Stu's visit to Egypt.
8/27/01
Whew! What a ride! I am safe and sound in Cairo Egypt.
My postage mail
address is:
Stuart McDonald c/o American International School in Egypt PO Box 8090
Masaken Nasr City 11371
Cairo, Egypt
My apartment has an address, but does not receive mail delivery.
Egypt does
not provide door to door postal service as in the US. I would have to
travel
downtown to some government building and claim mail. In case you want to
visit me tell the cab driver at the airport this: Road 231, Building 18,
in
Digla, near the "dootee Free", it's Dr Wahid's building. Then
get out of
that cab and repeat the procedure until you find an English speaking one.
Then tell that one that you want to go to Maddi Grand Mall. (He won't
know
where road 231 is.) When he drops you off at the mall throw 20 LE on the
seat AFTER you exit the cab and hurry to get in another cab and give the new
driver the address. If he speaks English, he will know where to go.
Don't
pay more than 3 LE for this ride, it is very short. My building is part
of a
small courtyard. It is not the one with the Bedouin Pillow store on the
first floor. (The owner is Khiri. Very fair man. He knows 5
languages.)
Mine is the building next to the building with the rug store (not Bedouin
rugs, oriental i think.) and kitty corner from the building with the internet
cafe. (Although they don't sell any food or beverage, just internet access)
When you reach the foot of the stairs to my building you will likely find an Egyptian
man wearing a dirty robe and a cast on his right arm. He is not
homeless. He is my boab, Mustafa. (He is sort of Egypt's answer to
a
glorified doorman. He fetches stuff for us and helps carry stuff and
cleans
the stairway etc... for a small fee of coarse. He is very lazy, so he
doesn't earn much.) Ask him to show you where "Mister Stooo" lives.
He won't
lead you up the stairs of course, but he will say "noombar tree" and
point
up. Climb two flights of stairs to the second floor (The ground floor is
labeled zero so it is actually floor # "2" but to us it is the third
floor of
the building) and look for the Arabic symbol for 3. It is a backwards
English seven with a curly Q on top.
Well, I hope to see everyone here. My phone number is 5198258 in case
you
get lost. (Good luck using a phone in Egypt.)