Midnight Adventures

Here in Egypt the weekend begins on Thursday night, not because we are huge partiers but because everyone is off on Friday. So while sitting on my balcony around 11 pm we were planning what we would do for the evening. We had two options: 1. go to a wedding (which started at midnight) 2. go to a Mawlid, which is the equivalent of a Sufi All Saints Day Celebration (which also started at midnight). These Mawlids happen once a year on the last Thursday in October. It seemed like it would be an interesting and new experience so we decided to go the Mawlid.

We didn't know where this place was. We got in the cab and asked if he knew where the Mawlid in Bahry was and he was certain he knew what we were talking about. So he took us to this carnival which looked like it was from a horror movie. Almost empty for the exception of the people running it who couldn't stop starring at us. Granted it was very strange that four foriegners would show up to this carnival for children around 1 in the morning. So we left almost immediately. Luckily we got directions to the right place.

The Mawlid was in a place we had never been before, nor have any of us heard of it so we didn't know where the cab driver was taking us. All we knew was that the further the cab drove the more Sha3bee (more local, poorer area) it got. You would have thought it was 8 pm because everything was open and the streets were full of people eating and sitting at coffee shops playing dominions or backgammon. This isn't an uncommon scene in Egypt at all but we could tell these aren't areas where you would find a foreigner. After a good amount of driving through these neighborhoods we were not quite sure if we made the right choice. We didn't know where we were but we finally arrived. So the cab driver asked us where exactly we wanted to go and we told him we were looking for the Mawlid. He then proceeded to warn us three times, "Take care of yourselves! really! Take care of yourselves in there!" This was a little unsettling but our other friends were already there so we decided to check it out.

It was a little overwhelming when we first walked into the tent. There was a stage with music playing and a man singing. In front of the stage there was a large group of people dancing and going into trances. Around the group of people dancing and going into trances, people were eating, smoking shisha, children were running around everywhere, there were food vendors and people drinking tea and turkish coffee. I didn't know how we were going to find our other friends in this huge gathering of people, but it was actually quite easy. Foreigners in Egypt usually stick out but in this instance I think we were the only foreigners there so it wasn't a challenge at all. After the musicians took a break we proceeded into another tent where we sat on rugs and drank tea. Everyone was lined along the walls of the tent just chatting. It was really nice. I got to practice my Arabic on the people there. The men sitting next to us looked at me and said "she looks Egyptian, are you Egyptian?" Being that my father isn't Egyptian people here don't really consider me that Egyptian. So then it becomes my responsibility to convince them of my Egyptian-ness by telling them " Oh Egypt is the mother of the world and Egyptians are the best people." This is a crowd pleaser. And then the men tell me how Egyptian I am.

After drinking tea we went back out to see the musical performance, or prayer, I actually don't know if it was a way of praying. But people were dancing and going into trances again. Then the most awesome guy walked up to the stage. I think the best way to describe him is Jaafar from Alladin, except his turban was way bigger. He was wearing all green, even his huge staff was green. So he was rocking out on stage dancing and occasionally playing the whistle. The whistle didn't match the music at all but I don't think anyone was going to question this guy. We stood there for a while and then got curious and began to walk around to see the rest of the place. The tent turned into a street which consisted of different places to smoke shisha and drink tea or coffee. We didn't go to those places. They took us to the road and brought chairs so I guess we created our own coffee shop. We drank tea and talked with the Egyptians there.

At around 3:30 we were all pretty tired and decided to go home. Our midnight adventure came to an end with some pizza and  fateer from the shop down the street. It was definitely an experience I will remember. It was so different while still being extremely authentic. It was also the first time I saw Sufis. For those of you who don't know what sufism is it is a sect of Islam that is often characterized as having mystical elements. Based off the conversation we had with the cab driver on the way home I don't think Sufis are that accepted among other sects of Islam. The cab driver kept telling us they were a problem.

Other News:

- Halloween! We had our Halloween party yesterday and I was a blue m&m.

- The program is taking us to Luxor and Aswan in two weeks :) I will be sure to take a lot of great photos.

-I started my university class. It is intense. I am taking economic development in Arabic. I missed 5 lectures because I started late and my academic partner, basically my tutor, is so worried about me passing. She doesn't understand I am not really taking this class to pass. I just want the language practice. She is really sweet though. She wants to meet up with me whenever I have free time. I told her that Ill stick with meeting her once a week because I don't care about my grade. The class is suppose to last 3 hours but never goes more than 2 hours. It isn't overcrowded as I thought it was going to be which is really good. My professor also got his masters and PhD from London School of Economics which is awesome.