Mission4x4Africa
  • The beginning
    • Preparation
  • The (Im)possible Dream
  • Day to Day
  • Gallery
    • Photos >
      • Berlin
      • slovakia snow
      • Istanbul potpouri >
        • Picture Journal
      • Petra
      • Wadi Rum Wadi Willie >
        • Andrej and Hugo
      • Egypto-glyphics
      • Ethiopia >
        • Ethni-opia
        • Moyale to Marsabit
        • Starling bushcamp Konso
        • Strawberry Fields in Konso
        • Arba Minch
        • Lake Langano
        • Gonder, Ethiopia
        • Marsabit
        • Marsabit to Samburu road
      • Kenya >
        • robinson crusoe
        • crossing the equator
        • Samburu National Park, Kenya
        • Samburu Day 2
      • Tanzania >
        • rolling to the ruins
    • Videos >
      • saying goodbye
      • Berlin Beauty
      • Belgrade Goodbyes
      • Turkey >
        • Konya
        • first freezing bushcamp
        • Istanbul, Turkey
      • Dead Sea
      • Petra, Jordan
      • Etosha Pan - Namibia
  • Birds and more...
  • Caren's Conundrum
  • Doorways
    • Doorways of Sudan
    • Doorways of Egypt
    • Doorways of Damascus
  • Red Route

Egypto-glyphics

4/15/2011

2 Comments

 
  Egypto-glyphics…?  See photos in Gallery: Egypto-glyphics

We are on the first floor of our hotel and the window overlooks the street below us:

 It is fascinating, intoxicating, unadulterated Egyptian life: Tiny personal-owned stores line the streets:

·         the vegetable grocer displaying his produce in the most inviting and creative way;

·         the butcher’s store, tiled with white porcelain, blood-stained tiles where from the ceiling carcasses of cows, goats or sheep are suspended, neatly wrapped in white linen cloths for fly protection;

·         a sewing store: 2 sewing machines sit out on the street and anything that might need to be fixed or sewed can be taken there;

·         a card making, photo copy store: the photocopy machine stands out in the street and you walk up with your need, hand it over and it is copied right there for a minimal fee;

·         the haberdasher store that sells anything from buttons, thread, accessories for hair, clothes, pins, needles, scissors…anything tiny that you do not think of until you need it and then it you really need it!,

·         fruit grocer;

·          micro-mini supermarket – 3ft x 1 ft: sodas, juice, crisps, candy, chocolate, tea, coffee, cookies, pasta, soup, boxed cheese like feta and goat, yogurt;

·         another micro-mini supermarket and customers are determined by who owns it;

·         dairy store selling fresh milk 2x/day – you bring your own container to be filled; yellow cheese; all kinds of white cheeses; olives, pickled lemons, carrots, peppers, home-made yoghurt, sour milk;

·         cleaning products for the house, bath, kitchen, house, etc;

·         a pharmacy – usually a bigger store that you can go in to; most of the others you buy from the street;

·         tea houses where men sit at tables, drink black, sweet tea while smoking their water pipes, watch the world walk by and talk about the community, Egypt and the world

·         carts pulled by donkeys or horses pass by and stop to sell vegetables; barley feed for donkeys and horses; hills of garlic;

·         cars, motorbikes, little trucks, big trucks, bikes, 3-wheeled motorbikes drive up and down, honking as far as they go;

·         people walk, stand and sit everywhere – in the streets and on the side-walks;

·         Veiled young women walk in groups holding hands, giggling, laughing, talking;

·         older women, usually dressed in black, most of the time heavily veiled or in a full burkha walk around with little children;

·         men with gray, brown, white long robes, many turbaned– business men, owners of the little stores, stand around talking, smoking and discussing…? ;

·         young teenage boys cling to one another, laughing and being silly most of the times 

·         ramshackle street food vendors cooking sausages, schwarmas, falafel, kofta in the street or on the side-walk

·         ice-cream shops 

·         green ice-cold, extremely sweet sugar cane drinks served from beer glasses, rinsed under tap water ready for use by the next customer

·         rainbow colored cell phone stores – color depending on the company: pink – T-mobile; red- Vodafone; orange – Mobilnil…

·         internet cafes

·         fish mongers – (probably my least favorite…because of the smell at the heat of the day)

constant incessant human, animal and automotive activity wrapped in noise that tightropes a Western sanity threshold…noise pollution…all the time – day and night. It wanes during the early morning hours, but never dies down – never, but should it cease for some miraculous reason, then the mosque’s muezzin would fill the gap – 5x/day

It is fascinating, exhilarating, energy-giving, energy-zapping; it is rare, strange, diverse, peculiar, different, and unusual – culture zones removed from what is familiar and comfortable to us

2 Comments
Jan Forman
4/15/2011 07:44:24 pm

Thanks for whisking me away to a totally different world during my morning of housework, baking a cake, and preparing for Alec and our son Charles to return from 10 days away in Moldova, another world again. Here in Kandern the day is sunny, chilly in the shade and we have much to praise the Lord for. Take Care, Love from Jan

Reply
susan yerton
5/14/2011 01:53:36 am

Hi Caren, what a multitude of experiences that I cannot imagine even wanting to partake of. I am too small a person and my insecurities, etc, would not help a bit. I am going through a down phase right now and trying to be brave and look at Jesus and not anything else. I want to hide in my Father's arms and not do anything but peek out at life and let it take care of itself.
Much love and courage your way, Susan

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Caren

    Picture

    Categories

    All
    Personal
    Travel Journal; January

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.