An Easy Morning Jog through the Labyrinth

Today I discovered the most effective way to go jogging in Cairo without becoming bored with the doldrum, monotonous (though always amusing) surroundings: go for a jog in Ma'adi. First I must describe to you the district of Cairo known as Ma'adi. I come here once a week or every few weeks for church and as a little vacation. Via bus and metro it takes me around an hour or less to get to Ma'adi, and when I arrive, I feel as though I've entered another dimension. This district is known mainly for one group of residents: the foreigners. If you're homesick for the West, go to Ma'adi. If you want to see green trees, beautiful public and private gardens, and relatively orderly streets, go to Ma'adi. If you want to see quite wealthy residences and a lot of foreigners, go to Ma'adi. It's in the southern part of Cairo where everything is more spacious and spread out, comparatively. I definitely wouldn't call it spacious compared to Springfield, Missouri, but spacious. As this city becomes more crowded, people, especially those with more money, are moving to the outskirts. This is Ma'adi: an international haven leagues away from the reality of Cairo.


After church this weekend, I decided to stay in the area to visit with friends, attend an open mic night with the young adults from my church, relax after a stressful week, and so on. With the opportunity to spend a morning in this beautiful area of town, I decided to plan on going for a lovely run. This would provide me the rare opportunity to actually run in the shade of trees in a pair of modest shorts (rather than my heat inducing pants) and not have to be concerned with choking on the pollution, becoming a moving target for the ever-present traffic, providing the local pedestrians and loiterers free amusement, and becoming the subject to practice their English-speaking skills ("Welcome to Egypt" is what they always say). I anticipated an easy, relaxing jog. It turned out slightly different.


I've always quite detested jogging in cities. You pass by so many people and buildings and shops, and though it seems as though you've jogged at least 2 miles based on the ever changing scenery, you've really only gone about 200 meters. I constantly find myself looking at my watch, and asking myself how much longer I have to hop over construction areas, weave in and out of cars, or circle the same block. How I do miss the long, barren roads of upstate New York and the forest trails of Jackson Hole Wyoming! Nevertheless, today I did not find myself getting bored at all with my city jog.


There is the one distinct quality about Ma'adi which never ceases to amaze newcomers to the community and locals alike: the layout of the streets. The streets were very cleverly named with numbers ranging from 9 to 539 in no apparent order, and they were constructed and laid out in a way which enhances the internal navigation system of the local driver (aka...they weave in an out of each other with random round-abouts placed in between in a most confusing, often frustrating manor). I do believe that even Ferdinand Magellan would have become frustrated navigating in this community even after living here for several years.


I discovered that if I want to go for a long run, go to Ma'adi. It's quite logical, really. You start your jog simply trying to remember the direction from which you came. After a very short time of enjoying the trees, flowers, and beautiful houses, all of the roads and intersections begin to mesh together in your brain, everything looks as though you've seen it in the recent past, and your internal compass confuses north and south with up and down, in and out, right and left, and stop and go. You find yourself in a labyrinth of Middle Eastern expat land. Your easy, relaxing, thirty minute jog has turned into an all-day adventure and a first-hand lesson in reorientation and navigation. Today I simply had to succumb to asking directions. Of course the language barrier is always an enjoyment trying to work through with my limited vocabulary and the limited patience of people around me, but after a very long jog, a lengthy conversation with a couple guards, a ride with a random local guy on his way to work, and a second ride with a lovely foreign woman who was shopping for flowers, I arrived at my destination with a fresh image of Ma'adi: "What deranged, unbalanced maniac made the layout for this district?!" Regardless, I always enjoy an adventure and never regret all of the detours that must be taken to reach my goal. It’s all a learning experience which has the potential to create some good relationships and always ends up becoming a good story. Yes, I will jog in Ma’adi again. Next time I'm just going to bring a few pounds with the anticipation that I'll be having to catch a taxi from whatever far-out land I end up in.