Cairo

Just over a month ago, I was in Cairo enjoying a wonderful holiday and touring a fascinating and historically important city. Here is a photo I took from my hotel balcony on Friday, December 24, 2010. The view is of Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo.

This morning, I was reading about the protests in Cairo and looking at the various images that have been posted online; I came across the following photo dated Friday, January 28, 2011: (the photo credit is Peter Macdiarmid, Getty Images)

Notice the tower that is visible in both photos. I figure this photo could have been taken from a balcony at the same hotel I stayed in. It is hard to believe the changes to the city in such a short time, and my recent visit to Cairo makes the reality of what is happening there right now feel very close. The people we met there are on my mind today. I am praying for their safety and that peace and order will be restored to Cairo soon.

Firewood

Since most people rely on charcoal fires to cook their food and boil their water, it is necessary for them to have a regular supply of firewood. They can either buy it, grow their own eucalyptus trees if they have the resources to do so, or find it wherever they can. This last practice often causes problems, as was demonstrated by a small drama we encountered this morning.

I have mentioned before that the wetland on our property is a place where some of our neighbours have started fires in order to make charcoal for themselves. Burning the wetland is illegal since it is protected by NEMA (the National Environmental Management Agency) and it is also private property (ours!), so we try to discourage it whenever we can. Between June and October last year, we had three major fires in our wetland and some of the brush there is still blackened and damaged as a result. Our security guards keep an eye on this area and even caught some of the people responsible for starting one of the fires; they were given very strong warnings not to repeat the practice.

Earlier this week, we noticed some people chopping down some of the small, blackened trees in the wetland, so our guards (once again!) went down and chased them off the property. However, this morning, about 10 or so people were down there hacking at the saplings. The dogs were barking at them, we were on our front porches watching, and they knew they weren't supposed to be there, but they still continued to collect the firewood. When I walked to the edge of the retaining wall in front of my house to take the photos below, some of the people ran off because they knew they might get in trouble.

Paul called the guards to take care of the issue, but meanwhile, Arleen set off on her morning run around the compound. The dogs always follow her on these runs, and so the folks in the wetland saw her and the dogs coming towards them and they took off running. There is a chainlink fence between our compound and the wetland, and Arleen wasn't going to do anything to them, but they weren't taking any chances. By this time the guards had also made their way down to that area to chase them away.

As we watched the scene from our porches, we heard all the workers down at the building site cheering and hollering as they also watched these folks running away. It was quite the event!

While we are sympathetic to the problem--the difficulty of finding firewood for people who can't afford to buy it--we still want to uphold the law and protect our beautiful wetland. I think this is probably something we'll be dealing with for years to come.

a rather faraway look at the people chopping firewood in the wetland this morning

you can only see 2 people in this shot, as most of the group ran away

when they saw me come to the retaining wall to take the photo

Bread

I made a rather major decision fairly recently: I decided to avoid buying bread from the bakery in town. When I am in Kampala, I will purchase a loaf or two from the supermarket bakeries--there is usually more variety there and the loaves are of a better quality. Generally,however, I am not a big fan of the bread found in most of the local stores.

It can be rather difficult to find whole wheat or even "brown" bread and the loaves tend to be dry and go stale very quickly.

There are also some definite cultural differences between what I expect a loaf of bread to be and what people here prefer. Note the selling feature of the loaf below:

Yes, that's right...it's "enriched with extra fat and sugar"...

The result of not buying much bread, is that I make my own more frequently and I do enjoy this process. The warm temperatures here ensure that the dough rises beautifully every time and there really is nothing nicer than the smell (and taste!) of freshly baked bread. I'm enjoying experimenting with different ingredients and have even gotten to the point where I don't have to follow a recipe every time. My homemade bread may lack the benefits of extra sugar and fat, but somehow, I don't seem to notice.