Thursday, June 19, 2008

Tourist

Day 23 June 13 – Tourist

Most of the places I’ve been over the last two weeks were very un-touristy. But back in Cairo it is a whole different story. Shop keepers yell at you to get your attention, little kids ask your name, where you’re from, then tell you to give them money. The most annoying is the taxi drivers, as I’m walking along they slow down beside me and lay on their horn until I look at them. The one that really pushed me over the edge was a guy who comes up stops right in front of me so I have to stop. Then reaches down grabs my hand, shakes it, and doesn’t let go. Now I’m already not liking this person and when after I try to pull my hand away, twice he continues to hold my hand tighter. So, angrily, I shove him away and tell him to do something very profane to himself.
Well after that episode I walked around the markets for a few hours seeing the people and what they are selling. I was surprised to see that the majority of street vendors sell car stuff. Like aftermarket horns, probably because they overuse the ones they have. I couldn’t believe the amount of car stuff they were selling, anyone need new windshield wipers or sparkplugs?
Well after about four hours of wandering around, and failing to find the movie theater I was looking for, I headed home.

My favorite tourist moment was when some kid about 12 years old starts walking with me. He starts chit-chatting, he was too friendly; my spider/tourist sense was tingling. As I expected he says, oh look here is my family bazaar please my friend come in, come in. Well I was already shopping so why not. I go in to find tourist stuff, little statues, little pyramids, papyrus pictures. Well let me describe the store owner, anything I looked at got a full description, I was the center of his world. So after about 5 minutes of him telling me how good of a deal I was getting I said, ”No thanks, have a nice day.” He looked utterly crestfallen; he looked like Cesar would have as he muttered “Et Tu Brutus?” As I left I heard him quietly, sadly ask, “what happened my friend?” I thought that was a classic tourist moment.


Some Egyptians have aftermarket hors that mimic police sirens, that would get you thrown in prison so fast back home.

I think every Egyptian merchant has learned how to say “hello my friend. British? American? Australian? Come see my Bazar?”

Sorry no pictures today

Going to the Pyramids tomorrow, Boom Shakalaka!

If They Say It Can’t Be Done, Do It



Day 22 June 12 – If They Say It Can’t Be Done, Do It

Today was my last day at Cafrashey, I was sad to go and say goodbye to Dr. Ishmail. I got up relatively early and watched another fingerling sale; that is the third time this week. Dr. Ishmail was feeling sick today so he stayed in his room most of the day. Ahmed ran the show again today because Dr. Mohamed was gone and Dr. Ishmail incapacitated.
After the fingerling sale, during a break, I played football (soccer) with the workers. I’m in good enough shape to keep up easily but I havn’t played in years are I was awful. I made one goal while allowing about 5 or 6. Also, Egpyt is, as you can imagine, pretty damn hot. I was drenched and nasty after the ten minute game.
The next order of business was harvesting an old brood stock. Mothers and fathers are used three times then given a year break. Once they can no longer produce, like these fish, they are sold for food. These were big fish, each full adult size. The fish are harvested from a very muddy pit, this was the first time I decided to “just watch.” I was leaving soon and didn’t feel like doing all the work to get clean, cleaning really is a process when nobody has outdoor hoses.
Well the time had finally come for my thank you lunch of steak and soda. I quickly found that this was not going to be as easy as I thought. No coal, cook was not informed and used some of the meat, timing was bad. Well after about 30 minutes I recognized that all of these problems were in people’s heads. All I had to do to make it happen was, as Nike said, “Just Do It.”
With a little help from Dr. Ishmail, who made a brief balcony visit, I cooked everything. Everything went great and I think the workers appreciated it. I said thank you to Dr. Ishmail but was sorry that Dr. Mohamed was no there for me to thank also.
Then I took the ride into Cairo to go back to the home of Dr. Elghobashy and family. Once there I spent the last few hours of the day taking full advantage of the Elghobahys’ all you can eat high speed internet.

Motorcycle Diaries

Day 21 June 11 – Motorcycle Diaries


So I have been living out of my backpack for the last 12 days, I left my suitcase at Abassa. I brought clothes, books, and some accessories with me. The books I brought in my backpack were The Sun Also Rises, Riding With the Blue Moth, and Heart of Darkness. I started Heart of Darkness, quickly got bored with it, then read the first ten pages of The Sun Also Rises and they sucked. So then I read Riding With the Blue Moth, which was amazing, and now I,m bored because the only other two books I have are awful. I know, someone is reading this saying, well you only read the beginning of those classic books, they will get better. Well no, if a book sucks in the beginning I will assume It’s going to suck in the end. All of my favorite books are good from page 1; that is one aspect of what makes them such good books.

