There are a number of things that helped us with the decision to stay. Number one was definitely the support of our families. They are at the end of the phone, email and text and this has been really reassuring. We know that if our families had said they would prefer us to be out of Egypt and in the UK, then we would have gone, but they have said that they draw confidence and reassurance from us. That we're "sensible" and they trust we would leave if we needed to leave has helped reassure us too. The other has been the support and feeling of the community here in Maadi. That's the community of friends we have here who are also staying and also the community that we have lived in for the last two and half years. Here are a few photos and anecdotes over these few days.
It's ten-to-eleven and we get a phone call. The BCA will open. At 11am. It will need to close at 2.30pm because curfew starts at 3pm, but a drinks a drink so we get down there!
It's so great to see people! To know that we are not alone! It's been brilliant to be able to stay with Flossie and Caz, but with the Internet down everything has felt isolating. Getting out of the flat and seeing that there are lots of other people who have not headed off (yet) lifts everyone's spirits.
It turns out that the BCA is an evacuation point. So if the Embassy does decide to evacuate (rather than give generic ambiguous advice) then all we need to do is turn up there with our suitcase and they'll come and collect us! Brilliant! Also the main guy at the BCA is a "warden" which means he has direct contact with the Embassy and so will be told first if anything changes.
At 2.30pm we start to head back to the flat. Although they are serving booze the kitchen isn't yet open so we are all a little tipsey!
We've mentioned in other posts about the road blocks that have been slowing and stopping traffic on the streets. These vary in their extent and the materials they are constructed with. Here are a few of our favourite (that are also some of the most effective I will add!).
Again we mentioned before that we felt a lot safer knowing that the bowab army were out in force. During the day their nests remain undisturbed and the fires are smoldering. It honestly was reassuring knowing that they were out there and that they cared about protecting the people and property of their neighbourhood. Of our neighbourhood.
Some were a bit more hard core than others though. This was along Road 206 where they had their case of Molotov cocktails ready.
We were truly impressed with the organisation that there was in the area. We found these two notices taped to the police booth that was part of the road block on 213 / 231 The Degla Security Watch list listed the names and numbers of two people for each crossroads in the Degla Maadi area. It was accompanied by a map showing where each roadblock was set up. At the bottom of the Watch List it also had the number of the Tank Commander. Brilliant!
So now we are in the position where we are trying to live as normally as we can.
We're living back at our flat now (Flossie has changed her holiday plans and has flown to the UK). It is quiet in the street after curfew, but a few cars are still going around. On the news sites they say that the curfew is "notional" and taken more as a guideline than rule (guideline being that if you are out after curfew you will be stopped and questioned). The first thing we noticed after getting back here though was that the dogs are louder in the wasteland behind our flat, and the mosque is louder in the mornings! We're managing to sleep though and right through to 8am as we're still tired everyday.
Curfew has been reduced so it is now 7pm until 6am. The first time we were out walking at 6pm was really strange and felt odd to be our after dark. This makes life easier and you feel a bit more confident about being out during the day.
There are definitely an increasing number of cars on the road during the day. Just a few days ago the ratio of cars to taxis was crazy with five taxis coming past you before you saw a car. They were after the business and who can blame them? Now the ratio is more normal
Saveway has restocked its shelves. No longer is only one type of pasta gathering dust on the bottom shelf and there no bread. I'm managing to time my visits with the fresh aish delivery and we've had more water delivered. I'm yet to get fresh milk but we can live with long life for a while.
Banks are starting to reopen. We didn't both queuing on the first day the cash machine was working (Sunday 10am - 1.30pm apparently) but did queue on Monday. It took us an hour, but we managed to get money out (1,000LE is allowed per transaction and you're allowed two transactions a day). We didn't use our full allowance though as we felt a little guilty. We will try and go again in the next few days.
Shops are reopening too. We had breakfast in Costa Coffee today while Fatma cleaned the apartment. She didn't come at all last week because of everything. But she seemed very happy to be back at work today. Our trip out also took us through the Grand Mall. The "looting" reported to us when we were in Luxor was simply shop owners removing their stock for safe keeping. When we first saw the mall on coming back to Maadi we saw that many of the shops had painted their windows, put up newspaper or boarded them to prevent people seeing in. Today though they were cleaning this off, dusting the shelves and returning stock to them. We bought a duvet cover as in our "hiding of instruments" we found a duvet at the back of a cupboard. This duvet has now been sent to the dry cleaners (another sign of normality that they will come and collect!). Arzak has also reopened. Not only are they serving (and they were busy when we've passed over the alst two days, but they are also delivering! A fleet of drivers were ready in their jackets, their mopeds revving on the side of the road.
