Newlyweds spend first year studying world-wide environment

(Editor’s note: Tirza Hollenhorst and Chris Johnson have environmental fellowships in Egypt, Ecuador, Thailand and New Zealand. Connections hopes to print updates.)

While growing up in Modesto, Stanislaus Connections had a real influence on the formation of my environmental ethic . I am taking a year off from my studies at Rice University in Houston, Texas to travel and conduct environmental research with my new husband Chris, a recent Rice graduate.

We are funded by two fellowships. My grant from Rice requires that I examine an environmental problem from multiple perspectives. I chose to come to Egypt for two months to research the distribution of costs and benefits of water projects. With the second fellowship, a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship to research sustainable development in countries with indigenous populations, we will look at the interaction of western (or majority) beliefs with those of indigenous people in regards to common resource management, i.e.. conflict, cooperation, non-interaction, and more, to see how these affect sustainable development in the society.

Life in Cairo

Cairo is challenging and the internet access is scarce. Chris and I use the American University library. We are living in an apartment in the Seida Zeinab district of Cairo. When we tell someone in another region of Cairo where we live they ask, "Who took you there?" as though we lived on Mars.

Seida Zeinab is known as a "popular" area, but there are no other foreigners. People know their neighbors. It is noisy and crowded with an aura of community not found in other areas of the city. We live on a small side street in a two bedroom, fully furnished apartment, including a plastic prayer mat.

Early on we were stopped by our neighbor and asked for a favor for the wedding he was having that night. He wanted to hang some lights from our balcony. Sure, we said. He insisted that we come to the wedding, which was there in the street. We were the guests of honor. It was crazy, with over a dozen musicians, singers, and speakers blaring in our street. We tried to watch from the balcony but the groom motioned that we should come. We got lots of stares, no thanks to the Disc Jockey yelling out "Welcome to Egypt!" — his only English announcement. The DJ then grabbed Tirza’s hand and started to dance with her in the middle of the crowd. I thought this was hilarious, as Tirza wasn't doing Egyptian dances. I took pictures, then danced as well. It was a fun evening and a great way to meet the neighbors.

Children practice their English with us from the balconies above and the street below. We are invited for tea by shopkeepers and people on the street and often asked to return The teatime conversations teach us more about life here than any other experience. Egyptians are curious about America. Their questions tell us more about them than their answers.

A young man who owns a spice shop wants to go to America to marry. He asked us how much it costs to marry an American woman. We tried to explain that marriage in America is nothing like marriage in Egypt. Egyptian men marry in their late 30s because they must first have an apartment and all that goes with it.

They can’t understand why we don’t want a baby. Everyone tells us that we must have a baby in the first year to bind us together. Egyptians say that "each baby comes with his own money." Babies are an assumption here. A man asked Tirza how she can go to school and be married at the same time. Of course, he understood better when we told him there was no baby.

Cairo is a city of smells. In the market there are the smells of live chickens, pigeons, rabbits, goats, and ducks, the gamed smell of camel, which hangs on hooks, that of garbage and rotting fruit, all mixed with the fresh sweet smells of excellent fruit and exotic spices sold from great baskets.

We pass a sweet store that tempts us with baklava, fresh breads, cakes and chocolates, advertising themselves by wafting odors down the block. We stop here often because the owner likes us and offers tea and baklava. We have eaten 1.5 kilos of baklava. There is a tamia (falafel) and foul (beans) cafe on every block. A pita of either costs 50 piasters (about15 cents). Great fryers on the street full of eggplant counter the noxious odors that spill from vehicles. Cairo has no car emissions regulations and the air quality is bad. Lead poisoning is a huge problem, since they use leaded gas.

The government does not pick up the trash. Trash collectors do and collect directly from the people. The collectors sort the trash and make money through recycling. Because the trash of the poor has very little of value in it, the trash collectors won’t pick it up. The enormity of the solid waste problem in a city of 15 million is unimaginable. The wealthy neighborhoods are clean, but as income declines, the smells and animals increase.

We are pretty well adapted to the strange sights here. Donkeys, horses, sheep, goats and other animals on the streets are either working animals or for food. The building next to ours looks like it just fell down and is now a garbage heap. That is starting to feel like normal. The huge market with the fresh camel meat hanging is still strange. The fact that we actually live here is a little bizarre.

Night life is not too exciting. Everyone is around all night though — shops, taxis, and all. Attempting to speak Arabic with the kids on our block provides a good bit of entertainment, as does the television with 4 channels (one in English about half the time). Interactions with others are interesting, given the cultural gender roles. Sometimes during interviews, people will ignore Tirza and look at me (Chris), even if I direct attention to her. Other times they talk only to Tirza. When it comes to handing us big books, they are handed straight to me!