So today was another day when I wake up and find the house empty. It turns out that Dr. Ishmail left really early in the morning to drive over the Suez Canal to Sinai with a load of fingerlings. Because Dr. Ishmail was gone until the afternoon, I worked with the third in charge, Ahmed Faruqe. We did lots of everyday work, feeding fish and checking on the other workers’ progress. Then I helped him do his English homework, I am always amazed how driven people are to learn English. Helping someone learn English makes me realize how bad my own English is. Cuz and K (because and ok) are not real words, at least by Scrabble rules.

When Dr. Ishmail came back he reminded me that I was leaving tomorrow! I have not been keeping track of what day it is very well, the plans are made around me but I’m usually lost. Well I had mentioned before that I wanted to do a BBQ for Dr. Ishmail and the workers to show my thanks. So I talked to Ahmed about it and he offered to drive me into the nearest town to get the supplies. I agreed and we got onto the motorcycle just after dark.

On a side note: Some of the workers own their own motorcycles at the farm. They are used to both drive to work and to shuttle between the two farms, which are 1/3 mile apart. I have often ridden on the back of the motorcycles between the two farms. The motorcycles are usually 150cc bikes with a top speed of about 60mph.

Well I’m just going to apologize to my mother now because she will not like this next part at all. So we head off, or course without helmets because this is Egypt. Sunset is the time mosquitoes come out, mosquitoes are attracted to light, so we ride without the lights on…. Now remember Egypt is a third world country, they don’t have nice roads, but they do have random speed bumps. So we are driving 50mph down a dark and broken road without helmets or headlights. I have having more fun than I can describe because what I was doing was so wonderfully ridiculous. Well the ride was lots of fun and we quickly arrived in a small city named El Hamol.

I quickly realized El Hamol was not a tourist destination by the amazed stares of little kids and adults alike. This is not the first time I have been the target of stares because I’m white but it always surprises me. Well Ahmed showed me around town and we got soda, steak, and spices. The steak defiantly wasn’t USDA triple A choice prime rib, but I am pretty sure it came from a cow…

The ride back was lots of fun, I really want a motorcycle. Sorry Mom. At least I said no when he offered to let me drive…

Moving Day





Day 20 June 10 - Moving Day

Today’s main event was the selling of fingerlings to a neighboring farm. Many of the local fish farms are much less advanced than Dr. Ishamil’s. They do not have the know-how or facilities to keep a brood stock, collect eggs, hatch them, feed them, and make them all male. For many of the other farmers it is easier to just buy inch, to two inch long fish. Dr. Ishmail makes even more money at the end of winter when he is able to sell babies when most of the other farmers cannot get their fish to reproduce because of the cold.
It is a pretty simple process but it was done so quickly and efficiently I was very impressed. It was obvious Dr. Ishmail already had this process planned when he had the farm built because the holding area was the perfect size and in the perfect location. In the fresh (unused salty water) canal there are concrete barriers the size of nets.
The first step is to catch all the fingerlings out of the green house tanks. The greenhouses are the trick that lets his fish reproduce in the winter. Unlike the harvest, the workers must be careful not to damage the fish. The fish are then placed into nets stretched over the special canal, this acts as a holding tank for the fish.
Next, Dr. Ishmail personally comes over and counts the number of fish in one scoop of the net. Dr. Ishmail feels it is his personal responsibility to ensure that the correct number of fingerlings are sold.
Next a person fills a four foot long by one foot diameter plastic bag with about 2 gallons of water. This bag is then held open for Dr. Ishmail who puts one scoop full, about 330 fish, inside.
It is then passed down the line to a person who inflates the bag from a tank of pure oxygen. This allows the fish to travel much longer distances than if they were simply filled with air. The bags are then stood up in the back of a pickup truck. What is amazing about this procedure is the speed with which it is done. Each bag can be filled, populated, oxygenated, and stacked in about twelve seconds.
The rest of the day was fun, I sat around watching CNN until I found a great movie. AIR FORCE ONE!!! I have been stuck watching CNN and Aljazeera, while entertaining they are both depressing. They make you think that the world is either going to melt, the stock market is going to crash, or world war will break out at any moment. So Air Force One was a wonderfully welcome respite from sensationalist news. My favorite line is “I would turn my back on god himself for Mother Russia!” With the combination of overly done fake Russian accent and the super dramatic music makes it a classic.