Arriving in Cairo this morning, I was welcomed by Flora Vafea, the friend and colleague from the days of our common occupation in the Greek school in 2007. I drove with her to the Greek schools of Cairo, where she works this year and where she had to start lessons as soon as we arrived there. So, I had time to learn information about this historic institution and make photos of the third premises that house the Achilopouleios elementary school and the Abeteios high schools.
The person who attracted particularly my attention was Antonis Karydis, a poet of the local Greek Community who volunteered to store, archive, and digitalize the catalogue of the books of the Greek schools of Cairo. His efforts and work reminded somehow of my own with the libraries of the Greek Community of Khartoum, and this became even more acute when he opened for me the little museum of old stuff belonging to the Greek Community, its Schools, and the other associations that the Greeks in Cairo had organized and that were preserved in this little closet of memories…among those a collection of old projector machines; a much smaller one, though, than the one that I had catalogued when I was active with such things in the Greek Community of Khartoum premises.
The afternoon was spent walking with Flora in the streets of Heliopolis, where the old buildings cannot leave the passer-by uninterested, irrespectively of their condition of preservation or the traffic that is heavily pending upon the architectural features of this historical neighborhood.
All that one needs to do is to lift the eyes high above the modern noise of the town and the reality changes radically.
But even on the ground, there are amazing treasures to discover. To close this entry with a topic related to Nubia, I use the photo I made today of the Polish Center of Cairo, next door to Flora’s flat. The Center houses one of the most interesting collection of Nubiological publications.
More concerning my own Nubiological research in Cairo, tomorrow…
Seeing the photos, I remember the neighbourhood! Greetings to Flora and good luck tomorrow!
Seeing the neighborhood, I remembered our walks there in 2009 too
More from Cairo tonight!
Your posts look like from a different world! Never been in Africa, but posts like this take a step closer to a visit!
Very nice photos by the way!
Thank you for the kind comments!
Do join the group that plans to travel to Sudan with us as guides in the end of the year!