There are just a few army guys around now. We've seen one or two around the mall in recent days. Now we haven't seen any tanks, but that's more because we haven't left Maadi in the last few days, than they've gone. We'll have to venture out a little more in the next few days, but for the moment we are happy with our walks between ours place, Grand Mall, Degla, BCA and Road 9. Both of us have been out on our own too. We just tell each other where we are going and make sure that we have our passport, phone and school ID (might help!).
The police are coming back slowly. Someone noted today that they have lost their swagger. But they are coming back. I think they have also lost their guns. The ones we have seen only have hand guns on their belts rather than the shot guns they normally have on the street corner. Maybe this is because the street corner guys aren't back yet, only the head honchos and the traffic police.
Over the last few days it has been reported more that westerners are being taken in for questioning. We haven't spoken to anyone directly who has been taken in, but do know of two friends of friends who this has happened to. Both stories are connected with having high-end cameras out and taking photos. We're just sensible and aren't going to use our D-SLR. We haven't been taking many photos and those that we have taken don't faff about with any zoom (sorry!) but are point - shoot - put away quickly! We're trying to be positive with the police and army guys though. We're trying to make eye contact and say hello (masr a kheir), rather than shy away from them. Our thoughts are that this will show that we are from the area and belong here as much as they do. we have found that they are very happy to respond and trying hard to be nice too!
One thing that has remained constant during the time we've been back in Maadi has been the newspapers. There is a street corner stall between our place and Flossie's so we have been buying papers every day to chronicle what has been happening. It's been interesting to see what photos are shown, and which images are missing. We can't read the papers, but hopefully we will get some bits translated at some point.
Domestically speaking now we've realised the value of satellite TV and think we're going to try and get one installed. We only get four Egyptian channels through our ariel on the back balcony (which isn't even the same room as our TV) and apparently it only costs 300LE for the dish to be installed and then you get all the free channels which includes BBC World I think. If we had been at our place on 28th January we would have had no idea what was going on with no phones, TV or internet.
I'm determined to use the time to get through lots of books - goodness knows I have enough! It was distracting trying to read with the TV on, but then we couldn't really turn it off for the first week because things were happening so quickly and changing all the time. Now it's easier to read and so take a break for the constant updates on downtown.
We're also doing lots of cooking for ourselves at the moment with no way to eat out or order in (our little luxuries!). As friends have left Cairo they've left their fresh food with us which has lead to some afternoons being a little like Can't Cook, Won't Cook with their red pepper and green tomato (or is it the other way around). We've made carrot soup, ratatouille, chili (using a small amount of left over chili, meatballs, left over veg stew and special ingredient Dragon Fart sauce), omelet and chips, birthday Victoria sponge (well this was made by Caz and the bowab army were going to use in in their defences!). Some days though we have eaten badly - sitting in front on the TV does lend itself to eating crisps and chocolate. Not good. Early curfew has also meant we've had to be strict with ourselves before we have the first drink of the day. Flossie and I would normally manage to put off the first white wine spritzer until 6pm!
After toying with the idea we decided not to put another brew on. We were really excited by the idea of brewing through a revolution, but with all the ups and downs, stays or gos it was impossible to decide to put one on. Also if we had put one on during a "stay / up" feeling this would have had an effect on us in the down. We wanted to be able to leave and go to the UK if we wanted to - and not have to stop and stay just so we didn't lose 40 pints of beer! We do now have 12 water bottles full of boiled water ready to clean for future brews!
What next?
Well although there is no curfew on Sinai we are a little paranoid that our flight to Sharm will be affected. All the flights are messed up at the moment. To play it safe we have rebooked a flight for lunch time on Friday. We'll have a fair few hours to kill at the airport before DaddyB lands, but this seems a better option that being stuck in Cairo. Until then we've decided to use the time for various things we don't normally get round to: Tuesday I'm going to try and get a hair cut, Wednesday we've both got dentist appointments (first time in two and a half years....) and Thursday we've both got a massage booked. Oh, and each day popping to the BCA for an afternoon shandy!
