Delirium

Relieved to find myself at the better end of a bout of food poisoning. I vaguely remember delirious phrases from two nights ago such as "puke till the cows come home", "not gonna make it", "my legs hurt, why do my legs hurt" and "tell my friends back home that I loved them". When the wave of nausea hit me out of nowhere, I was in a crowded alleyway cafe at Khan el-Khalili market, where my plea for a bathroom brought me face-to-face with the chained-up door of a women's restroom. Folding over with visible panic, I alarmed my cafe-waiter escort enough to gain entry into the grungy men's bathroom. Still feeling irreparably sick, I emerged from the stall with droopy eyes, and my escort and the bathroom attendant ordered me to splash water on my face and exclaim Humdelallah! (Praise God!) My memory of their reaction involves lots of clapping and giggling, but in reality they were probably less clown-like. Luckily then Noelle had the presence of mind to track me down, grab my arm, and rush me home in a taxi. I returned home to find Ryan in a similar state. After about 36 hours of dark rooms and movies, Ryan and I are functioning somewhat normally and holding down crackers and yogurt, Humdelallah.

Right now Ryan's working on tomorrow's lesson plan for an Iraqi refugee that he volunteered to tutor. The owner of "our" puppy (we returned her to him for previously noted high-maintenance characteristics) works to help resettle Iraqi refugee families. He set Ryan up with a an Iraqi man with minimal English. It's challenging but rewarding work so far. As for the Italians, one is traveling Egypt's Western Desert, and the other flew home to Italy today because he was denied re-entry into Israel. He was given no reason at the border but he thinks it was for being a suspected potential activist, which is frustrating because he never got into trouble while he was in Israel but simply being suspected of potentially engaging in activism is grounds for 10 years on Israel's blacklist. He has to waste his upcoming plane ticket from Palestine to Italy and couldn't return to pick up at least 300 euros of his belongings that he left there. He was disheartened but fortunately he knew we would welcome him in until he flew out, even if the only entertainment Ryan and I could provide was to mumble sickly from the couch.

Hm, wish I had more normal things to report to offset the food poisoning recount. All I can offer for now is this ridiculous excerpt from an article Ryan just read aloud to me from the New York Times:

"The case of Mr. Moustafa and Ms. Tamim grabbed public attention because of the spectacular characters, both in Mr. Moustafa and Ms. Tamim — and in the locales involved: Dubai, the fast moving emirate in the Gulf with influence far beyond its size, and Egypt, the floundering crisis-plagued state where power and money often buy immunity from the law."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/22/world/middleeast/22egypt.html?ref=middleeast

Poor Egypt. What a sad write-up as the rugged wild child that will never live up to its cool successful neighbor Dubai. Tsk tsk, no respect...