Meet Sim Sim! Sim Sim is my street cat. Well, mine and Ahmed's. This cat was an ity, bity kitten on the street when Ahmed and I started feeding her. She is supposed to be white, but she is VERY dirty, and looks like a mess, but we love her. I am sure my neighbors are not happy with me. Egyptians are not interested in animals, and they are known to treat them badly. The only reason my neighbors haven't said anything is they know I have been feeding her. She had kittens and they are on the third floor of the building next door to the travel agency. The office manager is not to happy as she is frightened of cats. I am hoping that Sim Sim will move her brood out soon. We have lots of cats and stray dogs in Cairo and they either get shot, poisoned or beaten. It is a shame and very sad, but if one sees the way the human population is treated, you can fully understand the way animals are treated. A few years back, I found a stray dog in the neighborhood that was very friendly. He was well-liked by some of the other neighbors, and even one lady named him Bebo! Bebo would walk with me to school and then go and meet and greet someone else. I thought Bebo stood a chance since there was a large interest in him, but one day, after missing Bebo for a school walk, I inquired with another neighbor on an adjacent street. She said that some of the neighborhood street kids were irritating and aggravating him and he started growling at them, so he was shot on the street. I was heartbroken, and my husband told me something I never forgot. "You see the way we treat our people, do you think an animal is going to fare better?" and he was right. I never forgot that. I will continue to try to care for Sim Sim until she meets here fate. Her kittens will probably move on to another neighborhood. I hope they find a nice person to care for them as I have their mom!!
Until next time,
A Woman of Egypt

This, my dear friends, is a dust storm. We have been suffering from these for the past month on a weekly basis. If you will look back in my blog you will see the same square in which I live, minus the dust. On a clear day, without smog and/or a dust/sand storm I can see the Citadel. We have been plagued with this type of weather for a while and I keep telling my husband this summer in Cairo will be terrible. I am sure we will have deadly heat waves with the temperature soaring around 50C. When a dust storm rolls into the city you can usually see it and smell it coming. It gets stifling hot, with hot, blowing winds which bring the dust in like a rolling tumbleweed. A sandstorm is the same...you can see nothing but yellow in the air, and the smell of sand and dust is extreme. It is not pleasant to be out in and the problem remains that they can come in so quickly. One sunny, pleasant afternoon, I was walking in the track at the club and all of a sudden a hot blast of wind bore down upon me and I looked around, and sure enough the sand and dust was rolling in from 6Th of October. In a matter of seconds, large umbrellas had blown away from tables and into the track, chairs were blown over, and people were scrambling for cover. I was a bit miffed with myself, as I had left the kitchen windows slightly open that morning, and I had a mess to clean up when I got home. I had a dustbin full of sand to clean up on my balcony that day as well. In my 39 years, I have experienced many of Allah's natural disasters ...hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, fish kills, and sand/dust storms. Insha Allah, I am finished with the later for this year's Khamaseen. Twice a week for the past month is more than enough for my respiratory system and housecleaning needs.

Until next time,

A Woman of Egypt