Easter Brunch

Cairo, Egypt

From Easter Brunch

Emma and Erin gave up sweets for Lent, and Erin fasted altogether for the last two days of Lent, so by Easter Sunday morning, they were starved for sugary treats! We took advantage of that as a chance to get together. In the tradition of the Potluck Crew, we made ourselves a potluck Easter brunch, heavy on the sweet stuff: cinnabuns, Danish, fruit pizza with frosting, baked oatmeal.... It was a feast worthy of the holiday!

Some Egyptian friends of Emma and Erin joined us, too, and we had long conversations about the revolution, about Egyptian universities, about our families that tend towards the intellectual and eccentric, and all kinds of other fascinating things. Also, we had a ton of fun playing with their little cousin. Erin gave him the toy gun Andrew gave her for Christmas. First he played "shoot the girls" and then we played "hide the ammo" and "hide the gun" and ultimately, "hide and seek." Hilarity ensued!

Free Cupcakes!
Yesterday, a knock on Emma's door revealed a delivery from NOLA Bakery, the fabulous cupcake shop in Zamalek ... a delivery she hadn't ordered and wasn't expecting. This morning, she got a call from the bakery, apologizing for delivering the cupcakes a day early. A gift called in by her parents in Vermont, the cupcakes were supposed to be in lieu of an Easter basket. So, to apologize, the cupcake shop sent her another half dozen cupcakes on Easter Sunday, free of charge! Yum!

Coptic Easter Mass

Cairo, Egypt

One of our program administrators invited a group of CASIC students to the man Coptic church in Giza with him this evening for Easter Mass. I love to visit services in other religions, and I'm collecting exotic Easters (at the Vatican with Pope John Paul II, on Mt. Nebo at sunrise), so I was quick to accept the invitation.

Like a traditional Greek Orthodox mass, it's a long affair, starting at 7pm and going till at least midnight (we lasted almost 3 hours), and people come and go throughout. Women sat on the right, men on the left. Some women wore veils draped symbolically over their heads, many of them embroidered with crosses or images of Jesus or the Virgin Mary, but as in modern Catholicism, covering one's hair has become optional.

I wish I had understood more, but most of the chanting was done in Coptic. Like modern Hebrew, Coptic is a language revived from old texts, the Rosetta Stone, and a lot of guesswork about its pronunciation and more mundane vocabulary that didn't make it into written form. I understood at one point from the text on TV screens around the sanctuary that they were praying for the martyrs of the January 25 Revolution and their families. The rest was pretty, but not particularly meaningful.

The Bible readings I definitely did recognize, because they were read in plain Arabic, and were about the Virgin and the Magdalene opening the tomb and finding Jesus' body gone, and then being spoken to by the ascended Jesus.

By far the most dramatic part was the blessing of the Host. The lights were turned off all across the sanctuary, and the curtains were drawn between the priest at the altar and the congregants in our pews. By that time, incense hung heavy in the air. There was a great deal of chanting and singing, and then a great crescendo as the curtains parted, the lights came up, torches were lit in the courtyard outside, and the Host was paraded with all its robed attendants 3 times around the entire sanctuary.

At one point, there was a good deal of commotion as a number of military personnel and men in suits were ushered in. During the sermon, also in Arabic, we learned that these were representatives of the Giza Governorate, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, the local division of State Security, and the Egyptian Army. The Army got resounding applause from the congregants. The sermon talked about Egyptian unity, and standing with our Muslim brothers, and honoring the sacrifices of the revolutionaries. Apparently we were at the most important church in Giza.

