Counting my achievements (part 1)

I was reading the other day that when you're having a bad day, you should think about the things you have achieved that day, even tiny achievements. So, as I'm having an exceedingly bad day, I've decided to count my achievements since I arrived in Cairo (from huge to tiny and all points in between).

In no particular order:

Being able to cross the road on my own, without fainting with fright or having a panic attack. I never appreciated how easy it was to cross the road when I lived in the UK. All those pedestrian crossings and green men! All those cars traversing down the street at a reasonable speed, staying in one lane, indicating if they want to change lane! Cairo traffic is impossible to describe accurately, it really has to be experienced to be believed. So as a newcomer to Cairo, I would stand on one side of the road looking plaintively across at the pharmacy or bank or wherever, and eventually decide that I didn't really need money or shampoo or toothpaste that much. Cars whizz past at ridiculous speeds, change lanes with no warning whatsoever, veer wildly to avoid a myriad of obstructions and stop suddenly for no apparent reason. Motorcyclists weave manically in between the cars. There is much horn blowing and shouting. In Dokki, where the school is, mini buses race by with boys hanging out yelling "Giza! Giza!" in an attempt to drum up business. Taxis who think you might be a potential customer cross three lanes of traffic to get to you, resulting in more shouting and horn blaring. Crossing the road is therefore something of a challenge. I realised today though that I've pretty much mastered it, at least in Mokattam (where I live), Dokki (where I work), and Talaat Harb (where the hostel is). I needed phone credit, and the phone credit shop is on the other side of the road from the school. The road has a variable number of lanes depending on the presence of cars picking up or dropping people off (sometimes 3 deep), fruit sellers, various piles of unidentifiable stuff, deliveries of similarly unidentifiable stuff, and donkeys and carts. It's  an extremely busy road. What you do is this. Wait until there is a gap of about 5 seconds between you and the car coming up in the first lane. Walk straight out. If the car in the next lane stops, cross that lane. If it doesn't, hold up your hand in a peremptory fashion and carry on walking. Do the same in subsequent lanes until road crossing is complete. Act at all times as if the road belongs to you and all vehicles must make way for you at all times. I am certain that if you used this approach in Britain you'd immediately be run down, but here it actually works, the cars do stop. Mostly.

Buying food. I can now use the local shops in Mokattam to buy fruit and vegetables, bakery products and general grocery items. Pointing gets you a long way in such situations. Aside from the time I bought two kilos of peaches when I meant to buy just two (two kilos of peaches is A LOT), it's mostly been pretty successful. I also have my own supermarket, Ragab and Sons, for other stuff. My main problem is meat, specifically the difference between lamb and beef. It's always a surprise when I start cooking which it is we've ended up with.

Finding a job. Not only did I find a job, I found a job I love and believe it or not I have now clocked up 202 teaching hours. No doubt I'll be posting about this at some point too, but I actually feel as if I have found my vocation. That's not to say that I feel I wasted all the previous years; I actually think they have made me a better teacher. I read an article the other day (I say this a lot, you may have noticed) about finding your passion entitled Screw Finding Your Passion which basically says if you've got a passion, it will already be there surrounding you. This has turned out to be so true for me. When I think back to all those books, including so many about the English language, the degree in English Language and Literature I did purely for pleasure, how much I love my language, it seems so obvious now that teaching English is what I should be doing. 

Getting around on my own. Thanks to Uber and Careem (like Uber in Egypt), I can now get around independently, and pretty cheaply too. There have been some incidents, mainly involving drivers who can't seem to use a GPS and resulting in me having to ring A to talk to them in Arabic, but it means that I feel so much more independent. The funny thing is that now I know I can do it, I don't feel so much need to do it. 

Sunset from the balcony

I started writing this blog during a really shitty day, and once I started I realised quite how much I have achieved since I arrived, which believe it or not dear blog readers, is over 12 weeks. So I'm making this post a two-parter and will post more on this in the next few days. For balance, I'll also talk about some of the things that haven't gone quite so well... 

In the meantime, my photography skills are getting a bit better too so here's one of my recent efforts!

Culture shocked

I have two amazing things to comment on before I start talking about the subject of this blog. Firstly, my blog posts have been read over 1500 times. I find it completely incredible that people want to read what I've written at all, never mind 1500 times! Secondly, I have now been in Egypt for over eight weeks. Eight weeks! It seems incredible, I feel as if I have been here so much longer and yet it is only eight weeks. I feel as if I have only just arrived and yet it has already been eight weeks. And therein lies the problem - being realistic, eight weeks is not a long time.

