Amazing Day in Cairo!!

June 20th was a really interesting day. We got up fairly early jumped on a bus and traveled into downtown Cairo. Our destination was this two building complex...

Those two buildings serve as the trial court for the northern district of Cairo. Two-thirds of Cairo's 18 million people fall under the jurisdiction of this court. I didn't take any pictures until we were done because our security guard was really shuffling us along. Mahmoud was taking our business really seriously & I was happy for it. The Court was crowded. We first met with Chief Judge Majid the court. The man in charge of the system within that district. He was a fascinating man and polite beyond fault. We sat and talked with him and three other judges for about an hour to an hour and a half about the Egyptian legal system, Egyptian jurisprudence, how they work, and what the future is. Then we visited an actual trial court that was seeing a case of fraud. Not at all like Law and Order. It was radically different than anything you would ever see in the States. We then visited the translation unit Chief Judge Majid created. The translation unit translates all official court records when a defendant doesn't speak or read Arabic. They are ahead of us on that count.The other fascinating thing about the translation unit was that it was staffed almost exclusively by women. After that we had a follow up session with the Chief Judge's assistant and Judge Nasser. Another fascinating hour of questions and insights to the Egyptian legal system.

After that we had the rest of the day off, I had Pizza Hut for lunch. Ironically, it was probably the cleanest and most professional Pizza Hut I have been in for a long time.

That evening though, we had a Nile cruise that included dinner (veal for me) and a show. A whirling dervish and a belly dancer, how else do you say Egyptian tourist market ;)


Here is the band that was playing the whole time and that's our "guide" on the right. His name is Hytham and he has helped us out a great deal. That is why I said "guide." He more like family to Professor Wing, and he certainly treats us with a great deal of hospitality and respect.

Just in case it didn't sink in, I want to stress the fact that this dinner cruise was on the Nile River, at night. The pictures don't look like much, but you should be jealous of what the view and experience was actually like.

Oh yeah, and the cost was on around $60 :)
It was a much more relaxing day than the previous three.