A Note About Eating in Egypt...

So I have mentioned Ramadan in my postingsbefore. It is the month during the year where Muslims do not eat or drink from sunrise to sunset. It is also a time when they are to be their best selves: to be kind to others, to help people- particularly the poor (there are mandatory donations), not to become angry and so on. I have been meaning to post these pictures of the Community Iftar (the meal at 6:30 that breaks the fast) that we had at the school. It was set up in our courtyard and was a really lovely evening. The food was delicious and it was nice to eat and talk with some of the other teachers. Sitting there looking around at everything and taking in the moment I was blown away at the reality of where I am and at the wonderful adventure ahead of me. I am so grateful for this incredible opportunity. Afterwards the director told us that this is the food that will be served in the cafeteria – that this was like a practice run for the chefs…that was pretty exciting news!! I can’t eat most of it, even though a lot of Egyptian food is vegan friendly because these are rich people and I "eat like Egypt's poor people" as I have been told. Still it means I will certainly eat well at lunch. I don't want to make generalizations so early in my stay here when I still understand so little but class seems to be very important here - more than anywhere else I have ever been.

Speaking of eating like the poor, after a particularly difficult day last week I suggested to the two American teachers and I go out for dinner. We went for Kosheri (a typical Egyptian meal). So we walk in and order and the man grabs a container and starts flinging things in – he throws things in the air and catches them with the container. I think he was putting it on a little for me because I started cheering for him after the first few. My cheer consisted of my giggles and lots of “Yay! Kwayyis (good)” Anyway it is rice, mini spaghetti noodles, tiny circular pasta with holes, brown lentils, fried onions and chickpeas (here they call chick peas hummus – you can imagine how confusing this was while I spent the first two weeks of my stay here searching for what we refer to as hummus). We ordered three of them and got three waters and guess what the grand total was….. $18 LE or the equivalent of about $3. People eat on patches of grass on the side of the road all the time here so we decided to do as the Egyptians do and we found a spot and settled down to enjoy our less-than-one-dollar dinner. Did I mention that I didn’t even get through half of it and that leftover kosheri makes a delicious breakfast…

Aside from this, I mastered the fuul and falafel purchase (kinda). I know how much each costs so if I say fuul and put down 2 pounds (LE) then say falafel and put down 2 more pounds it seems to stop some of the follow-up questions and I can successfully walk out with food. Success! This is a typical breakfast here but I have it for dinner (and then leftovers for breakfast). This meal costs me 80 cents and I have enough left for breakfast.

Other than this I have mastered my stove. I make a lot of rice and a lot of lentil soup. I don't have a measuring cup or spoon so it is just random amounts of everything and random spices. By random I mean that I have no idea what I am putting in. A note on buying spices. It is tricky.

The first one way. On the second one there are signs (and prices in English) so a little better but still no idea what is what. So far I just guess. I think of it as an adventure. It makes me and the man I buy them from laugh...so I go often.

I am doing well and I am happy. Of course I miss home and I miss all of you people who really understand me. But I am happy.