The Last Day
May 31 2006
I'm writing on the back of a film poster in the Windsor Hotel dining room. This was a successful poster hunt. I shipped most of the heavy magazines and posters yesterday morning by surface mail from the Ramses Post Office. I still have two heavy bags to check at the airport for the 4 a.m. flight to Amsterdam. I'm sure I'll be charged a hefty excess baggage fee because of the weight. People kept selling things to me until the last day, today.
The posters were a bonus. I had expected to spend most of the time on this trip with Freddie, who flew here from Oregon to meet me. It was wonderful to see her and I find that I'm still in love with her more than ever. She is a sweet woman with a heart full of compassion. I wish there were a way for us to be together. I know that part of her wishes for this too, but she apparently doesn't want to give up her independence to a man again, or at least not to me. Would I take away her independence? I wouldn't want to, but one always gives up something to live with someone else. She is the only one who can make that decision.
A film crew is here making a movie "Cinderella" with Mona Zaki. Wasfi Doss, one of the hotel owners, is bustling about making sure everyone is happy. They're using all the rooms on my floor except the one I'm in.
The noise in the dining room finally drove me out. In Egypt, especially in Cairo, it is hard to find a quiet place. Trina, a woman from Nashville Freddie and I met in the hotel dining room a few days ago, told of her exhausted state upon arriving in Cairo after a long flight. She said as soon as she laid down to sleep she was startled by a loudspeaker issuing the Muslim call to prayer. When that was over she drifted off to sleep, only to be awakened by another one a little later. "Here come another Mohammad," she said. Later, on a Friday when two different sermons were being blared over loudspeakers on opposite sides of 26 July Street, Freddie called it "dueling Mohammads." It is even worse when a coffee shop is running TV sound through a PA system during a soccer game while the sermons and calls to prayer are also blasting away. Nobody can hear anything.
Most travel time is spent sitting in some uncomfortable place where relaxation is hard. There are always many hours of this. Free wireless internet is available at the Cairo airport. There are no free drinking fountains however. One must buy drinks that are mostly unwholesome in some way. They all seem to have caffeine, sugar or both. I need to remember to bring bottled water when I come here. However, at 2 a.m. it is quiet waiting for the boarding gate to open. I was not charged anything extra for weight when I checked my bags, but I'm sure they exceeded the passenger weight allowance. On previous trips I've been charged $150-$200 for excess weight.
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