The streets are rainbowed with Ramadan decorations once again. The Faynoos lantern that comes in dozens of sizes, shapes and colors can be spotted hanging on the streets, on bags in the shape of keychains, in malls, and off of balconies. The colorful string-lights that line the masjids and buildings illuminate the night and draw your eyes towards the minarets. The tables and tents set up to feed people during the blessed month are being lined with chairs…ready to feed the fasting. All of these wonders said, “Welcome to Egypt” last year when I arrived in Cairo just before Ramadan in 2007. It served as such a warm welcome. Although the decorations and preparations are the same as before, this year it’s a stark contrast for me emotionally. I’m almost sad to see it again because this time Ramadan doesn’t mark the beginning of my stay…it marks the end of it.

Something I’ll miss the most about Ramadan in Egypt is the wake-up call we get for suhoor every morning. They call them the “Meseharaat” and their job is to walk the streets at tahajjud time every night banging their drum and calling out to the people to wake for Qiyam and Suhoor. There’s this loud thump thump - thump thump they beat on their drums and the follow it by calling out…

It’s kind of in ‘Aamiyyah (local) mixed with fus-ha (classical) Arabic. From what I understand he’s calling the servants of Allah to declare the Oneness of Allah, to get up and declare the Oneness of the Permanent One (Allah - ‘azza wa jal -). He wishes everyone “Ramadan Kareem!” and advises that the pursuit of fasting is better than sleep so he tells the sleepy heads to get up! He ends it by telling them to declare the Oneness of the One Who Provides (Allah).

We will be praying Taraweeh tomorrow night insha’Allah (Sunday, August 31st). I’m so excited about getting the opportunity to pray Taraweeh in Egypt again…the masajid here are blessed with Imams with astounding recitation. I did manage to record most Ramadan nights last year, I just couldn’t upload them as promised because of the slow connection speeds here…but I plan to add more pictures and audio to this blog after I return home next month, insha’Allah. In the mean time, I’ll try to catch up on posting…so wake up everyone! Ramadan Kareem :)

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This balcony is so different than the one that came with out first Cairo apartment ten months ago. This one sits close to the street two floors above the ground and has a big fancy railing offering privacy. It has painted roman pillars and terra cotta walls with white tile flooring. Very grandeur compared to the balcony on the eighth floor of our first building. The first balcony, and the last. Between them were three others, each offering very different views, each carrying different memories.

The first: Eighth floor overlooking Asim Abdul Hamid Street, Nasr City

By far, the best. At times all seven or six of us were out there at once. Since it was summer we’d sit there at night where the breeze was cooler than being inside. It was also a good WiFi spot. Qur’an was recited. Deep conversations were held on that balcony. Advice was given. Tea was sipped. Binoculars were put to use. Stories were told. Jokes were made. I remember one night in particular I believe it was in the first week of Ramadan, Sammer and I sat out there with flash cards testing each other on our Arabic vocab. We wanted to begin practicing our Arabic before our Fajr Center classes were scheduled to begin. We mastered all of those words that night together. We would stay up out there until the old man with the drum would walk down our street calling out to the sleeping buildings waking them up for tahajjud and suhoor. “O Servants of Allah!” There was a creepy lookout post on top of the building across from ours and it strangely resembled the one at Gitmo. We found that disturbing and would use the binoculars to look at it to see if anyone was looking back at us.

The second: Sixth floor overlooking Medan al-Arab, Maadi

We lived a few floors above Fajr Center’s Maadi branch. I’d get up in the morning and peep out the balcony past the big tree to see if my teacher had walked into the building yet. It was next to the train tracks so I’d see the train come and go. The masjid in the distance would attract a large crowd every jumu’ah. I tried to sit out there and listen to the khutbah when I could, although it was usually too faint to understand. I missed my family the most from this balcony and would distract my thoughts with my MP3 player while staring at the billboard for Close-Up toothpaste. I only remember one night I had company on this balcony, and that was only briefly. Such a contrast compared to the previous one.

The third: First floor overlooking Medan al-Arab, Maadi

The worst. This time we were facing the back of the building. Our view was hardly picturesque. It was the crazy, noisy, always busy intersection known as Medan al-Arab. The phantom ice-cream truck noises we heard turned out to be the signal sounds on motorcycles. Many a zuffa (wedding procession) we heard from there. Beeeeep Beeeeep BeepBeepBeep! The dogs and cats were always fighting and the cars always had somewhere to go. This balcony was enclosed so it offered nothing nice and the only thing that sat out there was my wet clothing.

