DAY 7 - NO PHOTOS, PLEASE!
SYNOPSIS: Travel Day. Tying up some loose ends.
It felt like abandoning Shema and all the others in the Square with my decision to take the first available flight South. But I vowed to come back at the end of the month to follow up with them. As Nicola pointed out in one of her comments: I am not a reporter and I can't lose sight of what I am here for. But it would be easy!
Traveling days are always boring - airports are just about universally the same - marble floor constantly cleaned with those over-sized brooms; hurry up and wait situations. So I will just tighten up some lose ends which I did not want to forget. Minor details, but noteworthy for me. So, I apologize if the blog from here on out will likely be much more boring but then, it's my travelogue and I take what comes my way.
When we walked to the square yesterday morning banks were open for the first time in over 10 days. The lines were unbelievable. In fact, a whole block was cut off from traffic by tanks and the lines in front of each bank must have been at least 150 people long. Temaris did what I was thinking of doing: Take a picture of these crowds. Before we could blink, a solder had him by the arm and took him away to the officer's tank. We kept on walking in order to avoid all being taken in. The officer was not unfriendly, but made it very clear that there was no picture taking in the streets. It is strange, but I can not even take a picture of architecture or city life without being stopped. The only place where there are no restriction of photography is the square itself. Isn't that counter-intuitive?
As a break from "square life" I took a hike out towards the Nile and to the front of the Egyptian Museum. I could now see close up the party headquarters which had been burned to smithereens. Unbelievable, how a 6 story building can fully burn out! How on earth could demonstrators or protesters have done such a job. That needs professional arsons and a lot of flammables. Rumor is that after initial Molotov cocktails the police themselves kept burning the place down to destroy files! But then, rumor mills are as numerous as sand in Egypt.
Right next to the party headquarters is the Egyptian Museum, literally a couple of yards away from it. That the blaze was as contained as it must have been is a miracle! The museum is unharmed except for one blackened window which is part of a projection and must be the gift shop that reportedly was ransacked. It was good to see that the roof top of the museum was patrolled by several soldiers. They are protecting it and I think it is out of danger. But then, it is so close to the square, in fact, it flanks the square on one side that I wonder if it will ever open again as long as there are protesters in the square. I hope that in three weeks when I come back to Cairo, I will have a chance to go in.
I was so deprived of culture, that I actually opened the Lonely Planet to see if there was not anything within reach of the hotel that I could see before I left Cairo and there was: Less than 100 meters, one corner from the hotel there is the only surviving synagogue in Cairo. It is no longer used as such - obviously - since Jews have been driven out of Egypt following the establishment of Israel. But the building is most striking! You might find picture on line - I was not allowed to take one as you might have guessed. The building was not open to the public, but it usually is. It is an imposing, gray Art-Nouveau building of the most stark nature. If it were not for the two stars of David symmetrically placed on two pilasters you would never know what you are looking at. At all times there is police presence in front of this building, to guard it, presumably.
And finally, we had some newcomers to the colorful hotel crew: Real tourists; American ones! There was beautiful, ethereal Kathleen, a harp player with her pale and lanky, slightly sick looking son Rowen who studies political sciences. He needs some fresh air and some exercise. I have never seen anyone with a smaller mouth than him. Either way, they provided an interesting perspective on the tourist scene. They were happily cruising the Nile down between Aswan and Luxor when the revolution began. They reported that mass-hysteria broke out between the British, German, and American tourists even though nothing really was happening to them. They all scrambled back to Cairo taking evacuation flights home. But Kathleen and her son decided to stay. She took the opposite stand: There is nothing dangerous out here at all. She defied the curfew, walked in the dark at night, took a car into Alexandria, etc. I was amazed. She has even more luck on her side than I have!
But one question, I have to ask: Is there any - and I mean any single case of violence recorded against any tourist anywhere in Egypt? Isnt' it true, that if the tourists had just kept it calm, followed the curfew, stayed away from government buildings and demonstrations, laid low for a day or two - that life could have gone on? Instead, Egypt is empty of tourists. On my way to the internet in Aswan, a young guy shouted across the street: "I am so happy to see a foreigner in Aswan. Welcome!" We in our fear and our inability of adjusting to a crisis situation, as there clearly was in Egypt, are doing a lot of additional harm. I am sure Mubarak is happy with us...
I made it to Aswan. All I can say for now: It's paradise! More about that tomorrow. I found an Internet and will be able to blog for the next four days. And finally a big thanks to all of you who have written in comments! I am so grateful to you that you are accompanying me on this trip and are going with me through exciting and hopefully also more boring times. Your comments add so much more insights to this blog! Some of the links that you provided were very useful. And your good wishes are, of course, always welcome. Many thanks for being such good friends, students, colleagues, and even strangers.
THANK YOU.
ET