Cheese and Whine
February 19, 2005
I just drank down the last of some iced coffee sludge. This being Egypt, and the water here being recycled from various dirty locales (including the Nile) I wouldn't be surprised if that was real, honest-to-goodness sludge. Complete with typhoid or whatever other medieval diseases we've got going here.
I feel totally gross. My stomach is distended, my skin is dry and flaky. My throat--I don't know if it's still getting over the nasty, nasty cold I had last week, or if all that phlegm in there is from the over-eager pollution and particles in the air. It looks like the khamaseen is early this year.
An hour ago my sister's friend called up even though she knew my sister wasn't home. She called to tell me, and my parents I suppose, to check out MBC3 (Saudi-based satellite television channel). It seems that everyone's favorite Muslim evangelist, Amr Khalid , was on the telly. This guy used to live down the street from us, and my sister used to go to his discussions before he became a big shot, when he was just giving modest sermons out of people's homes. Now he's a pan-Islamic phenomenon, and I for one can't stand him. His voice annoys the hell out of me, and there is something about him that reminds me of Rasputin (because,of course, I knew him so well.) I mean, there is something manipulative under that holier-than-thou-but-not-untouchable venear. At least with Rasputin there are legends to be impressed by. Oh, I don't know--the man just bothers me. The point is, I found it funny that this friend of my sister's called us up to tell us he was on, and didn't even suggest that we watch the show, but rather assumed that, OF COURSE, we would want to.
What is this country coming to?
I know it wasn't like this when we were kids. Not everyone was so suffocated by this religious fear that quickly turns to fervor.
I don't know. I just don't know.