Egyptians have roles. Things don’t happen efficiently, but reflect class, hierarchy, and "order." One must ask directions of the person who deals with that task.

Chris went to the Giza pyramids, and together we visited a cluster of pyramids near us. From one spot you can see many, but trekking between gets old in the desert sun.

The research is going very well and keeps us busy. Government offices are open 8 a.m to 2 p.m. but people often don’t come in until 10 a.m. Generally, we can’t do more than one interview in a day, because it takes us an hour to get anywhere.

I have found people very willing to meet with me (Tirza). They have provided me with excellent and frank information. What I have learned has been so much more than answers to my interviews. I have a better, more realistic understanding of what sustainable development means in the third world.

Thank you all for your support and friendship.

Tirza and Chris

Hello from Israel!

(Editor’s note: Tirza Hollenhorst and Chris Johnson, newlyweds, are spending a year researching environmental fellowships in Egypt, Ecuador, Thailand and New Zealand. Tirza is the daughter of Rochelle Rosen, special education teacher with Modesto City Schools, and Glen Hollenhorst, a biology instructor at Hughson High School. Chris hails from Atlanta, GA. The following continues the letter which appeared in last month’s Connections

Chris

We have wrapped up the research in Egypt and are visiting with Tirza’s family in Tel Aviv. It is nice to be in a first world country for a change, even though the cell phones are terribly annoying.

Our research in Egypt is focused on water projects along the Nile. We are looking at the distribution of costs and benefits of water projects and how that relates to the project’s sustainability and success. It has been a really powerful learning experience — seeing the role of the environment in the third world, the cultural nuances which have made Egypt what it is today, and where water fits into this fragile balance of life in a desert. Field research is difficult in such a short time, especially in an Arab country. People are willing to talk to us, but it is very hard to get an accurate picture because many people paint an overly-optimistic picture for us. Nevertheless, we have enjoyed our experience and learned to be a little more patient with the system here.

Coming to Israel is a shock to the system after Egypt. Just to remind us what it was all like, we got stuck on the Egyptian side of the border for hours with absolutely nothing happening. Frustrated and bored, we walked towards the Israeli side and told them to do something, and they did.

Israel is a bustling quasi-European place. Everyone here seems naked compared to Egypt, and the cost of living is much higher (though worth every shekel). We have been to Jerusalem and the Old City and had a wonderful tour. The tour guides here go through a rigorous selection routine (that involves two years of study to train for the job) and are very knowledgeable about everything related to this country for the past 5000 years. It was a great feeling to watch the guide fill in all the holes from our history classes or tie things together we hadn’t previously seen.

Being in the Old City, a center of the world’s history and religions, is a bit overwhelming. I was surprised to see the people living in the Old City, the tourist trap bazaar, and people at the Western Wall interrupting their prayer to answer a cell phone. It is such a refreshing feeling to see all of the information and museums (user friendly) here that make learning a pleasure. Egypt was entirely the opposite, even though it has such a fascinating history.

Tirza

Well, the research is finished. I was surprised at how many people, even high ranking officials, took time out of their day to speak with us. They did tend to feed us a lot of rose smelling (stories). We learned that in order to get what we really wanted, we had to ask tough questions, again and again, rapidly cutting them off if they strayed off topic. It’s tough to be harsh, when you know someone is struggling with the language.

Egyptians, culturally, don’t have the concept of maintenance. When pressed, they would often tell us that they were a poor country and couldn’t afford it. We talked to some very bitter people at USAID (U.S. Aid for International Development) who had watched over a billion dollars worth of infrastructure fall into disrepair in less than five years. I am afraid no amount of conservation will prevent disaster, if Egypt doesn’t control its population. I think I would rather put my future efforts into protecting the wetlands in Ethiopia from a thirsty Egypt than attempt to help curb Egypt’s thirst.

Before we left Egypt, we traveled to Luxor and Aswan. Luxor was a terrible tourist trap. I feel a deep sense of loss for a community turned into deceptive liars for the sake of working extra pounds out of the hoards of pink-legged tourists who pour out of air conditioned buses.

Aswan is so lovely. We were befriended by a Nubian man who took an interest in our project. He invited us to stay at the Jamaica family compound. This family owns 7 feluca boats, sail boats that take tourists up the Nile. We stayed on an island with the Jamaica family for three days after taking a feluca across the Nile. We watched the old man with 1/2 inch calluses on his feet, who ran the boat, drink straight from the Nile just after sewage from a cruise boat floated by. Talk about some serious bowels of steel!

The Nubians are wonderful people. They once lived in the area that is now Lake Nasser. A people displaced by the Egyptian government through the building of the Aswan Dam, they live separately from the Egyptian mainstream, maintaining quiet, simple ways. We were welcomed into their home. The island was an oasis of mango trees, date palms, and other agriculture.

