First Morning in Cairo

Hany is the kind of person you want to have on your team. He is a wonderful, jovial guy with a heart of gold, and would give you the shirt off his back. I am proud to call him a friend of mine. He has been a faithful friend to me through some difficult times. His laugh comes quickly, and he will do anything to help.

He is also a well-connected individual who helped me out often when I was living in Cairo. Here he is (in sunglasses) with the jeweler who custom made our wedding bands. He also hooked me up with a loaner mobile phone during my week-long trip to Cairo and gave me the number a month ahead of time so I could give it out to people and hit the ground running.

He and his lovely wife, Rita, have two beautiful kids and they welcomed me into their home in Shobra my first night in Cairo. He works in telecommunications and got me right on his VOIP stateside line so I could call my honey and my parents to let them know I had arrived safe and sound.

Rita was sure the kids would wake me up in the morning, but in my jet lagged stupor, I managed to sleep through quite a "dowsha" (lots of noise!) and wake up at the crack of 11 a.m. After a lovely breakfast of pasterma (pastrami) and scrambled eggs and coffee, I went out to the balcony of their home and was greeted by this beautiful sight:

Ahhhh. Cairo at its springtime best. The beautiful Nile river and some welcome green spaces. Hany came out to tell me that President Mubarak often lands his helicopter in the large (open green space of ) garden so that he can visit injured Palestinians who are being treated in the nearby hospital.

The freshness of Spring was in the air....right along with all the Cairo smog. The view out to the right off their balcony was amusing. Check out all the satellites and the efficient parking!