the city of the dead

The city of the dead stands for the vast graveyards stretching over big parts of central Cairo.


For many Cairenes it is a place of mystery and often misery, a creepy part of the city you don't go in unless you have a good reason.



To Western eyes, who are used to graveyards that are open spaces, grassy with not more than grave markers, flowers and trees, the city of the dead looks quite unusual. Traditionally, Egyptians used to bury their family members in small houses the size of one room, sometimes with a flat roof, so they can live in them during the times of mourning. Don't get the understanding of an actual house with toilet, more simply just 4 walls. This leads to the city or slums like look of the cemetery, and it becomes understandable, why people would find it creepy. There is a whole city laying in front of you, but it's inhabited by the dead.



Almost. Due to the increasingly more difficult and complicated housing situation, population growth and urbanisation, more and more families started moving into the graves. Today it's estimated that over 5 million people live in the city of the dead. When walking around in the cemetery you can find laundry drying out on strings between the gravestones and kids playing everywhere.



I went there yesterday. It was not dangerous, just very impressive. It is huge and I can well imagine that it would be easy to get completely lost in there. Everywhere you can see the small domes of Mausoleums of people who had the money to build more than just a few walls around a grave sticking out. (And between them you find a pile of garbage.)



However you can also see many free standing graves, interestingly in all colours, which makes you think you must be somewhere in south America. (But I decided to shoot a black and white series. I haven't done that in a while and I really like it.)



The city of the dead also turned out to be a place full of small surprises and wonders. The next picture is an example. The drawing on the wall is something showing the Kaaba in Mekka and Muslims circling it. It's a typical thing to draw on your wall to show that you did the pilgrimage. But usually it's on the houses of the living. But here it's on the house of a dead person that hosts a living who did the pilgrimage...



After a while, we came to a mosque. It was quite and happened to be the one on the one-pound bill. We went in and discovered a little wonder. The mosque was beautiful in every detail. A man (Mohamed) walked up to us and gave us one of the best tours I every received in my tourist live. He showed us the small masterpieces and their meaning, he showed us the attached dome and took us all the way up to the highest level of the minaret (which you need to climb and crawl up to and outside have barley one food to stand on and a fence barely higher than your knee...) From there we enjoyed an astonishing view over the city of the dead, the Citadel and even the pyramids.





We walked out of the mosque and per total coincidence found the glass maker that makes the glass that is sold out on the touristic markets (and that we bought in the beginning, but broke a lot of it, and where therefore looking to replace many cups and get new bowls etc :-) )
It was this kind of shop, where the glass is freshly produced in the back of the store, hand blown. A 2 man shop. One blows, one sells. Inside temperature about 40 degrees or more. We bought a completely new kitchen... :-D



After these beautiful and astonishing hours out in the sun, with climbing up and down a minarette, wearing long pants, long sleeves and a head scarve, during Ramadan, with not one drop of water since 4 in the morning, I felt as thirsty as I never felt in my live. All my thoughts started circling around water, it's sound, it's look, it's taste. I experienced real thirst. We grabed our glass, said goodbye to the city of the dead and went home with dry mouths.

Ramadan Word #6 Travelling

If you travel more then 84 kilometers, you are not obligated to fast.

Somehow I have the feeling, that this gives people a nice little excuse not to fast, because something tells me that this rule was made at times when people still travelled on horses and camels.

Is it justified being excused of fasting because you spend two hours in a car? Maybe if you say that the hunger can affect your ability to stay focused, and therefore you should not fast out of security reasons, it makes sense.
But then, is that applicable in a society where a huge part of automobile users don't turn on their headlights even at night, and where you find yourself being laughed at if you dare putting on the seat belt when sitting in the back seat?

I for my part did use the excuse when I travelled to Alexandria yesterday, and I must say, I enjoyed my breakfast in the morning very much. :-)
But now I'm back on track and all strict with myself.

Ramadan Word #5 Make up

Ramadan is the moth you truly honor God and therefore also his work: the human body.

In Islam, you should not wear make up, or perfumes. Deodorant is fine, apperantly. And since people take things a bit more sincere in Ramadan, this is the time not to wear it.
I go for that. I like it. So I totally integrate it in my Ramadan-Experience.
Imagine how much that speeds up everything: I get up in the morning, have a shower, put on clothes, brush my teeth and that's it. 10 minutes max. :-)
(Or maybe, it's rather the part of not having my super nice chopped fruit - muesly and tee in the morning that speeds things up...)

Ramadan Word #4 Kirsch

Kirsch is one of the side effects of Ramadan. It means "belly" or in German, a bit more accurate "Ranzen".

You should think that fasting for 12 hours everyday should make you loose weight. Not so for many people.

