Break-fast

Our last full day in Cairo and also the first day of Ramadan. I went into school this morning to clear up my desktop and make sure I'd emailed any important documents to myself.

The teachers' room today had a feeling of excitement - it's the last day of classes for teachers and the delicious anticipation of 4 weeks off. For the Muslims, of course, this means a month of fasting from 3am till 7pm in the kind of heat that burns your nostrils - 45 degrees and rising. For the non-Muslims and foreign teachers this often means trips home and holidays.

Leaving Cairo is always bitter sweet and brings with it a need to breathe in the familiar smells, hear the oh-so-Cairo-love-hate relationship sounds and see the things which have become part of our Egyptian portrait here. We called our driver Ayman, who we often use here at times like this and asked him to take us on a whistle stop tour of downtown and Coptic Cairo. Off we went with the added bonus of having his two sons Muhammad and Marwan (12 and 7yrs) with us and with me in the back seat of the car. On the way back Ayman said he'd like to take us to the special place where he buys special baladi bread used to celebrate the first Iftar of Ramadan. We were delighted, and headed off into narrow streets of an unknown Cairo and to the tiny bread place where the handshakes were as strong and wonderful as the smells of the freshly baked bread. Bb and Ayman returned with this smell oozing out of bags, which tortured Muhammad and Marwan, who still had one hour of the first 16 hour fast to go before breaking it - 'break-fast'. Their dad, on seeing their little tired faces announced in Arabic, 'You still have one month to go'. I said perhaps it would be better to concentrate on getting through the next hour! My blip's out the window of the car when Bb was buying the bread.

As they say in these parts - Ramadan Kareem!

Here's a link to Bb's bakery blip . . .

https://www.blipfoto.com/entry/2186557125327588265

Have also now backblipped the last week if anyone wants a quick look.