"It's zucchini," and other aspects of life in Cairo

Well, I just finished my last midterm and am now a week away from my spring holiday and Greece. It feels damn good.

So let's talk Cairo. I'm going to try to separate my personal experiences from broader ones, but that's fairly difficult to do. It's your duty to take this with a grain of salt; I'm not miserable, and some days I'm truly charmed by this city... most days, not.

Cairo is has too many people, too many buildings, too many cars, too much trash, too much smog, and too little green space. That's actually not a bad way for me to approach this discussion. So! There are 18 million people crammed into this city, and they are not always happy people. Urban overcrowding + lack of physical contact = good for no one's mood. In my experience, Cairenes are generally the least friendly of any Egyptians I've met. I've definitely met some great Cairenes, but they are not as openly welcoming as folks from outside the city. Life here is stressful for the vast majority of people, to put it mildly. These pictures are mostly taken from the bus on the ride back to Zamalek... sorry for the poor quality and highway railings.

Cairo is well-known for being a sort of vertical city. Over the last 40 years or so, rural-urban migration and general population growth has led to the construction of TONS of shoddily-built, half-painted, 15-story apartment complexes. The older structures are literally crumbling. The newer ones are still being built in newly developed areas of Cairo's outskirts; often, there are people living in the lower floors of buildings whose upper levels are still being built. This city has experienced some awful growing pains. The piles of rubble every few feet are evidence of this. There's construction going on continuously. Sidewalks are perpetually being uprooted and repaved. Haven't figured that one out yet. These three are apartment buildings in various parts of the city:

The traffic... ugh. Millions of old Peugeots and Fiats and imported cars and tour buses and Chinese microbuses crammed into too few lanes, and cars double- and triple-parked everywhere. Cairenes drive like matatu drivers. There are absolutely no rules of the road. Dangerous? Incredibly. Efficient? Surprisingly so. Gridlocks don't seem to slow anyone down. The philosophy is that you all get there faster if everyone just keeps moving. Works shockingly well. Cairo is infamous for its street crossings as well. Cars will not slow down for pedestrians - in massively crowded streets, this is a problem. It's best to take it slow and wait between lanes of cars for a break in the next lane. After a few near-death experiences in the first couple of weeks (turns out I'm an unusually aggressive street-crosser), I've become a little more careful, and am more confident that I can survive the semester.

Garbage. There are small rubbish bins on the streets in Zamalek, but few downtown. There are certainly not enough for Cairo's millions of residents, who really don't care anyway, as they've got bigger fish to fry. Thus the city is your rubbish bin. There are wrappers and koushary containers in every street, plastic bags tangled in every fence and shrubbery, cans and bottles floating in the Nile, and every kind of garbage imaginable mixed into the sand in the desert. This is the Nile:

There's a great phrase in Colloquial to describe this order-in-chaos way of life that Egyptians have. It's "Dii kousa," or "It's zucchini." (No, I don't know why zucchini is the vegetable of choice.) This unsystematic system applies to driving, crossing streets, disposing of garbage, government functions, promotions at work, and waiting in queus. The only rule is that anything goes: nepotism, exploitation, corruption, you name it.

Air pollution is mildly terrifying here. Between the millions of cars, low emission standards, cement factories, and sand/dust, the city is always in a haze. The policemen who direct traffic in Cairo have some of the lowest sperm counts in Egypt. There's a thick coat of dirt and grime on every surface, which makes the city perpetually gray-brown. Most people don't bother painting their buildings anymore... it's all gray in a couple of months. I've developed mild asthma since arriving here. The sunsets are beautiful, at least, and I can get some minimally fresh air in Zamalek and outside Cairo.

The air quality would surely be better if there were green space in the city. Zamalek is probably the greenest area, but there aren't even tiny public parks, much less big ones where we could go play frisbee or have a picnic. This is a major qualm I have with the city. Green space is fenced off and owned by private clubs. You can pay fees to enter them, but I'm a student, so I don't do that kind of thing. Thus, the only places to get out and relax are coffee shops and cafes, and that's not really my scene. I just want to lie in some grass, but I suspect it's going to have to wait until June.

Sadly, I really don't enjoy living in this city. It's definitely interesting, and I'm fine being here for a few months, but I'd never choose to live here longer. There are plenty of little things I enjoy. The Nile is beautiful in the morning. Islamic Cairo has some of the most beautiful architecture I've ever seen. There's a little bakery about five minutes away where I can get a sizable slice of gourmet cake or a fresh pastry for less than $1. On the bus ride home from AUC every day, at sunset, I watch men wave red flags from rooftops to call their pigeons in for feeding time. Five times a day, you can hear hundreds of calls to prayer echoing through the city. So I make do.