Bellydance school project

My cousin's daughter, Maya, was asked to do a school project. In her words "I was going to do armadillos, but have changed my mind & now want to do the history of belly dancing".

She asked my advice and I gave her the names of a few websites to research from and a few days later she sent me this.

I loved it so much I thought I would share it with you all. Maya was very happy when I asked her permission! It Looks pretty professioanl for a primary school project dont you think?

(oh- and the 'wondershare logo' on each page is because I had no idea how to change PDF files to jpeg... so I used this site- and if you use it for free you end up with their logo on each image- you advertise for them- very annoying and I wouldnt buy the program for that reason now !!!)

Needless to say it was this last page that made me well up!!! Thank you Maya! xxxx

The Costume Wash

Yesterday I had a girl come to the house to wash some of my costumes by hand for me. It's a horrible job... and needs a certain skill...plus I hate doing it myself since I am always afraid I will ruin something! Also, I asked her to do them, because I know she really needs the money and this is a way of helping support her and her family.

One thing I learned from her yesterday is that seemingly it is better for the crystals and colour on the sequins to wash with Fairy/Prill (washing-up liquid for plates) rather than with Persil/Ariel (clothes detergent). It certainly did the job well.....

After she had finished and hung up all the costumes she had done I had a look and I have just realised that I have a bit of a thing for bellydance costumes whicch are either animal print... or very bright colours.... both together is even better!

Aren't they pretty?!!

Ya Bint el Baladi.

Sometimes I get a very sharp reminder that here in Cairo, a woman’s expectations for life, are more like those of UK maybe 60/70 years ago. Today, speaking with a friend in distress, was one of those times.

I am not talking about the life of most educated, westernised girls, although certainly laws regarding equality in the workplace etc etc have a long way to go, but of the poorer girls who really don’t have much say in shaping their own lives.

The majority.

This is a summary of a girl’s life taken from real life situations and examples that I know of, from girls themselves.

After she leaves school, at the age of an unmarried girl’s life in Egypt is this;

She wakes up (in a bed that she shares with her mum and/or sister) and goes to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for the entire family. Once everyone has eaten she washes all the dishes and tidies everything away before going round the house, making all the beds (not just her own) and cleaning. Then she either prepares lunch, or helps her mum do so, eats and the again washes up everything for the whole family. After lunch there might be a little time to rest in front of the TV, assuming the entire house is clean before preparing dinner. However, she will have to jump up to fetch anything her brothers ask her to go get for them so they can remain in front of the TV. Clothes have to be washed by hand in the bathtub (assuming they have a bathtub... ) which involves bending over scrubbing perhaps up to as many as 8 peoples clothes in cheap detergent which ruins her hands.

This is assuming she doesn’t have to go out to work. If she has a job, she is expected to hand over all her earnings to her mum to put towards the food and rent. If she has brothers/father who work then she usually won’t be allowed to work even if she wants to. If her ‘men folk’ don’t have work, or well paid work, she may well be financially supporting them as well as her mother and sisters.

Families often take in relatives from the countryside to live with them here in Cairo, so often the girls will be cooking, cleaning and running after (and perhaps financially supporting) her cousins in addition to the rest. She may also end up marrying one of these cousins and staying in the family home with her husband, doing all the same work for the rest of her life, if there isn’t the money for their own place. She may have to limit her private, personal life with her husband to times the rest of the family go out... or ‘borrow’ her mums bed for a short while, when the husband decides.

If the girl is still unmarried by the age of 25, everyone, especially her, starts to panic. Everyone is on the lookout for a groom for her, but if she finds one for herself she is treated as if she had started to go to Cairo's "red light district" ,Sharia Harem and sell her body, with everyone in her family questioning her morals and making accusations. If she speaks to any man over the phone her brothers take her phone off her, break it, beat her, and call her all the names you can imagine. Her mother sits and watches it all happen, unable and unwilling to engage in yet more stressful confrontations.

If a groom is found for her, at least the law has been changed in the last 10 years so that she actually has to be present and sign her own name to make the marriage official. Before then the father could sign for her and girls would find themselves wives without ever having given consent or even meeting the man. Only within the last 10 years.

Again, if a potential groom is found, she might find he demands she quits work before they can marry. Not wanting his fiancée to be out in the big bad world, potentially talking to male colleagues or customers. If her work involves her coming home after dark then he assumes the worst and refuses the marriage on grounds that she is therefore probably a prostitute.

If once she is married she is unable to have children, the man has the right to divorce her, and/or take a 2^nd wife. Often wife number 2 will live in the same home as them and wife number 1 will have to cook and clean and look after the others children. She can leave... but she will be alone with no man to look after her and the near impossible task of trying to find a man who doesn’t want children. She is an outcast from society without any of the social statuses with come with being 'wife' or 'mother' .

The girl feels rather fed up with all of this. She wants to travel to see the world, experience how others live. She cannot travel abroad without a signature of her legal guardian, assuming she could afford the passport and visa for wherever she wishes to go. Even to go on a day trip to Alexandria etc she would have to prove she was travelling with people her family trust... and be home before dark.

If the girl has had enough of being the unpaid slave for her entire family, who treat her with no respect or gratitude for all the work she does at home, and wants to leave home she can’t. To live away from home before marriage is as good as admitting to being a prostitute. Of course, to earn enough money to pay rent anyway for herself would be difficult on the low wages that young girls in work receive. She cannot leave without her reputation being in ruins and this is a society where reputation is everything and 'honour killings' do still exist.

Throughout all of this, somehow she has to gather together her 'bottom drawer' for her wedding. When a couple get married in Egypt the man has to provide the flat and the large furnishings, beds, sofa’s etc. The girl is expected to come into the marital home with enough clothes to last her for years, all the towels, bed linen, curtains, all the kitchen white goods and crockery etc. If her family has money then this is their responsibility. If they only have enough to just get the food on the table and rent paid, then a girl knows with a sickening of her heart that she will have to continue being the unpaid slave, since she will never be able to afford to marry. Often in these cases young girls end up marrying old men, perhaps as the 2^nd or 3^rd wife, just to be able to leave their life of drudgery.

All of this after she leaves school. Often fathers remove their daughters from school early. Before they get their diplomas or anything if he feels that she will ‘see too much of the world, hear things she shouldn’t hear’ if she stays in school, especially if she should do well at school and go onto college or university. Some don’t see the need to educate daughters, better they stay at home and learn how to cook and clean properly, since this will be their job for the rest of their lives. If a father chooses to remove a daughter from school no one, not the girl, not her mother, not the school or the government can interfere. This is still very common today. Not with the families with money... but the majority of Egyptians don’t have money.

