Christian Cairo on Halloween (10.31.07)

I know, I know, Christian Cairo sounds like an oxymoron, but believe it or not, Cairo was very Christian before the arrival of the Arab conquerers in the 7th Century AD. After a few days break from being a real tourist, I decided it was high time to get back out into the big brown world of Cairo. The goal today was Coptic Cairo and I decided to try to brave the Metro system to get there. I wandered through the streets talking on the phone with Jeanna (how cool talk on the cell phone while walking to the Metro in Cairo) and after figuring out where I was and getting off the phone with Jeanna, I got up the guts and headed down the strairs in to the hot and steamy station under Midan Tahrir. All the sources said that they best way to get to Coptic Cairo/Mar Girgis station was the Metro, but it turned out that no one actually mentioned how to do it. Thank be to Omid for teaching me the Arabic alphabet, because that is the way that I read the subway map and figured out which line I needed to take. My math skills came in handy too when the ticket seller tried to give me only 4 LE change rather than 19 LE. Crazy cheating bastard! I finally made it to the platform, watched a few music videos while I waited, and then when the train (direction Helwan) appeared, I shoved myself onto the car with the rest of the sweaty masses and 4 stops later emerged in a very different place than the one I left - Mar Girgis station right outside of Coptic Cairo.

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Coptic Cairo is the ancient center of Egyptian Christianity, and even today CHristians make up 10% of Egypt's population, though apparently most live in Middle Egypt rather than the Lower Egypt. The site of Coptic Cairo was occupied by Romans prior to Christ and for the most part exists withing a large walled compound that is home to ~6 churches, a synagogue, and the Coptic Museum. The museum was my first stop. Since they took my camera at the entrance, I didn't get to take any photos of the dozens of carved pillars and palistrades and painted friezes and niches, but they were very interested. In particular, the paintings depicted Christ and various saints, and the museum even had 1500-year-old textiles that were used by monks and priests of the Christian faithful. I learned that Coptic is its own language, with roots in both Greek and Pharonic hieroglypics, and that hermeticism began in Egypt and then was exported into Europe.

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I then visited the Greek Orthodox church of St. George and the Church of St. Barbara, both built well over 800 years ago. I have to admit that in a culture that is completely dominated by Islam in both religious practice and cultural values, to see groups of Egyptians filing into the churches, placing their hands on the 18th century Christian icons, and then kissing their hands was completely unexpected and fascinating. Seeing Greek lettering and crosses on graves that also contained Arabic text seemed like an impossible juxtaposition. If I have learned anything about Islam since I have been in the Middle East it is that they hold their faith with the most absolute conviction that God exists, that Mohamed was his prophet, and that the Muslim faith is the final and most perfect iteration of God's word. Thus, to see a group of people who are culturally Egyptian but who have managed to retain their faith so strongly in the midst of an ocean of the Muslim faithful is quite amazing to me.

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Unfortunately, I had started my day late nad all the churches within the walls closed at 4, so I did a little souvenir shopping in the shops just outside the walls, had a delicious meal of rice, vegetables and falafel at a sidewalk cafe, and enjoyed my own company for about an hour while one of the dozens of local stray cats cleaned itself under my feet.

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When I was ready to go, I was approached by a man asking if I needed a taxi. We settled on a rate to the Khan El Khalili and I was ready to get going. I was so grumpy all day...needed a little space from the incessant crush of people all around...so I was not too happy when I discovered that my taxi was not a taxi at all. It was a guy with a car who desperately wanted to stop and tell me about this mosque and that wall and to offer me a "very good special price just for you" to Saqqara tomorrow. I declined curtly, but did end up taking his number should I decide to continue being a tourist towards the end of the week.

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For about the 7th time in two weeks I ended up at the Khan El Khalili, first to do a little souvenir shopping, and then to find new bedlahs for my group at home. I wasted a good 20 minutes in a tourist shop with a sleazy salesman bring out 1 poor quality sequined bedlah after another until I got pissed off when he abandoned me mid-sentence to tend to another customer who had wandered loudly into the tiny store. As I fled down the alley with one of his staff calling after me in protest, I spied a professional costume shop on the left and ducked in. The whole two story shop probably had a smaller footprint than a typical American walk-in closet, but it was packed with dozens of gorgeous costumes. I spent some time upstairs in the small section of bedlahs, identified my preference to have two-piece belts for a better fit on my dancer's hips, and spent another 30 minutes pulling sizes and color preferences for a my now 11-member troup out of my email. All I can think of now is how much cash I am going to have to withdray from the ATM on Saturday when I need to pay for it all. (And this doesn't include figuring out how I am going to get it all home!)

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No trip to the Khan El Khalili would be complete without stopping by my friends at Mohamed Kamel Costumes, so I headed over there at around 8:30. I first signed the mirror that I had delivered on Monday, and then started asking about Saidi costumes and skirts. Of course that didn't last long as I got talked into to trying on dress after dress of the professional Oriental style. By the time I was done (having found nothing specific), it was 10:30 and I was once again sticky with sweat and tired!

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When I got back to the hostel, a new group of students had arrived to an already full hotel, and my dance room was now filled with mattresses on the floor and there were bodies spilling out of every corner. The common room was crowded with new faces, but we had a nice evening as the staff had purchased a birthday cake for one of the guests and we all hung out and ate cake. I am going to miss hostel life when I head to Dubai - not only the prices (unbeatable at $10/night) but also the culture in which you get to meet people from all over the world and find people to travel with. I arranged to do the major pyramid sites around Cairo with a young Australian woman for tomorrow morning, and went to bed far, far to late :).