Good Friday on Mount Sinai

St. Katherine's, Sinai Peninsula, Egypt

From Good Friday on Mount Sinai

It was long and cold and may have given me bronchitis ... but it was definitely worth it! This wasn't my first hike up to the top of Mount Sinai, where Moses spoke to God - the only man in history to do so directly! - and received the 10 Commandments ... and then hiked all the way back down just to find his people worshiping some golden cow they'd made...! Let me tell you, if it had been me, I'd have done more than break a couple stone tablets!
I mean, granted, they'd been walking from the Nile Delta, which is 10+ hours by tour bus, and a whole lot farther on foot! But still, Mount Sinai is no little hill, and talking to God has got to be frightening (I mean, even the angels have to preface every encounter with "Be not afraid!"), so I can only imagine Moses' frustration to find the Chosen People distracted by a bit of bling!

my classmates and fellow pilgrims, Emma and Erin

It was a great hike with excellent company, though. Emma and Erin are always saucy companions. We picked up this nice Japanese guy at the hotel who is studying Hebrew in Beersheva; we didn't manage much conversation with his limited English, but he was a quick, uncomplaining hiker. Our guide Mohammad was just home for a few days on leave from the army, and very pleased to say that he had only a month left. He's been stationed in the coastal city of Alexandria, which was a much more violent place than Cairo during the Revolution, during which time his wrist was sprained while he was part of a human chain of soldiers holding protesters in place. He also showed me a nice little video of the girl he'll be getting engaged to later this year. All in all, he was exactly the right amount of chatty and friendly, and not at all smarmy, and he got us an extra blanket to ward off the cold at the top, and a perfect place to watch the sunrise.
Unfortunately, St. Katherine's Monastery was closed for Good Friday celebrations. Their little museum has the most extensive collection of pre-Iconoclasm religious icons in the world. See, the tribe in this area was charged by the Prophet Mohammad himself to protect the monks of the monastery from any and all attackers, so when the Iconoclasm happened and people came to destroy the icons brought by pilgrims from all over Christendom, the Muslim Bedouin kept them out, and not an icon was harmed. I saw the museum when I visited the Sinai with a Peace Corps colleague back in 2005, but I would have liked to see it again.

A Lawyer And Everything!

Cairo, Egypt

I've started going to the grocery around the corner more frequently. They carry fresh milk and most of my other staples, and they're open after dark unlike the supermarket I used to frequent. The cashier there is enchanted by an American who speaks Arabic as well as I do, and he always engages me in conversation.

Tonight he was very pleased to my attention the prosecution of former president Mubarak. "There's going to be a real trial, with a judge, and they've given him an attorney. They're giving him his human rights!" As if to say, after all the years he denied us our human rights, we're better people than that.

Then he said, getting serious, "You know, America talks all the time about human rights, but they don't really mean it, do they? As soon as they want something from a leader like Mubarak, there's no more talk of human rights." I agreed with him, and clearly that wasn't the response he was looking for. "Really? You know this?" Of course, I agreed, governments are inherently selfish institutions. "And Americans know this?" he wanted to know.

Of course, that's where the conversation gets tricky, isn't it? My friends and family know that America is not the paragon of democratic virtues it claims to be, that it operates both domestically and abroad in ways that don't always serve the rights and interests of the people effected. Jon Stewart's audience knows this, and those who listen to NPR and watch PBS and stream al-Jazeera. Unitarian Universalists know this, and MoveOn.org members know this, and Peace Corps Volunteers see this.

But do "Americans" know that their government, for its own self-interests, is propping up evil despots and oil barons and CIA stooges and oppressive states who are willing to torture for the US Government? How do I answer that question?

It begs another question, too, that's been on my mind for a couple weeks now. When I go back to America, how do I answer the inevitable questions about what "Egyptians" or "Jordanians" or, worse, "Arabs" and "Muslims" think about America, about democracy, about freedom, about terrorism, about revolution...? As if any of those terms represented a uniform monolithic entity that had one opinion about anything!

Meanwhile....
They've been chanting on Tahrir Square since last night. I don't know what they're chanting, but there are a lot of them, and they're very enthusiastic, not about to back down until they've got everything they demand.

Rewind, Play Again

Cairo, Egypt

Sometimes you have to take a step backwards to go forwards.

