The Cairo Gyro

That’s a real McDonalds Eid ad, heh. We’re planning to pray Salatul ‘Eid at Dar Faisal here in Ma’adi tomorrow morning insha’Allah.

Wishing you all a joyous and blessed ‘Eid ul-Fitr and many more to come, ameen.

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The Mogamma’ is likely to be the only place in Egypt that’ll give you a terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-day (in the words of Alexander). Ironically, although I had my fair share of Mogamma’ mayhem, my day was quite the opposite of Alexander’s description (and all sincere loving praises are due to Allah.)

The Good morning: My roommate and I woke up bright and early, got all ready, and waited outside for our ride to show up. The school she works for arranged for one of their employees to drive us to the Mogamma’ and help us with the process for free. The ride shows up an hour late (but hey, were you honestly expecting anything else?). We were escorted to the Photo Studio where we took care of our Passport size Photos needed for the Mogamma’ business. Then we drove down the Corniche of the Nile, and ate the beautiful breezes for breakfast. Believe it or not that was our first time seeing the Nile up close since we’ve been in Egypt. It was stunning. Then into Tahrir we went, it looked almost just like I’d pictured kind of European. Shortly after, we arrived at the Mogamma’ around 10 AM. We walked next to a painfully thin, pale, little, old white woman who was going in the same direction as us. All was well..

The Bad beginning: After paying 200 LE for a Visa that should have only cost me 183 LE and not receiving any change in return I was feeling pretty gypped. It occurred to me right then that one should come to the Mogamma’ with their pockets loaded with money…something I didn’t do!

The Ugly in-between: I wasn’t feeling well today and that place sure isn’t somewhere you want to be at a time like that, or any time for that matter. At the risk of sounding wimpy, pain was hitting me pretty badly and I wanted SO badly to sit down somewhere but the floor would have been my only option since all the chairs, corners and walls were taken. So I had to suck it in and be tough. Tough like that lady with blue eye shadow behind Window #43 who was in charge of the Residential Visas. Sitting at a desk and having a constant flow of chaos and confused foreigners shoving their paperwork in her face, she remained, unflinchingly, as cool and as cold as her eye shadow suggests. I sure as Helwan didn’t want to lose my patience like the little British woman a couple windows down. She yelled, no..sorry- she bellowed as much as her bony body allowed, at the woman behind the window: “NO!! YA3NI, WHOT’S GOWWING ON!? WHERE ARE MY DOCUMENTS? I WANT THEM…NOW!!!!” Then she punched the window and all of us in the neighboring lines looked at her dumbfounded. No way! It was the same tiny pale woman we’d passed by on our way in an hour earlier; boy could she pack a punch!

Her fury and outburt scared me and I was reminded of the beauty of fasting and patience. Masha’Allah I saw so much patience amongst my brothers and sisters in there…

I decided it was a good idea to come in Ramadan so that I could test my own patience.

That’s what I kept telling myself as I was sent back and forth from Window # 43 to #12 to #38

to #1 and back to #43 and then back to #1 and oh yea, back to #38. And when I was told my Visa expired yesterday and I’d have to pay an additional 150 LE on spot. And when I had to get a new copy of my Passport on the spot since they didn’t accept mine.

The Beautiful end:

I challenge the one who says that patience doesn’t pay off. After over 4 hours I finally walked out of their with a 1 year residency Visa neatly placed on page 14 of my Passport. Alhamdulillah.

After that we decided to check out the bookstore at the American University of Cairo across the road. We had heard about the enormous collection of English books they sell and decided to check it out for the first time. It was really nice masha’Allah, we found tons of books we’d love to buy but probably never will. One in particular that I do plan on buying, insha’Allah, is: Apricots Tomorrow. It’s the sequel to The Son of a Duck is a Floater, an Arabic proverb book that I wouldn’t want to travel without. It was also a treat to get to walk through the AUC campus, which – I must say – was very charming.

It was time to go home after that so we decided to do yet another first: we took the Metro home! It was only 1 LE! What can we say other than we loved it, alhamdulillah. Clean, fast, simple, and not a single obnoxious taxi driver in sight! The first two cars are for women only, thank you.

We made it home in time to freshen up, get food for futoor, and break our fast. It wasn’t long after that we headed out again. This time we went somewhere I’d been anticipating the entire Ramadan and perhaps even before. We went to Masjid `Amr ibn al-`Aas where al-Qari’ Muhammad Jibreel came to lead the 27^th night of Ramadan Taraweeh after his annual Worldwide Taraweeh Tour. An entire road was closed and used for praying in because of the crowds. Cars were parked madly yet methodically just about every where on the neighboring road. People were there hours beforehand to save the best spots. By the time we got there the streets were so packed we couldn’t get anywhere near the masjid. They set up speakers in a nearby garden of a fancy Café called Fustat and that’s where the rest of us hundreds arriving had to pitch our rugs. Can you believe we didn’t even get to see the Masjid?! SubhanAllah I’ve never in my entire life seen such a crowd for Salatul Taraweeh.

Muhammad Jibreel’s recitation has changed yet again (I find he likes to change it up every year or so). Just when I think I can start to predict how he’ll recite certain ayat he goes and surprises me with something different. Amazing! TabarakaAllah..

The Du’a ul-Qunoot was an hour long and yet we all could have wished for it to be longer. I ask that Allah accepts it from us…ameen. Alhamdulillah I’ve been in plenty of Qunoots but this one was definitely one to remember. The Ameens could be heard from all directions…loud and strong. At that moment I felt the strength we have as an Ummah when we are united.

