Egyptian Adventure #4

Greetings from Cairo:

A really great day today. We had a lazy morning because we all got up feeling like that was what we wanted. At 12.30 we started our happy day. First we went shopping for Soha to exchange her birthday present and then to the Supermarket to take care of some photos. Parking is quite an art. You pay someone to help you park and you have to wait in line for a spot to open. At $12 a gallon for gas, waiting in line is hot and frustrating.  Then we went to lunch at the Yacht club.

Several of our old Friendship Force friends who visited us in Oregon joined us for the meal. Hanna, Hoda, Hedayet, and Soha were joined by Hedayet's daughter and husband. All were so pleased to see us and a new member bought us each a gift. The food was really good and, as we have found before, Cairo has the most wonderful fresh vegetables, which were served with pita bread and a lot of dips like tahini, yogurt with cucumbers, and totally yummy stuff we did not know. We drank lemonade with mint which I will copy when I get home -- it was good.

After the meal we took a taxi to some pace where Soha was invited to attend the opening of a new patisserie. It was a very upscale place and there were many people, the press, and movie stars present. I got hit on very hard by some rich-looking Egyptian Lothario. He asked if I had a husband and I pointed out Ron..He suggested I should get a younger husband. Ron just shook his head. Soha and I concluded that it had to be the blonde hair; she thinks Egyptian men go nuts over blonde hair. I suppose that at my age it is a bit of fun to be noticed in a crowd, and mistaken for a blonde! The shop owner made a point of telling us his resume -- he is justifiably proud of the product he has put together. I only tried a few things, but they were outstanding.

There was no new trouble in the revolution today. We drove through Tahrir Square on the way home. There were lots of people around, but all was peaceful. The BBC on-the-spot reporter told that the people who started the problem were actually army people in Mufti. This point of view fit with the fact that the barracks did not respond to the melee for way too long and until long after people had been killed. The army does not want the election to succeed and so take away their power. The people are very upset because the tourists are staying away in droves and the poor are suffering.They want a stable government.

On the way home we went to Street 9, which is a place where the poor and middle class stroll in the evenings. We stopped the car, parked illegally, and Soha sent a man to buy us fresh-squeezed sugar cane juice. I was not so pleased to try it, but it was ice cold and surprisingly delicious.

I am falling asleep at the key board AND SO TO BED
Hugs, Noreen