Forecast - Dust!

Whats the weather in Maadi?

Egypt is dusty. It hardly ever rains and the thin strip of green that people live on along the Nile is surrounded by desert on both sides, so any wind blows sand and dust from the deserts into the cities. Cairo is literally covered with a layer of dust, and the people who live here have just come to accept living with dust.

When we first visited in 2009, our friends diligently dusted their apartment daily, trying to maintain the dust-free conditions they were used to in Canada; I notice that 9 years later they are not so concerned with dust – it has become normal for them. I was told a story of the first rain they encountered when the arrived in Egypt; they ducked under a tree to get out of the downpour only to discover that the accumulated dust (Turned to mud) on the tree leaves poured down on them, and their clothes never came clean again.

If you walk the sidewalks and streets here, you care constantly kicking up clouds of dust, so sandals result in very dirty feet after a short walk. The Egyptians just accept this and they all wear sandals.

If you park you car on the streets, it loses it's colour in a day or two,

Parked BMW

all turning brown from a layer of dust. You can immediately tell the vehicles left derelict on the street, by the piles of accumulated dust covering the bottom of the tires. Back in cold Canada, you see cars with windshield wipers pulled up off the windscreen to prevent them freezing to the ice; here they are pulled up to prevent then gathering a layer of dust and scratching the glass when turned on.

But then, Egypt is home to one of the oldest civilization on earth, so I suppose we should be looking at the dust not as simple dirt, but the accumulated bits of thousands of years of human development in this part of the world. It isn't dust and dirt blowing around it is the history of Egypt being spread and shared with everyone.

Wife has gone shopping - dusting the car