whats the plot

عسل و طحينه

salam 3alaikum -
first off, belated ramadan mubarak.  i wanted to take a moment to write a bit about ramadan here in egypt.

the first note is that about the ambiance and overall mood – apartment buildings, masajid, and streets are all decorated for ramadan.  cans of pepsi contain “ramadan mubarak” messages.

for those in the us, think of the overall ambiance around christmas time – it’s the same here during ramadan.  in addition, you hear Quran almost everywhere you go – taxis and busses (which usually are either playing quran or music) are mostly playing Quran.  the masajid are a lot more full.  you’ll see people on trains reading Quran to pass time.

there is a lot of khair going on – “ma2idat ramadan,” or “ramadan tables,” provide food for the needy and the traveling during ramadan.  the “shantet ramadan” (ramadan bag) project prepares a bag filled with rice and other necessary food items to feed a family and gives them to the needy.

many have told me that at iftar time, people walk around busy intersections and give food, dates, and water to those in their cars.

most masajid have taraweeh.  friends have told me that some masajid have tahajjud from day 1.

anyhow – that’s it for now, insha’Allah will perhaps write more later.

walsalam 3alaikum.

i spent the night at my aunt’s house in cairo yesterday, and had a ticket for the 8am train to alexandria. i figured, “rather than hassle with n different modes of transportation, especially while fasting, why not call city cab?”

city cab (aka cairo cab) is a “professional” cab service, similar to what we have in the us. i called last night around 1am and asked for a cab to the train station to pick me up at 7am, figuring it’d be good to give myself some extra time (just in case).

so 7am came and the cab didn’t show – so i called them back and they said “let us give you the driver’s number”. i said, “isn’t it your job to make sure he’s on time rather than asking me to call him?” they said, “ok hang up and we’ll call you back and connect you to him.”

long story short, he promised he’d be there by 7:30 and that he’d get me there in time – i later called back and got his number – yet 7:50 came around and he still hadn’t arrived.

i called him and said “forget it – i lost the value of the train ticket thanks to you, not to mention the difficulty and inconvenience of getting to alexandria when you don’t have a train ticket.”

he apologized and said that he had another job and the cab company told him to get me when he was done (rather than dispatch a cab just for me). only in egypt…

ramadan kareem! just in time for ramadan, we’ve released the first version of Quran Android. download it and let us know what you think! the source code is on github.