As I walked across Tahrir Square at noon today on my way to class, I felt like the clock had been wound back a month or more. Starting about two blocks back from Tahrir Square were roadblocks of cinderblocks, metal table frames, 4X4s and other "found items," as it were. They seemed to have been erected by the neighborhood watch committees, directing traffic away from Tahrir Square, because there were no police in sight.

Ahead of me on the edges of Tahrir Square, those roadblocks had been reinforced with concertina wire, making it hard to know whether they'd been set up by the protesters or the military.

I was a little hesitant to go forward, remembering Saturday morning's gunfire, but I'd decided to treat myself to a Hardees Jalapeno Chicken sandwich to break a 100-pound note, and I had my patriotic ribbon on my backpack, so I kept going. Unfortunately for me, Hardees had learned a hard lesson in the 25 Jan Revolution when all their windows and been smashed and the restaurant torn apart. When they rebuilt, they installed brand new metal shutters to pull down over their shop windows, and the place was buttoned up tight at noon today.

There were only a few hundred people there, mostly clustered near Talat Harb Street and the KFC (where I later found out they were painting a mural of the military attacking protesters) and out of my way across the square. There was no military or police in sight. It seemed pretty safe, so I strode across what had become, for all intents and purposes, a giant pedestrian plaza.

Vehicle burnt by protesters during bloody clashes with armed forces, Tahrir Square, 9 April, 2011.  Soldiers had forcibly dispersed protesters leaving two killed, 71 injured. (Al-Masry Al-Youm)

As I got to the Nile side of the square, I saw a couple burnt-out police transports, which took me straight back to the violent early days of the revolution. But typically enough for the spirit of the New Egypt, the scorched hulks had been put to good use. They were filled to the ceilings with plastic garbage bags full of detritus from the weekend's protests.

Between Tahrir Square and Kasr al-Aini Bridge, cars were parked bumper-to-bumper and people were trickling onto the square in fours and sixes and pairs.

An hour ago, when I came home from class, we skirted around Tahrir Square. I was feeling uncertain about what we might find on Tahrir Square now that schools are out and some businesses are beginning to close for the day. In the streets around the square, police were directing traffic away from the makeshift barriers extending a few blocks away from the square. I glimpsed tanks around the Interior Ministry, but I couldn't say that they haven't been there all along since 28 Jan.

From all directions, people were walking towards the square. It's going to be an interesting week.

Meanwhile, let me recommend some reading from Sandmonkey, who is emerging as one of the premier bloggers in Egypt, on 7 Popular Myths About the Revolution.

Gunshots

Cairo, Egypt

It started around 3am. At first I thought it was fireworks. There had been fireworks all over downtown Thursday night while my classmates and I were celebrating Sarah's birthday on top of the Happy City Hotel, and it's a sound I certainly got used to in my years in Amman.

Then I realized that I could still hear chanting and the distant roar of a crowd coming from Tahrir Square. There hadn't been crowds on Tahrir at 3am since I got back from Jordan, and even though the curfew has been eased a bit more, it's still in effect from 2am-5am, and usually pretty well enforced here in the downtown.

Gunfire, some of it semi-automatic, waxed and waned through the next couple hours. There wasn't much to see from where we live, though at one point early on my roommates saw several hundreds of people come flooding across Falaky Square, running from Tahrir. Al-Jazeera was busy talking about how the US Congress avoided a government shut-down, and Twitter only revealed to me that "protesters are being cleared from the square" amid sounds of gunfire and possibly teargas, and these videos by YouTube user Kikhote:

After the first call to prayer near 5am, things went quiet again.

This noon, I can still hear chanting on Tahrir Square and traffic is unusually light on Tahrir Street in front of our apartment. The neighborhood watch is out again. Reuters and Al-Jazeera report that some but probably not all of the military officers who joined the protests last night were arrested by Central Security and the military, who had been promising court martial for any officers joining protests last night. Also, a video has emerged of the officers' demands:

Their demands include: dissolution of the military government, appointment of a civil governing council, removal of Tantawi from leadership of the country, prosecution of the "symbols of corruption" (Mubarak, al-Adly, etc.), and of those who killed protesters during the revolution.

