Catfish

Day 19 June 9 – Catfish

Today Dr. Ishmail and Mohamed went to Cairo before I woke up. I woke up a little late so my first meal was lunch. We talked yesterday about how everything tastes better grilled so Dr. Ishmail said we should have grilled catfish for lunch. So at noon we headed up to the roof to cook, they use a metal box on top of the tile roof. After about 5 minutes the fire went out on the coal/wood so they used a gallon jug to pour lighter fluid onto the hot embers... Well as you are probably now envisioning the jug caught on fire in his hand. Being on the roof it is not like he can just drop it and wait for it to burn itself out. So with the burning jug of lighter fluid in his hand he decides to throw it off the third story roof into the drive way. The ensuing explosion was pretty damn cool; the dogs, cats, and people in the driveway were less enthusiastic. I attempted to stomp out the square meter of burning spilled lighter fluid left of the roof. After the first stomp I, quickly and painfully, realized the rubber flip-flops I was wearing were inadequate to fight the flames. I decided to let nature take its course; luckily the house didn’t burn down.
After the cooking excitement I was pleasantly surprised to find how delicious the fish was. It wasn’t BBQ ribs but it was still pretty good. Tomorrow should be an exciting day; we will be moving fingerling and selling fry.

Night Life

Day 18 June 8 – Night Life

Today I did the whole operation of cutting off the catfish’s head, remove the gonads, and remove the pituitary glad myself. It was not pretty, there was blood everywhere, but everything else went fine. Then I gave the heads of the catfish to the dogs and cats; the rest of the body will be tomorrow’s lunch.

Then I got to play with the biggest catfish I have ever seen. They lowered the water of the concrete tank so we could have a chance of catching it. I would guess the thing weighed about 17 pounds and three feet long. The worker held up 4 fingers which I took to mean he was four years old. With a little training I was able to hold the fish still for a picture.

For the first time Dr. Ishmail, Mohamed, and I went into the city of Ca-Fra- Shay. Dr. Ishmail had to go for a meeting so Mohamed and I took a little tour. Before we separated we stopped for Pizza. I got a delicious seafood pizza with shrimp and calamari. We sat outside and were worried that it was about to start raining at any moment but all we got was a few drops.

So I noticed a few cultural differences while watching the people in the city. First, guys holding hands. I saw many teens and adults either holding hands or hooking arms. Now if you were to do this back home you would get some strange looks. Another thing that would get some strange looks is the way men kiss cheeks.

I think there is a major difference between the way American drive and the way Egyptians drive. Americans are just always in a hurry. Here in Egypt it is perfectly fine to walk in the road, in front of cars. It is fine to pull out in front of someone so they have to brake hard to keep from hitting you. If you come close to hitting someone you just kinda wave and nobody minds. In the US if you pull out and make somebody slow down you will probably get the finger.

Pillars

Day 17 June 7 – Pillars

During lunch I asked Mohamed about the five pillars of Islam. They are like the five requirements to get on god’s good side.
Alms for the poor. I think this is the source of Baksheesh. It is required for each Muslim to give poor people money. Mohamed said that people should give 2.5 percent of their yearly salary to the poor
Pray five times a day. I have seen this performed without fail. They take this very seriously, everybody prays, every time. Young kids are allowed to go to the mosque to learn how to pray correctly. Once the children turn ten years old their parents must force them to pray.
Pilgrimage to Mecca. Every Muslim who can afford and manage it must take a pilgrimage to the site of Mecca. Mecca is the site of a religious event, sorry I can’t remember what is was. I think it had something to do with Abraham and the building of a church? To fulfill the requirement the person much go during a certain time of the year, there is a special festival. The site of Mecca is in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
Admit in the Oneness of Allah. Muslims often repeat "There is none worthy of worship except God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God." This pillar of Islam is admitting that Allah is the only god and Mohammed is his prophet. (Shia don’t meet this requirement because they don’t recognize Mohammed as the prophet, this is like a group of Christians not recognizing Jesus.)
Fast during the month of Ramadan. Each Muslim must not eat while the sun is up during Ramadan. “Those who are sick, elderly, or on a journey, and women who are menstruating, pregnant or nursing, are permitted to break the fast and make up an equal number of days later in the year if they are healthy and able.” (Islam101.com)













I also found that after a pond is emptied and the fish are removed they do something special in the pond. While the pond is empty they bring in a tractor to clean out the ditch. Then compost is dumped into the bottom of the pond. Then when the pond is filled with water the compost will jumpstart the growth of algae. They also allow the water to remain stagnant for about a week to allow mosquitoes to lay their eggs in the pond. The mosquito eggs and algae work as free natural food for the fish in the pond.


This is a translation of the call to prayer they announce over loud speakers five times a day.