Another thing that Muhammad Jebril is known for is his eloquence, masha’Allah. Seriously it’s like no two du’a qunoots of his are the same. At times the men praying behind the Imam were weeping so loudly that we could hear them almost as loud as the Imam’s voice! I tried leaving my digital recorder on to record it but it didn’t come out too well because of the makeshift speaker system we had to pray in front of. I might still upload it for you all though, after Ramadan insha’Allah.

Here is a picture I took of the crowd going to their cars after Salah.

[To be added soon insha’Allah]

Here is a pic of the closest I even came to the actual Amr in al Aas Masjid L. Lol

[TBASI]

Ya Allah…make us from those who gain the rewards of Laylatul-Qadr. Ameen.

Today turned out to be a very eventful day. Just goes to show you can definitely survive the Mogamma’ and still manage to have a great day. Alhamdulillah!

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Ramadan seems to want to run away from us, doesn’t it? We’re already within the last ten nights. Someone once said that the Qur’an is like a date, the more you chew it, the sweeter it tastes. Pun totally intended: I say, Ramadan is like a date. The more you get into Ramadan the sweeter it becomes…until you find yourself within the last ten nights and just when you thought it couldn’t be sweeter, it is!

Alhamdulillah we prayed Taraweeh at the following masajid:

Masjid Bilal – Madinat Nasr

Masjid as-Salam – Madinat Nasr

Masjid as-Siddiq – Masr Gadeedah

Masjid Dar Faisal (?) - al-Ma’adi

Masjid ar-Rayyan – al-Ma’adi

And October 8th Muhammad Jebril is coming back to Cairo insha’Allah so we’re planning to attend that at Masjid amro bin al-Aas. (!!)

Out of the four masajid we’re prayed Taraweeh in so far, I think my favorite has been Masjid ar-Rayyan here in Ma’adi. I’m making a mental note right now to find out the Imam’s name, insha’Allah. The masjid is within walking distance from our new house, the sound system is excellent, it has the least amount of crying babies/children, the Imam’s recitation is the best I’ve heard in Egypt thus far and the quality of the Taraweeh and the khutbah is top notch, alhamdulillah. The Imam weeps at certain ayahs and then rows of the jama’ah can be heard weeping along with him…if you don’t understand the ayahs he’s weeping over then that experience alone will make you eager to look up the translation once you get home. I’ve used my handy dandy digital recorder to record the Taraweeh so insha’Allah I’ll be uploading it soon, probably after Ramadan.

Man…I’m going to miss Ramadan in Egypt. Around half an hour before Iftar, volunteers can be seen on the street passing out free water bottle and dates (sometimes throwing them in cars for people who will be stuck on the road when it’s time to break fast). We were rushing to buy mineral water from a corner store one evening when the athan sounded and we hurried to open the water bottle to break our fast when, to our delight, the store owner reached over and handed us a handful of dates J. It’s nice to be able to be out in public and not have to feel like the only fasting person within miles, alhamdulillah.

There’s also a dose of commercialism that comes with Ramadan in a Muslim country. The holiday lights go up, even the Masjids are decorated! For some odd reason I’ve been told they play the best/most movies on TV during Ramadan. The best sales go on during Ramadan…which lead people to crowd the market places unfortunately (thankfully most businesses close by 3:00 during Ramadan and don’t open again until night time. Shops and restaurants are open for erratic hours.) Even the laundry detergent is sold in the shape of a Faynoos (Ramadan Lantern). Spinney’s (which is a Dubai owned super center that puts Wal-Mart to shame) has awesome food sales during Ramadan. Vimto is even on sale from its original price of 20 LE down to 15.99 LE which is ~ $3.00! Egyptians don’t play when it comes to food shopping. It’s almost impossible though to buy dough for samboosak (samosas), or canned chickpeas, or fresh cilantro among other things during this month because it’s usually SOLD OUT. Speaking of which, something we’ve found strange and quite saddening is that most restaurants stop making Kushary for the e-n-t-i-r-e Ramadan! :(

One of my favorite memories so far is one that I made last night. We were on our way back from buying food for iftar when, yet again, the athan bellowed. We found ourselves right next to a tiny local Masjid that resembled a Bangladeshi Masjid and at first glance I was ready to assume they didn’t have a women’s prayer area. My roommates rushed down the road to buy some water and I stood next to the Masjid curiously looking for a women’s entrance. An energetic man on his way into prayer spotted me and my initial reaction was to look away and act uninterested in the Masjid. Memories of countless times in Bangladesh where men would scold or turn women away from the masjid stung in the back of my mind and I proceeded to turn my eyes away. Suddenly the little bearded energetic man did something that I wish Bangali men would have the decency and sense to do. He called out to me, “3ayza Gami3a?” (Do you want the Masjid?). I was at a loss for words and all that came out was “…wha?…uhh…”and so I nodded and he kindly showed me to a door on the other side that lead to a quaint wudu and prayer area for women! The sound quality was great and to my further amazement there was even an air conditioner in there!

Alhamdulillah, it’s really nice to be in a Muslim country where spiritual equality of men and women is recognized. My Dad has dreams of bringing that to Bangladesh one day and I pray that it happens, insha’Allah. Until then…Egypt is surprisingly setting a good example.

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