Month: November 2007

What is this “off the clock” of which you speak?

Post author By Jack
Post date November 28, 2007
No Comments on What is this “off the clock” of which you speak?

Working hours are long here in Cairo.

It is completely normal to have a Doctor schedule an appointment at 9 or 10pm. That same Doctor will give you his mobile phone number and you can pretty much call it anytime you like.

Lectures of visiting professors and other “people of interest” at the university and other research centers often start at 8 or 9pm.

There is little if any concept of being “off the clock”.

While this can be very handy if you are on the consuming side of these services, it is a royal pain when you are expected to be providing these services.

Students expect teachers to list home and mobile numbers on the syllabus. As well as personal email addresses.

Many instructors here do just that.

A closed office door just means “knock once and then walk in without waiting for acknowledgment.” When I need to work in Kaddee’s office, I lock the door. People will knock and try to enter. Then they will knock again and rattle the door knob.

It is, apparently, incomprehensible that one would lock one’s door while trying to get work done.

So why do I bring this up now? The good doctor was notified, on Sunday, that she was expected to have a presentation ready for Tuesday, to give on Friday at a mandatory faculty retreat.

She will board a bus Friday morning (Friday and Saturday being her days off), ride for 3 hours to a “beach side resort” (on the Suez Canal. Lovely view of tankers). Then spend 2 days in a room giving and listening to presentations.

Then back on the bus to Cairo. Should get home around 10pm Saturday.

Of course, this is the end of the semester, so luckily there aren’t tons of exams, homeworks, lab reports or papers to grade. Or finals to write. Or schedules for next semester to hammer out.

And that whole being prepared for lecture is over-rated anyway.

BUT, it’s all ok, cause they are going to feed her (2 whole meals: dinner Friday, breakfast Saturday. The bus leaves “before dinner time” so they don’t need to feed her then) *AND* she gets to take her spouse. (ahem). So its not like she has any right to complain.

PFers.

Welcome in Egypt.

Photographs Travel

Some photos from Lebanon

In celebration of the fact that Lebanon has been without a president for a whole day and nothing has blown up yet, a small handful of photos of the places we visited.

Politics Travel

My heart’s not in it.

I have some photos from our trip to Beirut that I wanted to post. And maybe talk a bit about our (too few) days there.

But today, the president of Lebanon has called in the army to “keep the peace.”

Today is supposed to be the last day of his term. But the parliament has been unable to agree on a replacement.

So, there is no president, legally. Is there still a constitution?

It is a very complicated system they have.

The president must be a Maronite Christian, the Prime Minister must be a Sunni Muslim, and the Speaker of Parliament must be a Shi’a Muslim.

In addition, the parliament must be made up of so many of each, based on a census that is over 50 years old.

The Christians, who hold a majority of the parliament, have not allowed a census to be taken because they (the Christians) have not been breeding as quickly as the Muslims, and know that a new census would change the division of power.

Tonight, the streets of Beirut are dark and empty.

We managed to visit for 4 or 5 days in October. We had been trying to visit there since we arrived in Cairo, but every time that we had free time, things had seemed to heat up in Lebanon. October was quiet. The elections had been put off (again) and the entire country was holding its breath.

We were hoping to go back again sometime soon. It is a beautiful country. (Even with bombed out buildings in downtown, and long detours because of bridges that were destroyed).

I have never been accused of being an optimist, so it is no surprise that I fear the worst for Beirut and the rest of the country.

I am glad we got there when we did.

I hope we get another chance sometime soon.

The Ordinary

“Fresh” Air

I was finally able to open the windows here in Cairo for the first time in several weeks.

They have remained firmly shut until now for a couple of reasons:

The weather has been unseasonably warm. It has been in the mid- to high- 90Fs lately. That is warm for Cairo for this time of year.
THE BLACK CLOUD (stories here and here). A foul blend of burning smoke from rice fields, stench from burning garbage, dust from the desert and pollution from some 1.6 million cars, most of which burn leaded gas.

These combine to make opening the windows this time of year a bad idea. In addition to the potential health ramifications, the air just smells burnt and nasty.

But it is only around 75F here today, there is a cooling NW breeze blowing, the skies are blue with wispy white clouds.

A good air day. For Cairo.