#theees

[melaniemisr]

A beautiful lecture Melina

This week I hit my 10th ‘Research Skills for Egyptology’ workshop (I’ve actually done 11 now) – which equates to more than 22 hours of ‘Ustaza Melanie’ talking time! Since starting a little under a month ago, I can confirm that we’ve reached more than 150 Egyptian Egyptologists and archaeologists in Luxor, Aswan and Cairo (with several more workshops planned for Alexandria, Minya and the Fayum). The youngest participant, thus far, has been a 15-year-old schoolboy from Aswan. While, at the other end of the spectrum, I’ve had the Assistant Professor of Egyptology from Fayum University, the General Director of Karnak Temple, the Director of the Nubian Museum and a number of high ranking administrative staff from the Ministry of Antiquities.

As a part of this, I also continue to process the evaluation forms from each workshop participant as a measure for future professional skills’ initiatives. This is quite an enjoyable process, especially when I come across delightful Egyptian-English comments thanking me for my lecture. Since ‘Melanie’ isn’t exactly the most familiar name to native Arabic speakers, I’m often called by an array of substitutes, including Melly, Manila, Meanie, ‘Doctora’ (this is a little bit premature, but still quite welcome!), Pitkin (Essam’s favourite) and Mrs Melanie (as opposed to the infamous, Mr Melanie, which I am better known as to some people in Middle Egypt!). Almost all of these names raise a smile on my face, but I particularly liked seeing the remark on one participant’s survey form this week, which said “Thank you Melina for this beautiful lecture” (see above). There was something about reading this that made my heart turn all warm and fuzzy (or, should I say, warmer and fuzzier). I don’t think I ever set out to create a “beautiful lecture”, as such (perhaps a comprehensive and informative one is more to the point), but in any case, I’ll happily take credit for this!

Yesterday I also presented a paper on my current Fellowship position at the Graduate Annual Research Discussions on Egypt and Nubia (GARDEN III) conference at the German Archaeological Institute in Zamalek. This conference, now in its third year, focuses on Egyptology research methods so was the perfect forum to share some of my approaches to understanding the Egyptian Egyptology scene in Egypt, developing and delivering my professional skills lectures and the process for analyzing the results from my evaluation forms. I felt, however, that a few sensitivities were encountered around some of the results – particularly in terms of the English language barrier to Egyptian scholars, as well the idea that ‘foreigners know how to do it better’. I welcome all types of constructive feedback, of course, but I really don’t want anyone to misunderstand the Egypt Exploration Society’s intentions, or any other foreign institute for that matter. I believe we learn from each other with the best interests of the subject at heart and, ultimately, want to advance our collective scientific understanding of the ancient Egyptian past. I’ve also always emphasised that the types of professional skills we are trying to build in Egypt are similarly in need by many foreign students as well. It goes both ways. But, at the end of the day, we have to start somewhere and we are not afraid to confess that we’re learning as we go!

Another treat I had this week, was a behind-the-scenes tour of the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square where I had the opportunity to meet (and meet up with again!) all the key staff in registration, conservation and curatorial (oh, and note - their curators number in excess of 100! The title ‘curator’ is also an entry-level position, but they can be assigned to any department irrespective of their academic training). I also met the one very friendly and energetic photographer who services the entire museum and had the chance to take part in a team-bonding wreath making workshop led by one of the Senior Conservators (you can see our group selfie shot above!). Although I’m ‘wreath-less’, in this picture, I can assure you I did don it briefly - at the risk of dishevelling the fringe. It doesn’t pose a problem when it’s placed just right. 

[melaniemisr]

Melanie the Mudira

For the next two weeks, I’ve been made the mudira (that’s Arabic for “boss” or “manager”). It’s even been made official (see the post-it note below)! I’ve been upgraded to the “big office” (i.e. desk), I’m allowed to answer the phone, I have a few volunteers to supervise and, most important of all, I get the comfy chair with armrests! You see, Essam is working on a joint EES-University of Birmingham mission to Aswan until Februray 20 (I’ll be joining the team briefly over the weekend), so I’ve been left to hold the fort. Not only that, I’m continuing to run my ‘Research Skills for Egyptology’ workshops at the Greek Campus. I’ve actually lost count of how many I’ve delivered now, but I know we’ve already reached well over 100 participants based on the quantity of feedback forms I’ve been processing alone. I must say, I’m pretty chuffed by that!

