Khan el Khalili

Looking at a map of central Cairo and taking into account the scale, it's easy to think that it won't take long to walk from A to B. It seems that's always a mistake! Getting anywhere, by foot or car, takes ages because of the chaotic traffic and lack of footpaths. There are sometimes footpaths, but they're often crowded with stalls or blocked in one way or another, so you end up on the street, and cars are jammed at least 2, sometimes 3 across in a one laned street, so things move slowly, with constant honking of horns. I have put in a video of a relatively civilised street scene to give an idea of what it's like. This one has a barrier in the middle so people can't cross, but usually pedestrians just walk into the traffic. The traffic never ever actually stops for pedestrians. We have learned that the only way to cross is to just step out confidently, keep going and never hesitate. Otherwise you find an Egyptian who is crossing and go next to him.

A street in Khan el Khalili souk

Today we ventured on our own to one of the souks, or street markets, called Khan el Khalili. It is an area of tiny narrow streets, most not wide enough for a car, and filled with endless street stalls. We took the GPS to make sure we could find our way out again! You can get anything there - clothes, jewellery, antiques, spices, oils, household things, car and bicycle parts - anything. We tried our completely infant bargaining skills on a few things and came away modestly satisfied. We probably paid far too much, but it's still very cheap compared with NZ. In fact everything is really cheap here - you can eat for just a few dollars a day if you just stick to the basics. You can get food delivered to wherever you are staying, although you pay baksheesh for almost every transation. Even the Egyptians all work on the principal of baksheesh. We were encouraged to see it as a way of getting good, cheerful service, and we're slowly getting the hang of it.

So far we have not achieved a great deal on the computer side of things, although we have begun to make small contributions. Grant is helping set up a backup system, as nobody does any backups. I am doing some work on the various websites that exist for the diocese and its ministries, though progress is slow as getting to talk to relevant people isn't all that easy. I will be doing some teaching on Saturday. It's Coptic Christmas tomorrow so it's a really big deal around here - the Anglicans are wanting to show solidarity with the Coptic Christians in the light of the recent bombing of the Coptic Cathedral in Alexandria, and the 10% of the population who is Coptic in Egypt is making a big celebration of their Christmas day.