'Copters and Cops

Cairo, Egypt

Helicopters have been circling downtown all day today, and when the wind is right you can hear the cacophony of voices down the street on Tahrir Square.

I'm under the weather and haven't gone out to see for myself, but my German roommate says there's a bigger crowd than (the new) usual gathered on the square. They're protesting a hodgepodge of things on behalf of Egyptians and the greater so-called Arab Spring: against military control, in support of the budding Syrian revolution, against Gaddhafi, for the release of political prisoners, death to Israel, support for Palestine, against the Emergency Laws ... you name it.

Al-Jazeera English is reporting that the protesters are concentrating on a call for Mubarak and his cronies to be put on trial, and for the military to hand over power to a civilian council.

There's a rumor that there will be 1,300 officers coming sometime today to march against abuses by the State Security, with al-Jazeera reporting that any military personnel participating in today's protests will do so under threat of court martial.

Al-Masry al-Youm (Egypt Today), English Edition, is reporting that tens of thousands are marching on what they've dubbed the "Friday of Cleansing" and calling for a renewed groundswell of protests until the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces demonstrates a significant commitment to fulfilling the demands of the original January 25 Revolution.

My classmate Yasmine has posted pictures on Facebook from today's protests that include several banners from unions demanding a new Labor Union Law and more protection of their right to organize (take that, Teaparty!), independence and freedom of expression for the ancient and revered Islamic institution of al-Azhar University, independence of the judiciary, and more.

Some Fridays are like this. Sometimes there's a unifying cause like Muslim-Coptic unity following events of sectarian violence, or opposition to the constitutional amendments in the next day's referendum. Other Fridays, without specific events to focus their attention, people come to Tahrir Square on behalf of whatever cause is dear to them, or whatever slogans they think will make a splash. Today is one of the latter, except that the numbers seem to be unprecedented for this sort of a free-for-all Friday rally. As I've said before, they sometimes seem drunk with people power in the New Egypt.

As usual, when things get interesting again, I find myself wondering if they'll turn off the Internet again, but I think Egypt has learned its lesson there. As one protester put it, "When your government shuts down the Internet, shut down your government!"

It's a Bird, It's a.... Yeah, it's a bird.

Cairo, Egypt

Who needs to join a gym? I spent three hours walking and doing stairs today just getting to and from my classes, and every muscle below the hips is telling me I earned that brownie I had with lunch!

From Springtime in the New Egypt

All that walking is not without its little joys, though. Along the way, I saw this bird in my usual birdwatching spot. I've never seen one like it before. I love the colors. A little research leaves me guessing that it's a White-Throated Kingfisher.

Raindrops Are Falling On My Head....

Cairo, Egypt

There's nothing quite so wonderful as the smell of rain. Even above the dusty, decaying, dismal odors of Cairo, the smell of rain manages to take over the air, wake me from a dismal day. Thick, gray clouds have been hanging low over Cairo since yesterday, but I haven't paid them much attention. Cairo never gets more than a few minutes of desultory little showers every now and then ... or so I thought!

Not, in fact, the case. Today we've got real rain. Not just a few piddling drops, but an all-out, blustering, thunder-and-lightning rainstorm! It's thrilling, invigorating, and I'm not the only one to think so!

I make it a habit, when living in the Middle East, to go out and dance in the first rain of the year ... since it comes so seldom! Okay, I didn't exactly dance on our balcony, but I did go out and stand in the rain, and I wasn't the only one drawn to the windows. I had no idea that every apartment in the horrendously ugly building across the street is actually occupied. Even during the revolution, only two or three apartments showed hesitant faces at the window. Today, every single apartment raised a shutter, opened a window, stepped out on the balcony, all smiling ... though perhaps none so broadly as I!

Let me tell you, when I get home in May, the very first time it rains, I'll be dancing in it till my lips are blue!

Add that to the little tremor we felt from Friday's earthquake in Crete, and it's been an exciting weekend!

Ah, Cairo! Just when I think I've got you figured out....