The fourth: Sixth floor overlooking Masjid Bilal, Nasr City

Beautiful view of the minaret, the masjid, and the garden. The Somali restaurant on the ground floor could usually be heard. The best athan I’ve heard in Cairo is the one from Masjid Bilal, it came through clearly and loudly. I could sit and listen to the Jumu’ah Khutbahs without having to strain my ear one bit and I was able to record Shaykh Rida many times from that balcony. On Eid morning I saw the crowds coming towards the Masjid and video recorded it. Later that day I sat out there and watched cars drive through huge puddles of blood left over from the sacrifices. It was winter when we lived there though and usually too cold to sit out.

The fifth: Second floor overlooking Mohsin Rushdie Street, Nasr City

This is present tense but will soon be past because this is going to be the last balcony I will call my own in Cairo. It accumulates more dust than people and I’ve only seen one wedding from up here. I like seeing the moon reflect off the shiny white tile floor at night and right now the sun is rising on the building tops. When the Bawaab’s children come to visit they peer through the railing and wave hi to their parents from above. This is the only balcony I’ve had in Cairo without any chairs. Perhaps that’s why as beautiful as it is, it remains unwelcoming.

One of my original roommates, one who I enjoyed many nights with on balcony number one, will be returning on Saturday insha’Allah. I will have to make this one feel more homely in time for her arrival in hopes of rekindling those balcony memories from last summer. After all, I’ll be leaving soon and returning to flat Florida, where there are no balconies among other beloved things Cairo has to offer.

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First we visited Nile Center. Cute modest little building, we saw the women’s campus only. Took while to arrive there after a series of confusing directions. They are unable to offer private classes for the summer due to a shortage of teachers.

Right around the corner from it is Sibwayh. Very friendly, they came and met us at Masjid Musa bin Nusayr and escorted us to the center. Friendly people and very helpful. Right away they started offering to find other female students that come from our area so we could walk to school in groups. I found this to be unique about the center, and very admirable (that they offered that right away without us requesting it) They offer a number of private Islamic Studies classes too for advanced Arabic students although I know very little about the qualifications of the teachers for those subjects. I should have asked more.

I took my cousin to check out those two centers for classes, but at the end of the day she’s leaning towards joining Markaz Fajr.

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[I wrote this post in December but I forgot to post it so I'm putting it up now. Kind of late, heh]

The other morning, after another night of insomnia, I looked out our window from the sixth floor, and a morbid thought came to mind. What if there was an earthquake and the building- with it’s 12 floors- just collapsed. This thought stayed with me as I went from window to window, craning my neck just to weave my eyesight past and in between all the surrounding apartment buildings to catch a glimpse of the sunrise. Homes built upon each other, stacking up high, forming concrete towers that crowd the Cairo skyline. Imagine if they all…came tumbling…down.

Have you ever had those moments where you imagine the worst happening, see the scene unravel in your mind, visualize it….and then it happens - either to you or to someone else - and you say to yourself, “SubhanAllah. Thank you Allah for preparing me for this”?

A couple days later this is what permeated the headlines:

“Death toll in Egypt building collapse rises to 20″

SubhanAllah. You’d expect a building structure like this to collapse:

Something weak and made of wood. Not the macho mabaani of Egypt, right?

………………………………………………………

Wrong.

And to Allah belongs all that is in the heavens and the earth. Wa la howla wa la quwwata illah billah…

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This actually took place months ago but I guess you can tell I wasn’t very enthused to write about it!

I do appreciate the chance to -for the first time in my life- be able to live in a city with such rich Islamic History. I’d read once that the Historian Ibn Khaldun said of Egypt, “He who has not seen it does not know the power of Islam.” I wish I had Ibn Khaldun as my tour guide on my field trip to Islamic Cairo :(

The trip included: The Citadel and the sites surrounding it and the The Egyptian Military museum.

It was interesting…

Fortunately, I read a book on the life of Salahudden which really brought the whole area to life for me and made the experience somewhat uplifting. Other than that aspect, it’s a real downer.

