No Quiet on the Eastern Front

Day 44 July 4 – No Quiet on the Eastern Front


Once again, Dr. Elghobashy’s son got kicked out of his bed, and was relegated to the couch. After sleeping till about 1:30 I got up and had breakfast. I didn’t have any plans so until about 5pm I just sat around and watched TV. At 5pm I just wanted to get out so I took a short walk over to the mango juice stand. For 50 cents I can get a tall glass of fresh squeezed mango juice, delicious. I can never only have just one glass.
My next expedition was a walk up the main street near the Elghobashy house. I walked about two miles up the street until it turned into a housing area, no shops or people working. While it is fun to go out and see the town there is one thing that drives me crazy, the noise. It is outrageously loud in the city, the cars and music become very frustrating.
When people in Egypt get married, instead of dragging cans or painting “just married,” they just lay on the car horn. It is also tradition for all the wedding guests to follow behind and do the same thing, sometimes with illegal sirens. While this is annoying by itself there are other factors that make it even worse.
Cairo is a very old city, the population has increased so dramatically while the size is limited by the surrounding environment. Because of these influences Cairo has built up, not outwards. The vast majority of the buildings in Cairo are multiple stories; the Elghobashy family lives on the fifth of six floors.
So when I walk on the streets of Cairo (no sidewalks) I am surrounded by tall stone buildings on all sides. These tall building amplify the noise, and the blaring car horns seem to make my brain rattle. People are constantly honking, there is usually only a second or two break between a blast of the horn. When walking along with a wedding procession the blaring horns are nonstop, literally. The deafening noise really gets annoying quickly; I was sorely tempted to profanely tell them to stop with the honking. I have to disagree with Simon and Garfunkel, the sound of silence isn’t so bad.
At night, around 9:30, I left with Dr. Elghobashy’s son to go see a movie. Two mico bus rides later we got to the mall. Once again I was very impressed by the largest mall in Egypt. I was disappointed that Batman and Wanted were not at the theaters, but I settled for What Happens in Vegas.

I miss 4th of July, one of my favorite American holidays.

Goodbye Fayoum

Day 43 July 3 – Goodbye Fayoum

Sorry batteries on camera are dead, can’t find more. No pictures for a few days.

Well I found out last night that today was going to be my final day in Fayoum. Today the adviser picked me up and drove me to the same farm as yesterday. Again we did the rounds; looking at the ponds and adjusting food levels based on the responses of the fish. I got even more practice checking the farms by sight, and recognizing other “symptoms” of a pond.
After a few hours of walking around in the sun we took a break in a building for tea and lunch. I refused tea today because the last thing I wanted was a boiling hot drink, I was dreaming of Eegee’s. Turning down the tea made everyone concerned, I had to convince them that I felt fine and that I wasn’t sick. The lunch consisted of, you guessed it, fish. The way they cooked the fish was about as simple as it gets, just chuck it in the fire. They made a small fire and just laid the fish right down of the wood, ash, and embers. Five to ten minutes later they grab them out and plop them down on the table. Obviously, you don’t eat the skin; all burnt and nasty looking. But once you peel back the skin the fish tasted fine. Not good, fine.
I finally figured out why I have been feeling so awful whenever we drive in Egypt. I have never gotten motion sickness, or carsickness in my life; but I always feel terrible when we drive here. I realized that it is the combination of noise, THICK air pollution, driving style, and the roads. The noise is ridiculous, everyone is honking their horn, it drives me crazy. The air pollution is a major problem inside Cairo, I can feel it in my lungs whenever I’m there. The way the drivers are constantly swerving, accelerating and decelerating also contributes to the problem. The roads are so bumpy and uneven that you are constantly bounced into the air. It is necessary for me to sit in the middle seat, otherwise I constantly smash my head into the roof of the car. These things all put together make me carsick nearly every time we drive. I have been able to keep it down but I still feel awful.
After lunch we drove back to Cairo and I moved back in with the Elghobashies. I was happy to sit around for the rest of the day, update the blog, and catch up.

Nothin

Day 42 July 2 – Nothin

Well today both of the men I have been working with are busy so I stayed in the hotel all day. I went swimming and read my book, that’s it. There is nowhere to go do touristy stuff so I laid around all day. At least I had a good dinner again.

Keel Haul

Day 41 July 2 – Keel Haul

Today I went to a new farm with a different adviser. This farm was also on that giant bird reservation. The Egyptian version of SpeedRacer was our driver to the farm. The drive there is beautiful, some of the most amazing sand dunes I have ever seen. The colors are so uniform that is impossible to see any detail, I couldn’t tell if what I was looking at was near hill or a far mountain.
As we were walking around the farm I noticed lots of little frogs, then lots and lots of little frogs. Looking down into the nearest pond I realized there was an infestation of inch long frogs. I was very surprised to see them in the water; I assumed to fish would eat them. I took this assumption from an experience I had at the family farm in New York. I was playing with a little frog then, taking it out further and further down the dock and watching it swim back to shore. Until one time I took it too far and a big fish swallowed my little friend. The adviser assured me the fish would not eat them because Tilapia are not carnivores. I would disagree because they eat mosquitoes and mosquitoes larvae. He said the frogs are a problem because they eat the fish food, but they also disappear three week after the pond is filled. I believe the fish grow large enough to eat the second generation of frogs, but the adviser does not think so.
I was also told that the color of the water is important as an indicator of water quality. If the water is dark green it indicates an abundance of phytoplankton; if brownish-yellow, zooplankton. Having zooplankton is better but both are necessary. The concentration of plankton can be influenced by introducing fermented chicken manure to the pond (yummy).
Once again I decided to take my afternoon swim, today I went out much later than yesterday. I finished my swim about 30 minutes before sunset but decided to stay in and watch it. After a beautiful sunset I swam back to the rocky shore. Normally I can easily step over the submerged wall which is used as a wave break. When the sun goes down the wind really picks up. This caused the water level to rise on my side of the lake, making it necessary to crawl over the wall. The waves caused by the wind made this treacherous and now my hands, feet, and stomach are covered in cuts from the barnacles.
For some reason my room is infested with tiny little ants, they are in everything. They crawl into this laptop’s keyboard, into my socks, my shirts, even into my hat. We can add those ants to the list of things in Egypt that drive me crazy; flies, mosquitoes, and ants.
For some random reason all the restaurants were closed tonight. Therefore my dinner consisted of a 7up, two HoHos, and a bag of chips. Because there is nothing to do here I end up reading a lot. In the three days I have been here I’ve read I Robot, Foundation, and Siddhartha.

Have you ever read a book you liked so much that other books you read seem unimpressive by comparison? Like having your first car be a Ferrari then being stuck with a Corolla the rest of your life.