I started writing this to give a little insight into the lives of those girls less fortunate than others. The ones whose voices never get the chance to be heard. The more I write them more I realise I know about this horrifically sad and shackled sector of Egyptian society. I am sure some people will refute what I am saying... not wanting me to air the negative side of life in Egypt, preferring to deny that it exists. It does exist. I know girls personally who have gone though every single example I have set out above, and more that I haven’t written about because I figured a lot of it is so horrific that people just wouldn’t believe me. Including a girl swearing she would marry any ‘Kelb’ (dog) of a man who asked... just so she could get away from her life, as aware as I was when she said it that she would probably only be swopping one hell for another.

I don’t know what the answer is, other than education, education, education.

I know of one girl, whose own brother voted for the Muslim Brotherhood candidate in the current presidential elections purely because he said they would clear the women out of the streets and the jobs and leave the jobs open for the men. (whether they would or wouldn’t isn’t the issue here- the fact is that this was THE reason this man gave his own sister as to why he voted as he did, that is what he deemed as a positive step forward for this country)

In UK, the word ‘bint’ is often used as a derogatory term for a girl, brought back from the UK army when they left Egypt.

 In Arabic the word actually means daughter, or girl.

I’m sorry to write such a long, serious, painful blog entry.

These girls give me the dance art form that I love and live by. The least I can do is acknowledge the lives they are forced to live. Please, fellow lovers of belly dance, give the ‘Binet’ (girls) of Egypt a thought from time to time. These girls will grow up to be the mothers of Egypt. 

God Help Egypt.

Dancing through the Egyptian presidential elections

So, last night I was on the Golden Pharaoh boat performing to a fabulous, albeit half the size of normal, audience. Seems hardly anyone is going out these days... certainly tourists are staying clear of Cairo in case of ‘problems’ caused by the presidential elections, which so far there hasn’t been, thankfully. In fact, the people who were at my shows last night were so responsive I actually joked to myself... I wonder if these people, who obviously love dance, are making sure they see some dancing before the Muslim brotherhood candidate becomes president and dancing is banned! Not that that is a sure thing... that he will get in, or that he, once in, will ban dance. But considering he (Mursi) is advocating ‘Islamic law’ then it doesn’t seem very optimistic for those of us in my line of work.

On speaking with the musicians it seems the elections have caused some marital issues with some wives voting for Islamic candidates, without realising that effect that could have on their husband’s job. Of course, there is the chance that they do know what that could mean and are actually voting for their husbands to stay home each night rather than working down Sharia Haram (the street with lots of cabarets on it) with bellydancers!!

At work, there seems to be a split between everyone saying either ‘they (meaning the brotherhood) won’t get in’ because the army are still the ruling power and therefore even if people vote for Mursi, somehow it’ll swing towards Shafiq who is the ‘Mubarak man’. The rest just seems really worried that they might not have jobs for long. No- one knows. But we will by Tuesday seemingly when official result will be announced. That is to say, we will know who is the president... but not what actual effect (rather than fear based speculations) that will have on daily life for those of us in tourism and entertainment industries across Egypt.

It is a great thing that Egyptians are for the first time in 7000 years actually getting the opportunity to choose who they want to lead their country. However, it will take many years to fully educate a population about politics and how it works and so show a real representation of what Egyptians want their country to be. These results are only the first step towards creating a ‘new’ Egypt!

 I've been asked if i will leave Egypt if The Brotherhood gets into power. The answer is , I will leave if i can't keep working. I really really hope it does not come to that though! Let’s hope the new Egypt will still be one with Bellydance in it!

My Oriental Party night in Cairo

It was a strange night to try and put together... an Oriental theme party for the British club here in Cairo. I mean, these people live in Cairo, they know that all the images of orientalism that they had in their minds before they lived here, are only a small piece in the massive jigsaw.  That people do not actually look like they do in ‘I dream of Jeannie’, ‘Aladdin’ or go around in ‘Tommy Cooper hats’  (fez !)

If I had put this party on in the first 6months of coming to Cairo I think it would have been easier. As it was, after 6 years, my imagination was clouded by reality! I encouraged everyone to dress up... but it is strange asking people to wear ‘Arab outfits’ or galabeyas when they see this as the ‘uniform’ of either the rich Saudi’s etc who flock to Cairo each summer, and who seldom have very little love or respect for Egyptian people or culture... or dress as the bowab (the caretaker of each building), which is one of the lowest class jobs.

The foreigners who hadn’t lived here so long took to it very well. Some Egyptians refused to do it saying I am already dressed as an Egyptian (jeans, t-shirt)... I see their point. However many did dress up too and take it all in the fun way it was all meant. Some even arrived in a taxi dressed in the galabeyas and one girl said she was going on to the Jazz club afterwards still dressed in her baladi dress. I can only imagine how the people there would respond!

The evening started off with Said el Amar, the fabulous tannoura from the Pharaoh boat wowing everyone with his ‘smiling whilst spinning’ skills.

Stuart is a drummer from Scotland who is here in Cairo for a year studying Egyptian Tabla and he came along and performed his 1^st ever Tabla solo for us. Impressive.  Watch out for this one dancers back home!!!

Stuart really was our saviour on the night because we had a power cut... so people switched on the torches on their iphones and lit up the stage, he drummed for us and we all danced!!! In fact, I think it really helped the overall atmosphere of the night with everyone much more relaxed with each other afterwards. It is lovely how people pull together when things go pear-shaped! Hmm.... I wonder if that could be staged for future events?!!!

I danced 3 times throughout the night... in various lovely costumes (all by Amira el Kattan, of Pharonix). It was a very appreciative audience and I felt very relaxed and my friend Ellie said it was possibly my best dancing ever (and she has seen me dance a lot since moving to Cairo a year ago). The saaidi dance certainly had lots of moves in it that I know I hadn’t performed before. Now the trick will be to try and remember them so I can do it again!

The only act I didn’t feel was appreciated as much as it should have been was my fabulous friend Hisham. He is an amazing dancer, very good technique with a fun cheeky manner too, and he performed a mergance for us (just in normal clothes- no costume or anything, he is not a professional dancer- just someone who loves it). But many of the men in the audience just could not handle it at all. They made certain assumptions about the man, just because he can dance very well, and judged him negatively for it.  I won’t repeat the comments but I was struck by how narrow minded almost all of these, supposedly westernised Egyptian men could be. Egypt has a long long journey ahead of it. Luckily, lots of people did recognise and appreciate the skill involved in his dance and I was very happy that he was there.

Ellie also sang some fitting songs for us to dance to. Well, it seemed only fair, since I go along to almost all her singing gigs and dance...so I asked her to sing at my dance gig! Shakira’s waka waka song starts off with a chant of my name ‘Lorna Lorna’. Listen to it! Also ‘walk like an Egyptian’ created some interesting dance floor moves. I couldn’t count how many Egyptian guys just walked (normally) across the floor ‘I’m Egyptian and this is how we walk’ being the joke...!

