why I like Cairo newcomers

Whatever work I do to show new faculty around Cairo is always repaid fivefold. For one thing, it’s simply rewarding to help people become oriented and independent in a new city, because the world is a better place when everyone is functioning at their best. The teaching profession is about helping to make this happen, and I’ve always been a teacher at heart. I like to help people see that complicated-looking and intimidating things are actually simple, manageable, and interesting. That’s the first reason I always bend over backwards to help newcomers, if possible.

The second reason is that it helps me rediscover the excitement of Cairo to see it through the eyes of newcomers. Sure, Cairo is always an intensely stimulating place. But now that I’ve been here so long (entering my 10th year at AUC, and Cairo is now the place I have spent more time on earth than anywhere but my hometown) it can in fact become a bit banal sometimes. You have to use methods to fight that process; one of my methods is to make a late-night trip to the bazaar at least once per month and wander around on the impoverished dark back roads to the medieval walls of the city. There’s no quicker way than that to break out of the English-speaking University bubble that is necessary for us to do our jobs competently.

The third reason is that I get to re-do sightseeing things that I normally would never find the time to do. For instance, the Pyramids are pretty close to where I live. They’re maybe a 20-minute taxi ride, and you can actually see them easily from high floors of any downtown building, unless it’s a day with really bad pollution. But as busy as I am, it’s hard to tell myself: “hey, I should go back to the Pyramids today.” As a result, I usually go only when visitors are here. Tomorrow, I’m going to the Pyramids with my new protegées.

These include one new faculty member and her sister, who will be here for a few weeks. The sister happens to be a music agent, and one of her clients is Canadian/Jamaican star JULLY BLACK, who arrived today on her first trip to Egypt. (By the way, I’m not blowing the cover of a star by mentioning this– Jully is tweeting and posting about this trip constantly, so it’s public knowledge to her fans. Very nice person, with exactly the sort of warm personality you’d expect from a performance star.)

Just had a fine Egyptian meal at Abou el-Sid, right down the street from my home.