Mausoleums in every “masjid”. It’s clear that a masjid whose foundation was not built upon taqwa, will end up serving a purpose other than 3ibadah, and Allah knows best. They have all turned into tourist attractions filled with people of all kinds, posing at the pillars of the masjids lounging around on the carpets, videoing etc. I would say that it was very disrespectful but I can’t blame them.. these masjids were very much built for showy purposes in the first place.

The museum was OK. There was a huge statue of Salaheddin. I do not believe in the permissibility of statues. It was when I saw this statue that I realized the wisdom behind such a prohibition. When I looked up it caught my breath and I was looking at it for a second as if I could see Salaheddin in front of me. People in ancient times first started building statues in respect and reverence of great people…it’s no wonder they later starting worshiping at them. I did however like the name plate:

My highlights of the trip included: The Citadel, The jeweled Yemeni Dagger, The Pillar from the first foundation of the`Amr bin al-Aas masjid, The view of Cairo from the top.

Looking on bright side, it was as great history lesson and I took some nice pictures.

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SubhanAllah.

I had a dream about a ferret type creature. I dreamt it belonged to Sammer and she asked me to pet-sit for her as she went out. The ferret was soft and brown and it only wanted to be held (I was under the impression Sammer spoiled it ;). While petting it, loving it, and giving it my undivided attention, a group of people show up at the house and start partying. They were several in number, each one obnoxious and loud. In my dream I kept telling the unwanted guests to Shh! because You’ll scare Sammer’s pet! when suddenly it leaped out of my arms and ran away. The rest of my dream was me panicking and searching around the house for the darling little creature before Sammer arrived home.

I woke up and on our morning walk to catch a taxi to school I shared my dream with Sammer. SubhanAllah to my surprise she told me she TOO had a dream of a ferret type creature! We were a little weirded out by the whole thing and each of us began describing the creature exactly as we had seen it in our dreams. You’ll never guess what happened next…

SubhanAllah, right at that very moment a creature that looked EXACTLY like what we saw in our dream comes scurrying along the street next to us! We were complete disbelief and kept saying to eachother “SubhanAllah it’s the ferret! We must be dreaming! Are we dreaming?” In the whole 6 months we’ve been here not ONCE have we seen these creatures in Egypt nor did we have any prior knowledge to their presence in the country. It’s amazing how that strange occurrence was written in our destiny long before that day!

We walked faster along the road trying to keep up with the curious little creature that seemed to have leaped right out of the dream dimension we’d only just left a couple hours before. There he was, in plain sight and then suddenly, we lost him as he ran down into a garage. We were left dazed and laughing to each other hysterically wondering if it had all been a result of lack of sleep. First we couldn’t believe we both dreamt of the same thing, the we couldn’t believe such a random creature found its way into our dreams, and lastly there it was right before our very eyes. SubhanAllah is all I can say.

Later on, internet searches confirmed that what we saw might not have been a ferret after all but it appears the mysterious little guy was an Egyptian Weasel:

“Didn’t expect to find these in Egypt, did you? These are weasels, just like the ones found in North America, Europe, and Asia. They are found all over the world as they can adapt to fit any environment. Weasels will eat anything, and they do devastating damage to the domestic fowls such as chickens and ducks, eating the eggs as well as the small chicks. For many Egyptians, the weasel is a great nuisance. They are often found living in the city, even in the walls of houses like mice, stealing food wherever they can find it.” Source.

I also learned a little about Egyptian foxes. This one’s a Fennec Fox. They are known for their big ears which are sensitive enough to hear large insects, such as beetles and locusts, walk on sand. Their fur repels sunlight during the day and conserves heat at night. The soles of their feet also have a thick layer of fur that serves as protection from the hot sand. I would love to see one of them next:

You can read more about the wildlife of Egypt here.

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On Thursday we went on our second Field trip with Fajr Center and had a blast! There was a group of 16 of us altogether plus a tour guide. We met at 9 AM in front of the school. They had a nice bus waiting out front for us. It had a microphone and speakers so the tour guide could speak to us throughout the drive. We drove through Maadi to pick up students from the Maadi Fajr branch and Sammer and I were reminiscent of the good times we had at that branch (it’s been a month since we were in Maadi…). Once the bus was full of students, we headed to our first stop: Giza and the ancient Pyramids. Entrance into that area costs 50 LE but for the fortunate students who brought student ID with them it’s only 25 (Fajr Center’s $35 USD charge for the whole trip is a flat rate though, no matter if you’re getting student discount or not…). We were each issued a ticket at the gate and if you’re not a pack rat like me who likes to save those kinda things as souvenirs, then remember to hold onto the ticket because you’ll need it later on for seeing other sites like the Sphynx.

