Maadi

So I have been living in Maadi, Egypt for the last two weeks where I am going to be spending most of my summer working on an avian influenza project at NAMRU-3 (Naval Medical Research Unit 3). NAMRU-2 is in Jakarta and apparently they dont have a 1 but they do have another location (not numbered) in Peru.

Maadi is an interesting place... since mostly expats/government people/rich egyptians live in this area. With all this you would think the population would be pretty heterogenous compared to the rest of Egypt however I RARELY ever see groupings of foreigners in the streets. This isn't surprising with how hot it gets here and the fact that you can have practically anything delivered to your house (including an order of McDonalds fries).

Cairo and the surrounding areas has about 18 million people and 2 million of those people are not Muslim - meaning most likely they are coptic christians. And the christians along with all foreigners aer the only people/women you will see without a head wrap and short sleeves. It is a trip! Especially when you are walking down your neighborhood streets with all the women in their brightly colored modern outfits covering almost everything except their face, hands, and feet. I feel naked next to these women and I definately get some stares from people. Everyday- multiple times a day the muslims have a call for prayer. I can't really explain this - i still don't quite know if I enjoy hearing this melodic wailing or if I am annoyed that they will do this at 4am when I am trying to sleep. Here is a little sample...

I am living with a lady and her daughter who works for the USDA -APHIS. She is a pretty amazing lady with everywhere she has traveled and what she is working on... but this is pretty common in this community. Almost every foreigner who lives in Maadi is either working on infectious disease/public health, foreign policy, or oil (ok that one is not so hot! but engineers are still pretty damn smart).

I had the opportunity to go the the CAC (Cairo American College/School) graduation last weekend where I got to meet the spawn of these amazing people. Some were no doubt spoiled, but most of them were well in tune with world issues and were on their way to some pretty cool careers themselves. Here are some pictures of the ceremony.... at the base of the pyramids!

Egypt 08

Chris is coming out this Thursday - meaning I have to get my butt over to the travel agent. We are going to try to see some of the following.
Luxor
Alexandria
Dahab- has been implicated in past bombings but is extremely safe now with heightened security for tourists. AND Dahab is supposed to have some amazing coral reefs off the coast.
and of course Cairo and the Giza pyramids.
I am going to attempt to go to the Khan el khalili and not get ripped off too. Hopefully my hungarian bargaining skills will some in handy