Cairo, Egypt

I have arrived safely in Cairo, Egypt, where I am staying at the Windsor Hotel (the former British Officers' Club, with all its original furnishings, owned by friends of Frank Abu-Sayf). I called Frank's sister this morning, and we are planning to meet sometime this week. (Frank, I didn't realize Nagwa lives in Honolulu! One of us has to stop being drunk everytime you and I talk!)

I went to the American University to meet with Brad Clough, Professor of Comparative Religion (and friend of Erica Falkenstein), but the University is closed on Fridays. This is the first Muslim country in which I've been that clearly closes shop on Fridays. According to my driver, Sayed, they also close on Saturdays out of respect for the Jewish sabbath, and they close on Sundays out of respect for the Christian sabbath (25% of Cairo is Coptic Christian and 75% Sunni Muslims, compared to a nation-wide Christian population of 10% and Muslim population of 90%). In spite of Sayed's claim of universal reverence for monotheistic days of rest, most shops and services are open Sunday through Thursday. (In Morocco the only day off I witnessed was a Sunday in Rabat -- they seem to delight in their French colonial past in Rabat.)

Having spent only one day in Cairo, I must say that, so far, I like it better than any Moroccan city I visited. It is an enormous city of approximately 20 million inhabitants. But like New York City, it caries its enormity with a graceful pride. It is also a city under seige, with AK-47 toting policemen on every corner. The large western hotels look like combat zones, as do most of the national monuments. Terrorist attacks are obviously a very real threat in this country (Luxor in 1997, Sharm el-Sheikh in 2005) and Mubarak is doing his best to preserve the vital tourist industry by a dramatic show of force if nothing else.

The global cartoon crisis (haven't you heard? there is a terrible shortage of cartoons these days!) is on the front page of every newspaper, and while I have no idea what they are saying, people are obviously talking about it. In Cairo they have the custom of broadcasting not only the call to prayer from every mosque (something done in every Muslim country) but also the Friday sermon (something I have not encountered before). As I passed one large mosque in central Cairo today, an overflow crowd had gathered in a large courtyard to listen attentively to the fiery sermon of an imam who enjoyed a very large following. Again, I have no idea what he was saying, but this man was clearly in a rage. Passing another mosque three or four blocks away, the imam had a lovely, soft voice, but no overflow crowd.

But the real energy and excitement that is overwhelming everything else in this town is the fact that Egypt is playing against Ivory Coast for the 2006 Africa Cup of Nations in about 2 1/2 hours. Really, nothing else in the world matters.

Tomorrow, the Great Pyramids!

(Photo by Eric: Fruit market, Cairo, Egypt)