God is Great.
God is Great.
God is Great.
God is Great.
I testify that there is none worthy of worship except God.
I testify that there is none worthy of worship except God.
I testify that Muhammad is the messenger of God.
I testify that Muhammad is the messenger of God.
Come to prayer!
Come to prayer!
Come to success!
Come to success!
God is Great!
God is Great!
There is none worthy of worship except God.

Egyptians just distrust Jews on principal.
In Saudi Arabia gas is 70 cents a gallon

Home Alone

Day 16 June 6 – Home Alone

Well normally somebody comes and knocks on my door at 8AM to tell me breakfast is ready, I don’t have an alarm. Well today nobody did and I was in bed until 11:20, oops. I totally forgot that both Dr. Ishmail and Dr. Mohamed were going to be gone today. Well I took a tour of the farm by myself, checked on my baby fry in the jar and looked around the farm. On the way I came across some donkey and cow herders who stopped so their stock could drink from the ponds. I stopped and looked at the baby donkey and the guy came up and said Salam. So I responded “Salam, Hi” he said something which of course I didn’t understand so I said “sorry I don’t understand.” Now I assumed by answering in a foreign language and looking confused the guy would stop talking; I was wrong, very wrong. The guy just kept talking, whenever he would stop I would repeat “Sorry I don’t speak Arabic”, “Sorry, I only speak English”, or “I don’t understand”. He just kept talking, I felt weird just walking away while he was talking to me so I just kind of stood there nodding along. Well eventually he ran out of steam and I wandered off….
The workers at the catfish farm invited me over for catfish dinner at 8PM. While this seems like a simple message to pass along, the language barrier is like a burning river of napalm. Using hand signals and pointing is not a good way to pass that barrier…
Well I showed up at 8 and found everyone in a small room. The room had two beds, a propane tank, satellite tv, 100 spiders, and a rug. We all sat on the rug and had a good meal of catfish with rice and tomatoes. Everyone was very nice and I even had a translator, a good time was had by all. As we finished eating and prepared for tea, the sun went under the horizon. I guess that was the signal for the mosquito D-Day, it was like somebody flipped a switch and the bugs were everywhere. I was killing them non-stop, I couldn’t stop long enough to drink my tea. Well at that very moment I was ready to go back home and avoid the carnage. Well before I could get a ride back everyone had to pray, a very interesting procedure that takes about 7 minutes. A game of pool later I went to sleep.

Fly swatters are wonderful

Suni vs Shia

Day 15 June 5 – Suni vs Shia

Well I guess I’ll go in chronological order..

I got up at 8am this morning to go and see the big event for the day, moving eggs and fry. It was very much like what I had already done at Desert Springs Tilapia. Lower the water the brood stock are in, catch them in net, separate males and females, and then catch the fry and eggs.
Then we moved the eggs into what looked like a large lemonade jar. The jar is tilted and a water line was put into the jar. This causes the eggs to continually be circulated by the water. The inflowing water continually overflows, but the unhatched eggs do not overflow. The point of putting the eggs in this jar is to separate the hatched eggs and the unhatched eggs. This works because the little fish swim out of the jar while the eggs stay inside.
Then while sitting around watching CNN I asked what the difference between Suni and Shia was. Mohamed told me that Suni are a type of Muslims, a branch, that are more strict than normal Muslims. He said that Shia are also a branch of Muslims but he thought (passionately) that they were wrong. He said Shia do not think The Prophet Mohammad was supposed to be the one god talked to, they think Ali (pronounced ally) should be in that position. Shia do not think Mohammad is the prophet which Is a major point of conflict between them and normal Muslims. Shia think god accidentally sent the message to Mohammed because he was sleeping in Ali’s bed (I think). In Iraq Saddam kept the Shia majority in check with an iron grip, with him gone they are trying to take power. The Shia would then implement their extremely strict version of Islamic law.
I am always amazed when I realize how similar all of the major world religions are. This is the way I see it, and keep in mind I’m no religious expert, feel free to correct me. Jews believe in the Old Testament, Christians Believe in the Old Testament and the New Testament, Muslims believe in the Old Testament, New Testament, and the Koran. The Koran just tells them that Mohammad was the last prophet. The only other differences I can see is the majority of Muslims make their religion a much larger part of their lives and a few other things. For example the women cover their hair and necks, and dress conservatively. Some people see this as oppression of women, which from an outsiders perspective is understandable. Think of it this way, Jewish men wear their little head cover (sorry I forgot the name is it Yamaka?), Muslim women just wear something else to show their devotion. You wouldn’t say Jewish men are oppressed because they wear theirs, why would you saw Muslim women are? (I have never seen anyone forced to wear one, or punished for not wearing one.) Suni and Shia would be much more likely to force women to wear veils than normal Muslims.