man was bad so she broke it off. She's also mellowed considerably in the last two years, her brothers love to beat on her. The middle brother is three months younger than me. He is the reckless rebel of the family. He works as a bartender and loves it. He is out with his friends all the time, but thought that it was good advice from me not to put that on his resume. He recently asked a girl to marry him but his mother and older brother would not go to talk to the girl's family and so he is stuck. He's throwing me a birthday party next week (birthdays last forever here it seems) and he will finish tour guide school in October. The youngest brother is probably one of my favorite people in the world. He's 14, but small for his age. He stays home most of the time, and is very close with his mother. He is very good at English already. He had heart surgery when he was a baby and his mother constantly reminds him to be careful. He has absolutely no problem blatantly making fun of me (my Arabic pronunciation, grammar and spelling, my hand writing "this is very bad", my soccer skills, my earrings "why do you have plants on your earrings? that is ugly,") while obviously still enjoying my company and this makes me happy and comfortable and laugh more than anything. We speak the same language on many fronts (English/Arabic and making fun of each other).

So from simultaneously watching the falucas ride by on the Nile and people consuming alcoholic beverages while discussing my Arabic name (which is now Salma, which means peace) to discussing funeral happenings, market locations, and fashionable headscarves overlooking the small alleyway in Embaba with my Mama and her neighbor, I have no freakin clue what Egypt is, and maybe its time I stopped trying. Oversimplification is something I hated about academia, MESP, and is a major but I guess necessary weakness of sociology. May I not cheapen humanity by categorizing.