You’ll find people from all over the globe at the Pyramids. In our group alone we had Americans, Ukrainians, Azerbaijani, Nigerians, Brits, South Africans, Italians, Asians and Egyptians. The Pyramids were supposed to be tombs right? It’s funny because so many people come to visit them and yet the Pharaohs whom they were built for are not even inside them! They had these ridiculously large monuments built thinking they’d serve as honor, protection, and tribute to themselves, yet what happened in the end? The tombs were raided and robbed, stripped of any value or worth. The bodies which they spent obscene amounts of time mummifying to preserve, ended up being stolen and removed from their tombs. They used millions of the biggest and best blocks of rock and Allah knows how many laborers to build it and yet it still didn’t protect them one bit. When I stood at the foot of the largest of the Giza Pyramids, climbed its blocks and looked up, I was taken back for a moment by it’s massive size. One huge lie - that’s what it symbolized to me. Declaring self divinity, burying wealth and possessions alongside them for the afterlife, claiming right to be venerated in life and after death by these structures. It’s as if the Pyramids themselves, blocks of enormous rocks once placed there mysteriously…meticulously…stacked towards the sun are lies built upon lies, standing to this day to serve as a clear reminder to us all: It may be that a person will elevate them self during their life only to be debased in the end. The only provisions that will last and benefit us in the hereafter will be our Eman and righteous deeds. Men are capable, by the Will of Allah, to design and build amazing structures that we are in awe of. Just imagine then what Allah has designed for His righteous servants in the afterlife…and with Him is all Might and Power.

The largest most ancient idol still standing today is the Sphynx. It’s ghastly with its womanly head and lion-like body. Birds perch themselves on its head, in the crevices of its eyes and ears…probably ‘dropping’ their lunch on it too. My first thought upon seeing it was, Haha, that’s pretty small. But then I remembered the tiny animal figurines I used to collect as a child, the ones I would find in the Red Rose Tea cartons. How tiny and carefully carved they were. Yet one year I informed my mother I wasn’t going to collect them anymore because I wasn’t comfortable with the idea that they were mini statues. Those little figurines -I’d collect them, polish them, display them and save them for years - might have in reality collected sin for me, I feared. I imagined one of the little lion figurines and how it would seem like a speck, barely a pebble, next to the Sphynx. And it scared me to think of how much more sin an idol that size could carry for the ones who built and worshipped it. The Athan sounded and I felt immediate relief. After seeing such large monuments to Shirk and pride your heart finds comfort in the Athan’s vocal assertion that God is indeed Great and there is none worthy of worship besides Him. It is only after cleansing the outer self with water and the inner self through worship, bowing, humbling, and submitting one’s entire self to God alone, that it becomes easier to make sense of the world and its peculiarity.

The Muslims among our group headed off to the restrooms to perform ablution and chuckled at the fact that you have to pay 1 pound to enter the restrooms. How absurd.
It took us a while to walk to the masjid, we walked through the poor Giza town that lies just in view of the Sphynx’s archaic eyes. The streets were lined with horses, camels, and donkeys. Some either carrying loads or were grazing from piles of grass rationed out for them by their owners, others were parked near the walls waiting for the next customers to hop on. I had to lift my clothes from dragging in the puddles on the road that I soon realized were NOT water and were in fact camel urine. After Salah we headed to an age old perfume store just at the entrance to the town still in view of the hideous Sphynx. The owners were the Sha3r Family and, as is customary, they immediately offered us anything we wanted to drink as soon as we entered - we all eagerly accepted! The owner has good ties with Fajr center so we enjoyed an entertaining presentation he put on for us about the history, process, and uses of real non-alcoholic non-oil perfumes. He spoke excellent English has tons of energy, he was a classic Egyptian salesman. Some of his jokes were a bit crude though and I wish he’d have toned it down a little, especially since we had a 10 year old boy in our group. He was also our tour guide for the Papyrus Museum next door which I believe his family also owns. He did an A+ job in there where he told us all about Papyrus, showed us the plant and did the process of making paper from it right before our eyes. We were served drinks yet again and we sipped them as we walked around the store to see beautiful paintings done on Papyrus. Sammer and I decided to buy some blank sheets of Papyrus paper that we plan to paint on to create our own artwork, insha’Allah.