It's ten-to-eleven and we get a phone call. The BCA will open. At 11am. It will need to close at 2.30pm because curfew starts at 3pm, but a drinks a drink so we get down there!
It's so great to see people! To know that we are not alone! It's been brilliant to be able to stay with Flossie and Caz, but with the Internet down everything has felt isolating. Getting out of the flat and seeing that there are lots of other people who have not headed off (yet) lifts everyone's spirits. It turns out that the BCA is an evacuation point. So if the Embassy does decide to evacuate (rather than give generic ambiguous advice) then all we need to do is turn up there with our suitcase and they'll come and collect us! Brilliant! Also the main guy at the BCA is a "warden" which means he has direct contact with the Embassy and so will be told first if anything changes.
At 2.30pm we start to head back to the flat. Although they are serving booze the kitchen isn't yet open so we are all a little tipsey!
We've mentioned in other posts about the road blocks that have been slowing and stopping traffic on the streets. These vary in their extent and the materials they are constructed with. Here are a few of our favourite (that are also some of the most effective I will add!).
 |
| Middle-class Roadblock |
 |
| An ingenious use of a set of football goal posts |
 |
| What better use of a Christmas Tree at the end of January? |
Again we mentioned before that we felt a lot safer knowing that the bowab army were out in force. During the day their nests remain undisturbed and the fires are smoldering. It honestly was reassuring knowing that they were out there and that they cared about protecting the people and property of their neighbourhood. Of our neighbourhood.
Some were a bit more hard core than others though. This was along Road 206 where they had their case of Molotov cocktails ready.
We were truly impressed with the organisation that there was in the area. We found these two notices taped to the police booth that was part of the road block on 213 / 231 The Degla Security Watch list listed the names and numbers of two people for each crossroads in the Degla Maadi area. It was accompanied by a map showing where each roadblock was set up. At the bottom of the Watch List it also had the number of the Tank Commander. Brilliant!
So now we are in the position where we are trying to live as normally as we can.
We're living back at our flat now (Flossie has changed her holiday plans and has flown to the UK). It is quiet in the street after curfew, but a few cars are still going around. On the news sites they say that the curfew is "notional" and taken more as a guideline than rule (guideline being that if you are out after curfew you will be stopped and questioned). The first thing we noticed after getting back here though was that the dogs are louder in the wasteland behind our flat, and the mosque is louder in the mornings! We're managing to sleep though and right through to 8am as we're still tired everyday.
Curfew has been reduced so it is now 7pm until 6am. The first time we were out walking at 6pm was really strange and felt odd to be our after dark. This makes life easier and you feel a bit more confident about being out during the day.
There are definitely an increasing number of cars on the road during the day. Just a few days ago the ratio of cars to taxis was crazy with five taxis coming past you before you saw a car. They were after the business and who can blame them? Now the ratio is more normal
Saveway has restocked its shelves. No longer is only one type of pasta gathering dust on the bottom shelf and there no bread. I'm managing to time my visits with the fresh aish delivery and we've had more water delivered. I'm yet to get fresh milk but we can live with long life for a while.
Banks are starting to reopen. We didn't both queuing on the first day the cash machine was working (Sunday 10am - 1.30pm apparently) but did queue on Monday. It took us an hour, but we managed to get money out (1,000LE is allowed per transaction and you're allowed two transactions a day). We didn't use our full allowance though as we felt a little guilty. We will try and go again in the next few days.
Shops are reopening too. We had breakfast in Costa Coffee today while Fatma cleaned the apartment. She didn't come at all last week because of everything. But she seemed very happy to be back at work today. Our trip out also took us through the Grand Mall. The "looting" reported to us when we were in Luxor was simply shop owners removing their stock for safe keeping. When we first saw the mall on coming back to Maadi we saw that many of the shops had painted their windows, put up newspaper or boarded them to prevent people seeing in. Today though they were cleaning this off, dusting the shelves and returning stock to them. We bought a duvet cover as in our "hiding of instruments" we found a duvet at the back of a cupboard. This duvet has now been sent to the dry cleaners (another sign of normality that they will come and collect!). Arzak has also reopened. Not only are they serving (and they were busy when we've passed over the alst two days, but they are also delivering! A fleet of drivers were ready in their jackets, their mopeds revving on the side of the road.
