First of all, congratulations to Meredith and Andrew, who got married yesterday.  I truly regret missing what sounded like a beautiful time.

On Saturday I went on a bus tour of Cairo.  We sort of circumnavigated the greater Cairo area, which was nice because we went out to sites and cities which I had heard of, but probably would not otherwise have visited on my own.  Overall it was a somewhat depressing, but highly informative tour.  Cairo is one of the most densely populated cities in the world, and it is full of millions upon millions of desperately poor people.  I thought I understood something about class divisions, but truly I did not.  We went up on top of the desert plateau, near the cliffs which had recently collapsed onto the people living below.  The view was breathtaking.  If you look closely at the pictures, you can make out the pyramids in the background through the smog.  We went out past some of the last remaining fertile agricultural areas that once made up the bulk of the land along the Nile River.  These are disappearing as the people search for new (safe) space to build their quasi-legal domiciles.  We learned about the un/official policy here that whether legally or illegally built, once a residence is established it is observed.  Such was the case of the shanties built dangerously close to the base of an unstable cliff face, and such is the case of the crude apartments shooting up where crops used to grow.  And what should the government do?  Throw the people back back out in the street?  Pen them to the interior of the city while everyone else flees to the expanding outer edges?

I will spare you the rant on state investment and putting people to work, and on where the real wealth of nations comes from, that briefly appeared here.  Instead, enjoy the following pictures I snapped!

Learning French for Kids

I saw this while walking by a bookstore the other day in Cairo.  I don’t recall the kids in South Park speaking French, but I imagine Kenny can jump from his native English to fluent French and Arabic without any problems.  Around the corner was a book in Arabic with the faces of Hitler, bin Laden, and Bill Gates on the cover.  I’m not entirely sure what that was about.

Can’t wait to have my own personal translator here to fill me on all that I am clearly missing in the written Arabic word.