First impressions of Egypt

Hi all
I tried to send this mail a couple of weeks ago, but I think lots of you didn't get it, so I'm resending it. It explains why we're all here. Enjoy, and reply sooon.
Moc


Hi folks

How are you? Sorry it's taken a long time to get in touch. I'm staying in quite a small town at the moment, and have really bad Net access. This is only the second time I've been online since arriving here a week ago, and the connection is pretty slow. Anyway, where am I? In Assiut (or Asyut), Egypt! I know I didn't get in touch with lots of you before I left, but the trip was a completely last minute thing. A couple of weeks ago I was surfing the Net and randomly came across a chance to complete a Tropical Medicine Summer School for three weeks, starting on July 1st. There was to be a week's travelling all over the Pharaonic sites afterwards, and it seemed like a great chance to have a holiday, learn some tropical medicine, meet great people from Egypt and the rest of the world, and to improve my Arabic. The details are here. Check it out. So I called up some of my buddies from med school, and two of them (Sho and H) were free during July. Just as we were organising all that, another friend told me about a summer school in Cairo beginning on August 1st, and seeing as I was in Egypt anyway, and that we have four months holiday this summer, I thought why not go to that as well. Unfortunately Sho and H won't be able to come for both programs, but the Cairo school should be great fun too.

Anyway, after some last-minute packing the three of us got here a week and a half ago, only to have a few problems at the airport. I already had a visa from London, but even then they confiscated my passport for 'security' for twenty minutes. Then it was my friends' turn. The problem is there is next to no signposting at Cairo International, and people here don't queue. After twenty minutes they were told to buy their visas from somewhere else and join the back of the line again. Almost two hours after landing we were out of the airport, and following a bit of bargaining we took a taxi to the main train station, as the training was beginning the next day so we needed to get to Assiut asap. Riding a taxi in Cairo is an exhilarating experience though, even more than taking a rickshaw in Mumbai! The drivers here all treat other vehicles as moving objects in a high-speed slalom course, to be claxoned and cursed whenever a close shave is avoided. Hypertension and great entertainment is guaranteed every time, but you know, we haven't seen a single accident so far.

Within the first hour we were already introduced to the unusual habit of tipping (HK was asked for 'baksheesh' for being handed a paper towel in the airport toilets), but buying anything here involves bargaining, a skill so frustrating but so much fun that I'll tell you about it at length later.

Once we got to the Ramses Station we were tired and wanted to get second class a/c seats. We were told they weren't available, and to try another office where 3rd class tickets were being sold. These were also unavailable, and we were now ushered to the first class booths. Alas they were all gone, and we were pointed to the queue for sleeper seats, at $50 per person. Catching on, we managed to grab hold of a tourist police officer, and finally got the seats we wanted (v cheap with an ISIC card – definitely bring one if you're visiting). Taking the 10pm train we reached Assiut at 3am, to be met by four of the summer school coordinators. They are all really nice, and are rooms are fine. As for the town itself, after a week and a half Assiut is still a bit of an enigma. It's on the banks of the Nile, geographically centrally placed and with good transport links to the rest of the country. The fact that it isn't a tourist city (Lonely Planet lists the orphanage(!) as one of the tourist attractions – insensitive, huh?) and that there isn't too much to do is more than made up for by the Egyptian students' company and the other medics on the course. There are twenty of us in total, (a Frenchman, three Ukrainians, five Slovakians, a Czech, two Canadians, an Indo-Bulgarian, a Dutch woman, a Colombian and two Poles and the three of us from London), and we're having a great time. We've formed a special bond and are often up talking until three in the morning. I'll tell you much more about them over the following three weeks.

Every day there's a social program organised by the ASSA team, usually involving sitting by the Nile and later a restaurant outing, which can feel a bit repetitive, but there is always a fun twist. I sometimes feel that the Egyptian students are doing too much for us and that we are taking up all over their evenings, but it being the summer holidays these guys just don't sleep at night, when it’s nice and cool.

Getting from place to place in Assiut, and quite a bit of Upper Egypt, however is a mission. In the 1980s Assiut, and the university in particular, were hotbeds of a religious uprising, and the guy that killed Sadat had strong links with the university. Though this is now long forgotten and all the Copts I've spoken to (there's a very large Coptic community here) say they suffer no prejudice at all, there remains a massive police presence in town, and they keep an eye on things from these five metre turrets scattered round the city. Wherever we go we are followed at a discrete distance but by a truckload of officers, three for each student. We know they are there for our safety but it gets tiring pretty quickly and we’re always discussing strategies to evade them.

The medical program itself is brilliant. On our first day we were a bit apprehensive, as the hospital is a typically underfunded place with overworked doctors and patients queuing on the stairs and corridors, but the teaching is amazing. The team here is genuinely honoured that students from all over the world have chosen Assiut to complete their training, and are always willing to teach. I think we've had more personal teaching here than in all our third year firms back home. They struggle with most of our names though, and it’s always interesting how they pronounce them. My friend H decided to use the name his godfather gave him, Joshua, to make things a bit easier, but it caused even more havoc. The first doctor, after struggling once, said “Oh, that is too difficult. We must make it easier. I will call you Shoo. Shoo, you are welcome to Egypt”. Classic

I went diving yesterday. I’d never done so before, but the sports facilities here are amazing, and I thought it would be fun to give it a try. The only problem is that the boards here are seriously high. Wee attempted jumping from the second highest board and the air-time was just incredible. Screaming when diving is expected here, so I did so when I jumped, only to find I was in the air for so long I was out of breath about two thirds of the way down, and had to breathe again, just as I hit the water, and swallowed half the pool. Arrrrrrrrrrrrgh…..breathe…bre…splash, splutter. It was great fun, but my ‘unique’ technique was agony for my bruised backside.
Oh, a word of advice - don't try a sheesha pipe prepared for an Egyptian. They're lethal! Relaxing with a water pipe is a big part of many Egyptians’ lives, and the Assiut students have taken us to ‘kahwas’ quite a few times. I decided to try it for the first time a couple of days ago (in fact, the first time I ever had taken any form of tobacco) and after one puff I spent the next morning recovering. Also, it's the single biggest route of transmission for TB in these parts, but I only found that out yesterday.

Anyway folks, I’d better be off, as I need to get some sleep. The university is hosting the fourth Pan Middle Eastern Games for disabled athletes, and these guys only get going at midnight, once their competitions for the day are finished. They all gather their wheelchairs in the courtyard outside our dorms and chat and laugh for a few hours. They’re all really welcoming and we’ve joined them a few times. And once the travelling circus/dance troupee join us next week things will be even more lively.

Take care y’all, and hope to hear from you very soon. We have quite a bit of time off this week and it’d be good to hear what you’re all up to. Oh, and remember to let me know what you’d like from here.

Yours,
Moc