There are just a few army guys around now. We've seen one or two around the mall in recent days. Now we haven't seen any tanks, but that's more because we haven't left Maadi in the last few days, than they've gone. We'll have to venture out a little more in the next few days, but for the moment we are happy with our walks between ours place, Grand Mall, Degla, BCA and Road 9. Both of us have been out on our own too. We just tell each other where we are going and make sure that we have our passport, phone and school ID (might help!).
The police are coming back slowly. Someone noted today that they have lost their swagger. But they are coming back. I think they have also lost their guns. The ones we have seen only have hand guns on their belts rather than the shot guns they normally have on the street corner. Maybe this is because the street corner guys aren't back yet, only the head honchos and the traffic police.
Over the last few days it has been reported more that westerners are being taken in for questioning. We haven't spoken to anyone directly who has been taken in, but do know of two friends of friends who this has happened to. Both stories are connected with having high-end cameras out and taking photos. We're just sensible and aren't going to use our D-SLR. We haven't been taking many photos and those that we have taken don't faff about with any zoom (sorry!) but are point - shoot - put away quickly! We're trying to be positive with the police and army guys though. We're trying to make eye contact and say hello (masr a kheir), rather than shy away from them. Our thoughts are that this will show that we are from the area and belong here as much as they do. we have found that they are very happy to respond and trying hard to be nice too!
One thing that has remained constant during the time we've been back in Maadi has been the newspapers. There is a street corner stall between our place and Flossie's so we have been buying papers every day to chronicle what has been happening. It's been interesting to see what photos are shown, and which images are missing. We can't read the papers, but hopefully we will get some bits translated at some point.
Domestically speaking now we've realised the value of satellite TV and think we're going to try and get one installed. We only get four Egyptian channels through our ariel on the back balcony (which isn't even the same room as our TV) and apparently it only costs 300LE for the dish to be installed and then you get all the free channels which includes BBC World I think. If we had been at our place on 28th January we would have had no idea what was going on with no phones, TV or internet.
I'm determined to use the time to get through lots of books - goodness knows I have enough! It was distracting trying to read with the TV on, but then we couldn't really turn it off for the first week because things were happening so quickly and changing all the time. Now it's easier to read and so take a break for the constant updates on downtown.
We're also doing lots of cooking for ourselves at the moment with no way to eat out or order in (our little luxuries!). As friends have left Cairo they've left their fresh food with us which has lead to some afternoons being a little like Can't Cook, Won't Cook with their red pepper and green tomato (or is it the other way around). We've made carrot soup, ratatouille, chili (using a small amount of left over chili, meatballs, left over veg stew and special ingredient Dragon Fart sauce), omelet and chips, birthday Victoria sponge (well this was made by Caz and the bowab army were going to use in in their defences!). Some days though we have eaten badly - sitting in front on the TV does lend itself to eating crisps and chocolate. Not good. Early curfew has also meant we've had to be strict with ourselves before we have the first drink of the day. Flossie and I would normally manage to put off the first white wine spritzer until 6pm!
After toying with the idea we decided not to put another brew on. We were really excited by the idea of brewing through a revolution, but with all the ups and downs, stays or gos it was impossible to decide to put one on. Also if we had put one on during a "stay / up" feeling this would have had an effect on us in the down. We wanted to be able to leave and go to the UK if we wanted to - and not have to stop and stay just so we didn't lose 40 pints of beer! We do now have 12 water bottles full of boiled water ready to clean for future brews!
What next?
Well although there is no curfew on Sinai we are a little paranoid that our flight to Sharm will be affected. All the flights are messed up at the moment. To play it safe we have rebooked a flight for lunch time on Friday. We'll have a fair few hours to kill at the airport before DaddyB lands, but this seems a better option that being stuck in Cairo. Until then we've decided to use the time for various things we don't normally get round to: Tuesday I'm going to try and get a hair cut, Wednesday we've both got dentist appointments (first time in two and a half years....) and Thursday we've both got a massage booked. Oh, and each day popping to the BCA for an afternoon shandy!
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