I am just coming out the other side of several spectacular meltdowns. With hindsight, there were many contributing factors, but the precursor to all of them was being on my own in the apartment for too long. The most recent time was because of the Eid Al-Adha feast and self imposed imprisonment in the apartment (if you want to know why look this feast up on the internet...but only if you have a strong stomach). As I may have mentioned to some of you, I have a counsellor who specialises in expats and she's great. For any expats reading this the link is Expat Nest if you want to have a look. She also does a great blog. Anyway, one of the things she suggested is to explore how I actually feel when I start going into meltdown, because by doing this I can start working out why it happens and how to nip it in the bud. Well this morning I got a chance to try this out. I slipped in the shower and hurt my back on Thursday, so I couldn't go to work that day and couldn't move yesterday. And I knew I wasn't going to see A until tonight. I could feel a meltdown approaching and I realised that the longer I'm on my own, the more likely a meltdown is to happen. So I booked a car with Careem (like Middle-Eastern Uber) and went to the Community Services Association, which is in Maadi, where lots of expats live, and provides services for expats in Cairo. I haven't been before. They have a nice cafe, some shops, a library and everyone speaks English - and they have WiFi!!! I did the same on Wednesday - went to Cairo Festival City Mall for a dose of Western-ness. It's amazing what a difference it makes, although it would be hard to pinpoint why. My counsellor says it's not about the actual place, it's about the feelings it gives you when you're there. In a sea of constant unfamiliarity it makes such a difference to hear your own language, even if it's not being spoken to you.

Coincidentally, I had to read an article on culture shock while I was on my teacher training course, so I decided to do a bit more research on it. It turns out I'm in stage 2 (The Distress Stage). The symptoms of stage 2 are:

1. Feelings of sadness and loneliness
2. Heightened irritability
3. Feelings of anger, depression, vulnerability
4. Insomnia or sleeping too much
5. Constant complaints about the climate
6. Continual offering of excuses for staying indoors
7. Utopian ideas concerning one’s previous culture
8. Continuous concern about the purity of water and food
9. Fear of touching local people
10. Trying to hard to adapt by becoming obsessed with the new culture
11. Refusal to learn the language
12. Overwhelming sense of homesickness
13. Preoccupation about being robbed or cheated
14. Pressing desire to talk with people who “really make sense.”
15. Preoccupation with returning home
16. Questioning your decision to move to this place

So far I have experienced 1, 2 (just ask A...!) 3, 4 (both), 7, 8, 11, 12, 14, 15 and 16. No. 8 was caused by the inevitable stomach problems - I'm actually surprised it took so long for that to happen. It lasted ages and I had to get antibiotics from the pharmacy (which cost £0.40 - every cloud).

Believe it or not it actually makes me feel better to discover that I'm not, in fact, going nuts and this is all perfectly normal and to be expected. Two friends who have both lived abroad have pointed out that it is actually a positive to have reached stage 2 - at least that means I'm closer to stage 3! Which is re-integration if you're interested. The downside is that it can take several months to move through stage 2. This being the case, I have decided to be completely unapologetic about spending far too much money on drivers for the sole purpose of going to buy western style coffee. Every day that I'm off work and neither M nor A will be at home, I'm going to do something to get out of the apartment. The social network Internations for expats worldwide has been a total life saver as I have met so many people who I already consider to be friends, especially in the Writing and Reading groups. I can also see much potential in the CSA (as above) as they also have a gym and do exercise classes where I can meet more new people. It's really hard to force myself out to do things that are so much harder than they would be in the UK, and where I don't know any people, but when I do I certainly reap the benefits.     

Meanwhile, I have started doing a one-to-one lesson at the school. It's hardly worth it for the money once I deduct the cost of getting there and back, but it's really good experience of doing one-to-one lessons. The student is really lovely and I'm enjoying finding interesting things for him to do, that can't be done in a bigger class. I've been on a tour of old Cairo (organised by a friend via an Internations group), taking in 3 religions in one day. I enjoyed that very much and met more new people, some from Scotland! Experienced the lunar eclipse/blood moon from my balcony (at 4am) and it was cloudy. Yes! Cloudy! I haven't seen a wisp of cloud for 8 weeks and then suddenly it's cloudy when there's a lunar eclipse! Still, I did get some photos and the sky did go a very odd red colour. 

Looking back over the last 8 weeks, I also feel I have achieved a lot. Considering I was too scared to even cross the road on my own and found buying toothpaste a challenge, it's amazing what I can do on my own now, despite the language issues (see no. 11 above!) It's amazing how far pointing and waving can get you. Regarding no. 11, I am going to sign up for Survival Arabic courses that the CSA run, to force myself out of the waving and pointing rut.
I'm also going on holiday to Hurghada in just over a week to see my family. Needless to say I'm really looking forward to that, although I'm obviously not going for the sun!

I think I've covered most of my news. I'll finish with a photo of the lunar eclipse from my balcony (including extremely rare clouds).