Our friends may know the story of Aurelia and Amandine. Two granddaughters of a French woman who met Brendan on the beaches of Normandy just following the D-Day invasion. The woman was Jeanette, a young lady at the time with a talent for English who aided in translating questions he had regarding the possibility of using her town’s port to off-load supplies for the allies. She resurfaced as a dignified older woman who still summered in the town of Vast and served as a gracious hostess on the occasion of the family’s return to the area to observe the 50th and 60th anniversaries of the liberation.
It is through this piece of living history (an intersection of familial history and world history) that Jeanette’s granddaughters Aureila and Amandine were introduced. We’ve had the good fortune to re-forge a link to the family through new friendships with them and have spent time with both in Paris and Amsterdam. It was with Aurelia (shown here as suspect #3) who had spent considerable time in Cairo some years ago that the plot to revisit the area was hatched. Aurelia had also introduced us to a young Egyptian actor called Shady Edaly (suspect #1) who she had known in Cairo and who she brought to Amsterdam where we were able to get to know him a little as well.
So, Aurelia organized a journey back to Cairo where she imposed on Shady’s hospitality on our behalf and on behalf of our other traveling companions, the Spaniard Igor (suspect #4) and their Italian astronomer Antionella (suspect #2).
We had one evening on our own before connecting with the others and spent an evening watching fusion European/Egyptian jazz which was the reward for failing to follow dictions to the venue for the whirling dervishes closely enough. The performance was as mesmerizing as it was surprising. No regrets. We’ll catch the dervishes next time.
We bracketed a trip out to the desert with days spent at a downtown hotel. We arrived well after sunset so the appearance of a pyramid peaking through the urban skyline was a piece of surreality to which it took some time for our eyes adjust on the first morning.
We happened to be headed out into the old part of the city on the day the Coptics celebrate Easter, so we were able to witness an ancient Mass which was very high on mystery and atmosphere.
The event was packed to the point where worshippers needed to satisfy them to watch the proceedings on close-circuit television in the outer vestibules, solemn words of praise and warning in Coptic Greek from flickering blue video monitors.
Somehow odd also that the church shop displayed dozens and dozens of popular Masses for sale on Audio CD almost all of which featured “cover art” emblazoned with images of the Coptic high holiness digitally combined with American actor, James Caviezel as he appeared in Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ.
Nobody wants to blog with clichés, so if we do it here is not on purpose. Honesty. But Cairo, like any city of its scale and scope-of-history, quieted us with the character of its broad vistas, intense internal gravitas, relentless frenetic energy and the (contrary) earth-stopping serenity of its mosques and the gigantic dome of its sky.
Having said that, the city also offered amazement in its detail. Anywhere you trained your gaze more narrowly we were rewarded with small impressions. –Juxtapositions of textures, colors, reference, temperature and so on.
One evening Shady Eldaly brought us to a contemporary art center in the upscale Embassy Row area of the city.
Shady was rehearsing his role in a group-written theatrical satire addressing the issue of Egypt’s extended state of martial law which has created a culture within which any citizen can be stopped, searched and interviewed without direct cause at any time. This state of exception has been in place for the whole of Shady’s lifetime.
The language of the work was obviously beyond our comprehension but since it was in the satirical form and since its creation involved improvisation from the actors (all of whom had contributed to the script) the histrionics spoke in a more universal language. Works of this type are discouraged due to the tense political climate so the final work is required to walk a very fine line between implication and outright accusation.
Shady explained the show consisted of humorously told examples of “typical” encounters with security officers offered from various perspectives but originating in the true experience of the performers who create them.
It was one of those evenings when the dusk period seemed to last forever. –Like a coin spinning much longer than it should before falling and laying to rest it seemed to “want” to stay beyond its assigned allotment. This endless dusk spent on cool grass with friends baring witness to Shady’s show was a highlight of the year (let alone the trip). Time moved just as slowly as we wanted it to. The stage commanded just as much of our attention as it needed but left us each free to widen our peripheral attention and absorb the specific ambient quality of the Cairo night.