I’ve also had a few special experiences in my classes this week. Yesterday, for example, I was teaching a small group of museum professionals and postgraduate students from the University of Helwan. While teaching, I sensed they were a fairly reserved bunch and I couldn’t quite gauge whether or not I was meeting their expectations. I also became a little bit too aware of one participant who looked to be nodding off in her chair. But, I knew I was speaking with plenty of intonation (so it couldn’t have possibly been my voice driving her to sleep!). I also pace about a bit and like to put questions to the group. After the workshop finished, however, I couldn’t have been more pleasantly surprised by what she did. She literally came up to me with some of her friends and threw her arms around me - thanking me for my “excellent presentation”. She was so animated and effusive with praise, completely opposite to what I thought was running through her mind during my talk. (Lesson to self - for the thousandth time - never make assumptions about others). Then we chatted for a good 20 minutes, mostly about training aspiring, and current, museum professionals in Egypt and the types of opportunities they’re in need of. She was so full of beans, intelligent, passionate and visionary. In fact, we were so inspired by each other, we’re planning to meet up again after her exams in late February!

I also had a lovely group of museum curators and registrars from the Egyptian Museum tonight (some of whom are pictured above). They were so colourful and glamorous and listened intently throughout the entire presentation. Before starting in this post, I didn’t actually have a lot of teaching experience. I’ve worked extensively with communities, undertaken many years of serious research (both Egyptological and otherwise), delivered papers at conferences and gained endless professional experience as a museum curator, but had never actually turned my attention to teaching. God knows why!? It is immensely rewarding, especially when you can see things ‘click’ among your audience. And, I felt like we were having many ‘clicking’ moments tonight!

On a different note - if you’ve been following my blog for a while now, you will remember my ‘List of Firsts’. Well, I have another one to tick off this week - ordering home delivery (thank you Otlob!)! I know, it sounds weird, but I’ve long held this irrational fear that I’d get my own address wrong and they’ll never be able to find me (the greatest fear, in fact, when you’re hungry and have an unnaturally fast metabolism!). I mean, even though I’ve learnt to read Arabic (well, still not as well as I’d like), I've always been convinced that I’m going to tell them the wrong street number or apartment number. Sometimes, when I’m panicked, you see, a 2 becomes a 6 and a 5 becomes a 0 (if you know your Arabic numbers, you’ll know exactly what I mean. If not, see here). So, I took the time out earlier this week to very carefully triple-check everything before I clicked ‘order’ and voila! What do you know? It worked! Lentil soup, southern style chicken salad and an American soapy…how much more Egyptian can you get!?

[melaniemisr]

Billboards and haircuts

When did Cairo become so overrun by billboards? Maybe it’s always been, but driving out to Medinet Nasr yesterday - suddenly - it was all I could see! As if trying to focus on Cairo traffic isn’t enough, there you also find yourself battling the temptations of shiny, new cars, resort villas on the Red Sea or, in the case of my driver, a young, attractive Egyptian woman wearing a ball gown on a motorcycle eating Tiger crinkle cut potato chips. But, there was also one other distraction - the “flying Japanese baby” (as my driver called it) with oversized head suspended from the rear view mirror! It provided an interesting silhouette to my journey juxtaposed by the fast-paced Arabic beats blaring from the speakers (I might have been doing a bit of toe-tapping to this as well!). In fact, this could become another blog in itself! On the same day, for example, I travelled in another taxi which had the head of a mutilated kewpie doll perched on the dashboard. The doll’s eyes were permanently fixed into the back of its head and she had a large hole cut out of her right cheek. Really, there are no words for some of the things you find in Egyptian taxis! 

