Small World Saturday #10: Colors

This blog is about everything Egyptian and although Egypt’s history is long and her culture fascinating, she is but one nation in this world of ours that grows smaller with each day. Every Saturday, we’ll post a theme. Participants will post a picture, story, song, poem, recipe, craft project, piece of art – anything, really – that tells us something about your city/town, state/province, or country for that week's topic. Our hope is that through this weekly meme, we’ll learn more about our countries and cultures.

This week's theme is COLORS, so tell us something about how you get together to spend time with family, friends, and neighbors in your part of the world.

Next week's (10-10) theme: PLANTS

Here are the rules:

1. Please keep your posts family friendly.

2. Enter the link to your specific Small World Saturday post ONLY in Mr. Linky, as this makes it easier for us all to find the posts.

3. We reserve the right to remove any links that are not from Small World Saturday participants and are not linked directly to the weekly post.

Read more...

Small World Saturday #9: Entertainment

This blog is about everything Egyptian and although Egypt’s history is long and her culture fascinating, she is but one nation in this world of ours that grows smaller with each day. Every Saturday, we’ll post a theme. Participants will post a picture, story, song, poem, recipe, craft project, piece of art – anything, really – that tells us something about your city/town, state/province, or country for that week's topic. Our hope is that through this weekly meme, we’ll learn more about our countries and cultures.

This week's theme is ENTERTAINMENT, so share something about movies, music, television, theater, or clubs in your part of the world.

Next week's (10-3) theme: COLORS

Here are the rules:

1. Please keep your posts family friendly.

2. Enter the link to your specific Small World Saturday post ONLY in Mr. Linky, as this makes it easier for us all to find the posts.

3. We reserve the right to remove any links that are not from Small World Saturday participants and are not linked directly to the weekly post.

Read more...

Small World Saturday #8: Eating Out

This blog is about everything Egyptian and although Egypt’s history is long and her culture fascinating, she is but one nation in this world of ours that grows smaller with each day. Every Saturday, we’ll post a theme. Participants will post a picture, story, song, poem, recipe, craft project, piece of art – anything, really – that tells us something about your city/town, state/province, or country for that week's topic. Our hope is that through this weekly meme, we’ll learn more about our countries and cultures.

This week's theme is EATING OUT, so tell us abut or show us the places where you go to eat outside of your home in your part of the world.

Next week's (9-26) theme: ENTERTAINMENT

Here are the rules:

1. Please keep your posts family friendly.

2. Enter the link to your specific Small World Saturday post ONLY in Mr. Linky, as this makes it easier for us all to find the posts.

3. We reserve the right to remove any links that are not from Small World Saturday participants and are not linked directly to the weekly post.

Read more...

Food on Friday: Egypt's Food Crisis

Today's Scribe:

While surfing around YouTube for a new weekly video to post, I came across this fantastic short documentary that aired on Al-Jazeerah English last summer. It may be a year old, but the problems with food and inflation in Egypt that it discusses still exist.

For anyone who isn't familiar with fool (pronounced foo-wil), the dish made from beans that is spotlighted in the first part, just think of Hannibal Lecter -- he claimed to have eaten someone's liver with fava beans and a glass of chianti. Fool and fava beans are one and the same. Honestly, they are incredibly versatile; Egyptians say that you can prepare them differently every single day for a year.

I hope that you will enjoy this brief look at food in Egypt!

Part 1

Part 2

Read more...

Thursday Thirteen: Egyptian Proverbs

Header from Samulli.
To learn more about Thursday Thirteen, to play along, or to see other entries, click here.

Today's Scribe:









1. 'Elle 3ala rasoh batha ye-hasses 3aleha
Literal translation: A person with a wound on his head keeps touching it.
Hidden meaning: A person is likely to point to his/her own weaknesses.
Applicability: When somebody's acts expose what he/she is trying to hide.


2. 3ala kad lehafak med regleak
Literal translation: Stretch your legs as far as your quilt (blanket) goes.
Hidden meaning: Live within your means, or make do with what you have.
Applicability: When extravagancy is unaffordable.