By the time we were done in there it was Asr time already so the Muslims among us headed to another nearby masjid for Salah. The Imam was funny because in addition to the usual advice that they say while the jama3ah is lining up, this guy also said a couple lines about turning off cellphones for prayer, hehe. It was eloquent too because he made it rhyme. I understood it when I heard it yet I wouldn’t be able to recall it well enough to repeat it to you now.

Next was my favorite part of the trip!

The town was so poor that there were no street lights and the locals ride horses, camels and donkeys more than cars. We walked over to the parking lot of camels and horses. Little boys who were meant to be our designated steerers asked us whether we wanted a camel or a horse. I, being the American that I am, thought I can ride a horse any time in America but how often will I get to ride a camel!? So the little boy led me to my camel. The camel he gave me was growling and turned its head to snap at me and the boy next to me several times. I kept asking the boy, “Is he upset? Is he old? Is he mean?” but the little boy kept saying, “No! He’s good camel! It’s OK!” When I sat on the camel and it stood up however I got the exact opposite impression. That thing was a beast! It was extremely upset about having to stand up and didn’t seem cooperative at all like the other camels. It swayed its head on its long neck side to side snapping and growling, showing its huge teeth. I told them in English I didn’t like him, but the boy kept nodding his head reassuringly like it would be OK. So I spoke to him in my best Egyptian slang and told him “LISTEN! I DON’T WANT THIS CAMEL. GIVE ME A HORSE INSTEAD” and finally he took me seriously. I got off the beast..I mean camel and he led me to the sweetest prettiest horse in the lot. She was a beautiful horse named Warda. She was young so she wasn’t overpowering in size but I soon learnt that she packed some powerful strength in those legs! She was very affectionate and liked it when I greeted her and rubbed her forehead. I loved her immediately and not for one second did I regret switching from camel to horse!

We rode through the local town caravan style. The people from our group who rode camels were linked together by a rope and walked in a line at a steady pace. The few of us who took horses had more freedom to go as slow or fast as we wanted and we could choose whether or not we wanted a steerer. Since it was my first time, I kept my steerer, who turned out to be a pleasant young boy named Ahmed who spoke to me about the beauty, power and abilities of horses as I rode. He told me that horses see the road with their hearts and instincts not necessarily with their eyes and that this was a ni3mah bestowed upon them by Allah. When he wanted me to loosen up a little and have fun he’d ask me “you want the horse to do “cha cha cha?” to which I could either reply yes and he’d have Warda run with the wind or I could say “No! My bag will fall!” and he’d chuckle and say, “ok ok”. He didn’t whip the horse once like I saw the other boys doing. Instead whenever he wanted Warda to run, he’d tell her “Chyeeeeeeeeer” (whatever that means) and click his tongue and she was immediately responsive. He ran alongside the horse and me the entire time on foot and when I squealed that my bag was slipping from my shoulder and I wanted to slow down for a bit he needed only to tug once on the side of her reign and she knew to stop running. When we finally reached the desert I was a little more relaxed. After all, if I were to fall, it would only be on sand! Every few minutes or so some Arab men on their steeds would gallop and race and I’d watch in amazement as they rode with such speed, confidence and control past me -leaving me and a cloud of sand in the air left behind by the powerful hooves. There was nothing in view except the desert, the vast beautiful desert and the sky! In the panorama we could see the Pyramids but I could care less for them at that point. I imagined what it would have been like at the time of the Sahabah, on horseback. I imagined Amr ibn al Aas riding in the very same desert on his horse! I remembered my mom telling me “there’s something very therapeutic about riding a horse…” and I finally understood what she meant. Though it hurt a little, there’s something so natural about the movement of the horse underneath you and I felt it extremely easy to remain on the horse without once feeling like I’d fall off. She’d charge forward through the sea of sand rocks and I’d lean forward with her, blocking out everything but the sound of her galloping hooves on the earth. I loved every minute of it.

