In the Middle of the Nile

Time telescopes in such a strange way. I am now in Cairo. We had our BE'er goodbye dinner last night at the Gemmayze Cafe, an old Parisien 1930's style place in Beirut -- it reminded me of a Buenos Aires tango hall. It was bitter sweet to say goodbye to the group -- we all got so close with our shared adventure. One member's job is to organize a Beirut Exchange online group. My job is to organize our reunion in 2-5 years, insha'Allah. Our last day of conference meetings was full, as usual. We met with a member of a party/group that the our government shuns -- the one that controls the Gaza Strip. Again, I have to say, the meetings with the higher ups of these popular organizations have been open exchanges. The people are reasonable, intelligent, and their positions are coherent. I don't know how much is lip service, but Obama's rapprochement to the Arab world seems to have made a big difference - at least in willingness to engage. Many of the people we talk to are hopeful, but not certain, of how much change he can make. Bush Senior was respected in this part of the world, not so his son.

We also went to see a Shi'a religious leader, whose name is on our government's same list. Apparently our translator missed a lot, but our host sounded way too authoritarian to me. I wouldn't want to be told to live under the rules he might enforce. Nicholas wasn't expecting that sort of posture from him, and wondered whether his ideology was veering right. This particular revered figure is a keen entrepreneur. He has a chain of theme hotels and restaurants that replicate old Arab villages, in London, Beirut, Doha and somewhere in Saudi Arabia. They are attractive, but the one in Beirut isn't located very conveniently for tourists. They video taped our meeting. The waiter at dinner recognized Safiyya, saying he had seen her on TV. The security at the ayatolla's compound was tight. Also, we had to don abayas, we each had our own head scarves, but our robes were black and fully covering. The women entered one side of a small gate house, the men the other. There was a pass through window between. A woman searched each of us, in a manner that Martha called a grope. Since, I've never actually been searched before, I didn't realize it was unacceptably invasive. We decided our screener probably wasn't trained in the TSA art of patting people down. Safiyya who wears the hijab was the only one dressed suitably to attend the meeting. She's beautiful, so I'm not surprised the camera followed her. During our group picture, I was behind someone, which is OK with me, since there is no percentage in being seen in a photo that might land me on the no fly list.

Middle Eastern hospitality is renowned. Every meeting we attended on someone's turf (rather than in our meeting room) we were given various things to drink and eat -- usually served by domestics. I don't know which suitcase my notes are in, so I can't tell you who we met, he was a scholar of Islamic jurisprudence. We sat in his salon -- a long room with 3 chandeliers and a dining table at one end. The apartments we've visited are people my age or older, and their decor is very formal, lots of velvet covered French chairs and love seats. Like in Miami, the floors in upscale apartments are usually polished marble, generally strewn with beautiful rugs. I think this apartment occupied the entire floor of the building. They served us juices and fresh dates, cherries and mulberries that they had just brought back from the country. There are wonderful varieties of baklava in Liban -- which are often proffered, as well as cookies and chocolate. I usually chose to walk the stairs in Lebanon, both because I wanted the exercise, and because the power goes out a lot. We all had to walk down from this luxe apartment, because the power was out and there was no elevator for the moment.

I really do like the Arabs. If you look them in the eye, smile and try to speak their language, they are so warm. It is interesting to watch other tourists. At the last hotel, a horrible English couple came down to the lobby just at 10am when breakfast ends. I was replenishing my coffee, and the staff had just carried the food off the buffet table into the kitchen. The guests were unpleasant, loudly complaining that it was 2 minutes to 10, and why was the breakfast gone? I was standing next to Tania (the proprietress) who was sort of shocked, and I said to her it was just about 10. I walked away and the couple said to me, "thanks for the help". I told them they could have asked nicely for breakfast. Tania asked me what I thought she should do. I suggested she just give them breakfast, which she did. Some of our group arrived for breakfast 10 or 15 minutes late some mornings -- they were out clubbing and had a tough time getting out of bed. They were apologetic and sweet and Tania gave them breakfast with a smile. Another morning the horrible couple asked to borrow my guide book, I walked to my room and got it for them. They were pleasant enough to me, but when they checked out, Tania said they were arguing over the 500 LL she didn't have in coins to give them. That is 33 cents. Tania took it out of the tip jar to give to them. Nasty.

I was chatting with the desk clerk who was teaching me Arabic this evening in the hotel in Cairo. A guest from Jacksonville, Fla. was talking to the desk clerk like he was a half-wit, although he obviously spoke good English in his conversation with me. Oh well, at least that American has and uses a passport! These little hotels are so rich with personalities. Tomorrow will be our first breakfast in this new place -- we'll see who we meet.

Tomorrow morning are going on a walking tour of old Cairo that my friend Mustafa reserved for us. I look forward to meeting him in person. He is 26 and was my co-facilitator on our Soliya sessions. We had many a fun chat on Skype and I am fond of him. I will also go to the Soliya offices here in Cairo next week. Friday and Saturday are the weekend days.

I'm waiting for Jim to arrive from the airport. I got up early this morning to fly to Cairo, checked into my hotel and slept all afternoon! We are staying in Zamalek, which is an island in the middle of the Nile. It reminds me of Park Slope, Brooklyn, but not as charming, nor clean. Way more exotic though.