It’s been another busy week and I can’t believe that I’m already approaching the halfway point of my Fellowship. Over the past few days, I’ve delivered two further ‘Research Skills for Egyptology’ workshops at the Greek Campus in Downtown. The first of these, on Tuesday, was standing room only! I was told to expect 11 or 12 participants from Cairo University, but we ended up with almost 40 (in a room which has seating capacity for less than 25)! While I was delighted to see so much interest, I must admit it also came as a bit of a challenge. A substantial number of the participants arrived at various points during my talk and we had to do an extra emergency print-run of handouts. Phone calls have also been a recurrent issue, but like other competing sounds (such as drills outside the classroom window, the call to prayer and doors banging from next door), I’m getting better at learning how to deal with them! My Wednesday class (pictured above and below) was a much more manageable size and one of the most engaged thus far. I must say, it’s a very rewarding experience and such a pleasure to know you’re making a difference, no matter how small it may be. 

This week, Essam and I were also interviewed by Cairo Scene, an online Egyptian lifestyle, news and gossip magazine about the work of the EES and the ‘Research Skills for Egyptology’ workshops (I’ll let you know when it’s ready for viewing). I’m also trying to organise a one-day event tentatively titled ‘EES Professional Skills for Egyptology’, which I’m hoping will take place in early March. I’ll share more about this once the details become clearer. Essam and I are also planning for several further trips around the country where I’ll be delivering the research workshops - the next of which is planned for the Nubian Museum in Aswan at the end of the week (another pretty fabulous venue!). I’ve only been to Aswan once, and it wasn’t for particularly long, so I’m extremely excited about this!

What else has been happening? Well, there seems to be a lot of construction work going on in my apartment block at the moment. On Thursday, while I was working at my computer, I started hearing what I thought was debris falling outside my window. It was. And, large chunks of it. From the safety of my enclosed balcony, I did a quick vertical 180′. There were various legs, arms and drills waving about from above and cats running for cover below (I don’t think those ‘splodge’ marks on that car’s roof is anything from this occasion!). No matter, the building is still standing. There just isn’t the same level of WH&S concerns we’re used to back home - but there’s something slightly refreshing, and also morbidly entertaining, about that! I also had a haircut yesterday. For those of you who know me well, that’s actually big news! I decided to go to a flashy hotel in Zamalek thinking that the more I pay, the better chance I’ll get what I want. How silly of me!? I think I’m still presentable in public, but let’s just say I’ve never experienced having layers cut into my hair quite like the way this hairdresser did it. There was a lot of flipping all of my hair from one side of my head to the next and then gathering it into a pony tail and cutting straight across the bottom. So yes, it’s very layered now - but maybe not in an evenly distributed kind of way.

[melaniemisr]

Luxor Part 1: Research training underway

For the past few days, Essam and I have been in Luxor visiting two archaeological missions and organising for the delivery of my first research skills in Egyptology workshop - which, I can now proudly say, took place in the Karnak Temple complex today (pictured below)! Alhamdulilah! Around 20 local inspectors, archaeologists and students gathered in the lecture hall of the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE) conservation lab for a 2-hour workshop focused on what is research, the importance of sound research, researching step-by-step, structuring a thesis, the qualities of a good researcher, the nuances of Egyptological research and key online and hard copy reference tools every Egyptologist should know in order to succeed at an international level. 

I must admit, I was a little apprehensive beforehand. Although I have been trying to develop an understanding of where the existing gaps and weaknesses are in Egyptological training and research in Egypt, I am also aware that every audience is different and comes with their own individual knowledge base and set of experiences. I was also concerned about peoples’ level of English. Would they be able to follow me? Would they understand the value in what I’m saying? And, would they be able to practically apply what I’m teaching them to their own research practices?  Therefore, it’s not simply a matter of their English. It’s also my responsibility to deliver the content in a friendly and accessible format. That is, through the use of images, giving practical examples, encouraging conversation (a useful gauge to see if you and your audience are on the same page), while also ensuring to speak slowly, clearly and without any Aussie slang!

As my role here in Egypt is very much an experimental one, which will shift and grow as our understanding of Egyptian Egyptologists’ needs improves, I have also developed an evaluation form for every workshop participant to complete. This captures information about the participants’ gender, age, education level, profession, whether or not they’ve undertaken research, or presented at a conference, overseas before, the types of training they feel they need (on a 1 to 10 priority scale), personal opinions on the way Egyptology is currently taught in Egypt and what role Egyptians think foreign institutes can play in making a positive difference to their professional development. I have also asked them specific questions around my research skills presentation and delivery style. I am looking forward to presenting the preliminary results of this, and my overall Fellowship experience, at the upcoming GARDEN conference in Cairo on February 27.