We finally reached a spot in the desert where we hopped off of our animals and took pictures. Then we watched the beautiful sunset over the desert and the Athan sounded again. This time it was from a bedouin man next to his tent with a fire ablaze, illuminating the night and warming him from the cold. It was incredibly peaceful and beautiful watching him call the Athan out into the desert from beside his little camp. I went to go pet Warda and found her nuzzling muzzles with a big brown steed. She put her head underneath his as if he could protect her and keep her warm. It was so precious! I snapped a picture of it to capture their lovey dovey moment. I remembered the hadith about Allah’s Mercy and that one part was sent down to the creation, proof of which can be seen when a mare lifts her hooves so as not to trample her foal out of mercy and love. Horses are such stunning and intelligent creatures, subhanAllah. After we finished there we mounted our animals again and rode off into the darkening night sky all the way back. The ride back was freezing cold, the temperature sure does drop in the desert at night! I wished I’d worn a sweater and gloves! In fact, my hands were getting so cold and numb that at one point I gave up holding on as I rode. I let Ahmed carry my bag on his shoulder so that I could ride faster and get back to town sooner for relief from the bone-chilling air!

I, along with two others on horseback, arrived back into town first. Since we had a while to wait for the rest of the caravan, I took the time to bond with Warda some more. I talked to her and rubbed her forehead. She closed her eyes as I did and it looked like she was sleeping. Horses can sleep standing up. It was time to say goodbye to her as the rest of our crew arrived. We gathered together to discuss how much to tip the boys, and then went back inside the perfume shop to rest and warm up. By this time I think it was past 7 PM. We were actually supposed to be back at the school by 6 PM but we were all having so much fun and we still had one more stop left so the Fajr chaperones extended the trip for us, heh. We ended our trip by getting back on the bus and heading to the Corniche next to Tahrir. It was here that we boarded a motorized Felucca and rode for an hour on the River Nile in the dark of the night. We gobbled up the bagged dinner they served us (it was the only meal we’d eaten all day), gazed at the lit Cairo skyline, and then shivered the entire time while the chilly wind accompanied us as we sailed. We boarded the bus for the last time and with sleepy minds, sleepy hearts, and sleepy eyes we rested and nodded off until we reached beloved Nasr City again. When we were close to home, the bus let us off and Sammer and I crossed the busy road to catch a taxi to take us to our apartment building, it was way too cold to walk there and we were very very sore from the horeback/camel riding. (Little did we know how much worse we’d be hurting the next day!). Alhamdulillah we made it home at around 10 PM and went straight to bed. It was a wonderful trip and a great experience.

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The weather is beautiful, masha’Allah! Remember that scorching heat I described before? It’s pretty much gone now. Fall weather is slowly coming in with windy days and very cool nights. Though the sun is still shining all day it’s less harsh. Here’s a pic I took of the beautiful morning sun shining through the bedroom window…

Thursday night we rolled our clocks back one hour, so we hear the Maghrib athan at 6:00 PM now. Or should I say 18:00? I’ve been practicing time on 24 hour clocks since that is what is universally used. As an American I feel ashamed to have never been taught 24 hour time. Growing up we always referred to it as “Army Time” or “Military Time” because only the military uses it. Later on in life after traveling quite a bit I came to know that the entire world uses 24 hour clocks apart from us! For anyone still unfamiliar with it, here’s an example of a 24 hour clock:

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With Ramadan just a few days away these decorative lanterns are being hung all around the city. You can purchase them from a vendor on the side of the road. At first sight during daylight hours I thought they were tacky, but at night my opinion of them changed…they’re actually really pretty.

I’ve been told that during Ramadan people can be seen carrying Qurans with them out and about. Even on the micro buses and metros people sit and read Quran. On Friday I saw shop keepers, guards, and random people reading from the Quran (most likely Surat al-Kahf) and I was deeply impressed even with that.

We’re still living in Madinat Nasr and we won’t be able to move into our new house for another 10 days, insha’Allah. We’re not complaining at all though, it’s been great staying here we’ll miss it. Our plan is to go to a different masjid each night for Taraweeh for the first week of Ramadan. If anyone has any suggestions of where to go please leave a comment and let me know.

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