All in all it was a massively successful night. It was lovely to see some of the other dancers who live in Cairo come along to support me too. Thanks Ladies!

Before people ask- yes there will be photos. We had 2 professional photographers (thanks Kim and Sherif!) there and since they took so many shots of the night, it is taking them a while to sending all through to me- so there will be another blog entry with just photos on it soon!!!

Now, when and where will I hold my next Oriental Party Night.................. I had FUN !

More about my Chinese houseguests!

This was one response to my last blog entry about the Chinese bellydancers who are staying with me in Hotel BellyLorna just now.

“Fascinating story. But how, given their MUST culture, do they come to take up belly dance and arrange a group trip to Cairo?! Who told or allowed them to do it?”

The writer has a point. To break away from your own culture to study something unusual and different is rebelling enough. But all of us wherever we are in the world have experienced this.

I recently started a hashtag on twitter #10QuestionsAwaysAskedOfABellydancer and it was interesting that all over the world people ask the same, stereotyped questions regarding the dance. What do your parents think? What does your husband think? Do you do ‘private’ dances? ... They all showed off the common thinking that what we do is something questionable morally.

It is not. Not in my mind anyway.

This dance is an art form and it can be as beautiful or as ugly as the personality performing it!

If you do not respect what you do, of course it is difficult for others who watch you to respect you!

If you love what you do, then people will love you when you do it.

Simple

But I digress. Seemingly this group of girls, who didn’t know each other at all before coming to Cairo together, had linked up via bellydance on a social network system called QQ in China. One girl who had stayed with me last year said I want to go, but I don’t want to go alone... who is with me? Simple.

One of the girls captured a few lovely shots while they were here that i think show the fun we had!

Me and a couple of the girls at the end of a private class in my studio.

Out partying the last night away at Khamseena in Mohandiseen. A lovely cafe where they have fabulous live bands- but be careful - they put an extra 30le per person on our bill at the end of the evening saying it was 'for the band'. In addition to the entertainment tax which had already been included. I dont mind giving the musicians money, but I dont think that money will actually go to them.If you go there- make sure there are no hidden costs! I wasnt impressed since I go there often and this was the first time they had done this to me!

Everyone did have a wonderful time though.............!

Chinese in Cairo

It’s been a busy and fun time in Hotel BellyLorna, with 6 Chinese Bellydancers staying with us!

I guess part of what I love about renting out my spare rooms in this manner to visiting dancers is meeting women from all over the world and seeing this culture, country and dance through their eyes. I learn so much about my assumptions and expectations from seeing how they differ from others.

The Chinese have a great respect for both age and for teachers, so it is interesting to see how they react to each other within their own group and to others they meet in Cairo. I, for instance, have been renamed ‘mummy’ for instance (due to my looking after them, and being the teacher - not due to my age I hasten to add!!) and often get a little bow from them if we pass each other in the house. It is very sweet and very strange!

I have been super impressed by how much care they take over their skin in particular. Face masks nearly every night.  Foot baths in ‘Chinese medicine’. No wonder they are all as beautiful as they are! As for clothes washing... they insist on doing it all by hand, in detergent they brought with them from china. Despite me having a washing machine which does work (a rare thing often in flats in Cairo!). I wonder if this is to protect their clothes or their skin from ‘strange’ detergents? I wish the language barrier was less so I could understand more. I am trying, but my 3 words of Chinese doesn’t get me very far!

What has been really lovely is seeing how fairly they split up all the jobs they do and watching them work to prepare their lunch every day.

The girls brought possibly a couple of suitcases worth of food stuffs with them. From sauces and sweets to freeze packed duck! I presume because they prefer the food that is familiar to them and also i guess price wise it is probably a lot cheaper to buy there than here! Every day they buy fresh vegetables from the market stall round the corner.

Food is usually a feast of many colours and they eat together as one family, even though some of them hadn’t even met each other before this trip. It’s lovely and very different from my usual guests who are usually from more independent, individuality based cultures. In so many ways they really fit with the Egyptian culture. If one is sick they all rally round and take care of her, although unlike Egyptian culture, they don’t feel compelled to sit with her the whole time or crowd by her bedside!

In other ways they are very different. For instance, if they don’t understand something someone says (since some of the girls don't speak English) they just giggle wildly and run away! It is very endearing... but I can only imagine how that reaction would be viewed by Egyptian men where laughing is seen often as a ‘yes I am interested’!

It has been fun also trying to educate them about what is ok to wear when walking in the street and what isn’t. They understand the covering up... but often it has been with brightly coloured, off the shoulder dresses that cling to their body and expose their shoulder and bra strap. When I point it out, they don’t understand why it should be a problem. They have a point. It shouldn’t be. Unfortunately in Cairo the men in the street often haven’t learned to control their base instincts yet which is why we women need to protect ourselves by trying to second guess what will switch them on. This is not a Chinese in Cairo issue, but a women in Cairo issue.

Another interesting thing I have noticed is that, perhaps due to limited English or perhaps due to a cultural difference, there seems to be in their minds a Right and a Wrong way to do everything, seldom with grey areas in between. Whether in dance, or in cooking, or in anything the phrase ‘you MUST do this, Not this’ is used. With those words strongly stressed and appropriate facial expressions used. I don’t know if it’s my nature, or just having lived here so long now, I am a much more 'well you have all these options... and you CAN do any of them, but these are the consequences of each and you can chose which you prefer' type of person.

Even with dance, my attitude is these are the steps, these are examples of how to put them together, now play with it. This unsettles them since they are used to choreography and being told this is the right way to do the move and this wrong. Unfortunately in Egyptian dance even between two Egyptian dancers they will both disagree as to what is a ‘right’ and a ‘wrong’ way to do a move therefore the Chinese girls get confused when they have so many teachers (who all must be ‘right’- after all, they are ‘teachers’) but who contradict one another. I can almost see these girl’s brains getting tied in knots trying to work out what they should do!

This black or white attitude does seem to fit with Egyptian culture too where people are always telling other you Mustn’t wear this/that, Do this/that, Say this/that. It’s something that drives me nuts to tell the truth! I prefer to be responsible for my own actions than to be controlled in this way.  On this note I wonder if the strength of belief in telling people they ‘must’ comes from the way the countries are governed? In dictatorships, it is never encouraged that people should think for themselves, that they should veer from the path allocated to them. It’s just a thought. I am by no means an expert in world politics or on Chinese philosophy! It is all good to open the mind though!

Anyway... I’m off to the studio now to investigate the clattering of sticks. Ahmed Refaat is here teaching the girls some fancy saaidi stick twirling moves.... they like the martial arts style of stick swinging (another cultural link?)

Lorna's Oriental party night in Cairo!

