Islamic Cairo: 879 - 1857 A.D./C.E.

From Ibn Tulun mosque (constructed between 876-879 AD/CE: "Current Era") to the public fountain and library (Sabil-Kuttab) of Qaitbay (1479 AD) to the Citadel (constructed by Saladin/Salah ed-Din from 1176-82) and the mosque of Muhammad Ali (built between 1830-57), we wound our way through nearly 1,000 years of Islamic history, art, and architecture.  Our guide and teacher today was Ms. Iman Abdel-Fattah (American-Egyptian, native of Manhattan, resident of Cairo), who worked our students hard - both on their feet, through the 5-hour walking tour, and in their minds, through Tulunid, Mamluk, and Ottoman styles, designs, and artistry -- Islamic throughout, with comparable and contrasting layouts for both the sacred and the secular structures we visited.

With "NU-40" still a challenge to manage at times, we have begun to break into various groupings - first, by class: 11 in Fluid Mechanics, 9 in Arabic (intermediate), and 2 separate classes of introductory Arabic (7 in each of the classes); second, by service learning projects; and third, any other way we can ... just to keep things from getting too "fixed" in any particular grouping.   Today, we divided (or "mixed and matched") again in order to have today's walking tour manageable for Iman and we'll have "group 2" take the same tour next Saturday.

Visit to Establ Anter, Service Learning site

A long trek through Cairo traffic, through dusty side streets, and through narrow alleys (strewn with trash, trash, and more trash), under a bridge, alongside a decaying 18th-century structure (a former prison from the Ottoman Empire), and we found ourselves "nowhere" - i.e., we arrived where we wanted to be, at Establ Anter.  But it does not exist officially.  Establ Anter (named after a Mr. Anter who had his horse stables on this spot decades ago) is an informal community of some 5,000 souls ... poor souls. 

We visited Mr. Sherif and Mr. Hamada, brothers in their 30s, who started a glass-blowing workshop a year or more ago ... and it is expanding.  Our task is to help them get a "presence" on the web, to target new markets, to provide our thoughts about what American and other foreign markets/audiences might like to see in their products, and to help them expand their reach beyond the local suqs (markets) where they currently sell.

This site is just one of 3 or 4 we will work in for the next month.  But, our time is starting to fly!  We have to get moving on all of our projects - knitting/quilting is the 2nd project we will work on.  Both of these 2 projects (glass-blowing and knitting/quilting) will begin in earnest on Monday.

And we are struggling with 2 others - including a carpet-weaving project that already has major international reach (with website, marketing infrastructure, etc.); but, this corporation is also working in Establ Anter and recruiting children to work for them.  

This is our conundrum: are the children slated to become "child labor" for a corporation?  or, as our NGO leaders say, are the children going to be educated - in traditional subjects, in a new school built atop the local community center and mosque - as well as learn a vocation, get 2 meals a day, earn money for each product they help produce (helping their families immediately), and have hope for a future beyond the poverty in which they currently suffer?

We are struggling with this one ... and we'll keep you posted!

Arabic language, Fluid Mechanics, and Service Learning - Day Two

Our classes began yesterday (Monday) - 3 classes of Arabic (2 introductory, 1 intermediate) and one Fluid Mechanics class.  Also yesterday, all 35 students met with Yasmina Abou Youssef, the entrepreneurial young woman who started the NGOs (Fathet Khayr and Suhbet Khayr) we are working with, and with Youssef el Shaarany, the Egyptian-Parisian young man who is our liaison between Gerhart Center/AUC and the NGOs.  

We are in Day 2 of classes and all seems well ... our Arabic teachers (Nermeen, Peter, and Syonara - yes, an Egyptian woman named Syonara!) and Dr. Mo are all very impressed with our students, their enthusiasm, their engagement in the classroom.  And our "service folks" (Yasmina and Youssef) are equally impressed with the level of student excitement for our projects with them.  After classes today and tomorrow, we will visit the NGOs and the sites where we will be working.

ON A SEPARATE NOTE:  "Food prices" ... all of us have been a bit "shocked" by the cost of food in Egypt.  Prices have gone up markedly in the past year; and - just as it has done in Europe - the dollar has taken a "dive" here as well.  Let's see, who do we "thank" for the US$ being in the dumpster globally?  Who do we "thank" for the high cost of food globally, and especially in Egypt, perhaps due in some measure to the astronomical rise in oil prices, which does affect the production and distribution of food?   Is this another "legacy" of our own President and his across-the-board failures - in Iraq, the Middle East generally, oil/energy policies, and everything else he's touched?   (thus endeth the editorial ...)

BUT - we have found some great deals in the last 24 hours which will help all of our students' pocketbooks.  AUC's cafeteria has the best food prices in town!   A couple of bucks a day (literally!) will buy us huge meals.  Plus, a local grocery store (which most students now frequent) has the best prices in town (Zamalek, where our hotels are).  So, we hope this will help everyone manage their budgets better.

"Home sweet Home ... Zamalek, Cairo"

"Haraam 'alayya"!  (Shame on me!) ... a few days ago, I posted an "update" that spoke of our very late arrival in Aswan and I said something about "Egyptian time."  Well, I eat my words.  This morning, we arrived 30 minutes EARLY in Cairo.  Would that today we were late rather than early!  We arrived at 6:15 am in Cairo's Giza train station; got to our respective hotels, and of course they had no rooms for our "NU-40" ... far too soon to check in.  So, our 40 folks spread out in hotel lobbies, local coffee shops, and wireless zones near our hotel.   But, no complaints at all from our 35 students - all of them, all of us, are just happy to be back in Cairo and ready to get to work/studies.  Luxor and Aswan were incredible all around ... but now we're ready to settle in for the month, unpack all our clothes and other "shizzle", and just build our temporary "nests" in Zamalek/Cairo.

Classes start tomorrow - Northeastern's first-ever Fluid Mechanics/Mechanical Engineering course to be taught in Cairo -- shukran/thank you Dr. Mo (Professor Mohamed Taslim).  Also, our Arabic language classes -- the biggest NU group of Arabic language students to study in Cairo:  24 students; 9 in intermediate Egyptian Arabic + 14 in introductory Egyptian + 1 Egyptian-American NU student who will serve as tutor, teacher's assistant, and "drill instructor" for the other 23 students.

I just left a group of our young women - my daughter and 8 others - at one of their favorite dinner hangouts, "No Big Deal."  All seemed happy, tired, and ready for tomorrow.  As am I. Tomorrow, I will get Dr. Mo to his classroom at AUC; meet the 2 introductory Arabic instructors and get them settled into their classrooms; then run back to Zamalek to meet Ms. Nermeen, our intermediate Arabic instructor (and our lead-teacher from last year and this year).  Cynthia and I then will meet to finalize (?!) the ever-shifting calendar ... then back to AUC's downtown campus (soon to be shut-down, and moved to the middle of Allah-knows-where!) for an orientation on Service Learning in Egypt and an introduction to our service site, "Stable Anter" (pronounced something like stah-bull on-ter).