3. 'Elle fat kadimoh tah
Literal translation: Lost is the person who forgets his/her past.
Hidden meaning: Remember what you were before bragging about what you became.
Applicability: Criticizing those who want to be disassociated from their roots.


4. Labbes 'el bousa tebka 3arousa
Literal translation: Dress-up a stick and you get a doll.
Hidden meaning: Make up (cosmetics) can make the ugly quite pretty.
Applicability: Don't be fooled by appearances.


5. Kalil el-bakht yelaki el-3adm fi el-fatta
Literal translation: The unlucky finds bones in his/her "fatta" (a dish made with rice, bread, meat, and tomato sauce)
Hidden meaning: A person with a little luck expects anything to happen to him. Bad luck sticks!
Applicability: Complain about one's bad luck.


6. 'En kan habibak 3asal ma-telhasoush kolloh
Literal translation: If your friend is like honey, then don't lick all of it!
Hidden meaning: Do not take advantage of the sweetness of a dear friend!
Applicability: Criticizing a person who abuses the generosity of a friend.


7. Makedroush 3al Homar kedrom 3al barda3a
Literal transalation: They couldn't beat the donkey so they beat the saddle.
Hidden meaning: Be fair. Blame the source of the problem.
Applicability: Inability to see the real problem and the real evil.


8. Malekyoush fi 'elward 3eib kalom ya 'aHmar el-khaddein
Literal translation: They found no wrong with the roses, so they complained that they were red!
Hidden meaning: People will disagree with you no matter how perfect you are.
Applicability: When people criticize just for the sake of criticizing.


9. El kalb elle beddak tegorroh 3al-said, la feeh wa la f'saidoh
Literal translation: If you have to drag a dog to the hunt, neither he nor his hunting is any good.
Hidden meaning: Someone who unwillingly does what he should will never do it well.
Applicability: Criticizing someone who has to be forced to do what he's supposed to do.


10. Gebna el-aqra3 la'y wannesna, kachaf qar3etoh w'khawwafna
Translation: We invited the bald man to keep us company; he uncovered his baldness and scared us.
Hidden meaning: Criticizing those who act in a manner opposite to what had been expected.
Applicability: When someone behaves in such a way as to provoke a negative reaction where a positive one had been expected.


11. Khonfesa shafet weladha 3al Hait 'alet da 3okD mesalsel
Literal translation: A beetle saw her children on the wall, she said they look like a string of pearls Meaning: To the biased eye, the ugliest can look beautiful.
Usage: To criticize people with clearly biased opinions.


12. Ya me'amen el regaal ya me'amen el mayya fel ghorbal
Literal translation: Trusting men is trusting the water in a sieve
Hidden meaning: A feminist proverb that makes the analogy of trusting men to water being kept in a sieve
Applicability: To wives betrayed or cheated by their husbands (mainly)


13. TabbaKH el-sim dawa'uh
Literal translation: A cook tastes his own cooking, even if it's poison.
Hidden meaning: One gets the results of one's own actions
Applicability: To comment on somebody who suffers from his/her wrong acts

Read more...

Mostly Wordless Wednesday: Aiga with Recipe

Today's Scribe:




A few days ago, neither Ali nor I was especially interested in cooking something for iftar (that means breakfast and since it's still Ramadan, the first meal of the day that we eat, even though it's around 7 PM, is called breakfast); it had been a long a tiring day, and cooking was the last thing on our minds. But since we needed to eat, we brainstormed, trying to come up with something tasty that could be made quickly. Finally, I had the brilliant idea to cook aiga (pronounced egg + ah), something we hadn't made or eaten for a few years. It's fast, easy, and tastes wonderful.

Aiga is basically a vegetable omelette that is baked rather than cooked in a pan on the stovetop. A friend taught me how to make it many years ago, which means that I don't have a recipe -- I just make it. But I'm going to try to make a recipe to share. Here goes nothing!

Ingredients:

6 eggs
Salt & Pepper to taste
2 tablespoons flour
1 tomato, finely chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, grated or chopped very finely
1/2 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped

Optional ingredients:

1 cup fresh spinach leaves
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled

Sautee the onions in about 1 tablespoon of butter or margarine. When the onions are clear, add the rest of the vegetables to the pan. Sautee just until they are warmed through. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat together the eggs, flour, salt, and pepper until there are no flour lumps and eggs are light yellow and frothy. Gently fold in the sauteed vegetables and feta cheese (optional).

