To be honest I realize why the scientists here are not paid the big bucks, they really don’t seem to work that hard. They seem to do a little work then go sit in the office and drink tea and Turkish coffee for hours. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all for sitting around and chit chatting, but nothing seems to be getting done. They are at work from around 8:30 am to 2:00 pm. They take at least 40 minutes for the prayer and prayer preparation, they pray twice during the working hours. Another 50 minutes is spent eating lunch and walking to the cafeteria. This leaves a four hour work day, and it is wishful in the extreme to imagine they work those whole four hours.
After a while I headed off to see a new lab, a branch of the genetics department. I was given a quick explanation of a method in which a geneticist can change something inside the egg. They can change fish into ha-bloids or tetra-bloids. To be honest I was pretty much as confused as your probably are right now. I asked “What is the benefit of having a tetra-bloid?” the response was “Yes, Yes, very good.” Here is that language barrier again. I didn’t stay long because I was so confused I wasn’t learning anything. But he did mention that he had an easier way to make YY SuperMales. Three scientist then gathered around me and each tried to draw their own diagram (at the same time) to try and explain how they would do it. I saved the paper because I thought it was funny because it was so confusing.
Well just before I was going to start walking home my friend Ahmed asked me if I wanted to come to Zagazig with him. I hesitantly agreed and drove to Abassa to get some stuff to spend the night. It turns out Zagazig is the third most populous city in Egypt, according to Ahmed. He says the city has over three million citizens and it sure was crowded. Now I have been to the three most populous cities; Cairo, Alexandria, and Zagazig. We then drove the half hour to Ahmed’s home; there I met his niece and sister. Ahmed is twenty five, his first sister is twenty; they live at home with their oldest sister, her daughter, and the grandparents. The whole three hours I was there I never saw the oldest sister or the grandparents, but they were home. I was purposely separated from them, no idea why. We had lunch there and talked about many things including the Iraq war and Israel.
After sunset I left with Ahmed to meet with some of the other scientists from CLAR for a night on the town. We drove around and saw some of the sights, then parked to walk around. After a short walk we stopped to get some fries, unfortunately it took them 30 minutes to cook fries. While we were waiting somebody, a young teenage girl, got hit by a car. It was not very serious but she was defiantly crying, her friends helped carry her away. I knew it was going to happen, it was only a matter of time, somebody was going to get hit.
After a few more hours of wandering and looking around we headed back to Ahmed’s aunts old house. The house was empty but I was ready to go to sleep. Unfortunately there was no AC and no fans. It wasn’t as hot as Tucson is right now, heat wave; sucks for you. Well I got into my shorts and just lay in bed, miserable and sweating just sitting there. Well I used Uncle Chris’s excellent method of laying a wet towel over yourself; once again Penny’s bandana was invaluable. Early the next morning we took the bus from Zagazig straight to CLAR.
During the conversation with Ahmed, and his sister we talked about how Muslims are treated in the US. I was surprised to discover that they thought Americans completely ostracize Muslims. I admitted at right after 9/11 that was true, but I don’t think that is still is. I can only speak form my experience but I have never, with my own eyes or ears, seen a Muslim being mistreated because of their religion or dress. I explained that I knew of three Muslims in my high school. Ahmed asked if I became friends with any of those three and I said no. He took this as proof that Americans ostracize Muslims. I unhappily defended myself by explaining that there were three thousand people at my school and I wasn’t friends with the vast majority of them. I also pointed out that if I feared Muslims I wouldn’t come to a Muslim country alone for two months. They remain unconvinced.
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