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New Website, New Blog, but the Old Blog Archive remains: September 28, 2023

After many years of wanting a real website, this month I finally have a website designed by the very knowledgeable Rey Rey Rodriguez ( TheMindOfReyRey ). My old blog,  Vacation-Travel-Adventure  continues with the same address but it is located in the "Archives" tab on my new website  https://www.ceciliaclark.com/ . The new blog which is a continuation but with much better resolution for 4K screens, it is now at  https://www.ceciliaclark.com/blog .

Cairo-Our First Day: April 28, 2012


Dan and I had made arrangements to visit many of our Egyptian friends.  Today, we were scheduled to visit with our friends Gamal and Zizi and their boys.  Since we were meeting Gamal at his shop near the Citadel we visited the Citadel first.

The above photo is of the dome of the Muhammad Ali Mosque.  It's architecture is Ottoman and inside it always feels so peaceful and cool.  Visitors come just to sit and enjoy the space.


The Fountain at Muhammed Ali Mosque


The Citadel didn't have many foreign visitors today, but there were some Egyptian visitors.  An Egyptian man asked me to take a photo of his children and the beautiful young women in these photos wanted to take photos of me with them.  After that they posed for us.  The Egyptians we met at the Citadel were friendly and welcoming.  Several asked where we were from and thanked us for coming to Egypt.  It reminded us of how we were welcomed by Egyptians in November 1990 during Operation Desert Shield.  


We met up with Gamal at his shop and then we all went to his home in his son Basel's car. Basel, a new driver, has had his car for 3 months--that's about how long he has been driving, too.

At Gamal's house, Dan and Gamal played chess.  This time Gamal won.  Basel said that during the revolution when there was no work, he and his father would play chess for hours each day.  It shows.  Zizi and Gamal fixed an Egyptian feast of grilled chicken, kofte, salad, tahina, rice and baladi bread.  We ate too much although Zizi wasn't satisfied insisting that we keep eating, and eating, and eating.  Their other son, Mohanad, was in classes at Cairo University so we missed him.

Gamal, Dan, Basel, Zizi, and Ragi


One of the consequences since the revolution is that the police have virtually disappeared. The police force still has not returned to its pre-revolution presence.  On August 30, 2011, Ragi was caught in the middle of a fight between two gangs.  People were running away but he was not able to run fast enough. His hand and wrist were injured after he put is left arm up to shield his head from the beating.  A few months ago he had surgery to repair the nerve damage, and it seems that his hand will recover normal movement.

After dinner, Basel drove us to Zamalek in his red Ford.


After eating that large meal, we met Ghada and her husband Gamal for yet another meal. This time we had a little bit more control over what went into our mouths.

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