Laura’s abroad in Amman, Jordan until Dec. 19.

I just spent a week in Cairo exploring ancient ruins, winding through alleys in a city of garbage, marveling at whirling dervishes, talking politics at the Arab League, chatting with Egyptian students, and listening to reggae under a bridge over the Nile. Overall, it’s been a whirlwind of activity and now that I’ve recovered from the Cairo curse (a.k.a. food poisoning), I’ll try to give you a taste of my experiences here. And don’t worry, I won’t bore you with the usual tourist tales of camels and pyramids.

Discussing politics in the Arab League

On Sunday my study abroad group met with a representative of the Arab League for a discussion. As a member of Northwestern’s Model Arab League, I was so excited to tour the building where the League meets and sit in their seats in the grand meeting hall. It was interesting to just ask the speaker for his thoughts about everything from the Israeli-Palestinian peace process (or lack thereof) to the Iraq War to pan-Arabism. Although I’m sure he wasn’t being completely frank with us, I felt he gave some very candid answers. He said it was no secret that the Arab League has major problems with the current American administration. The U.S.’s involvement is critical for any Israeli-Palestinian agreement to be reached, but he lamented the U.S.’s unwavering and unquestioning support for Israel. He argued that supporting Israel 100 percent of the time was not actually in the U.S.’s best interests. He explained that Israel only understands the language of violence because the international community has allowed it to do whatever it wants. If the U.S. wants to combat terrorism and extremism in the region, it needs to give people hope in their futures. He did not necessarily have a bright outlook on the future of U.S.-Arab relations. He talked about his doubts that the Middle East will be an immediate priority for the new American president, regardless of which candidate wins. As all our speakers do, he asked us who we were voting for. Considering that those of us choosing to study in the Middle East are by no means a representative sample of U.S. public opinion, I’m not quite sure why we are constantly asked this.

A visit to Garbage City

My host family has driven me through the Palestinian refugee camps in Amman and I thought that was true poverty in the Middle East. But nothing I have seen so far (and granted, I haven’t seen much), has been as shocking as Garbage City. I had read about Cairo’s City of the Dead, which is a slum built among the tombstones of an old graveyard, but Garbage City was another layer of poverty entirely. Behind Cairo’s grand old citadel and pressed up against the mountain is an entire city built on a garbage dump. I learned about Garbage City, or Moqqatam, from my sister’s friend, who had lived in Cairo and worked at an NGO there. She explained that this slum is where Cairo’s garbage workers live. They gather all the trash in the city and then bring it to their homes in Moqqatam and sift through it. A few friends and I cajoled a taxi driver into taking us to a rather unimpressive monastery on the top of the hill overlooking Garbage City. From the main highway, we could smell Garbage City before we saw it. Mountains of garbage towered over our car as we approached the city. Our taxi driver wrapped a scarf around his mouth and nose and drove through the narrow alleyways slowly. We saw piles of garbage almost six feet high inside crumbling brick buildings. Children sat on top of these piles, picking through the trash and eating whatever they found. Emaciated donkeys lingered outside decrepit, reeking buildings and men stacked tires into piles. Around noon we saw children in school uniforms running down the street, but I have no idea what school they went to or where. We weren’t in Garbage City for more than a few hours, but when I got back to the hotel that night, I realized the city’s smell had clung to my clothes. It’s amazing to me that the beautiful, manicured Al-Azhar Gardens were within sight of this slum. I realize that all big cities have their slums, but in all my travels I have never seen such extreme poverty and the wealth in such close proximity. With this sort of abject poverty hiding behind its fragile façade, it’s no wonder Egyptians’ glorify their ancient past so much. There is nothing to be proud of in the present if you have an entire community calling a garbage dump home.

