Hamburger flu

Well swine flu, sorry, H1N1 influenza, has finally reached Egypt. Actually it came last week- a 12 year old girl coming back from the states was caught at the airport with a high temperature and kept in hopsital and it was confirmed the next day.

(Total aside: On the way back from copenhagen, when I got off the plane in cairo I had to fill out a card with my address and answer a few questions- was I feeling sick/feverish etc- then I handed the card to a guy with a mask and had to go through another line where, I thought, they took a picture of me, I remember laughing to myself because after we handed in the cards the line up got totally out of order and wondered how they would ever manage to match the pictures up with the cards. Anyway apparently egypt is ahead of the times and what I thought was a camera was actually a scanner that measured if you had a temperature or not. This was the machine that caught the little girl with the fever that was actually swine flu. I know this is an unprecedented move, but I would like to officially apologize to Egypt for laughing. (Just this once though- most of the time it's warranted).

Anyway, so yesterday two more cases were confirmed at the american university in Cairo and today 5 more cases were found. They have closed the campus for a week and the dorm where the students live have been put under quarantine. Anyway at lunch today this was a topic of conversation and a funny discussion ensued:

Mohamed #1: Hey did you hear about those new cases of swine flu at AUC?
Mohamed #2: yeah, they were americans right?
Mohamed #3: yeah they were
Mohamed #1: Did they say how they got it?
Mohamed #1: I think Obama brought it.
Mohamed #2: yeah he probably did
Mohamed #3: well americans are always eating hamburgers
Mohamed #2; yeah that's how they got it, from eating ham
Me: um, okay, I don't think Obama brought it, and anyway, mohmaed, you know hamburgers don't have ham in them right?
Mohamed #1: yes they do, it's in the name- HAMburgers
Me: No they're named after the place in Germany, Hamburg, they're beef. And anyway, you can't get swine flu from eating pork. Those student probably touched a doorknob or shook someone's hand. The best thing we can do to protect ourselves is just wash our hands frequently
Mohamed #2: I don't know.....I think it's those americans and their hamburgers

No matter what I said, I couldn't convince them....but how could I when their own government ordered the slaughter of every single pig in the country?

This is a funny example, and they were joking about Obama (actually the response to his speech here was very good- some people say he reminds them of their much-loved late president Anwar Sadat who was assassinated in the early 80's) but it's easy to see how fear and ignorance can quickly turn to hate and prejudice. That goes for the North American media as well.. they do a pretty good job at sensationalizing things and generating fear.. I think the best thing we can do in any situation is go in with an open mind and try to learn as much about both sides as possible. Okay I'll put the soapbox away now.

So I don't want to get too excited yet, but I think my foot is almost 100% healed. I ran on Sunday about 30 mins at the track and it was fine and the tonight Peter and I did about 45 mins, with the last 20 mins at a pretty quick pace and no pain at all. Not in my foot anyway, my lungs were hurting a bit- it's been warm lately and was still about 32C at 7:30pm when we were running. It takes a lot out of you. I turned even redder than usual and was getting some strange looks at the grocery store afterward- I think people thought I was really sunburned.

Okay I'm off to find some food, but hope you're all doing well! Also, a special 'shout-out' to Mum and Dad who are hiking in Utah! Hope you're having a great holiday and staying hydrated.

xoxo C