This morning while going to my belly dance workshop, I had a feeling of déjà vu. For a moment, I thought I was back on the roads of Bombay – the rain hitting my car’s windshield was reminiscent of the Bombay rains. I was traveling from Mohandissen to Maadi; strangely once I crossed Mohandissen into Zamalek, I encountered a perfect day –the sun out on a cold wintry morning. Had I just hallucinated of the rains? But no..wait, the rains soon caught up with me at Maadi….. I never knew it could rain so much in Cairo, it makes traveling such a chore. I know, coming from Bombay, I should not be complaining; there it rains for four months and it could be 4 days of continuous torrential rains!
My driver was incredulous when he heard this-“how can it rain so much? Cairo would be submerged!” But then Cairo is not equipped for such weather-where are the drains? Half an hour of rain leads to water logging and brings the traffic to a standstill. You can see these “water-pump vans” on the roads trying valiantly to drain off the water….but they are not effective and you can only pray for a sunny day to dry up the roads. People who have been residents here for a number of years say that they have not seen such rains in a long time-is it global warming at play? Dubai and Sharjah have been flooded this year...again the lack of drainage system has wrecked havoc with the city. The changing world weather will require re-thinking on the way we plan our cities-Will the “desert countries” have to invest in a drainage system and the tropical countries in desalination plants?
Onto my belly dance class-I am still getting stuck on the “camel” movement-am still the “vomiting camel”. This time the class was more fun-there were six of us and we had all levels-right from a lady attending for the first time to a semi-professional one. The teacher (Lorna Gow-she is a great teacher and I think anyone who wants to learn belly dancing must attend her workshops) is an extremely fun person and I liked it best when she made us pair up and then dance solo for the partner. Dancing solo for an audience of 7 would have been intimidating! You, kind of “freeze” thinking what movement to do next. But the key to making progress is, I think, to keep going and that’s exactly what I intend to do!
My driver was incredulous when he heard this-“how can it rain so much? Cairo would be submerged!” But then Cairo is not equipped for such weather-where are the drains? Half an hour of rain leads to water logging and brings the traffic to a standstill. You can see these “water-pump vans” on the roads trying valiantly to drain off the water….but they are not effective and you can only pray for a sunny day to dry up the roads. People who have been residents here for a number of years say that they have not seen such rains in a long time-is it global warming at play? Dubai and Sharjah have been flooded this year...again the lack of drainage system has wrecked havoc with the city. The changing world weather will require re-thinking on the way we plan our cities-Will the “desert countries” have to invest in a drainage system and the tropical countries in desalination plants?
Onto my belly dance class-I am still getting stuck on the “camel” movement-am still the “vomiting camel”. This time the class was more fun-there were six of us and we had all levels-right from a lady attending for the first time to a semi-professional one. The teacher (Lorna Gow-she is a great teacher and I think anyone who wants to learn belly dancing must attend her workshops) is an extremely fun person and I liked it best when she made us pair up and then dance solo for the partner. Dancing solo for an audience of 7 would have been intimidating! You, kind of “freeze” thinking what movement to do next. But the key to making progress is, I think, to keep going and that’s exactly what I intend to do!
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