I am organising a Hafla, in Cairo.

I never thought I would do this... but it has been requested by the British club here... so why not? This way I get to dance with and for all my Cairo friends!

I am going to be performing, and I have a few surprise acts thoughout the night too.

If you are going to be in Cairo on thursday 10th May and fancy a dance (or just a drink and to watch some dance!) then come along to the BCA Mohandiseen, in your sequined Galabeya, and party!

Zeina's surprise

Yesterday’s workshop at the Nile Group festival was Zeina. She is a Swedish dancer who used to work here in Cairo and I love the way she teaches.

Most teachers when giving a choreography workshop will start with the 1^st steps of the routine. Fair enough. What Zeina did though was to start with technique, although she didn’t explain why (which was the best bit for me!). She had us drilling moves and then building those moves up into little 2 and 3 step combinations. She drilled each combination many many times, so that we were doing the moves without thinking before she moved on..  Then she taught us the 1^st few steps of the routine and put the music on to try it.

That is when we got our surprise. We danced those initial steps.... but then the music kept playing and she kept dancing and we were all following easily because all those little combinations, even from within the warm up, were put together to form the choreography! We had learned at least a minute of it without knowing we were!! I loved that!

Those of you who know me well know I hate choreography. I never ever dance it, always choosing to improvise instead. I seldom teach it. I seldom choose to take workshops if they are choreographies. I do however encourage students to learn them since I do see the benefit of them for learning how other people combine steps and also how they hear the music. This workshop for me though was perfect. I loved the technique being so thoroughly rehearsed that by the time we added the music all the mental energy could be involved in enjoying the music fully. I actually felt I was actually dancing a lot of this class... rather than just parroting someone else’s steps.

Thank you Zeina. You may have converted me to choreography workshops. If only they were all taught in the way you did!!

 If you have the chance to attend the Nile group festival (or the dance festival she puts on in Sweden) then I really recommend her class. She may not be Egyptian, but she really can help a dancer understand Egyptian style perhaps more effectively than many local dancers could!

Mercedes and Camelia

Today I was lucky enough to attend two workshops at the Nile Group Festival.

The first was with Mercedes, a very talented dancer from Hungary. She has a dynamic, move packed style and I guessed before going to her workshop that I would probably have a hard time keeping up. I have been a solo dancer and teacher for so many years now, that my skill for following other dancers is not strong anymore. I was right! She is a very good teacher and explained everything incredibly well. Breaking every move down and explaining why it follows the last one and what feeling you are aiming for and everything. She was giving so much information throughout the entire 3 hours that my head was hurting a long time before my body was! I mean that in a positive way! I hate doing choreography workshops normally, but she mentioned lots of ways you could adapt parts of the routine to suit your own style and was encouraging you do so even at the same time as learning it. It meant I could relax and dance the way I wanted to with the moves she was giving me which means that I am much more likely to immediately incorporate some of the stuff from today into my own dance. I would happily attend a lot more workshops with her. I felt she had a lot to give and was generous with it. Also her background in different dance styles means that she has a very good dance vocabulary so makes you think about aspects of the dance in a new way.

Camelia’s workshop needed more energy from me than I was able to give, being  5 minutes after the end of Mercedes one! She was doing a Shaabi choreography which was a song based on a woman teasing a man saying ‘come and get it’, then ‘no, you can’t have it’, but resulting in ‘yes, ok I am yours’. It is always a good idea to check out the lyrics in a shaabi song before you perform to it, was the main lesson reinforced in that class! The truth? I think I am too much of a prude to fully make use of what I learned in that workshop. As it was I was adapting a lot of moves so I didn’t have my crotch so far forward or was gyrating quite so wildly.  It was very much Camelia style. She was teaching the way she would dance. Which is great, it’s just not me! I did like the way she twisted normal oriental dances moves and made them shaabi (took them to street level). That was very useful and I am really glad I took the workshop. She was working really hard to help us understand the true nature of Egyptian shaabi and everyone was exhausted by the end of the 3 hours!

It was a good, useful and fun day. Now I am going out to a best of British Music night as sung by my flatmate, Ellie of London! Talk about a culture contrast! I wonder if any shaabi moves will come out on the dance floor tonight!

‘As Ma Han’, or Asmahan if you are not singing it!!

I was surprised to see in the Nile group festival only 3 classes on the program that were not teaching a choreography. It is always useful to learn someone else’s dance. That way you learn how they hear the music and gives you an idea of how to put steps together in a different way. However, I much prefer classes where you learn technique and information about how to interpret the music so you can make up your own dance.

This is what Asmahan was teaching this morning in her workshop. She gave (in English and Spanish) very clear guidelines on how to do technique and where the moves should come from and also one to one attention to check everyone had it right. She had fun music, blend of Arabic with salsa and with rap and had us do very simple routines to practise the technique she was going over. After all these years I didn’t think I could learn new things about even basics like the hip drop, but I did and feel inspired from it.

Asmahan had such a relaxed gentle, yet commanding attitude while teaching that everyone loved her. She made everyone look at their dancing anew and talked about ‘us’ as bellydancers, what ‘we’ should do and how. It was lovely. Like being part of a team.

Mergance is the entrance piece for a dancer’s show and Asmahan talked about how  this is the only music actually composed for the dancer. She talked about the importance of not dancing everything in 4’s or 8’s rather to mix things up and make surprises for your audience. She had lots of fun, hard, ways to drill moves and i could feel how effective they were even though I had to run out half way through the workshop because I had a lunch sail on the Pharaoh.  I was very sorry to have to leave, but i did feel like I got a lot out of the class. I liked when she talked about attitude when you dance- but mispronounced it’ actitude’. I liked that- the idea of acting your way through it! Also she talked about ‘nefis’ (Arabic for  breath) being when a dancer is comfortable in her own skin and takes time within her dance to take a breath!

So much information generously given (I wish I’d been there for the whole 3 hours!). Well Done Asmahan. A very good teacher!

 (and a lovely person- she went out her way to introduce me to people as a professional dancer here in Cairo, which she didn’t need to mention at all)

Good news for people wanting to see her show is that Asmahan will be back performing on the Nile Maxim for this next month and then again in the summer.

Getting excited in Cairo.

Before you wonder- no, I am not about to start writing about anything rude! That’s not my style!

Before living in Egypt, when someone said something good was going to happen I was able to feel that excitement... yeah I have a great gig coming up, or yeah, they are going to write up an interview in the newspaper... or whatever it was. Even down to the yeah- I am meeting my friend ‘so and so’ for dinner tomorrow night..

Here, in Cairo I have learned that when someone tells you something is going to happen... you really have to hold back on your excitement until there is more proof to back it up. The number of times I have been bitterly disappointed since moving here 6 years ago has taught be that level of self control. My response to good news if often ‘Hanshuf’ (we’ll see) or ‘Inshallah’ (god willing), rather than the ‘hurray’ or ‘yippee’!

