It has been a busy couple of days. “Old” staff are coming back as we start workshop officially on Tuesday so we are meeting lots of new people. It will be quite an experience as we essentially live and work together. I think the staff is very close knit and supportive of each other. Today after our day was finished, Pat and I were invited for coffee and tea at one of our staff’s home (she is a wonderful Egyptian lady who lives downtown). Her husband is a surgeon and they have two daughters. One of her daughters teaches at the University. It is customary in Egypt for family members to live at home until they are married. There seems to be a very strong family bond here. We had a very lovely time visiting with the daughter and mother. Their apartment home was beautiful – filled with many antiques and family heirlooms (some dating back over 400 years).
Community or neighborhoods are much the same. We have seen instances where people who live in the upper floors of apartments will lower a basket down with money and a list in it and a neighbor on the street will go pick up what the person needs (milk, eggs, etc) at a local shop and send it back up in the basket.
In the evening we had a little get together with the rest of the new staff and three other “old” staff who have been with us most of the time here. It is so interesting to learn of life here. Tonight we were discussing medical care and discovered that a typical trip to the doctor costs about 20 LE or $4.50. Pharmacies are a good place to stop at if one gets lost because all pharmacies have someone who speaks very good English. Many drugs that are sold only by prescription in the US are readily available here without a prescription and very inexpensive. It is a common practice to go into a pharmacy and describe your aliment and they will mix something up to take care of you.
