I had finally landed. From above in the plane the streets looked crowded and dirty, and my perspective didn't change once I began traveling from the airport by bus.
The first thought for anyone who has just been dropped out of the sky, like myself, into Cairo would be that this city has just been through a major war. Rubble piles up next to the major highways and on the surrounding parks. Weaving through this backdrop of decay is the chaos of unregulated traffic that creates six lanes out of a six lane highways. Drivers honk their horns as they run through red lights, weave around pedestrians, and cut off each other on these tiny roads. As I hastily buckle my seat belt and hold on to any part of the car that would hold me incase of an accident, I begin to smell fresh baked bread and cooked meat and cheeses that emerge from the smog of the city.
The vast market place has begun cooking a meal for millions of hungry Muslims who have fasted all day and in a few short minutes they will feed upon whatever Cairo's marketplaces have to offer. I begin to see familiar scenes of men sitting on street corners drinking tea and smoking hookah's. Children playing soccer on the sidewalk. Fully cloaked women walking in the humid 100 degree weather. Yes, I feel at home again.
It has been two years since I have lived in the middle east, but this time will be much different from when I lived in Bethlehem, Palestine. As a student in the one of the largest Arab cities in the world I hope to gain a better perspective about this city and Arab culture as a whole. Cairo houses a population of 18 million people in 2008. That is more than twice the size of New York city in the same year. Cairo is massive, and it is facing both physical and societal changes everyday. In November Egypt will begin the presidential elections. President Mubarak, who has ruled unopposed for nearly 29 years, is rumored to be stepping down. Apart from the societal changes Cairo has begun an astounding physical changes, a suburb called New Cairo.
While driving from the airport to my dorm in a district of Cairo called Zamalek, it isn’t hard to see that the rich a higher middle class are escaping the busy and dirty city. What was formally desert will soon become magnificently built three story luxury condos that will span for miles upon miles. The gap between rich and poor couldn’t be more clear and now there will be a physical separation between the two.
I hope you will enjoy reading my column about my experiences and the news of the surrounding region.