 It often gets called cynicism by people who haven’t lived in Egypt long, realism from those who have.

The anticipation and excitement about something adds to the pleasure of the event. That’s why advent calendars were invented!

I really miss that in my life.

I wish I could do what many Egyptians I meet do, which is get excited about stuff... and then if/when it doesn’t happen just shrug it off with an ‘oh well, it wasn’t meant to be’ type attitude.

Until I reach that level of emotional control, please forgive me if I ever come across as negative. It’s called self preservation!

Self Control within Islam

Last night I was dancing on the Pharaoh boat and was told by the staff that there was a VIP table in so to be careful.

This happens fairly often. I always reply in the same way, ‘all my audience are VIP to me’.

Then they explained, ‘no Lorna, I mean don’t  go  up close to them’ etc. It turns out they were the heads of Al Azhar. Not the sheiks themselves, but the men who sign the forms to allow people to be sheiks there. The ‘ministers’ of the ancient Islamic university that guides the majority of the middle east in it thinking of how to match what is said in the koran to modern day situations.

I can’t deny it, I was nervous going on stage knowing the tables directly in front of me were very likely to disapprove. Then i told myself that they still chose to come here knowing there would be a dancer, so if it didn’t put them off then i wasn’t going to allow myself to be put off either. Not an easy task when other audience members were walking over to their table and shaking hands with them and asking for their photo to be taken with them. I haven’t even seen that type of  reaction from the guests on the boat when we have had famous actors and singers come to the Pharaoh before.

At first they turned their backs as much as they could. Then, gradually, they relaxed. By the end of my show they were clapping along and filming my dance and asking me to have their photo taken with me! I was so impressed by them! They understood and acted on the true message within Islam which it comes to a man’s reaction to a woman.

That control needs to happen within a man’s mind. To be able to look at a woman, and not have ‘bad’ thoughts about her takes more strength and self control than ordering her to cover herself. The Koran actually says that a man should draw a veil across his eyes. These men showed self restraint and self control.  I don’t see this attitude enough. It is so sad. Even a well trained dog can be shown a bone and sit still until told it’s ok to ‘fetch’. Most men in Egypt haven’t even managed to train themselves this well when they see a bit of flesh (even just if it is a bit of arm!)

Well done those gentlemen.... I thank you.

You took responsibility for your own actions and didn’t care who saw that. 

You have given me a ray of hope that even if the government becomes more ‘islamic’ then perhaps things don’t have to change for the worse in this colourful country I have adopted as my own. I hope more people can be educated to such a level and only then will there be hope for the women in Egypt!

Mallish v's Asif

Today I only just made it to the boat in time. Traffic was bad. Ok, so this is a normal occurance in Cairo and one of the biggest annoyances of Cairo so nothing new there. The problem today however was caused by the mile long double lane queue at the petrol station at giza, near the Pharaohs boats.

I saw in the news that petrol shortages were happening in UK too. However, before I knew about them, when I asked about the reason for current situation in Cairo a friend told me that the petrol companies owed the government money, which they were refusing to pay until the electricity company (government owned) which owed them money paid up. The truth of this story i cannot verify but I found the whole thing so typically frustratingly true to many aspects of life in Cairo that part of me believes it. Of course, it could be caused by world increases in prices... that would seem sensible and in fitting with the rest of the world. However, the culture here is when anything goes wrong is blame someone else.

Always someone else.

To the point that the word ‘mallish’ is used when the word ‘asif’ would be the correct response. By that I mean that people shrug off things by saying ‘don’t worry about it’ when they should be taking responsibility and apologising, saying 'sorry',  for it instead.

Annoying?

Very.

Understandable?

Yes, unfortunately so. Egyptian society seems to have developed, if developed is the right word for it, into a blame the underdogs society. Everyone comes down very heavy on those they consider beneath them. The manager blames his staff, rather than accepting that if they are doing something wrong then his job is to re-educate them. I presume this is caused from having a military dictatorship for so many years which blamed everyone else for any failings and never ever (even when people were protesting in the streets last febuary) accepted that perhaps they could have done things better themselves. A child learns from his parents. The country learns from its government.

I don’t want this blog entry to come across as angry. I have been made angry by the many many times. Now I am like many in Egypt, understanding and passive. It’s not right, but its the way it is. I haven’t a clue how it can be improved. My vote is start at the top. I hope that the new president when he (there is no point in me writing here he/she, as THAT would never happen!) so, when he messes up... which he will. That he can take a little of the blame and show people that it is stronger to admit failure and learn from it than it is to throw the blame on someone else.

Good luck Egypt. 

Blog on Blogging.

I started out writing this blog nearly 6 years ago. That was when I moved to Cairo for my 6 months stint (so much for that plan!).  The idea of the blog initially was to keep all my friends, family and students informed of all that was going on but also became a record so that I wouldn’t forget all the things I was experiencing here in my new life. I have a dreadful memory. I was frightened it would all vanish if I didn’t write it down. I guess what has happened though that as life here becomes more ‘normal’ to me that I seem to write less of it down. Cairo really is my home now.

That and of course the advent of Facebook in my life, and more recently, Twitter. The one line status updates and tweets which I now record there, once would have been my starting lines for a long blog entry. I love facebook and twitter, since they allow me to be involved in other people’s lives and help make the distance between friends disappear, however I also miss the twists and turns my brain used to take when writing my blog entries! I am resolved to try to write more blog entries. You have been warned!

I have been back from UK for about 10 days now, after a months’ holiday and workshop tour there. The weather has improved in Cairo and the tourist situation seems to have improved too. Once again I am seeing people from all over the world in my audiences on the Nile Pharaoh boat. This morning, a group from Germany. Last night a big school trip from Sudan. Last week a boat full of Brits. I never realised how relieved I would feel to see so many ‘foreign’ faces in town!

It has been a very difficult year in many ways. Living in a country as it goes through a revolution.

 Even now, although the streets are peaceful, there is still unease about the city. Everyone is scared about the upcoming presidential elections. There is a fear that the army may succeed in getting in ‘one of their boys’ to replace Mubarak and then things would be just as they were, or worse than before. The other big fear is that the Muslim Brotherhood will get their man in and that things would become more and more fundamentalist. That may potentially mean more restrictions on people and their day to day lives. This is the big fear for us dancers and all who work in the entertainment and tourism industry. I cannot predict what will happen.

People joke about it on a daily basis. “What’s your plan B when dancing is banned in Egypt?” my answer is “I can’t hear you....lalalalalalalala “(obviously just in my head!)

Truth is I really don’t know what I would do. I can’t imagine Cairo without Belly dance. I can’t imagine my life anywhere else than here. I hate to think about it and I am, like all the other thousands of people in this industry, just hoping and praying it won’t go that way.

