The Real Way To Make Nescafe

This morning started off exactly like yesterday - with an Arabic exam (did I mention that the placement test was two parts? Yea, ouch... another morning of being reminded how far from fluency I am). Yet again though, we enjoyed our time after this exam by chatting with the staff at the Arab Academy, all of us bemoaning how terrible at cooking we are. During this conversation, my friend and I were trying to make Nescafe, a type of instant coffee which is very popular in the states. Making Nescafe is generally not that difficult, the issue we were really facing was not being able to find spoons and not being able to determine the instant Nescafe from real coffee (they were in unmarked silver canisters). One of the Arab Academy staff, noticing our struggle, came over, poured out half of the cup I had been working on, whipped out a portable frother, and somehow created a bona fide latte out of Nescafe and powdered milk. The Starbucks baristas would have been shamed. After much oohing and aahing, he had made one for each of us, and we immediately asked him where we could buy such a frother in Egypt. He then presented it to us and said "hadaya," gift.

Since the day was so hot, my wanderings around Cairo were limited, but I did go back for more koosheri for dinner and tried some orange and sugar cane juice from the stand down the block (completely delicious). In the evening, we had a lecture at the house of a professor at AUC about the politics of the Nile. The discussion was interesting, even if his argument seemed a tad optimistic. Basically of the countries that border the Nile, Egypt and Sudan have nearly exclusive rights to use the water, yet the other countries (particularly Ethiopia) want greater claim to use the water. He argued that war over water was not feasible (it's not like they're going to attack a dam), and thus the nations would be forced to compromise. He outlined a compromise which he thought probable and highlighted all the bonuses from it. Having little background knowledge of the subject, I couldn't tell you if there were any flaws in his argument, but to me it seemed like he skated over the possibility of war a bit too easily. Anyway, this was the first in a series of lectures we'll be attending about various issues in the Middle East, and it was certainly thought-provoking.

Tomorrow we have orientation at St. Andrews, an NGO that works with refugees in Cairo... it's about time to really get started with our work here!