From Chris...

Greetings from south of the equator. We are finally getting settled here in Quito, Ecuador (and adjusting to living at almost 10,000 ft.) Our culture shock here has been so deformed by the fact that we are comparing it to Egypt, and this country is so much more pleasant!

Though we may be only about 30 miles south of the equator, "summer" and "dry season"— words that characterize this time of year— are very relative. Temperatures don’t make it above 75 F during the day, and are often around 40 F at night. Weather is tough to predict more than 30 minutes in advance and can cover the four seasons from beautiful blue skies to storm clouds and rain to even hail. It rains some almost every day, but people carry on with life as usual, and when the torrential rains begin, many just run for shelter.

Quito is a long narrow city oriented north-south in the valley of some mountains in the Andes (though still very high). There are about 6 peaks visible from the city, including Cotopaxi, the world’s highest active volcano. Pichincha, the volcano that overlooks the city and forms its western border, makes its presence known almost everyday with smoke or small tremors. According to scientists, Quito is in no danger, even if it does erupt, because the lava will all flow to the other sides of the mountain.

Ecuador, about the size of Colorado, has most of the ecosystems of the world, broadly divided into the country’s 4 regions—the coast, the Andes, the Oriente (amazon basin, jungle), and the Galapagos Islands. This country has some incredible areas of biodiversity and endangered animals, as well as great scenery.

Food is plentiful, cheap and exciting. Trips through the markets are filled with tons of fruits and vegetables—including tree tomatoes, guyabas, lots of crazy tubers, loads of fresh spices, corns, and other stuff that makes vegetarians excited! Since there aren’t really seasons here, everything is always in season. This week we bought 5 pineapples and 30 oranges, both for $1.00. Even street food is good and diverse. Lunch is dirt cheap, and the main meal for most Ecuadorians. The lunch — soup, rice and meat, dessert, and fresh juice — runs about 60 cents at every corner.

Money brings up the other side of life here—inflation and external debt for the country. The first week I was here the sucre (currency here) dropped in value 10 percent, then went back up the same amount. We change money on an almost daily basis.

Research on the project that brought me here is beginning slowly (partially due to the fact that I am a little nervous about my Spanish skills in interviews, and partially because with unreliable phone lines provided by the government, it is often hard to reach people). We are looking at the management of natural resources and how this differs among different cultures. In particular, we would like to study how these different cultures influence each other, especially the exchange of ideas between indigenous cultures and the dominant culture. Dominant is an appropriate term for the relationship between the cultures here. There are 12 officially recognized indigenous nationalities and, in general, they are socially second class citizens. However, after huge uproars, protests, and investments from NGOs, they have gained a substantial amount of nominal power in the country.

I visited with a group of Shuar Indians living in the Amazon. (Shuar are the original head shrinkers, practicing it as recently as the 60s). The empowerment of indigenous communities in this country has created a lot of unusual effects, including paternalism (expecting everything to be done for them without their work), an ecotourism craze (where everyone thinks they can compete from the jungle without any help with the hundreds of possible destinations), and a clash with the realities of the free market and capitalism (as the groups struggle to relate their traditional community living style to life in a capitalist world).

There is much to study in this country, and I don’t really know where to begin. We are planning on being in Quito, then traveling to work in the jungle and in other parts of the Andes, and hopefully have some time to see the coastal region.

From Tirza...

I can not begin to express how much nicer it is to be in Ecuador. The basics (food, shelter, water and air) are of much higher quality here. Every fruit and vegetable one can imagine and dozens I have never seen before are plentiful and cheap and much cleaner than in Egypt. Our home is an apartment, called a suite, which is a spacious one-room place with beautiful wood and tile floors, wood cabinetry, and a lovely decor. The bonus is it’s cleaned a couple times a week and the bed is made daily for under $150 a month. The water here is treated, but not potable for us. It’s much cleaner than in Cairo, but is often contaminated with amoebas. Nearly all travelers who spend any length of time leave with a parasite load ranging from mild to severe. One can obtain a laboratory test for about $1. Foreigners can rattle off the number and levels of amoebas they have as though they were vital statistics.

The air in Quito is better than in Cairo, but still suffers from the hundreds of ancient buses running low quality diesel. Graffiti around town encourages people to ride bikes ("la bicicleta no contamina") as well as protect the rain forests ("mangroves = life" and "McDonald’s = death"). There is a lot of graffiti in our area decrying McDonald’s and their part in the destruction of the rainforest. Does anyone know if they are currently buying beef from former rainforest areas? Petroleum companies are also commonly attacked. The destruction wrought by petroleum companies is vast and frightening.

There is a great deal of poverty in the city. Young boys cry "limpio," I clean (shoes), at every corner. Indian girls sell fruit at corners. There is not as much poverty here as on the coast, though.