For Sunday Mass I went to St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in Zamalek, which is on Ahmed Sabri Street, a few blocks above the Gezira Sporting Club. Zamalek is a large island in the Nile between Mohandeesen and Downtown. It is also known as the wealthiest and most foreigner-friendly part of Cairo. A lot of study abroad students from AUC live in dorms that are in Zamalek. Prior to yesterday I had never been to Zamalek, so I decided to walk there to see as much of it as I could.
The Gezira Sporting Club takes up a little under half of the island, and is essentially a giant private park and sports facility. I have heard that it's only a few pounds to visit for the day, so I plan on going there soon to see what it's like. As I rounded the upper section of Gezira, I got to see what Zamalek was like, and it was not at all like what I expected. I had heard that it had a very Western feel, but it had striking resemblences to Manhattan. On one side of the street was the green fields of the Gezira club, on the right side very wealthy houses, on a street that had light traffic and lots of shady trees. This is almost what 5th Avenue in New York is like - Central Park on one side, brownstones on the other, quiet traffic with lots of trees on the street. I passed a lot of embassies along this route. My first impression of Zamalek was that it did not feel like Cairo.
St. Joseph's Church was on a quiet street in a residential neighborhood. There was a school affiliated with it, and possibly a convent because there were many nuns at the Mass. The church was full, with a very diverse congregation. The priest was Japanese, and there appeared to be a lot of Japanese people in the congregation. Many of the people there looked rather wealthy, and I speculate that some of them were ambassadors or consulate officials, given the context.
St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in Zamalek
Since it had taken me about fifty minutes to walk from my apartment to the church, I decided to take a cab back to my apartment. I was able to give the driver directions entirely in Arabic (and there was mutual understanding), which was very encouraging. Apparently, cab drivers don't have a set price for trips. When I asked him how much, he said khalaas, meaning "that's it" or "whatever." So, I gave him 15 LE (about $2.65), though Nate said that was probably too generous.
Both of the churches I've been to had two police officers posted immediately outside the gates. I have heard the two synagogues in the city have even more security.
I found a mural painted a few blocks from my apartment. It seems to suggest that Christians and Muslims get along well in Cairo. Perhaps it's just me, but the scene looks a bit tense.
Mural along Haruun Street, Doqqi, near the Pakistani Embassy
At AUC they've begun protesting for the release of a student named Philip Rizk. Apparently he is an Egyptian-German graduate student who has also been involved in activism for Gaza. This past weekend, he was attending a rally for Gaza in Cairo when he was allegedly arrested by the Egyptian security police. Details on his arrest have not been made available, so no one is even sure where he is.
I'm not usually involved in overt political activism, but I'm going to make sure I don't participate in it while I'm in Egypt.
So far my classes are pretty easy. The professors don't seem to be in a rush to arrive to class or get down to business. There seems to be a mix of attitudes among the Egyptian students, where some of them are really interested in doing well in school, and others don't care at all. My Calculus professor explains things very well, and my Arabic professor is extremely helpful. However my Quantum Mechanics professor has given variations of the same lecture for the past 3 classes and has ended class early each time. He keeps telling us what we are going to learn in this class, but we haven't begun the actual learning.
The weather the past two days has been tremendous. It is sunny, eighty degrees Fahrenheit during the day with a slight breeze. At night it has gone down to 65 degrees with a cool breeze. I have been leaving the glass doors to the balcony open all the time, as there is no reason to shut them. x
I may be going to Alexandria this weekend with some other study abroad kids from AUC. I'm not sure the details.
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