Cairo, Egypt: Urban Heat and History Helter Skelter

Our last days in Nairobi were busy and hectic. But, did provide us with some good anecdotes.

As it has been almost a year since we have had our hair cut, Justine decided to go for it when she found out it would cost about $2.50 USD for a trim (ever the myser). Well, it ended up being an experience. The women in the salon chatted away to her, while the hair dresser back brushed her hair into a major afro and then sawed through her hair with the dullest sissors on the planet. At the end of it all, Justine decided to put her hair into a couple of pony tails out of the way..but wasn't doing a great job, so the stylist did one braid for her, then grabbed the scissors, and hacked the uneven bottom off of the braid!

While shopping in the local market, we realized we have been in Africa just about enough time, when Justine was mistaken for a local due to her thread-bare shirt.

And finally, as we were leaving Nairobi, we went to the airport early and decided to kill some time reading in one of the common areas. Suddenly we were surrounded by a crowd of about 40 fourteen to fifteen year old school kids who were on some sort of class trip. They were noisy and quite excited to be on an outting. But, we tried to ignore them and continue reading. Before too long, Chris felt the kids brushing up against his hair from behind where we were sitting. After moving a little to get out of their way...he realized that there were touching his hair. Thinking he would embarrass them into stopping he turned around and greeted them. Wrong move! This was an invitation for EVERYONE to come forward and caress his hair, head and chin hair (after Justine demonstrated how to stroke his chin). Needless to say, Chris became extemely red, and could only laugh until their teacher shooed them away.

So ends Nairobi and Kenya

We have arrived into the heat and urban chaos of Cairo. Gone are the dirt roads, diesel and closed shops at 7pm of Nairobi. Welcome to 24hours of city life complete with KFC's and McDonalds.

We haven't been here long, and we haven't done much, but then again just adjusting to city life again can be a difficult thing. Not to mention a very different culture.

We spent the afternoon attempting to shrug off what is considered a cool summer day (35C) and take in a minute Egyptian history lesson. We explored the bottom floor of the Egyptian Museum and after several hours of mummies, hieroglyphs and stone works we escaped the internet, which we must say is a little bit faster here, so we might grace you all with some blog pictures, but keep your fingers crossed.

Nairobi, Kenya: Etcetera

Our last 24 hours in East Africa, and we will be sad to go. We spent the previous 24 hours haggling over goods and trading things too worn to continue. Now lighter in money and in goods we are moving on to Cairo.

A CBC article shed some sobering facts for us about this part of the world, and about some countries seen by others on a whim of a tour or as neighbours to established countries and never for what they really are. We were told the other day that Africans weren't that badly off, sometimes we just don't know what to say to people. There certainly are people who have done well for themselves, but there is a very severe other side of the coin, and that just isn't a conversation we wanted to have.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/refugeecamp/global-trends.html