Chatting about Egyptian media

One unbearably hot afternoon, our program directors sent us on “drop-offs,” which are sort of like scavenger hunts. Two other students and I were given a piece of paper with the name of a major newspaper and a few questions to ask. We were given a couple hours to find the newspaper, meet with someone there, and then report back to the group. After a hellish taxi ride (the driver had no idea where he was going and then the doors broke, requiring us to crawl out the window), we finally arrived, a bit frazzled and quite sweaty. We found an English-speaking editor who sat with us for a few hours to discuss his paper, politics, and his views on the media landscape there. He explained that unlike the U.S., the press is not seen as the watchdog of the government. When Nasser nationalized everything, including the papers, he undermined the pillars of civil society. Here in Cairo, readership is so low that it doesn’t even matter much if the papers publish articles exposing government corruption. He explained that Cairo has a “democracy of barking,” meaning that the government will allow people to bark because no one will listen. “It doesn’t even matter. Write whatever you want: Who will read you?” I wanted him to talk more about Egypt’s infamous blogging community, but he didn’t seem particularly aware of it or any of the controversy surrounding its censorship.

Talking with Egyptian college students

One morning my study abroad program took us to meet with some political science students at Cairo University. We gathered in a classroom and discussed their views on Egypt’s political system and economy. They seemed to be more in support of the government than I expected and had some interesting neoliberal opinions about the economy. The students and their professor also seemed very concerned with how we viewed Cairo and seemed shocked that we weren’t visiting more ancient Egyptian sites. Again, I got the sense that Egyptians want foreigners to only focus on their ancient history. I was most surprised, however, by the way we were bombarded with fliers as we filed out of the classroom. A few Egyptian students eagerly asked us to be in their student group promoting cross-cultural communication and world peace. Perhaps I’m just used to talking to jaded Northwestern students, but I was shocked by these Egyptian students’ optimism about world peace and their role in creating it. As they pitched their ideas to us, I kept thinking they were completely naive, but I must admit their enthusiasm was contagious. I put my e-mail address down on their list; I wonder if I’ll ever hear from them.

Music

On Saturday night my friends and I went to the Culture Wheel in Egypt, which has an amazing outdoor stage under a bridge crossing the Nile. We joined the mob surrounding the stage and danced to the Egyptian rappers. Everyone but us seemed to know the words to all their songs. I just enjoyed being in the midst of so many young Egyptians, some of the girls wearing hijabs, and some without. After a long day at the pyramids with all the throngs of tourists, it was refreshing to spend an evening experiencing modern Egyptian culture. Nothing about Pharaohs or the afterlife here. Just the rhythm and the dancing and the lights of the city glimmering on the Nile. We liked the venue so much we returned later in the week for a reggae concert and stayed after the show was over, just chatting with a few Egyptian guys and playing guitar on the banks of the Nile.

Another night we went to the old mausoleum near Al-Azhar in Old Cairo to see the whirling dervishes performance. I have never seen anything like it. These Sufi dancers spun in circles for over an hour to the beat of the drums and the squealing flute. A singer wailed from the balcony of the mausoleum overlooking the stage. The dancers’ giant skirts swirled about them, revealing their colorful undersides. The men unwound their turbans as they spun, with huge smiles plastered across their faces. They looked completely oblivious to the audience snapping photos and clapping as they spun increasingly faster. It seemed like such a beautiful way to express their love for God.

Glad to be back in Amman

Visiting Cairo made me appreciate Amman a lot more. Granted, Cairo seems more happening than Amman. In Amman everything seems new and beige, but Cairo just seemed to burst with history and life. I loved its mismatched architecture, crazy traffic, bright lights, and fun bars. The Nile was gorgeous, smelly, and calming all at once. But it was difficult to enjoy Cairo’s beauty because of the constant harassment. Amman’s tribal society has protected me from any trouble here, but in Cairo I was grabbed, chased and endlessly taunted. The police were the worst tormentors. Also, the mountains of trash everywhere made me concerned for this crowded city’s environmental sustainability. The food made nearly everyone on my program sick, even our Jordanian program directors. I thought my stomach had been toughened in Amman, but I still succumbed to an awful bout of food poisoning. I guess the Egyptians have just gotten used to it, but I am still concerned that their water and food seems to be such poor quality. Also, the air pollution was even worse than in L.A. When I got off the plane in Jordan, I gulped in the fresh air. I wish Amman had Cairo’s lively nightlife and rich history, but I am definitely glad to be back home with my host family.

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