The Sounds of Maadi

New places are full of new sights, sounds, and smells, things that you might have been able to imagine before arrival but have a deeper level of impact once you are in the middle of them. While sights are easy enough to describe with a few photographs, the sounds and especially the smells of a place require a little more written description.

The sounds of Maadi are not that much different from what you might expect. The early morning hours are quite on the streets, this must be the only time Egyptians sleep. But by 7 AM the construction on the building outside my front door begins. Hammers and power tools, bricks being dumped out of wheel barrows begin their familiar rhythm. How can I hear these things so clearly from inside my apartment is a question that I might not have asked. But you see, our bathrooms all back up against the outside wall facing the construction site. Above each toilet, there is a fan that vents into a dead space, except that the dead space is covered by vents. This gives visual privacy but not any sound privacy. (I'd hate to think who could easily be walking by those spots and gets an ear-full.) Its a little odd.

By 8 AM the honking is in full swing and the busy street 5 floors below is definitely awake. Honking here is not rude; it is a normal way drivers communicate. A little honk to get the attention of a passerby who might be looking for a taxi. A little honk going around a blind corner to let whoever might be there know you are coming. A little when two men are standing in the middle of the road having a conversation and a smoke to get them to move 3 inches out of the way. A little honk if the driver in front of you stops to let someone out it is taking too much time. A little honk if your car is now less than 2 inches from me and I don't think you see that I am here. Long honks appear to mean you are pushing my patience.

Multiple honks can be for celebrations. We live near a Coptic church. Five floors up all of our windows look out over their community center. Last weekend -- Thursday, Friday, Saturday evenings -- we heard what we assume to be a wedding celebration. Thursday night it was just a bunch people talking until late in the evening. Friday it was a music and more talking late. Saturday it was as if we'd been transported into Fiddle on the Roof. The violin was clearly hooked up to an amp. Oh, and the ululating! Don't think I'd ever heard it anywhere other than TV, but it sure is distinctive. Every 5 minutes, a single voice would start and soon be joined by more. All we could do as we laid in bed trying to fall asleep was laugh. Clearly we are some place different from southern AZ! Then as the festivities wound down, and the music lowered, and the talking diminished, the cars drove honking in short staccatos around the traffic circle fronting the church and community center and then that sound, too, faded into the night.

Then there is the call to prayer. As you might know, Egypt is a predominantly Muslim country. The neighborhood of Maadi is a mix of ex-pats from around the world and Egyptians. The closest mosque is not nearby so it is difficult to hear the call from inside the apartment, unless of course, you are in the bathroom. There seems to be more than one mosque that I can hear and I think they use different clocks, as shortly after one finishes another begins. It is not annoying, it is just another layer of sound the city makes.

Our air conditioning units (yes, plural) seem to run without ever stopping. The sound is white noise inside the apartment just like any other home I've lived in. Outside it is LOUD. Walking past the units behind the vented dead spaces it is difficult to carry on a conversation at normal volume. Even down in the "dog waste area", the sound makes you speak up. The generator has come on only once since we've been here. And that makes the whole world a little noisier.

Add in the occasional international flight coming into the Cairo airport to the north of us, and you have most of the sounds I hear on a daily basis.

P.S. Just as I was about to it "publish" a siren went by. Hear that about once every other day. Not sure what they are going to.