*** Thursday, 07Sep06 ***
Richard and his wife had invited project expats to their apartment for a party. The invitation said that the party started at 7 P.M. and ended at 10 P.M. A bunch of us met in the lobby and then sorted out how we would get to Richard's apartment on the east side of the Nile. Four of us, Richard, Marcia, myself and Geoff started walking down the Corniche. After a while I asked if we were going to walk to Richard's or take a cab. Marcia said she liked walking so we agreed to skip the cab and just walk. It took an hour and was a nice walk on a warm evening.

The party was nice and the food (Chinese and catered) was excellent -- at least the beef in peppers and onions and spring rolls. The beef was on a par with what I had recently in La Bodega so twice in a week I have had excellent beef experiences. If only it were more often; twice in five months does not make the grade.

*** Friday, 08Sep06 ***
The morning mists have been absorbed by the day's heat and the sky is a pale blue. The sun's disk siinks into the denser and more polluted air changing from white to yellow to red. The heat's fierceness leaves the light and just the general warmth remains. Before the sun's disk reaches the horizon (or even the tops of the buildings on the horizon) the lowest part is obscured by the dusty filth in the air. Cairo's pollution consumes the sun.

With the sun gone, a pink back-light hangs over southern Gazira. The light is gray below it and and fading. In the distance the street lights of Dokki are lit, snaking off into the west. The opera is lit, the only other color in the view. For a while, I hardly notice the steady, if erratic, cacophony of the traffic. I have been here too long.

Regab with his trainees.

A morning walk and the afternoon at the pool. One of the nice things about the pool is that I quietly complained to my new found friends about how warm the pool water had become. No one said they would do anything but the water temperature is now back down to where it should be. It is such pleasure to dive into the deep end and feel all that heat being drawn out of you. (Some people mistakenly interpret this as shock.)

In between my dives in the pool, Regab came over to me and gave me a stone scarab. He told me that it glowed in the dark. I will check that out. Then Sherif came over and gave me a carved alabaster sphinx night-light about six inches long. All of this was their idea. Egyptians are a generous people.

After five I decided to go to my room and was drying off when a young man in the pool made eye contact with me and smiled. He said hello and invited me into the pool for a swim. This doesn't happen to me very often so I did. He said his name was Mohamed and asked me where I was from. When I told him he grew excited and said that his uncle loved America and had been everywhere there. Brooklyn, Queens, Hawaii and Idaho.

He went on to ask me if I shopped a lot in Cairo. I said no and he asked why. I said that I didn't need many things. He seemed confused. He asked me if I had been to a shop that sold papyrus drawings or perfume essences. I laughed and said yes. Do you have such a store? Yes. Would you like to come and see it. No! Why? I don't like nicknacks. He didn't seem to comprehend that attitude and he certainly didn't understand the word. "Is nicknack f--king?" he asked.

So I had met a pool tout -- someone who was there only to get people to go to his shop. See what happens when you start to think it's safe to go back in the water?

While back in my room, I tried to use the hotel Internet access. It had been working flawlessly for weeks but now it wouldn't connect to anything, not even to the screen where I agreed to pay $40 per day for access. (Fortunately this cost has been folded into the daily total so I don't pay for access at all.) I called to ask if the Internet was down and got connected to a man who said he would call me back and he did. He told me that he had talked to an IT person and the Internet only worked with Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. Getting technical help here is no easy matter.

I eventually realized that I had my wireless on and it was dominating the connection and yet there was no Wi-Fi for it to connect to. I turned Airport off and my problems went away.

*** Saturday, 09Sep06 ***
I was at the pool enjoying the sun when Regab and Ahmed approached me and asked, in the midst of youthful smiles and shining eyes, if I would type their CVs (resumes). They said that they wanted to get a job in Abu Dhabi working at a pool or gym. Of course, I said I would help. Maryam eventually showed up with Regab and Ahmed's CVs handwritten. Her lettering is fairly easy to read so the typing was not difficult. I even added color pictures of each of them to spice up the CV. When I got done with it, it looked very classy.*** Sunday, 10Sep06 ***
I have cabin fever but not your ordinary cabin fever. The cabin of MY fever is bigger than the Hotel and getting bigger by the day. Symptoms: being indifferent to things I would have sought out a few months ago (I hardly go into museums now); feeling jaded about everything surrounding me and feeling cynical about ... well, just about it all. All-in-all, this kind of cabin fever is a downer.

Miriam and Ahmed in the Semiramis pool.

The weather is forecast to be 36 C (97 F) today, even hotter than the distinctly hot yesterday and, as lately, there is a lot of humidity.

I went to the pool after work, enjoyed the sun, and gave Ahmed and Regab their CVs and they seemed suitably impressed. Maryam showed up and we were able to figure out some of the needed corrections. I went back to my room and happened to step out on the balcony and Regab saw me and signaled me in some complex way that I could not understand so I decided to go back to the pool and find out what he was about. He told me that he, Ahmed, Sherif and a Spanish couple named Suzana and Xavier were going out for a ride on a Nile boat and did I want to attend. I did, so we agreed to meet at the nearest lion on the Nile Bridge. I regard most of the Nile cruises as tourist traps so I avoid them. On the other hand, many people enjoy them and at high prices.

The timing was tight. I had already called ahead to order beer at the store I used so I had to rush. I walked there and then took a cab back to the hotel (I should have done it before), got it as much of it into the fridge as possible and rushed down to the Lion.

I was barely late but while Maryam was there, the boys were not. And so we waited. I talked to her for a while and she told me she did some translating work and for English she could do it all in her head. She was Christian and took care of her parents. She invited me to dinner and I accepted but only after being sure I could eat the food.

The Ferry Ride group

Ahmed, Regab and Sherif arrived and we walked up the Nile Corniche for a distance and got on a reasonably ratty boat with not much going for it but for the price: one pound apiece (Regab paid it himself) and up the Nile the boat went. It cruised past the Nile Hilton, the Semiramis, and the Hyatt until we docked almost across form Richard's apartment building. We stayed in the boat and enjoyed the trip back. All for about fifteen cents per person and I was treated.

We rallied at the Qasr al Nil bridge and decided to go to Khan el Khalili and a coffee shop. Sherif had a car and it was nearby so we crossed the bridge and went to get it. We rode in Sherif's small car, all seven of us. I was inter-wrapped with Ahmed who treated the whole thing very indifferently.

In all of this Regab played the major role of impressario. He even paid the bills so the show could be his magic.

At Khan al Khalilil we were supposed to go to a coffee shop but time there was dominated by the ladies' shopping. Ultimately we made a decision to go to a cafe but not the tourist priced cafes in Hussein Square. Regab chose a small cafe across the street and down a short distance. We had just soda and water and the proprietor tried to rip us off (probably because there were three westerners in the group) but Sherif and Regab took care of it. I was not allowed to pay for anything and got yet another gift from Regab: a chain of azure blue scarabs that might be used as Moslem prayer beads.

Sherif says he has an apartment in Sharm al Sheik, and an apartment in Alex. And he admitted to owning another car but he likes this 33 year old one. It has a CD drive in it that, he says, is sold for computers but had been modified to work in a car. His mother is an English teacher and his father is a manager in a casino. He is at the hotel learning massage as a student so he works six days a week for twelve hours a day and earns nothing. He doesn't need the money but the rules should be different.

Sherif seems to like me. He told me that I had a wide mind and that he wasn't saying that to impress me. He seems drawn to me in some way that had nothing to do with the picture (a good one) that I took of him.

The evening ended dryly at midnight -- but I decided to have a beer and remember it fondly -- so the final ending was pleasant on multiple levels.