A post from Kylie... We have just arrived back from the city of Mansoura where Ranias family live... Originally an agricultural city still fairly small, about 3.3 million people. Mama had prepared a feast in an apartment that is so so tiny old and decrepit but spotlessly clean and dust free. Talk about opening the heart and home! The food and love was magnificent... Day 1: baked duck, stuffed pigeon, lamb koftkas, salad, goulash (a meat and pastry slice), spiced rice, stuffed peppers, stuffed zucchini (with meat), and vegetable soup. For dessert, fresh dates, fresh apricot smoothie, and tamarind drink (sour and delicious!) Day 2: fresh seafood bisque, baked whole fish, grilled prawns, prawn koftkas (omg these were insanel), battered fish, baba ghanouj, tahini, rice and salad. A light lunch we were told! we travelled the 2.5 hours on the first day of the weekend, Friday, through the villages and the main market day ... Full of carts, horses, donkeys, bicycles, cars, utes, trucks, busses, and the annoying tuk tuks we disparagingly refer to as cockroaches! Adding roadworks and humans to this mix created a traffic snarl that lasted 45 minutes. It was awesome! Lol every day life in this amazing country and a glimpse that tourists just do not get to see. Ranias family are just lovely ... Mama and Papa are both around 70 and former school teachers who have watched the square they live above change from market gardens at the front door to a busy city life full of shops and offices ... A proper working city yet like nothing I have seen before. A hustle and bustle of humanity, donkeys, stray cats and ... Garbage! I will talk about garbage for a moment. It is everywhere. The Egypt I remember from 2005 was neat and swept, and the new Cece government is working very hard to stabilise services. In the 2.5 hour travel time I saw no less than five tractors pulling large skip bins collecting the mounds of refuse that had been piled for collection. After four years of instability it will take time to get back on track, but we have walked down a street (complete with home made speed bumps) spotless and tidy with house proud care in an ordinary neighbourhood, and have seen replication of this here and there, and the feeling of optimism and support is strong ... It will all be okay - and quickly too - Cece is one smart cookie. He is already repairing infrastructure and building bridges. Work on a new Suez Canal has begun and will bring much needed cash back into the country. I am going to love coming back as soon as I can... I am so confident that all will turn out well. Nuff said ... I am off for a nap!
Posted on: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 10:57:18 +0000