Party Like an Egyptian!

  
  
   

So I have not written much about our social lives in Egypt, other than describing our two-week Cairo/Nile Christmas bacchanal, as that event took so much out of us we needed a few months of family board game and video nights to recover.

    The good news is we have been out on the town in high spirits ever since returning from our Sinai vacation, and so I have much more to blog about than books, as I did during my winter detox period. In fact, in the last few weeks alone, we have been to an engagement party, a boat launch gala, a diplomatic ball, an Embassy party, and even thrown a couple parties ourselves—including a Cinqo de Mayo/British election party (I’ll explain that combo later.)

    
   Party Number One: Two young Egyptian workers in Daniel’s bureau recently became engaged, which was very cute as they were too shy for ages to speak to one another. Then, it all happened and suddenly we were invited to their engagement party. I wrongly assumed it would be a casual office affair (no pun intended) at one of their young, poor apartments, having no idea that Egyptians live at home (both male and female) until they are married and once they are betrothed the bride’s parents throw an engagement party that rivals a Trump wedding. Who knew? Certainly not my husband….

    The huge Klieg light scanning the sky and enormous villa and dance floor covered in fairy lights (see photo to the left) were immediate clues that we had completely underestimated the scale of the event (it turned out the bride’s father is a big surgeon and her mother a former Ambassador). Walking into the house, I was mortified by my Hilary Clinton pant suit look of black trousers and a blazer when I saw all the women (I was the only Westerner) dressed in gorgeous full-length gowns and cocktail dresses. Worse still, I was unable to drink away my embarrassment as the party was unbelievably elegant, but totally dry (many Muslims do drink, but this family does not.)

    Having said that, I did get a couple of sips of something in the parking lot as one of Daniel’s colleagues grabbed us on the way into the party and shared his hip flask with us—I felt like I was back in high school sneaking a swig of Southern Comfort in a corn field, minus the Klieg light, husband and location, of course.   

    Luckily, I was able to quickly camouflage my boozy breath at the enormous buffet, which had everything from a shrimp bar to an ice cream stand. And though it was a bit of a shock to find ourselves at a party where we were closer in age to the parents than the kids, Daniel ended up being treated like a celebrity, not just for having given the bride her first job, but for putting her desk in such close proximity to her future husband. We felt very “local” at our first all Egyptian party, though we did not dance…that might have been a bit too Steve Carell (from The Office), for Dan we decided.

 
Party Number Two: Call it “Anchor’s Away”…though we never actually left the dock, despite it being a boat launch party. Instead, one-hundred cultured Egyptians and diplomats were invited to christen a new luxury sailboat for twelve guests that plans to cruise from Luxor to Aswan when it is completed (there were still workman toiling away as we toured the boat close to midnight.) The highlight of the evening was probably meeting the last King of Egypt, King Fuad II, who now lives in Switzerland, but was invited because the largest suite on the boat is dedicated to his family with old black and white photos of the ousted King and his relatives gracing the walls.

    His Royal Highness (as he was introduced to me) succeeded his father, King Farouk I, when he was overthrown in the 1952 Revolution. Though he was only a baby he ascended the throne, but only for a year as he was then deposed and sent away to join his family in exile. Though I can only imagine the stories he must know, he was quite shy, though he did appear moved by the room dedicated to his ancestors when almost every other sign of Egypt’s imperial/royal past has been erased from here.

    We also met this cool actor, who is in the new movie, Fair Game, which was premiering last week at the Cannes film festival, about the CIA operative Valerie Plame. He is the guy who plays the younger version of Omar Sharif in the film though I forget his name both on screen and off—too many gin and tonics (this party, unlike the other, was as wet as the Nile we were floating on). The party was full of creative types…artists and filmmakers. Did you know Egypt used to have a thriving film industry in the thirties that rivaled Hollywood’s, complete with their own singing stars like Leila Mourad and Mohamad Abd el Wahab? I am on a mission to get my hands on some of these old movies with English subtitles, as they look amazing. 

    Party Number Three: We next went to a party at the Israeli Embassy to celebrate their independence day. There was quite a bit of security, as one can imagine at the Israeli Ambassador’s residence, but once we got through the check point, we enjoyed an amazing evening in the residence’s garden. Despite the current controversy over settlements in Israel, it was well-attended by diplomats and even many Egyptian businessmen who do work with Israelis (there are tax incentives to encourage them to do so). Most guests were there, however, to meet the new Ambassador, Yitzhak Levanon, who spoke at a podium, flanked by both an Israeli and Egyptian flag. Afterwards, tons of guests had their picture taken between the two flags as it is incredibly rare to see them waving side by side, despite thirty years of peace between the two countries. Once again, we felt incredibly lucky to be part of the very small Jewish Community of Cairo, which is why we get invited to these interesting events that many journalists are not allowed to attend.

    Party Number Four: Ten days ago, we decided to throw a British Election party as the election was on a Thursday night, which is like our Friday night here, as our weekend is Friday and Saturday. But seeing as the day before the election was May 5^th, we decided on a Cinqo de Mayo food theme for our British party, preferring Sangria and salsa to Shepard’s pie and beer in the Cairo heat (had we been able to score some Pimms at the duty free store the whole theme might have been different). Though we wished we could have made a Gordon Brown Piñata, we instead made a poster with all three candidate’s talking points and made sure all our guests (sixty of them!) voted (see top photo). Over here in Egypt Nick Clegg was a sure winner but I did have a lot of idealistic college students in my house, thanks to our third cousin introducing us to her crowd at the American University of Cairo.

    Last weekend was the most spectacular party of them all…the Diplomats Ball at the British Ambassador’s residence here. It was completed in 1894 by Lord Cromer who built it on a plot of land that used to run all the way down to the Nile (now it is separated by a major road known as the Corniche.) The building houses both the residence and the embassy offices but was all ours for the night. Round tables lit with blue lights were set up throughout the enormous garden with a huge dance floor in the center. Each table was for a different Ambassador, who was then free to invite whomever they wanted, though because it was for charity we all paid to attend. I really should have had Shea there as the entire reason we are friends with the Austrian Ambassador is because Shea and the Ambassador’s dog, Calvin, are best mates.  There was lots of eighties music played by a DJ (the British Ambassador and his wife are in their late forties/ early fifties), and amazing food. But it was the setting that made the event. I felt like Kirsten Scott Thomas in The English Patient---not when she dies in the cave, of course, but during her glamorous dinner dress period in Cairo flirting with Ralph Fiennes.

    This past Thursday I threw yet another party, this one for a distinguished journalist, Charles Eisendrath, who was in town and is the head of the Knight Wallace Fellows at U of Michigan. I invited about ten working journalists in Cairo, who were eager to hear his good news from across the pond about our industry, which we fear is dying (He assured us it is still alive and kicking, though in new directions). Finally, we went to a barbecue at another friend’s house two nights ago, which was fun though the lack of any pork products on a sizzling grill is always a depressing sight here in the Middle East.

    This week we will stay home in mourning, as Harriet leaves us Tuesday to head to Greece for a graduation trip with friends, and then carries on to London, where she will work as an au pair for a month and get used to living in England without us, as she will next year. We will, of course, be here trying to get used to living without her—something I know I have been in complete de NILE about, as we like to say here in Egypt. Might have to throw another party just to cheer myself up!