karena

The thing that amazed me when I first heard it with timezones, is that there are places in Africa that are only an hour ahead, cos it's East/West.

I once heard a radio programme about time zones too, and how political the can be. I think there were some south Amercan countries at some point that changed their timezone so it was 30 or 15 mins out with America, just to make a point. (It was on Radio 4, and probably listen again if anyone is that interested)

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"Nothing is black and white, it's all shades of grey" Me

Aisha Azar

Dear Caroline,

Wellllllll...... "clarification" may just be way too generous a word to apply to my explanation. Time differences do not really confuse me as I understand their reason for being, but it sure is hard to explain!
Regards,
A'isha

Aniseteph

Ah, but it's worse than that - when the clocks go forward or back here and France's don't.

Morocco

I can't speak for many others - except to say that Egyptian love Yasmina & Sara Ahmed (from the UK) & Caroline Evanoff (Australia) really knows how to get through their bureaucracy successfully, but they all appreciate/ know/ understand/ love Egypt & so, Egyptians return that love.

As for myself, go to: Welcome to Morocco's Meanderings

& I have been brought to Cairo to both lecture & teach at almost every Ahlan wa Sahlan festival & at Raqia's Winter Intensives *&* when I almost died in Cairo last year, Raqia sent her personal physician to my room & to the hospital, to make sure I was very well taken care of.

Moroccans die laughing at first, because of my name - but then decide they love me when I tell them how I've researched *their* folklore since 1963.

I wasn't hired as choreographer & *cultural consultant* by Nabil Ayouch for his latest film because I'm cute & sexy ...

People care about those who care about them - everywhere.

However, it IS very sage advice to *never* let on you are a dancer *over there* until you really know people very well & they respect/like you.

Morocco

Morocco

Basically, it was started/ codified by the British during the Empire - which is why it starts in Greenwich, but it is based on longitude & how the sun "travels" from East to West ....

Daylight Savings Time, on the other hand, was invented to make the most use of natural daylight hours in spring/ summer - it was supposed to save on the necessity for artificial lighting ...

Aunt Rocky

Yasmine Bint Al Nubia

This is so very true Aunt Rocky!
Yasmine

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www.visionsofthenile.com

khanjar

Yep, in other words, try to grind as much daylight working hours out of people as the lords and masters could. Please forgive my cynicism, but I am not too enamoured with ideas about empires.

Aisha Azar

Dearest M,

[quote]I stayed for 2 weeks in Cairo, with a side trip to Alexandria. I stayed with Hallah Moustafa, who is the ONLY foreign person in her neighborhood in the Mari Auteyah district close to Giza. I think it might be a little different at dance events than it is in the general public. I noticed that all Egyptians do NOT automatically love us even if we do love them. In every place that we went except in well traveled tourist areas, we could always count on some hostile looks, some stares and whispers behind our backs or even straight to our faces, etc. In one store in the fabric souk, two women were downright hostile to us for no other reason than that we were foreigners shopping in a store where we were the ONLY foreigners. Whenever we were out and about, we were always dressed very modestly, with long sleeves and long loose skirts or pants, so it was not the dress issue. Hallah reported that in her neighborhood, she could not even rent her own apartment, but her assistant had to rent it in her name. Thankfully, she has gained a reputation as the neighborhood "Hawaga", which is a sort of slightly derogatory term for "foreign woman". ( The polite term would be "Ag Nabiyeh") One time she was almost attacked, but two store keepers came out and made the perpetrator back off. She figures that by now, in her own neighborhood, she might be a hawaga, but she is THEIR hawaga and in a sort of perverse sort of pride, they protect their own!
On the other hand, the Egyptians that I got to know through Hallah, like her assistant and others who work for her, they were all friendly and delightful. I met a doctor also, who is married to a friend of her's and he was wonderful,too, and so were the families of my friends here in America who lived in Alexandria. You could not ask for warmer people!



Well, I think you are cute and sexy, but a great deal of knowledge also helps!!

Well, there are times when you don't really get the chance to prove whether or not you care.

No one even asked and we certainly did not tell!! I went to Alexandria to visit the families of some friends who are here now and they did not ask anything about me as a dancer, so I was not even sure they were told. I agree that it never needs to be mentioned!!

Regards,
AA

Caroline_afifi

[quote=A'isha Azar;74749]Dearest M,

Unfortunately these kind of things do happen from time to time.
I have not encountered anything like being attacked but I have had cause to show my angry side on a few occasions. I dont have any problem with doing this and growing up in a city like Liverpool has been valuable in dealing with the occasional hostile situation. This sort of thing can happen anywhere as we all know.
Biting back is very OK in this situation. Most people who visit Egypt have a trouble free and amazing time so the last thing I want to do is put anyone off or make it sound dangerous, but like any where in the world, you do have to keep your wits about you.

Aisha Azar

[quote=Caroline_afifi;74750]

Dear Caroline,
As you say, no place is completely safe, but I have to say I felt less threatened there than I have in some places I have gone here in the States. (East L.A. in the mid-60s was not a great place to be if you were white!!)
However, there IS prejudice against infidels in Egypt and it is not always kept under wraps. I also had a trouble free and amazing time in Egypt, but that did not mean that I was not aware of some pretty blatant prejudice from time to time. Hallah has lived in Cairo for 7 years now and she has no desire to move back to the States, but she says there is definitely active prejudice and that she does not let her guard down on that score. She also has her assistant and her driver in her corner and they are so wonderful that I adore them both!
Regards,
A'isha