Cairo Politics

I flew to Cairo yesterday for a three week assignment. Unfortunately, the Israeli-Lebanon war is being billed here as the United States-Lebanon war, and I've been warned to stay off the streets after Friday prayers. After the last riot I got caught up in, I'm taking this warning seriously. However, fortunately, so far everyone here has been pleasant and things seem fairly normal here. For Cairo.

The road outside my office after only two hours of rain. What happens in a real storm? The monsoons are coming...

"Butt" is a common family name in Pakistan, and the source of endless amusement to small minds like my own. Ah, the simple pleasures...

The village water cooler. Vehari, Pakistan.

Multan

Because several people have asked, no, I was not on the plane that crashed in Multan. Oddly enough, I just got back from a trip to Multan, however, I decided that I was not going to fly in anything called a "Fokker" plane and went by car and bus instead.

How was Multan? It was hot. Too hot to do any sightseeing. It was so hot, that when the dust storm hit at 6 pm the temperature dropped to 100 degrees.

Hot.

Banking

A few weeks ago I found a sweet new duplex to move into. The price was suspiciously low, but the owners were wealthy and basically wanted a foreigner living above them. So I jumped on it. There was one roadblock, however: Standard Chartered Bank.

I figured it would take a day or two to set up a bank account, which I could then transfer money into from the US and pay my six months up front rent. It took a week to open the account, largely because of all the piddling little demands of the bank. My letter from my office stating I worked in Pakistan didn't have colored letterhead. I needed a reference from an existing Standard Chartered Account holder... It went on and on. I finally opened the account, only to have the money transfer delayed a week by my local bank in California, which probably makes international money transfers about once a year (okay, I can't blame Standard Chartered for that one).

Miraculously, the money arrived hours before I had to meet my landlords and move in. I proudly wrote a check from my new checkbook. Today my landlady called. She couldn't cash the check because my signature didn't exactly match the one the bank had on file.

AUGH!!! I can't carbon copy my bloody signature! So now I have to run down to the bank with my landlady to help her cash the check.

I can't wait until I get my ATM card.