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!