Why? People are extremely hungry in the evening when the can break the fast and therefore tend to eat too much. The fact that you usually get invited or invite others yourself, facilitates that process, since everyone wants to cook something delicious and if possible many different dishes.

Then night falls, and you go to sleep. It's commonly known that having a huge meal before you go to sleep is not the healthiest thing to do on earth.

In the middle of the night you get up and before you even feel hungry at 3 or 4 am you have again as big of a meal as possible, to stuff up for the day to come.

That's the deal. Loosing weight in Ramadan is a dream that only comes true for a few. Many find themselves actually growing a "Kirsch". Let's see how it will happen for me...

chilling the weekend away

It feels like it has been quite some time since I last had time to just hang out and chill with almost nothing specific to do for the whole weekend. But the past 2 days I made up for it!

Here is what I have been up to

- Having Iftar at Tom's house, awesome Thai food, hanging out with other foreigners, having interesting conversations
- Suhur in the middle of the night at Purvy's house, amazing beans, watching and commenting CSI
- Sleeping until 1 in the afternoon
- Reading! (Democratic Values in the Muslim World) (I never find time to read, so when I do, I have to appreciate the preciousness of these moments...)
- Cleaning the house
- Smashing a bottle of olive oil
- Sheesha
- Cooking with Annika and having friends over for Iftar
- Getting surprised with ready home cooked Iftar by a good friend who brought the food to my house (My only job was to prepare milk and dates)
- Having a long and good conversation with my dear flatmate and boss Annika.
- Watching 6 episodes of Sex in the City, with Annika.
- Making a healthy Suhur with Annika (to eat during Sex and the City) with homemade fruit juice (3 Mangoes, 2 Peaches, 4 Plums, 1 Yogurt, 1 Blender)
- Trying to open a bottle of Water and ending up taking a long knife, poking a whole into the bottle and squeezing the water out.

Cairo-Live, I like you!

Ramadan Word #3 Milk and Dates

After fasting a whole day, the stomach feels strange, and often you don't feel hungry. It not easy to just start eating after not having had food and drink for such a long time, because the stomach is barely working, so it would make it hurt.

Therefore, at 6 pm, when the call for prayer is heard, you break your fast with milk and dates. After that you rest, so that your stomach can start working and you feel hungry. Then, you start the meal.

Traditionally, you would first have milk and dates, then go pray, and then have Iftar. I never experienced it that way so far. The people I had Iftar with until now, always had the milk and dates, (then usually a cigarette) and then food straight away.

Unfortunately for me. I would like to experience the things in the very traditional way somehow. It feels, if I already go through this, I would like to do it right. And second, I personally find it extremely difficult to just start eating out of the blue and with no time to rest after the first bite (milk and dates) because my stomach doesn't have time to activate itself and I get a terrible stomach ache each time after food.
So I'm still looking for the traditional way of having Iftar...

Ramadan Word #2 Iftar

Iftar is the first meal after the fasting and happens at around 6:10 pm after sunset. It is therefore the meal that breaks the fast. Also literally translated, the word Iftar means break the fast. Put it together, you get the word breakfast.
Now, this is a funny thing.
During Ramadan, you could say, the whole day-night rhythm shifts. You have to look at it as if the day starts when the sun sets, because then you can start doing everything as normal, you can eat, drink, smoke and whatever else. So technically, the day starts with breakfast which is Iftar = break fast. When it's not Ramadan, then the first meal in the morning is called Iftar, too. So it actually does mean breakfast, having the same meaning as the English word breakfast.

So now, the question to me is: where does the English word breakfast come from? Is it just a coincidence that the same word is used or is there a connection, and if so, would that then mean that the English word comes from the Arabic word and would also mean breaking the fast, although we don't have Ramadan in the non Muslim world?

Ramadan Word #1 Suhur

When the sun rises at 5:30 and the call for prayer is heard, this is the point you begin your fast until the sun sets 12 hours later. Suhur is the last meal before the fast starts.

People set their alarm at around 4 in the morning (or they stay up that long) get up and have Suhur, which is typically bread, beans (cooked and crushed), eggs, tamayya (falafel), local salads, yogurt and dried fruit.

Suhur can be made at home, or you can eat out. After the evening meal, you can stay up, hang around in the city, smoke sheeshas and enjoy the special atmosphere. In the morning hours there are places out on the street that serve Suhur.
After Suhur, people go (back) to sleep.

