An apartment in Dokki

I arrived in Cairo five days ago, on November 3rd, and settled into a “desirable” part of the city called “Dokki.” Kathy Kamphoefner, my friend from 39 years ago, came to Cairo International Airport at 6:30 pm to meet me. In the hour-long nighttime drive to Dokki, I saw a different Cairo: gleaming, shining, huge, inviting—with enormous buildings covered in neon. When we arrived at 4 Ahmed Amin Street, we took the elevator to my 5th floor efficiency apartment, I put the luggage on the bed, and we kept our reunion catch-up going until 1 am!

In the daytime of November 4th, I ventured out in the afternoon along Tahrir Street, a main thoroughfare, to buy food. I passed the Dokki Metro Station; 40 years ago, the very first station was being built, and now there are 3 lines with 84 stations! I soon found the neighborhood market street, 10 blocks long, and I could buy all needed household and personal supplies, plus my staple vegetables, fruits, salt, and cooking oil. It was the Cairo of 40 years ago, but the street was paved, and the garbage was swept up neatly for the daily collection, instead of being strewn in the street.

In the following four days, I did the daily food shopping, ventured out alone one mere kilometer toward the city center (I was afraid and intimidated to go out at first!) studied Arabic like crazy in my apartment, and got mentally and physically settled. I also met Kathy and her husband Paul for breakfast one day,
in which I received a first gentle orientation to present-day Cairo.

November 8, I joined Kathy for a luncheon meeting of a recently-formed group of ex-pat ladies in their 60’s and 70’s in beautiful Azhar Park, bordering on the famed Islamic University of El Azhar, and the heart of Old Cairo. Somehow I couldn’t relate what I saw to the Cairo of 40 years ago. At all. I wondered how I could possibly have felt it all so familiar way back then. And how could I get re-acquainted? That will be in the next blog post!

Please enjoy the photos. The one video shows what it’s like to be surrounded by adolescents who were all dying to talk to us and have their photo taken with us. They had to be chased away by park security, eventually…もっと詳しく