If you are thinking to come to Cairo for dance purposes, Come now. Just in case.

Let’s hope we all look back at these scary uncertain days and laugh about how stupid we were to think that Egypt could ever be without the music and dance that we love so much!

See you here soon!

rebel with a shimmy

It is amazing the things that have hit me as different about being in UK compared to Cairo.

Obviously there is the fast pace of life, which i wrote about in my previous blog entry.

and then there is the freedom to be able to dance in public... without fear... if you want to.

speaking to people you dont know.... having a joke with the man in the shop without fear of it leading to a difficult situation.

today on the train i was writing up some notes for my bellydance workshops in Manchester tomorrow and Glasgow on sunday, and I tried at 1st to hide the writing form the man sitting next to me. Until i realised i didnt have to. Same goes when i then watched from youtube clips on my ipod... It felt like i was really rebelling and being naughty!!! That is how much Cairo has got under my skin!!!

I love living in Egypt. I love dancing in Egypt.

But I have always hated the social stigma attached to dance which means i can't be totally honest to people about what i do. Strangers are told i teach when they ask my occupation!

I guess, if i ever move back to UK (not that i am planning it in the near future!!Inshallah!) then the ability to hold my head up high and be proud of the life I live again and not be judged negatively for it will be the silver lining to the cloud of leaving Cairo! Hopefully that day is a long way away!

In the meantime, i am going to shimmy myself silly tonight at the Taste of Cairo night in Manchester. I don't know if they are ready for me or not.... i am feeling in a bit of a crazy mood!!

I'm off to dance and spread some of that crazy rebellious joy!

Hailstones and Hurry!

I am sitting here in Scotland writing this as the hailstones beat against the window. It’s very strange since the sun is shining at the same time. It took me quite by surprise! I am ok with it as long as it dries up by the time I have to head out of here to go and see a cuban band performing tonight. I have a hard life!

Just now it is also a fairly busy life! I have a list as long as my arm of things that need doing... some fairly urgently; like planning the workshop content for the 4 workshops this weekend in Manchester and in Glasgow and getting the papers together for my 2 month late tax return!

You want something done- ask a busy person. I seem to achieve so much when i am most time pushed. A lot of my life in Cairo I am working on gas mark 2, say... and of course 6 when i am on stage. Here in UK I feel often like the pot is bubbling over and the gas won’t turn off. Some of that is due to the fact that i have a limited time here to see everyone and do everything,  before i head back to Egypt. Some of it I think is just the way people live in the UK. There is a lot of pressure on achieving all you can achieve. Have the perfect home, job, family, looks, social life- oh and do that all at the same time- there is no room for any signs of ‘weakness’!!!

No wonder stress related illness is so huge. In Egypt there is massive poverty, and traffic and pollution certainly can stress people out too, even before you begin to discuss the political issues over the last year. However, people there seem to have more time, or make more time, to rest and see their friends and family in . For all the many things that I could pick out as problematic in that society, I have to say that we in the west, certainly in Britain, could learn a few things about prioritising people.

It is the same in dance. It is very, very easy to get caught up in politics of it all, the techniques and ‘execution’ of the dance but sometimes this unfortunately takes priority over emotion and interaction with the people you are dancing for. It is worth remembering that dance is a form of entertainment!

Bellydance, in my opinion, should be about your feelings and interpretation of the music and when performing, about how you put that information across to your audience. Don’t lose sight of the people element of dance. When you tackle dance as a project (and I am not suggesting that discipline and hard work don’t make you a better dancer, they definitely do!) but there is always a risk that you forget why you are dancing- because you love it. It makes you happy!!!

Take some lessons from Egyptians (and I don’t just mean in learning the latest step patterns) .... put your love into your dance and spread that love to the people you care about. That includes your audience!!!  Spread the happiness!!!

These are the places I intend to spread some of my happiness (as it were...) over the next two weeks here in the UK.....

Manchester- Friday 9^th - performance,   Saturday 10^th- 2 workshops.

 (contact Tracey for info and booking  bellydancer@btconnect.com  )

Glasgow- Sunday 11^th NADA AGM. 2 workshops and a talk

(contact Sarah sarah.pulman@ntlworld.com sarah.pulman@ntlworld.comsarah.pulman@ntlworld.comsarah.pulman@ntlworld.com  )

Edinburgh- Tuesday 13^th Performance (only a few places left- to book and for more info contact Elspeth swishandhips@hotmail.co.uk  )

Edinburgh – Saturday 17^th- workshops (to book contact Elspeth swishandhips@hotmail.co.uk  )

Dance and be happy!

sunshine versus sandstorms

I hear the weather reports from Cairo today are cold, windy and sandstorms. Someone must be looking out for me because today i am in Scotland were the sun is shining and the skies are blue! Although by tomorrow I will be in (hopefully sunny) London.

I have had a few very packed days so far in UK. No dancing yet, but much dancing related chat! Its amazing how much we can talk about dance isnt it? unfortunately often the talk is about the various people in dance, rather than the dance, music and culture they come from itself. I wonder if every field is like this? I know salsa dancing is but haven't experienced many other 'hobbies' so dont know if this is a dance related trait or not?!! Do stamp collectors get together and talk about other people who collect stamps more than about the stamps themselves? or is it that dance is about expressing feeling and personality- and therefore has a wealth of things to talk about?  Anyway, its all very interesting...

I had a very strange moment today when one of my dance friends here in Edinburgh was talking about something and in the middle of the cafe stood up and did some hip drops to demonstrate what we were discussing.... I swear my heart stopped. Not just because of the beauty of her dance (of ocurse!)  but because she was bellydancing in public!!! I couldnt' stop myself quickly scanning the room in case of any problems. The idea of dancing in a public place in Cairo is so alien to me that it fills me with panic!!! I dread to think what would have happened if she had done the same thing in Cairo. I had to keep reminding myself that we were in UK and that it was ok!!!

I love coming back here and seeing how the dance scene has progressed in the 6 years since i left. All the people who are now teaching. All the various styles of dance that have developed. I am looking forward to the Bellydance Trophies event this coming sunday to see the girls perform there too. Oh, and I am very excited to see Liza Laziza there too (she's performing and teaching at the same event as me) it will be lovely to catch up with each other outside of the Cairo scene. Liza and I are 2 out of the 3 British dancers to have ever worked in Cairo professionally (the 3rd being Yasmina).

I'm the only British dancer to be currently performing in Cairo (I'm writing that to remind myslef more than to inform readers. It still amazes me how far i have come and that still 6 years on i feel so lucky to be doing what i do!)

Back to packing... what to take to pass the time on a 9 hour overnight bus journey? Inshallah I'll be able to sleep! London here i come.....
 (Manchester and Glasgow the following weekend!!!)

