Biking Away Depression

This morning I set out for the usual ride with the cycling club and was quickly asked if I was up for a different ride than our normal route. Most of the guys out this morning were much faster than I and the 2 guys I could hang with were interested in changing it up a bit. I said I was game as long as we stuck together.

We headed downtown along the Corniche, the main road paralleling the Nile. We rode past an ancient Roman aqueduct that is still standing among the buildings downtown (so cool) and through some crazy traffic circles when we came upon a large group of cyclists gathered on a side street. As it happens a local cycling club (The Cairo Cycling Club, not to be confused with our group: The Cairo Cyclists) was putting on a charity ride to bring awareness to depression as a part of World Mental Health Day (who knew?)

This was hilarious and cool at the same time. There were probably 100 people, men and women, gathered for the event. We stopped to ask about it and the organizers asked us to participate. They signed us up as a team and gave us free T-shirts (we tried to pay for them but they would have none of that). We drew quite a bit of attention between our bikes and specialized gear such as helmets and other crazy accessories (clear signs that we were foreigners). We were interviewed by 2 local news stations (I wonder if any of my students will notice me, yikes.)


A pick up truck pulled up with a pile of 50 or so bikes in the bed. We assumed these were being loaned for the event as people just walked up and helped themselves. The bikes were cracking us up. Many had the seats, handle bars and frame wrapped in either plastic wrap or cardboard. These were bikes people owned. It turns out this is a common practice as people don't want to scuff, dirty or otherwise sully the condition of their bikes by riding them.

After an hour or so of standing around and asking if people could take their photos with us we got antsy and decided to head off to complete our regularly scheduled ride. I'm not sure if the charity ride ever officially got under way, but if it is anything like the Breast Cancer Awareness run taking place next weekend it was a short spin around the block. The Breast Cancer run is 1.5K.

Quite a spontaneous adventure. Here's to venturing off the beaten path!

A sandstorm in September is like Christmas in July

We had a sandstorm last night! In Egypt March is typically the month of the "Khamseen", Arabic for the number 50 due to the nearly 50 days of winds and sandstorms the city experiences. It is extremely unusual to have a sandstorm this time of year. We had an unusually hot, dry, oven-like day and people said, in hindsight, that is an indicator of a sandstorm coming. Personally, I failed to detect the subtle difference between today's "hot and dry" and any other day, but apparently the long-timers could pick up on it.

I went for a trail run in the wadi after school with a group and on our drive back into town we noticed how hazy the air was but we just chalked it up to a bad pollution day. I got home, showered, and then headed out to pick up a friend on foot and walk to dinner with her. It was unreal. The level of dust and grit in the air was huge, the trails of light cast by car headlights illuminating all the sand and dust were eerie. And the WIND! By the time I walked the 4 minutes to my friend's apartment I felt like my shower had been a waste of time. Grit was plastered to my face and clothes, my contacts were caked and traffic was a mess. Apparently the storm was coming from the north. One of the other women we were meeting for dinner had a friend who was driving to Alexandria for the weekend and he called to tell her that traffic was stopped on the road because they couldn't drive (just like we would stop because of a blizzard in Buffalo or Michigan).

We walked out of the restaurant 2 hours later to slightly cooler temps and clean-er air.