and again

Another guest, another discovery.

Last week, for just a few days, one of my dear old best friends Seanie came to visit. We did the usual - pyramids, dinner at Abu El Sid (really good Egyptian restaurant in my neighborhood where I dined on Quail for the first time - YUM!), walking around...

But as with my last visitor, there were new discoveries (beyond the quail appetizer).

First, the pool at the Cataract Hotel near the Sakkara pyramids. It's a great way to cool off after a morning in the desert, it's not far from the Giza pyramids, and you can pay just to use the pool. (My good friend Therese and I plan on frequenting it often in the future).

The next discovery was probably the best - the Sawy Culture Wheel in Zamalek. A performing arts space and gallery (built under a bridge) that is not only a great use of public space, but is also a reminder of the Creative Alliance back home, which I've been missing very much lately.

Completely by happy accident, we saw a great live concert billed as "In Memory of Abdel Wahab, Hossam Sameer Presents the Great Composers' Master Pieces on Oud accompanied by his Musical Band" (copied exactly from the original). Mr. Sameer was a charming man (I assume by the crowd reaction, as my Arabic allowed me only to grasp 5 words of his introduction) and he and his Oud were amazing. Equally worthy of praise was his Musical Band: a percussionist on tambourine and beatbox; a zither player; a flautist; a violinist; and a cellist.

Towards the end of the first set, a tiny old woman, easily in her 80's, was brought onto the stage to much fanfare and acclaim from the crowd. Up until this point, we had noticed people in the audience occasionally singing as the band played, but we now realized everyone had received a program with all of the song lyrics printed (in Arabic) as they came in. This little old woman grasped the microphone stand to steady herself and sang with the band as the crowd went wild clapping and singing along, and cheering. Occasionally she would wiggle her hip or get a little shoulder move going, along with a mischievous glint in your eyes and you could see that, in her heydey, this was a very sassy lady. The crowd loved her so much that, despite it obviously not being planned, she was brought up again after the intermission to sing another song. The band stopped playing before the last verse and she turned around with her hand on her hip and made a joke and they started playing again until she was done singing. The moment was heartwarming and brilliant and made me so glad to have moved here and taken this journey.

I have no pictures from the evening except for this one, of a wedding car outside the florist shop as it was being decorated for a wedding procession: