Meat-a-palooza

Seeing as how our stuff was three-and-a-half weeks late, and we got here a week early to start working on a pre-build, we're roughly 4 1/2 weeks behind. Some math, eh? Needless to say, Chris and I had to work on our day off. Luckily, this past week has been very light, effects-wise, so we had some time to catch up and only had to clock a couple of hours.

We had gone out the night before with our new-made friends from set to a gorgeous lounge called 'Sangria', right on the Nile. Chris and the others had "Shrimp 'Grandmere'" (sort of a gratin of shrimp served in an actual huge clam shell) and I had the "Mixed Grill" as suggested by a coworker who I had sworn knew my dining 'particularities'. Much to my dismay, the dish turned out to be chicken, beef and lamb. I ate the chicken and the lamb and beef were gobbled up by my hubby and the other guys at our table. Chris tried some 'Sheesha' which is a water-pipe with flavoured tobacco. There are many misconceptions that these are for smoking dope- nope. Just a regular hunk of regular, unfiltered 'to-bac-keee' soaked in either honey or molasses and then set in a foil cone under glowing coals. The tobacco comes in flavours like honeydew, cantalope, apple and a few others. It smelt really good, but apparently it's worse than cigarettes when it comes to your lungs because of the lack of filter. Chris said it was really smooth though. Either way, I didn't try it. I did have a beer though. Two beers, actually. The Egyptians invented beer, which is good because their wine is really nothing to write home about and I've heard scary things about their hard liquor. The top brands of beer are Meister Max, Sakara, and Stella (not Stella Artois). They all come in 8% and 10% version. Niiiice. I had a Meister Max and a Stella and enjoyed both- Meister Max being the (slightly) darker of the two. (Appology to the readers: I really hope no one is looking for a deep introspective blog- this ain't it. I just want to share my adventure of living in Cairo with those close to me. If a deep thought or moment of personal enlightened finds itself into the chaos, bonus.)

After sleeping in a bit, we headed for Studio Galal (affectionately refered to on set as "Galal-atanamo") to work on a piece that was shooting this weekend; in one scene someone is impaled by metal rods as he's caught under a collapsing balcony- very messy. We managed to get everything done by 4pm, so Ibrahim's friend Wasseed (or Wasseem- I am really bad with names here) invited us and our driver Sa'eed for dinner. With my new 'when in Rome' philosophy, how could I turn it down? :)

Waseem/d, his wife Omnare and his two daughters Ganan and Ashrakat live in an apartment not far from the studio. Actually, almost everyone in Cairo lives in an apartment. Houses are rare, and are only really seen as you move away from Cairo, into Heliopolis (the Beverly Hills of the Cairo area), Giza and Maadi (both considered 'suburbia'). This apartment (by the way, why are they called "apart"ments' when they're stuck together?), though small, has so much character- tall ceilings, archways, ornated molding; the building's been around for almost 100 years! Omnare was very proud of the decor and showed me each room, asking my opinion on each. After, tea was served in the living room and we gabbed until dinner was ready. Omnare and her sister-in-law brought out all sorts of dishes as we crowded around the dining room table.

It was evident that they had been working all day- it smelled incredible! Roast lamb, kofta (elongated lamb/rice meatballs), some sort of meat pie, "makarona bil beshamel" (macaroni or other pasta- in this case rotini- baked in a bechamel sauce with cheese) with ground beef, curried beef stew, and, uh, more meat. A veritable "Meatapalooza"! Gulp. How do I explain to these wonderful people who have OBVIOUSLY slaved all day to make all this awesome food that I don't eat red meat???? I certainly didn't want to offend, because from what I understand, meat is very expensive and is served mostly on special occasions. What else could I do? I handed over my plate. And eating as a guest with an Egyptian family is like going to my Grandmaman's- "no thank you" means "yes please" and "just a bit more" translates to "I have a hollow leg". :)

Oh. My. God. I can't remember ever eating so much meat, let alone remember the last time I had meat. Mind you, it was all incredibly delicious. It's just that my system was in total meat-overload.

And I hope that I don't come across as unappreciative, even for one second. I have never been anywhere where I have felt more unconditionally & warmly welcomed. Omnare and I have clicked in some way and we have founded a quick friendship that I hope I will have the pleasure of enjoying for a long long time.

Actually, this brings me to something that made me quite upset today. I read a blog entry from someone I know today. They had recently made a trip out to Cairo on a 4-day weekend holiday they had from work (in India). The blog was nothing more than a slandering, angry tirade about how the Cairene people are angry, money-grubbing, scheming individuals who have it in for foreigners, Americans in particular. While the blog was rife with historical information, it was lacking sociologically sensitive facts that proper preparative reading would have helped elucidate the behaviours they encountered on their jaunt to Cairo.



For one, sure, Cairo is overcrowded, loud and dirty. So is New York.



Sure, people yell at each other alot here. That doesn't mean they're consumed with a burning rage that might result in murder in the streets. The Cairenes are a passionate people- this goes for the majority of the Egyptian people. They get excited, they yell, it's over. Arabic is a language that is very foreign to the ear and because of its sound, can seem very angry. So's german.



Sure, everyone is asking for money here. Someone holds the door for you, helps you with your bags, gives you directions, etc. you give them a couple of Egyptian Pounds ($1.00 = $.18- roughly)It's called 'baksheesh'- with a little reading up beforehand, this person would have known about it and not writen it off as some demeaning trait. Wages here are bad. And I mean bad. For those receiving 'tips', the extra income supplements a wage that is often shocking by Western standards (sometimes 300 Egyptian Pounds per MONTH). And it isn't reserved to tourists: Egyptians tip at every opportunity and for some of the most basic of daily needs. Sure, there's crooked people out there, trying to scheme you out of a couple of bucks, but you find those people anywhere you go. Plus, it doesn't help that the only places they visited were tourist hotbeds. I mean, geeze- what do you expect? Do you think people visiting Disneyland think it's rational to pay 6$ for a Coke? C'mon.

And there was a mention of being in fear that at any moment there might be a terrible occurence of 'road-rage', the way the drivers were yelling at each other. I'm sorry, but a little yelling is nothing. Last I remember, drivers in L.A. shoot each other.

I'm sorry, but this blog posting just really made me mad. After living here for a month, I find myself hard-pressed to find more friendly, honest, hard-working people. Don't get me wrong, there are exceptions to every rule, and Cairo and Egypt in general is a long way from Eden, but referring to the city as a 'high-maintence crackwhore girlfriend on steroids'? Whoa. No wonder the unfortunate stereotype of being American still persists.