[melaniemisr]

Five years on

Today marks the 5th anniversary of the Egyptian Revolution. How quickly time passes. On this day 5 years ago I was about to board a plane for Cairo to lead my first tour group (you can read my full story here and here). It goes without saying that this was a particularly memorable time for me, so it’s a privilege to be here again 5 years on. But this time, there are many differences. The streets are considerably quieter (apart from a pocket of demonstrators in Tahrir Square - pictured above and below). There aren’t any tanks (except for the usual gathering outside the Egyptian Museum), the police have upheld a presence, but from my observations, just a peripheral one and it’s cold and wet. 

I also managed to maintain my distance much more this time! After assessing the situation from the balcony of one of my favourite shops (Oum el-Dounia), I walked the outskirts towards Sharia Mohamed Mahmoud where I met up with a friend before departing by taxi (the closest action I encountered all day can be seen above!). But, I’m not complaining. I was very pleased to see a sense of calm and hope this will mark the beginning of the gradual return of tourists to Egypt. Another world news piece that's likely to strike a similar chord is Nick Reeves’ hypothesis on the burial of Nefertiti. Imagine the wonders that could eventuate from this if he's right!

In other news, Essam and I are off to Luxor tomorrow. We have a busy few days ahead visiting one of the EES’s fieldwork projects (Angus Graham’s Theban harbours and waterscapes survey), as well as a string of meetings aligned with my research skills workshops. I also received my ‘tasreeh’ yesterday (an Egyptian permit which grants me free access to all the key monuments, museums and archaeological sites). I haven’t had one of these since I was working with the Macquarie University mission to Saqqara back in 2005, so it’s good to feel just a little bit important again! It’s just a shame it looks like I’m missing a few teeth in my photo!

[melaniemisr]

Settling into Cairo

Cairo now and this is where the real fellowship fun begins! Today I commenced work at the EES office located in the British Council at Agouza with Fieldwork and Engagement Manager, Essam Nagy (pictured above). Essam is a former Inspector at Karnak and archaeologist with many connections. He’s across all the current archaeological missions working in Egypt and, without a doubt, also has at least one good friend tucked away on each of these missions too! Speaking of which, Dr Angus Graham, Director of the EES Theban harbours and waterscapes project (pictured below left) came by the office today to borrow some fieldwork equipment and have a good old chin-wag before his team starts work tomorrow. Essam and I will be heading down to Luxor to visit Angus’s project in the coming weeks - photos of which will certainly be posted here.

Apart from starting work, I’ve also found time to secure a place to live for the next 3 months. Thanks to some dear friends, this has been a most enjoyable experience without any of the hassles I was expecting. I’m living in a very plush apartment - with more living rooms and sofas than you can count on one hand - about 5 minutes walking distance from the British Council. It also has Nile views (well, if you dare open the shutters and pass your head through all the electrical cables hanging from the apartment above!) and other frequent quirks (such as light switches that never turn off and doors that you are told to keep permanently locked)! I’ve been offered a maid to cook and clean up after me (it’s a little bit tempting, but let’s see how long I can resist) and the boab (doorman) downstairs is also very friendly and keen to run small errands, as well as collect the garbage. To be honest, I’m a bit afraid of getting used to this lifestyle. There’s certainly no way I’d ever be able to sustain it back in Sydney, not to mention the fact it will probably make me even less domesticated than what I already am!

I’ve also been overwhelmed by the generosity of my landlady and her family. After I inspected the apartment yesterday morning, she invited me to tea at the Four Seasons in Giza. Shortly after, I found myself visiting one of her shops (where I happened to have met the fifth most important woman in Kuwait - yes, that’s exactly how she was introduced to me!) before being invited to a special feast at her mother’s delightful villa in Maadi. As you will see above, fish was on the menu - and lots of it! I also tried a very sweet wine made in an Egyptian monastery, which was nothing quite like the drops from Bordeaux I’ve been sampling in recent weeks.