Welcome to the Neighborhood

Last week, Christine asked about “the people in my neighborhood” and had me singing Sesame Street songs for about two days. Once the effects of my Oscar and Big Bird induced insanity had worn off, I started looking around for things I should tell you about my small corner of Cairo.

The moment I stepped outside my door, this cart passed by. I’m not sure about other Cairene neighborhoods but mine seems to have at least two or three delivery guys who travel this way. The gas cylinder guy is my favourite though since he tends to clang musically on the pressurized containers to get people’s attention.

A few steps down the road, I saw the sweet potato vendor sitting in front of one of our local mosques. This gentleman can usually be found somewhere along our street early in the morning so that people can purchase one of his yummy sweet potatoes for breakfast.

This is the intersection where I practice some of my very bad Arabic with our local policemen. (That’s them hiding behind the car, sitting down, and enjoying a break.) This corner is worked by the same few guys who always wave, say hello, and bravely endure my attempts to greet them in their local language. I’m not sure what use they would be if something actually went wrong, but at least they’re friendly!

A quick glance to my left, and I can see this cheese wedge building. It isn’t a person in my neighborhood but Hubby likes the architecture of this particular edifice.

He also likes the windows in this building. I’m not sure who lives on the other side of the glass but I always imagine them to be artsy types.

Like any neighborhood in Cairo, the stray cats here rule the streets. They can be found under cars in the shade during the day, and atop them in the early evenings. I even know several people who have adopted these street cats and brought them home. Given how adorable many of these cats are, it is probably only a matter of time before we open up our own flat to at least one of the local kittens. This particular feline was busy watching an empty building and wasn’t amused that I had disrupted its diligent study.

Our final picture is a local baladi dog named Alexander the Great who lives a few floors down from me. Although Alex’s humans are very nice people, he kindly adopted Hubby and I into his family and has been known to guard our flat whenever he visits. My favorite trick, however, can only be seen when Alex leaves – he opens the elevator door all by himself! That’s a great dog!