Sheheta's Shop

The other night, I went to the movie theater and watched a new Egyptian release called Dokan Sheheta. In one sentence, the film was a drama about a man following his heart and carrying the pride of his family against the selfishness, indifference, and traditions of society. 

It was a crazy movie. But, the craziest part of the movie was the truth behind some of the most awful scenes. From the beginning, Sheheta is in love with this girl. He plans on marrying her, and they have numerous scenes together where they almost kiss, but they never do. Towards, the middle of the movie, they finally just kiss, but the day after his father dies and soon enough the corrupt government along with his jealous siblings (because he was the most loved by their father) sends him to jail. While he's in jail, the girl visits him and tells him she'll always wait. 

Some times goes by and this girl's brother forces her to marry one of Shehata's brothers. She refuses, but she doesn't have a choice in the matter. After her wedding, she refuses to consummate the marriage, so her husband goes outside and gathers his sister and a couple other guys to hold his wife down while he consummates the marriage/rapes her. You don't see the whole scene, but you do see his sister holding his wife arms back while he's on top of his wife. Apart from that scene, there's one other scene that insinuates marital rape. And, apart from those scenes, there were plenty of scenes of domestic violence.

Now, this is a movie. But, here are some statistics from the Egypt DHS 1995 and 2005 surveys. In 1995, about 70% of married women said that a man is justified to beat his wife if she refuses sex. In 2005, the percentage dropped, but still 40% of married women said that a man is justified to beat his wife if she refuses sex. Furthermore, in 2005, about 25% of women said that a man is justified to beat his wife if she burns the food.

Anyways, Sheheta finally gets out of jail and goes looking for this girl. No one will tell him either where she is or where his family is. By the end of the movie, he finally finds her, but when his brother sees him talking to her, he shoots Sheheta in the back and kills him. 

Oddly enough that's not how the movie ended. An odd side story arised and the Muslim Brotherhood took over Egypt in an almost comical manner with men in jalabiyas running around with knives looking kind of funny.

امثال شعبية

اللهجة المسرية عندها امثال كثيرة و اريد ان اضع بعضهم علي هذه الموقع. اولا سأقولك الأحسن اعبارة في وجهة تظري.. اللي شربت من نيلها، دائما يرجع تاني.. بمعنى ان تشرب من النيل، ستجع مسر مرة اخرى في حياتك. المثل الثاني جاي من واحد صاحبي في مصر.. ابو حول زبره مش يوقف.. بمعني ابو حول مخصي.. و من الاعلانات المصرية عندنا "استرجل" من شركة البيرة و "اعيش حياتك" من كوكا كولا. ثم في اعبارة عن امريكا و لكن لا اعرف ما معني هذه الاعبارة لكن هحب صوته.. امريكا شيكة بيكة.. و اخر لكن ليس اقل عندنا المعكسات.. اكيد ممتك نهلة علشان تجيب العسل ده كله

North Coast

Holy Moses!!!!!! 

The North Coast is sick. Running around on soft, white sand alongside the bright blue Mediterranean is pretty awesome. The water is pretty warm too... it's not like the Pacific in Northern California at all. In more ways than one too... there were no girls on the beach. But, hey I'm in Egypt... you almost get used to these kinds of things... almost. 

I check out two beaches, one in Marina and one in Ghazela. The Marina beach easily topped the Ghazela beach as the water at Ghazela beach is filled with rocks whereas Marina is pure sand. The only other north coast beach I've been to has been in Marsa Matrouh and that was pretty rocky too. 

Anyways, the north coast draws a certain crowd. It's made up of two hotels and thousands of summer beach houses that are owned by mostly wealthy Egyptians. The guy next door to the house at which I stayed had a Audi TT and a Porshe Cayenne parked next in his drive way. We drove up in a convertible Mini Cooper, and our friends met us in a Focus station wagon. These kind of cars are absolutely absurd (it's all about relativity), when it comes to normal day life. You are extremely lucky if your taxi has a seat belt. 

It's a green revolution on the coast. Everyone has grass in front of their house, and the beach shack was circumscribed by 10 meters of grass on all sides. That's grass right next to the sand. It's the good kind too. Where's all this green grass growing from? Green money. The summer houses are all located within a kilometer of the sea. All you can find past the first kilometer from the sea is desert. These people created a huge strip of beach homes across the coast in the middle of the freakin' desert!!! It's the green revolution... the same color seems to work for so many revolutions. (You have to at least admit that the rhetoric is slightly humorous)

I chilled with 4 guys (one who I had known from nine months ago, and three who I just met). Unlike most Egyptians, these guys like to drink, but they don't do it very often. They bought a bottle of tequila from a friend who got it at a duty free shop, meaning it's foreign and therefore good. The alcohol in Egypt sucks... you don't want to drink any hard liquor here and the beer and wine are terrible... this is coming from a 21-year-old mind you. Anyways, they wanted to take shots of gold tequila with lemons and salt... Well, you don't do that, but whatever. Every shot, they made crazy faces, but they still wanted more. 

After about 6 shots in about an hour, we were good to go out. Now only four of us had drank. The other guy didn't want to drink. And, we get in the car. I am offered the front seat "since I'm the tallest." *People always find a way to make an excuse for you to enter the doorway first or sit in the front seat or whatnot in Egypt. The guy that comes to sit in the driver seat is the smallest of the bunch who had just had six shots. So, I said to him, what are you doing? And, he said I am driving. So, of course I said, are you crazy or what. Now, all my Egyptian friends knew that Americans don't drive drunk (or at least the smart ones don't and all Americans know you shouldn't), so they tried to explain to me that it's ok in Egypt. After a 5 minute discussion, where I spoke in a joking manner, but at the same time wouldn't budge on my position. The drunk kid gave up his seat to the completely sober kid. Needless to say, I am alive to write this post.

That's a taste of Egypt's North Coast.

 

Swine Flu

Common knowledge is not always common. The culling of the Egyptian pigs epitomizes this phenomenon, and I just have to post some updates on the situation. Just as a common understanding is not always common. Human rights in Egypt is a good example, but I'll get political later.

Two cases of pig flu were discovered less than a week ago in Egypt. These two people are actually Americans who planned on attending summer classes at AUC (American University of Cairo).

The Egyptian Ministry of Health responded by quarantining all the students in the Zamalek dorms. All the students in the Zamelek dorms are basically the foreign college students (mostly Americans) coming to study at AUC for the summer. The quarantine is supposed to last for a week for who knows what will happen.

When I go on the subway, which I take to and from work every day, I come across people who hold tissues in front of their face banking on the safety of the tissue to protect them from the evil pig virus. 

When I went to the movie theaters, I saw a guy wearing a face mask.

And, here's an e-mail from a expat e-mail list, Cairo Scholars:

Actually this is aint a joke but something to laugh at. A friend of my sister's from college (AUC) taking a cab, and once the cab driver knew he is an AUCian, he stopped the car and told him to get out!! LOL The kid was laughing so hard he couldn't argue back, he told him "It's not us, the foreigners who are infected" the cab driver answered back saying "and you guys swim with them in the same swimming pool" (I HAVE NO IDEA how did the swimming pool at AUC spread in Egypt that much!) and cabby added " you're rich AND you bringing us diseases!! roo7 ya shiekh 7asby allah we ne3ma el wakeel" hahaha! the kid of course get off the cab.

So the moral of the story, if you're an AUCian, NEVER say you are one...EVER! :)

Funny thing is, we (I don't know what to say, we as rich ppl (and become an ignorant arrogant posh) or we as Cairo people, as infected bird flu people are in the cities around Cairo)  didn't run away from country side people, although until now they don't get hiding birds in their houses spreads diseases!

Anyway, God Bless Egypt and protect us.

-- 
Best Regards,

Hisham ElHifnawi

So, this is just a funny story about how people get crazy about swine flu. If you read between the lines, you can get a little more information on what AUC is all about. 

AUC is made up of mostly Egyptians and foreigners studying abroad. I would not suggest AUC for anyone looking to learn Arabic because I've never met a foreigner from AUC who could speak better than a kid on the Middlebury program.

For Egyptians, AUC is known as the place you go if you're in the Egyptian upper class, but aren't able to attend a university in the U.S., Canada, or Europe. The AUC study abroad students usually describe the Egyptian AUC students as "stuck up, rich kids." And, of course, for Egyptians not attending, they see AUC Egyptian students as the privileged kids who are dumb, but just paying for college. Of course, there's more to it than that, but whenever you have an elitistish school you're going to get stereotypes like that from the outside.

Egyptian Laundromats

@#$%!#$^%

The dry cleaners are great. Less than 2 bucks for three shirts.

But check this out, I want to do a regular load with t-shirts, socks, boxers, pants, and the first price that I'm offered is $24. WTF? I check out another place, and it's $12. WTF? It costs about $3 at a laundromat in the US. It's supposed to be cheaper for this stuff in Egypt. 

So, I sent an e-mail to Cairo Scholars -- an e-mail list for expats living in Cairo, and someone responded: 

Basically, no. The more backstreet you get the better, but it can still get pricey. Try bargaining, or do what most people end up doing and handwash. Especially now that the weather's hot, it's just a lot easier.

WTF? And just another interesting tidbit of information... someone stole my trash can including the trash... so now we just use plastic bags. What is this place?

First Day on the Job

Setting: Offsite in the conference room of the National Council for Women

Moderator and a director of the NCW introduces the expert on domestic violence from the American Bar Association with the following remarks: "You're really going to have to explain the bar thing."

The answer: We go to bars, but it just means a group of lawyers.

Oh god...

An Early Summer Night In Cairo

Eight floors above the ahwa¹

Far away from the street’s dowsha²

No scent of shisha from below³

Am I still in Egypt?

I do not know

Sitting in my boxer briefs

Did I mention, no takeef?⁴

At least I have mango juice in the telaga⁵

I’m not an Egyptian

So that leaves me, khouega⁶

Is this language Englizy?⁷

Or Arabeezy?⁸

And who’s my jemhoor?⁹

Do you understand this scripture?

Would you like some more?

Khali belik from eisegesis¹⁰

And, strive for exegesis¹¹

But when you’re caught in a contradiction

Take a step back

And, ask the question

Are you thinking straight in the desert with no AC speaking a foreign language to an unknown audience or are these just some words strung together? Le fin.

 

1 Café

2 Noise

3 Waterpipe/hooka

4 Air Conditioning

5 Refridgerator

6 Damned foreigner

7 English

8 An Arabic portmanteau meaning a mixture of Arabic and English

9 Audience

10 This is actually an English word… means a subjective interpretation of a text

11 And, so is this… means a objective interpretation of a text… these terms are used for analyzing religious texts