I'm a terrible blogger. How can it be almost a month since my last posting? Well, I have done a lot and need to catch up!

Went on a Nile cruise with Russell that I will catch up on later.

For now it is February here and my mind is at home on Nantucket. Even though it is warm enough to wear sandals and shorts I spend my days thinking of snow drifts and long walks on the rare days without wind on the moors. A visit from Jess and Adam no doubt has much to do with this. They have breathed some ACK life into this apartment and it is a good thing! Finally I have Jess to compare good rock finds with (what is it about us islanders? we like our rocks) and I can joke with both without explaining - or editing! Again seeing Egypt through the eyes of newer visitors - the traffic - the money - the cats! and of course there is bravery in numbers and I have sat down at the pigeon restaurant. I had tea while they ate the stuffed pigeon. Apparently I ordered it correctly even though I usually mispronounce pigeon and get bathroom (and vice versa).

So, let me tell you about the pigeon eating - it is in an alley in "the khan" which is local short for Khan el Khalil which I canNOT pronounce! lots of back of the throat hhhhks. The khan is thousands of little shops all smushed together in a crowded little warren of ancient buildings.

Farrahat, the "restaurant" is literally in one of the many allies. The alley is about 8 feet wide and has shops on both sides. The tables are snug against one side and business is brisk! We are told to "have a sit" in the plastic waiting chairs tucked inside . . .a shop? I think. But we only wait a few minutes before we are seated. The table is snug against the corrugated metal wall of another shop. It has a vinyl cloth that is quickly wiped. The crowds keep passing by as we give our order and take all our touristy photos. The food comes surprisingly quickly! Plates of hummus, pickled vegetables, and glasses of soup! A very unique presentation of soup. Of course there is a basket of baladi the local pita like bread. When the birds are served it is unglamorous. One golden brown, headless, stuffed pigeon per plate - pick it up and eat it with your hands! Jess and Adam said it was good and tasted somewhere between chicken and duck. I loved my tea. There were lots of locals there - very dressed up! Go figure.

  The real fun is below the table where feral cats swarm looking for the bones to be tossed to them - very aggressive little guys! We decided to leave when it got to be too much. They looked like they wanted to jump on the table but didn't!

Afterwards we walked around the corner to a more conventional looking cafe with outdoor seating for Egyptian Pancakes or fatir. Yum! Two please! One savory - pizza and one sweet with cream, honey, and cinnamon. Good people watching as well!

After that we walked through the tunnel that goes under the traffic of the main road into an even older and narrower allied area in order to see the sufi dancers. They were mesmerizing. We did not want the drumming, chanting, and spinning to end. . . .but it did and we "enjoyed" a classic death-defying taxi ride home. Our amazement of the sufis still swam in our heads and blended with our amazement at the taxi fitting through impossibly small spaces between the vehicles in front of us on the highway! Mind over matter on both counts!

Wow!

Now as I write this I listen to both the call to prayer coming through my open window and the school closings announcements on MVY radio. Strange world . . . strange strange world . . .