Walking, walking in the rain

Well we've had a busy couple of days.  And today we had the "pleasure" of rain.

I had wanted to get my Egyptian drivers license before my international drivers license wore out on March 1, as I heard it was super simple to get the Egyptian license this way as opposed to without the international license.  However, we never did get my multiple year residency visa which of course would be required to get an Egyptian drivers license, so we decided to kill two birds with one stone and get them both done at the same time, and what we thought was the same place.

We went down Wednesday morning to the Mogamma, which is the big building full of ministry offices. 

When we went to check on the visa, we were told that we had to bring a copy of my "Muslim" certificate that we got from Al Azhar on my last trip.  Why they needed an official paper stating that I was a Muslim I don't know, but since it said on our marriage contract, which they also needed but which we had a copy of, that I was Muslim, they needed proof.  Something about being more thorough with their paperwork or some garbage.

So, after that we went to check on the drivers license.  And were told that you don't do that at the Mogamma, you do that at your local branch of the drivers license place, which was totally different than all of the information I had read online from other ex-pats and which was also disappointing, having made our trip downtown a total waste of time.

However, after we left the Mogamma, we headed to a trade show that I had heard about, it was a textiles trade show, and though I had written for information, I never heard back if it was only for manufacturers and such or if the average person off the street would find anything useful there.

I had read that they would have machines for sewing, embroidery, fabrics and all sorts of other things.

It was at the fairgrounds where they had just held the famous book faire, the one which we missed unfortunately. 

Well it turns out after much walking through all the buildings, that it was really just for manufacturers and such, so we didn't get much out of it, but we did get to see some neat machines that did embroidery, and huge machines that did quilting.  Those were actually pretty cool.  But, nothing to buy for the average person and in the end, also a bit of a waste of time.  Except we found out there will be a furniture fair there starting in mid March which we will go to insha'Allah.

So, back home we went.

And started all over again this morning, only this time add rain to the mix.

It rains so infrequently here that we were both happy about the rain, except while I understood how that could make things difficult, hubby was only just excited about the rain.  lol

Erm, just checked by the way because the windows in the reception were making noise, and it seems that we're having more rain and add some thunder and lightning to the mix!  woohoo!  :D  I've moved from the bed to our little stool in front of the windows in the reception so I can watch. 

Anyways, we headed down to the Mogamma.  It is, as always, a great place to people watch.  Just wonderful for seeing all sorts of people from all over the place.

We found the right window to go to and had all our paperwork this time.  I had filled out the form we needed before we got there, which is a good thing to do since there are no tables to speak of there, only the little counter area in front of the windows.

We had to do some running around to different places getting signatures and buying stamps and such, and in the end, we will have to go back a week from today to get the visa itself.  It seems they do some background checks or something before issuing a residency visa, and so it wasn't a waste to go today but we didn't leave with the visa as we had thought we would.  We will go back next Thursday insha'Allah.

After that, and while it was still raining, we walked downtown because hubby had heard about a place that sells Brother sewing machines and so we went in search of it.  It was a longer walk than I was expecting and let me tell you, the streets here when it rains do not become cleaner as one would hope, they become a muddy pig pen.  Gross gross gross!  Not a day to have been dumb enough to be wearing sandals, which I saw plenty of people wearing.  And definitely requiring a lot of attention as to where you step since there are no drains and you are likely as not to step in a large puddle of muddy water.

Well we did finally find the sewing shop but guess what?  They were closed for the week for the same trade show that we had visited the day before and wouldn't be back open until Sunday.  We did find the repair shop for the place though and the guy was able to bring out one machine, in a box, which I wrote down the model number of.  It's not the model I want and they want way too much money for it, so we will wait til the store is open again and go see what we can see.  Perhaps next week when we go down for the visa.

After that we had another little adventure, this one called the Metro, or underground.  I had never ridden on it, despite having been here for almost a year.  It's fairly cheap and you can ride to as many stations as you like on one ticket as long as you don't exit the system. 

It was, of course, crowded, though I'm sure it gets more crowded than it was.  It's also a bit stuffy, though I did see small fans mounted to the tops of the trains inside, covered by cages so that no one could steal them presumably.  Or mess with them.  I don't think they did much good but perhaps they would be at least somewhat of a blessing in the hot summer weather.

There was a lady and her son sitting next to us (we were standing the whole time, no seats available) and they were eating something like sunflower seeds.  And, of course, spitting the seeds out on the ground. 

Honestly, I mean really, honestly, it doesn't take that much to be considerate of others.  Of people around you or who will come after you and use the space you're using.  The seed shells weren't particularly bothering me but it makes a mess and some other poor soul has to clean up your spit out shells.  How hard can it be to use a tissue or something else and make the world a little bit nicer? 

It seems though, that that is a pretty common attitude in Egypt when it comes to garbage.  I mean.. that people just don't care.  It's a shame for sure.  You see it everywhere, people throwing litter out without a thought or care at all for what it's doing to their city.  Wouldn't everyone enjoy a place with less litter dotting the landscapes?  It can't be just me.

Well, we arrived home and I was beat!  My legs were so tired from all the walking, including numerous amounts of stairs in the Metro.

Awesome thunder and lightening here right now by the way.  Very cool.

I know I had some more impressions, but this is what I'm remembering for now.  Still other things to post, as always.  And I had so many good camera opportunities today, but someone convinced me to leave the camera at home, since they make you check them when you go to the Mogamma building.  lol
Oh well, there's always next time right?