Pour into a lightly greased 9 x 13 pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until eggs are cooked through.

Enjoy!

Read more...

Musical Monday: Gabbar by Abdel Halim Hafez

Thanks to Jori and Diane for hosting this fun meme!

Today's Scribe:



Choosing a singer for this week's theme of heartbreakers was a no-brainer. Abdel Halim Hafez was, hands down, Egypt's crooning king of heartbreak songs. Choosing just one gut-wrenching tune from a man whose catalogue is 98% songs that break your heart, however, is just a bit tougher! In the end, I selected a song for which I was lucky enough to find an excellent translation of the lyrics so that English speakers would be able to get feel for the torture Abdel Halim is singing about. Enjoy!

Part I


Part II


Lyrics Translation:

Ruthless, ruthless
Ruthless in her gentleness
Ruthless, ruthless!
Ruthless in her cruelty
Her laugh deceived me
And her tears betrayed me

And I didn't know before today
That those eyes knew how to betray in this way
And I didn't believe before today
That compassion could be this way
Ruthless, ruthless!

I knew her, yet as much as I knew her,
I didn't know her
And I saw her, yet as much as I saw her,
Never did I understand her
She used to say I love you, yes she used to say
And I, from the pining of my heart, believed her all the way
I used to see, hear and feel her heart
I was living not for my sake but for hers, for hers

And I didn't know before today
That those eyes knew how to betray in this way
And I didn't believe before today
That compassion could be this way
Ruthless, ruthless!

The one who taught me love I wish,
I just wish you weren't the one who taught me
and wish I never saw it.
Why did you deceive me, why did you make me
make me forget the world and live in its sweetness?
There wasn't any two like us that saw what we saw in our love.
The dream we were dreaming and supposed to fulfill together.
Why? Why?
Why did you awake me in the middle of heaven with fire and tears?
Why didn't you have mercy on me and leave me living deceived? Living deceived.

And I didn't know before today
That those eyes knew how to betray in this way
And I didn't believe before today
That compassion could be this way
Ruthless, ruthless!

Read more...

Small World Saturday #7: Sweets

This blog is about everything Egyptian and although Egypt’s history is long and her culture fascinating, she is but one nation in this world of ours that grows smaller with each day. Every Saturday, we’ll post a theme. Participants will post a picture, story, song, poem, recipe, craft project, piece of art – anything, really – that tells us something about your city/town, state/province, or country for that week's topic. Our hope is that through this weekly meme, we’ll learn more about our countries and cultures.

This week's theme is SWEETS, so share with the tasty treats to satisfy a sweet tooth in your part of the world.

Next week's (9-19) theme: EATING OUT

Here are the rules:

1. Please keep your posts family friendly.

2. Enter the link to your specific Small World Saturday post ONLY in Mr. Linky, as this makes it easier for us all to find the posts.

3. We reserve the right to remove any links that are not from Small World Saturday participants and are not linked directly to the weekly post.

Read more...

Thursday Thirteen: You Know You're Egyptian When ...

Header from Samulli.To learn more about this meme, to play along, or to see other participants' entries, click here.



Today's Scribe:




1. You know that 1 minute = 1 hour

2. You say "estubid" and "owet" for stupid and out

3. You have billions of cousins

4. You call every person you've never met before "uncle," "ammo," or "khalu"

5. You love to laugh and smile

6. You have ten different foods at your dinner table

7. Your middle name is your father's first name, whether you are male or female

8. You're probably the loudest in your circle of friends

9. Your mom says things like, "Put za sings in za sing"

10. You ask your dad a simple question and he tells you a lengthy story about how he had to walk miles just to get to school and forgets to answer the question that you asked

11. You pronounce the letter B as P so that you say Bebsi, bolice, and bubby instead of Pepsi, police, and puppy

12. When you fly back home after a trip, you find 20 or more people waiting for you at the airport

13. You fight over who pays the dinner bill

Read more...