2 days 1 nite

Tuesday, 6 January 2009....

the original plan was to go yesterday (Thursday)... but seeing that there's kelas tafaqquh Thursday night (which was cancled), and wednesday was a holiday, we decided to go on Tuesday.

we arranged to go when we finished our lectures at 2pm, but we went at 2.30 seeing that Afiq had some stuff to settle (assingments... love them)... and we had to pray 1st neway... 

he said his house was a little further than mandarah. We went by Tramco (it's a public tranport here, a van). we had to transit 3 times before getting there! First from manshiyyah (my place) to mandarah. Then to tobiyah and finally mo'diyyah. the latter, we didn't even get there, we just went in that direction, and got down in the middle of nowhere... seriously... altogether, it sumed up to about one and a half hours... then said rest of the way would be on foot. He told us to wait beside the road... ingatkan nak ambik apa... dia ambik basikal!... that means there still quite a distance that needs to be covered... huhu

His name is As-Soffi... a gardener that works at Alexandria University... we got to know him at the IT centre where we normally have our Zohor prayer... while waiting for the azan, we normally have a chat... eventually, he invited us to his house... so there we were.

this is the distance we had to cover... and this picture was taken like one thirds of the way, behind me was a considerable distance. 

this was on the following day... 

it's like a trend here... all the buildings are like built half way... they complete a few stories, and leave it that way... so that later they can add another story if they need to do so... besides, rain is rare occurence in egypt... his house was one story... the roof was open and we lepak kat atas roof... he had a chicken and duck pen up on the roof... he said is was for the eggs and meat every now and then.... it was winter, so the sun was just nice... in summer, the roof is the last place you'd wan't to be! that cute thing on my lap is his daughter, Asma.

This was the night before. As-Soffi had his friends over. we watched ong-bak together and had "shai">>> tea ... you could also say we talked the night through, cause we didn't really watch it, it was just sort of a background thingy......... It was funny though, you know the language barrier thingy... yeah, i would like say something, and they would shake their heads and frown their eyebrows (gesture of 'What?')... and when they said something we would do the same thing... huhu... our hands would do all sorts of gestures to get what we were trying to say through... haha... it was at this time I appreciated my 3 months at UKM, persediaan. kursus bahasa arab.... huhu... imagine if i came without it!!!............. We were instantly a hit amongst them... they adored us... haha... 

When we first arrived, we were in a very rural area, your typical arab village, orchards, farms, sheep, goats, chickens.... we got a very welcome greeting... i was introduced to the members of the house... it turned out As-Soffi had 2 wives, his dad passed away, his mum was live and kicking and his eldest son Hassan, was turning 6 years old (the one beside me).... As-Sofi told us to teach hassan English... huhu... how could i decline... turns out he went to school..... he brought us his books and showed us what he had learned... typical kindergarten english.. peice of cake... after that, he showed us his computer.... As-Soffi had been trying to install microsoft office on it but didn't know how... we did it for him... 

Coincidentally, tuesday was the 9th of Muharram. the day before hari asyura and we were fasting. so As-Soffi had the pleasure of treating us to 'iftar'>>>break fast... on Sunday, during our egyptian culture class, Prof. Maha said that if you get invited to an egyptian's house, just go and eat!... she couldn't be more true.... huhu... the food was nice, but we were stuffed!!... the thing is, 'aib kalau dia hulur makanan kita x ambik... this picture is just the side dish... yeah, rice is just a side dish... the main dish is 'eeish>>>roti arab.... comparable to roti nan or capati... it's not like the roti arab we have in Malaysia... and each peice was the size of 2 and a half dishes in the picture... (the dishes with the meet and the 'mee', plus half of the fish plate)... with effort i finished mine... then he gave me another one! ... i was so full i couldn't finish any of the dishes... so i gave a shot at the soup (at least i'll finish 1 dish i thought) ... with a lot of effort i did... and he filled it right back up!... during this time, i had told him many times i was full, "you haven't eaten yet, Anas" would be his answer. wtfish! ... i gave up telling him, and gave up eating... finally he lit the red light.... phew!

I imagined the ladies would come out and collect the dishes once we were done, but nope, he lifted up the whole table and brought it to the kitchen!....

it's an arab thing here, when they have guests, the ladies will not eat together with... they'll eat once we're done... it's to respect the guests...

i learnt later from akhtar that if you don't want anymore, don't finish it... tea for instance... to us kalau x habis 'aib rite?... coz membazir... but to them, if we finish it... means x ckup.. nak lagi... so dia akan refill....  biar je cawan tu separuh penuh... jgn habiskan.... xpe.... 'musy musykilah'>>>>no problem

When night fell, it was freakin' cold... you could see your breath as a mist outside... kluar asap!... we said we would like to go back on wednesday at around zohor... 'meshi'>>>alright was the answer........We slept at 'bout 11 that night after watching ong-bak... (11 is kinda late here in egypt since isyak is at 6.30 now)

the next day, was hari asyura... we said we would like to fast, so they prepared sahur for us... i was more stern this time in saying i've had enough... it was (really2)2 cold... even inside the house cakap keluar asap... waktu mandi, dahla air sejuk... bbrrrr.... satu badan aku kluar asap... kluar2 beku.... haha.... after subuh baca jap, then tido.... bangun around 9... jadi tutor skli lagi kepada hassan... then at 11 As-Soffi told us that one of his friends from yesterday, yahya (4th pic, 1st from lest) said he wanted to treat us to iftar that day................ (no way!) esoknya dah la lecture, balik kul brapa kalo ca2... dia nak jugak... huhu.... susah betul ktorang nak tolak pelawaan dia... pastu yahya tu datang pulak... jenuh laa kitorang cakap ada banyak keja, esok ada lecture, kat manshiyyah pun ada wat 'iftar jama'ie'>>>buka puasa ramai2.... dia nak jugak... alasan 1st kitorang dia jwb, balik malam tu buat laa, second dia jwab malam tu balik laa... esok gi laa lecture, alasan third dia jwb diorang buka puasa sana, anas ngan afiq buka puasa sini.... dia nak jugak simpan kitorang.... err... thanks but no thanks.... jenuh kitorang cuba jelaskan.... last2 they reluctantly agreed with us.... yahya keluar dari rumah, merajuk agaknya...  haha 

At Zohor (12pm) we went to the mosque with our bags... said our thanks and goodbyes... we were a big hit amongst the villagers too, especially the sheikh..... when we finished prayer... we got quite a bit of attention.. the kids were as if meeting a movie star or something... seriously... they surrounded us and smiled at each other... maybe it was because of my charm... ahakz.... kidding!.... i played along, asked their names and how they were doing.... neway as we made our way out of the village, quite a bunch followed us... the crowd grew and grew.... they don't see foreigners often... then we made our way home.... 

after that was not so memorable

arrived at the hostel around asar 3pm...... 

food poisoning! ... (must of been something in the food)