El Andalous - Settling Back

I Hope Everyone had a Merry Christmas!

It’s strange being back. The overwhelming feeling is that nothing has changed and it’s as if I’ve never been away. Yet, a number of things have changed (shops have closed, beaches are empty, a children’s playground has opened), indicating that I must have been elsewhere else in the mean time. But, somehow, that doesn’t really dawn on me; it completely washes over my head.

This is in contrast to Europe. In Europe, when I return after months or years away, I see what’s new since I was last there, and it makes me realize that time has passed, that my life has also gone on, that other people’s lives have progressed. I’m very aware of it.

Maybe it doesn’t affect me in the same way in Egypt because it’s part of the essence of being in Egypt that things always change from one moment to the next. Each time you go into Hurghada, some shops have closed, new ones have opened. I’m on the lookout for change in Sahl Hasheesh, because I report it in my newsletters. So, on the one hand, you have a sense of eternity in Egypt with the constant sunshine day in, day out, and then on the other hand, life is full of continual change, and rumour, and you’re never quite sure what will surprise you next. It’s so continual that it becomes constant and part of the very being of life in Egypt. It’s as if nothing has changed at all.

So, it was business as usual. Having said that, I was jolted into the sense that I’d been away when there were things I couldn’t remember. I’d forgotten exactly how I’d organized my beach routine (which towel did I decide was the best, what things did I need to remember to take with me?), there were items in my flat I’d completely forgotten I had (Isis chamomile tea? Which herb is in that unmarked container?), and when the delivery man handed over the flowers I’d received from my brother as a Christmas present, I worried about tipping all over again.

Other things were different but perfectly normal. My shower didn’t work when I got back. They fixed it for me really quickly (something had to be pushed out and it had been pushed in). My mobile phone no longer worked and it wasn’t even that old – it won’t charge the battery. I wasn’t so bothered by this, but Esmat was very keen on my arrival that I get my phone working and Safi was likewise anxious about how I could survive without a mobile for two weeks. Egypt remained – if only, thankfully, in a minor way – the land where things go wrong.

I went to have my breakfast one morning only to find a kitten looking at me from the sofa on my balcony, just where I wanted to sit! The next evening it was accompanied by its brother or sister and the two of them stared at me with pleading eyes through the patio doors; the next morning a third kitten had joined them and I opened my curtains in the morning to find them spread out on my balcony furniture like they owned the place. I relented and gave them some milk and then they didn’t return after that. This is Egypt – the land of the unpredictable.

I’d had a hectic social schedule in Zurich before leaving and had expected some quiet down time once I’d arrived in Egypt, but actually it’s been equally busy here on the social front. I’ve been on the weekly bus to Senzo Mall (and KFC), I was invited to Christmas celebrations on 24th and 25th December. Apparently, when you buy a turkey over here, it’s not the sanitized version you get in Europe, with a plastic bag of giblets, and a neat, tidy bundle of a bird. In Egypt it’s a hunking great brute. It’s been plucked, but inside, instead of a plastic bag of giblets, you’ll find its neck and head. You’re very aware that it’s a real bird that you’re cooking. After a morning swim, I did nothing but eat on 25th December. Actually, 24th December was much the same. After that, I attended a Boxing Day party on the evening of 26th December. It was probably my most sociable Christmas ever.

By the time I go home, I will have had at least two dinners out, too, and then there have been the Saturday owners’ meetings, as well as coffees with Safi. I feel fully back into the fray.