Street sounds....

When I sit at home I hear many street noises..

Thankfully, my street is a quiet one, close to busy areas, but without the traffic of them. So I don’t have too much of the usual car horn pollution found in Cairo.


I sometimes, like now as I write this, have bird song too.
The call to prayer form the local mosque is beautiful. We are lucky to have a talented muezzin.


Then there are all the travelling salesmen:


Common calls include 'Lemon'... 'na3 na3' (mint) ... 'Robba beekia' (any old iron type of thing).


You also get wandering fortune tellers, knife sharpeners, and donkey carts with various fruits and plants. The list goes on...


Then you get the occasional skirmish that breaks out between the street people, the bowabs and shop keepers, delivery boys and police. Usually the ruckus is due to someone trying to drive down the street but finding the gap left by the parked cars is too small. Everyone tries to help in these cases. It often hinders rather than helps. But they try.


Today I heard a very strange sound. A woman’s voice over a megaphone. She was crying, loudly. So much that I could barely make out the words. Someone (I think her brother or son) needed an operation and she didn’t have any money to pay for it and she didn’t know what she could do. Begging basically. Driving through the streets very slowly with a megaphone attached to the top of a beaten up old taxi. Many people went up to her window and handed in cash. Then one woman, covered in her abaya with a huge hood which hid most of her face as well as her hair, shouted down to the woman to have some respect and not go begging with a loudspeaker and to move on. She was really quite angry. I was surprised in this neighbourhood that someone had shouted down from a balcony. It’s common in more ‘local’ areas... but I have never seen it before here. Her complaint was taken on the chin and the taxi moved off in a far swifter manner than it had arrived.


What is really sad about the whole thing is that this does happen. People do get to the point of desperation because they literally have nothing that people do die because they can’t afford the medication or operation to keep them alive. It’s horrific to imagine how desperate you must be to do something like that.


What is even sadder... is that me and my housemates had a discussion about it wondering if it was true or not, or if she was a very good actress who had hit on a very profitable way of making a living. It is hard to know. Cons are common, as they are around the world, especially in countries where poverty is so high.


Now I have a mental dilemma.


Do I wish that she’s for real- that he brother really is in such a state and she really can’t find any other way to keep him alive...  or do I pray that she is a smart con merchant and he is fine (if he exists).

Neither are very good measures of the state of this society just now.



It’s sad.

Lorna teaching and performing in UK March 2012

Here is some information about my upcoming uk tour. There are still some details to be added- but i thought I'd get this much out anyway, so you get make sure the dates are in your diary!!!

So far the dates are;


Sunday 4th March- London (workshops and performance)
Hosted by Bellydance Trophies. www.bellydance-trophies.com
For booking and info contact Farah via bellydance_trophies@yahoo.com

Private classes in London area also available Friday 2nd, Saturday 3rd and Monday 5th March. Contact me directly if you are interested in setting up a private class with me during those days in London. Bellylorna@hotmail.com



Friday 9th March- Manchester (performance with The Nile Band) Venue TBC

Saturday 10th March- Manchester (workshops and private classes) The Dancehouse, 10 Oxford Road, Manchester. M1 5QA. Hosted by Taste of Cairo.

Morning- Private class slots- contact me or tracey if interested in booking your slot now!
2-4pm Playing with Basics
4-6pm Modern v's Golden Oldies

£25 per workshop, or £40 for both.

For booking and info on all Manchester events contact Tracey on hello@tasteofcairo.com




Sunday 11th March- Glasgow (workshops and talk)
Hosted by NADA AGM at Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

workshop 1 higher level- Cairo-lorna style
workshop 2 open level- Make your accents stand out
For booking and more info contact; http://www.facebook.com/search/results.php?q=nada%20agm&init=quick&tas=0.0014547995459768814#!/groups/11319949545/



Tuesday 13th March- Edinburgh (performance) details TBC
Hosted by Elspeth Swishandhips.
For booking and info contact Elspeth on swishandhips@hotmail.co.uk

Saturday 17th March- Edinburgh (workshops)
Hosted by Elspeth Swishandhips
Venue- Edinburgh studios. Upper 19 Arthur Street, Edinburgh, EH6 5DA.

Workshop 1- 12.15-2.15
Workshop 2- 2.45-4.45
Workshop cost £24 each or £45 for both.
For booking and info contact Elspeth on swishandhips@hotmail.co.uk


I will also be available in Edinburgh for Private Classes a large chunk of March, when i am not touring around! Contact me directly if you are interested Bellylorna@hotmail.com

dance and drama..

This week sees Cairo clashes back in international news. First the horrific violence at the Port Said football match on Wednesday... then every day since then in Cairo, as people take to the streets to mourn for the dead from the match and demand SCAF (Supreme council of the armed forces) speed up the transfer of power to Egypt’s newly elected parliament.

There are so many conspiracy theories and stories and lies going around that it is really hard to work out the ‘truth’ of the situation, if there is one....

However most people (except SCAF) are in agreement that the violence in Port Said’s match with the Cairo team Al Ahly, was not your usual football hooliganism. This was orchestrated. Planned. The ‘thugs’ had weapons in the stadium. The security at the match certainly left much to be desired.

So, if it was organised, who set this up? State TV broadcast blamed America and Germany for instigating the violence!

Today I was talking about it all with my Egyptian cleaner, whose brother is in Tahrir now. Her entire family are against him going, and they are‘for’ the army. He goes anyway. In the revolution last year he went to Tahrir with 2 close friends, and came back alone. They were killed in front of him. He is involved on every level in what he sees as a fight needing to be fought, a fight for freedom for Egypt, to the death if need be. He is among the thousands who have been protesting downtown over the last 3 days.

My cleaner told me she blamed America for it all.... saying that they want to ‘break’ Egypt as they have done Iraq etc. This is what she said she learns from the local TV. She had heard that someone from al Qaeda was hiding out in Egypt and America was trying to bring Egypt to a state of civil war so it had an excuse to ‘invade’ and catch him. I tried to explain to her a bit about world politics. That although America hasn’t always been very wise in some of its global politics, it wasn’t as such in my opinion, ‘out to get’Egypt. It took a lot of persuasion to get her to even consider where might be a different way to think about this situation. She admitted that what she really wants is access to internet so she can read about it for herself, educate herself. And I have to agree with her. That is exactly the issue. Mubarak and his regime did not have any interest in promoting an educated population in the last 30 years, since once educated they might question his authority. In fact, you might say, exactly what is happening now. Egyptian people are very quickly educating themselves, and large amount of what they learn comes from the net.

So this is the Drama. And believe me, it is a ‘play’ where the scenes and characters change frequently. No-one yet knows the ending to this story. I only pray that between now and then, not too many innocent people lose their lives, and their livelihoods.

