Hope you are enjoying the freezing weather back home! It will be a sunny 67 here today. For the past several years when we would be scraping the snow and ice off the windshield or shoveling the walk after a big storm, we would always ask ourselves, “Why don’t we go somewhere warm!!”
We awoke today to roosters crowing somewhere in the neighborhood. Even though we are smack-dab in the middle of a densely populated city, there are various animals all around (cats, dogs, horses, donkeys, chickens, etc) Alex is really a city of contrasts. Last evening we went down to the mall at San Steffano. The people you find here are from a much different social class than you find in our neighborhood just minutes away. While we were in Jordan, some Jordanians wondered how long Egypt would remain a peaceful country – with the extreme economic differences between the haves and the have nots. They felt that it was ripe for some sort of revolution when the current government (the president) passes on. We’ve posed that question to some of our Egyptian friends here and they feel that it is highly unlikely due to the cultural and religious character of the people. They felt there was sort of an acceptance of one’s position as something beyond control and hence you make the other aspects of your life as acceptable as you can. The family plays such a major role in peoples lives here – young people will stay close by rather than accept a position somewhere else that might provide more income.
We went to a movie last night – there is not a lot to do for recreation for people. In a city of 6 million there is one major sporting club (tennis, Alex’s only golf course, riding stables, courts, etc). There are very few parks. The malls contain some amusement centers with carnival type rides and games. There are a couple small amusement parks – but nothing more than you would see at a rural Iowa country fair. There are no big Adventurelands. For the wealthy, there are some water parks located with resorts that are on the sea. The upper class will have villa’s to go to. There is numerous Shesha bars for the men where they may congregate and smoke shsesha, drink tea, play board games and talk. Sitting around and talking is a major social event for most. By the way, the movie has censored – it was a western movie and several scenes were cut out that would have been considered offensive to the culture here.