First day of Ramadan

It has started. Stomaches are grouling, mouths are dry, people are excited, and sleepy. The last time I ate was today at around 2 in the morning, a huge amount of foul (beans), bread, salads and yogurt. We went to “little donkey”, a tiny place in the middle of Islamic Cairo (Altstadt) that puts tables out on the street and serves the best foul in town in the best atmosphere (to me). The streets where packed: Everyone was out to have food, to smoke, to drink as much water as fits in the stomach and to enjoy the big number of people hanging out in the streets. It was exciting. I ate until I thought my stomach would burst. The plan was that I would go to sleep afterwards and get up again at 5 to eat a humongous bowl of cereal and fruit and drink a bottle of water before the fasting starts. But I was too tired, and way to full to eat anything.

So it’s 5:30 now. No food and no water since 15,5 hours. 30 minutes until Iftar, the evening meal. We are at Tom Gara’s house, an Australian, working for Egypt Today. Apparently 15 more will come. All foreigners who don’t have families just like me. Because the first Iftar of Ramadan is celebrated only with the closest family members, the foreigners and family-less don’t really get invited. We make our own family tonight: AIESECers in Cairo. Tom is said to be a great cook. We will have Thai food…. I can not think of anything else but food…

Stop the Clash of Civilizations

Egypt is getting ready

Egypt is dressing up. It's decorating its walls with bright patterned fabric, it's putting up lights in all colors, and it's looking forward. There is excitement in the air, people are buying more food then ever and there is something that everyone talking is about.


The most special time in the Muslim year is coming up in 2 days.
Ramadan.

Ramadan is the month of fasting, the ninth month in the Muslim calendar. Fasting is one of the 5 pillars of Islam and is considered the month of spirituality, charity and praying. The fasting people are not allowed to eat or drink from when the sun raises until it sets.
In the evenings, people get together, families gather and friends are invited to have the first meal of the day together, the iftar, that breaks the fast. It is usually a big home cooked dinner and everyone enjoys eating and being together.

I'm looking forward for Ramadan to start like a kid. I'm not sure how long I will manage to actually fast, but even if I don't manage, I'm looking forward for the atmosphere. What I have been told is that during Ramadan, everyone invites everyone to their homes, so it's especially cool for foreigners. :-) It's a very sociable time and people spend a lot of time with each other. The atmosphere is special and festive, for a whole month, the country is out of it's normal rhythm and everything is about enjoying Ramadan. During the day, apparently, there is not much happening, everything is very mellow, people go to sleep at around 3 in the afternoon. But then at night, people have iftar (the evening meal), they enjoy themselves and then they have sukuun (not sure how it's spelled) in the morning before the call for prayer at 5.

I don't know yet what Ramadan will really be like. But I can tell that the city feels different already now, and I'm excited. Very excited!

Something cool for you to check out if you want to get more of the Ramadan feeling wherever you are and see how different people in different countries experience the special month: "Blogging Ramadan" A blog where 13 young people all over the Arab world share their Ramadan Experience.

if you want to exchange your shirt...

I'm sitting in the morning plenary and someone is making announcements.
"For those who want to exchange their t-shirts, we will meet tonight at 7 at the fountain..."
For a second the image flashes through my mind of loads of people standing at the fountain taking off their t-shirts and putting on one from someone else. What an amusing thought. And it's cute somehow. Of course that's not what is meant with this announcement, but still, I come to think that there are probably not that many organisations around who get together at a huge international congress and have an announcement in the morning that starts with "For those who want to exchange their t-shirts..."
AIESEC is a young organisation. Not by it's existence, since it's 60 years old, but by the people who run it. And it feels good to work for an organisation that is entirely run by students. You can feel it, there is a young spirit in everything that is not afraid of changing things, innovative, fun loving, active, idealistic, energetic no matter how long we have been existing for. I believe that this in fact is one of the main reasons why I enjoy working for AIESEC so much.

IC made me think about AIESEC a lot. It was an intense experience (and a looong one, man, 2 weeks of conference...) so naturally, I started to review what has happened in the past 2 years for me in AIESEC, if I'm happy about it, how do I want this to continue and how do I feel about being in that organisation in general.
IC made it clearer for me. Surprisingly though it wasn't because of sessions or workshops. The content was alright but not overwhelming. It was the little details that made me see how much I like being in AIESEC, just like the t-shirt exchange announcement.
Another key moment happened at parties. The best thing to do was to hang out with the other middle eastern people (we are a rather small group in the network). We would form circles and dance, for most, without alcohol, and it seemed to me that we were the ones who had the most fun. I know for me, these where the best moments of the party, and I realized how much what I'm doing in AIESEC has changed my perspective of the middle east and of the Arab/Muslim culture.

It was a good choice I made, to take one year off and work full time for this organisation. It's not only a valuable and challenging work experience but I very much enjoy what I'm doing.

Don't draw the conclusion now, that I'm planning to add another year. I'm not. I'm happy with what I'm doing and this is what I wanted, but not more. This will be it. I'm quite sure.