Which bring me to Dance.

My work is affected by the huge drop in tourism that any negative press bring to a country. I do understand people fear about Egypt just now. I strongly also believe that now IS a good time to visit Egypt. Come to Egypt! Help the economy of a people struggling to put enough food in their children’s mouths. Partly for selfish reasons of course, as I said my work has been severely affected this last year, but also for the other 22million Egyptians who depend on tourism for their livelihoods. It’s been a tough time. There are other reasons to visit. We don’t know what the future holds therefore there are things in the current Egypt which are really worth experiencing, and which might not survive the next years. Like dance.

Belly dance is already becoming harder and harder to find in Egypt. Less people have a dancer at their wedding, for financial and for religious reasons. People are going out less, due to the economic hardship which is affecting everyone in the world, and travelling less. So the nightclubs you find on Sharia Haram, for example, are often closing down or working limited days or hours. Some top 5 star hotels, which used to have a dance show every night of the week, are down to maybe one night per week, or special occasions only.

My boat, the Nile Pharaoh used to function with 2 boats, each working a minimum of 2 sails per evening (plus often lunch sails and late sails) and each of those sails had 2 decks open for business. The last year has seen the norm change down to one boat, one sail, and one deck per night. That is a massive drop, for us dancers who work there, but also for the rest of the employees. How long an employer can continue to function in these circumstances is anyone’s guess.

Everywhere in the world a sector of society which suffers greatly in any economic depression is entertainment. Restaurants, nightclubs, bars, theatre, dance. People stay at home when they need to tighten their belt.s This is happening here in Cairo too. Us artists are feeling it.

Dance festivals (for example, Nile Group and Ahlan we Sahlan festivals) although still being a fabulous way to immerse yourself in Egyptian dance for a week, are attracting less and less dancers from abroad who are scared to book a place, just in case things flair up.

This week I attended the opening festival of the Nile Group. The show was great with 2 stars of Egyptian dance; performing (Camelia and Tito) and one foreign dancer (Marguerite). But sadly, where only 18 months ago it was hard to find an empty seat at these events, the lowered attendance was notable. I do understand it is a risk some people are frightened to take... but I really wish people would come and support these amazing events which do so much for promoting and improving the level of Egyptian dance worldwide.

Come to Cairo-Dance here, watch dance here – while you can!!!!

Cairo in the Rain

I've lived with rain all my life... being Scottish. In Cairo however, the rain is more like liquid pollution, leaving black marks on your face and clothes. Since it is a relatively rare sight, the streets are not designed for it, and with no drains the roads become muddy rivers.

Tonight Cairo's rivers are flowing, making the normally prolific number of empty taxi's available to hire disappear. Not a night to be walking in the street.

I feel for those in tahrir, setting up to sleep the night in the rain in preperation for tomorrows celebration/ protest/ commemorate of a year since the revolution started. It's a cold wet start to an event that many of us have been dreading. There is a fear in the air about what might happen tomorrow. If there will be trouble, or not. Its a public holiday and shops and offices are all closed.

My work has even decided to close for the day. It seems nobody wants to cruise on the Nile on this auspicious day. Fair enough, if it was my business i would close too, but its hard on everyone how little work there is in Egypt if you are involved tourism at all. Thankfully the last 2 days i have had lots of chinese tourists come to see my show... i guess to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

Sharia Haram (Pyramid road) is closed for the next 2 nights.... avoiding giving troublemakers any cause to repeat the burning and looting of the clubs there that happened a year ago.

Egypt is progressing. On monday we saw the 1st ever voted in paliment meeting, watched all around the country on tv. Today the head of the army announced he was going 'to end the state of emergancy'. Perhaps I'll be sitting here tomorrow night saying that all is the same as usual........ but i have learned in my 6 years of living in Egypt, and over the last year of it in particular, the difference a day can make. I am, like everyone else i know, making plans for life as normal , the day after tomorrow, but being careful to add the 'inshallah' or hopefully' at the end of each sentence!

'Inshallah' 25th january will be a peaceful one this year, unlike last year. We don't want more fires needing put out, even if this rain could do a good job of it!

Christmas in Cairo.

I have had a wonderful Christmas in Cairo this year. Lots of fun nights out with friends....

I always spend this festive time with my family in Scotland, but this year, with work being so slow since the revolution in Cairo, I felt I just could not afford the time away from work, nor the cost of flights, to return for one week. It’s a sad decision to have to make... but i decided that if I was going to be in Cairo then I was going to make the most of it.

I told my work I wasn’t free the day of christmas and refused an order for that evening too, because I wanted to spend the day with my friends. I am not the only expat who stayed in Cairo and 10 of us got together on Christmas to spend the day as you should, appreciating lots of good food and being grateful for the friendship of people you love. It was a heart warming time away from the commercial onslaught which has become the whole of December in the western world. It was a Christmas which wasn’t focused around buying stuff. I think all of us felt much closer by the end of the meal, that our little group of friends had become a Cairo family, which is a lovely feeling when you are missing your ‘real’ family back home.

One friend, Laura from Northern Ireland and her husband, Garhy, cooked a giant turkey for us... I have honestly never seen one this big! Only thing was- they cooked it in their home... on the ohter side of cairo.... so on christmas day we were waiting to start our meal because the turkey was caught in rush hour traffic!!!

That only added to the fun of the day though and we devoured it when it arrived! It was really tasty too, very juicy.

Caroline, a friend staying with us in ‘Hotel Bellylorna’ from Scotland baked cupcakes, Yorkshire puddings and fresh bread too. Ellie and I were in charge of the soup, veggies, tatties and I made a huge trifle too, which took 3 days to finish off eating.

I was very proud of and impressed by us all. Usually our families do the dinner, it was the first time for us all to take charge, but we did no bad. It was truly a ‘typical’ and fantastic Christmas dinner.

I had a Christmas cactus tree.... decorated with lights.

I’d love to know that name of this plant- so if anyone can advise?? I’ve searched google and can’t find it!

We had our after dinner party games which was very interesting with our mix of Brits, Egyptians and Italian! It was interesting to see which things you just take for granted in each culture and the various different hand signals you use to suggest things. I now know some very strong hand signals to use in Italy if anyone ever upsets me!!!! It was the first time some people in the group had played charades...

I wrote the above shortly after Christmas day... and life has been keeping me away from the computer a lot so tried again to publish this (but blogger failed me!) on Christmas day round 2... Coptic Christmas day. Last night I watched some of the ceremony on tv (it was screened on nearly all the local channels). The army generals were there in attendance and the pope thanked them for coming and commented that the army and the people love each other. I know many who would question the validity of that comment, but i guess the desire for peace is what underlies it. Lets pray for peace in 2012.

... and for more bellydance!