Moving to Al Rehab?

On Saturday we went to visit Al Rehab, a growing suburban neighborhood outside of New Cairo that is accommodating the new desert developments. The university has signed contracts to buy property out there and is offering faculty to reserve an apartment or a villa. The new AUC campus, which will be taken into use next semester, is about a 5 or 10 minutes drive from Al Rehab, as opposed to 45 or 55 minutes away from Maadi, which is where we currently live. The most important feature of Al Rehab is the air. A you may or may not know, the pollution in Cairo is very bad, and even though it’s not as bad in Maadi, we still notice it ever day, and wonder what effect it will have on our children in the future.

The move would take place this summer, and would be a big deal for us. We moved away from friends and community in Belgium about ½ a year ago and are just starting to settle into our new environment, make new friends and get comfortable. For us to leave all the activities the children are involved in here, our friends and comfort, Al Rehab would have to be something very special.

I, along with other faculty accompanying us, didn’t know exactly what to expect, and when the bus pulled into the compound and passed a number of restaurants, people started shouting out the places we recognized. “Oh, look! They have Cinnabon!” “See there, Hardees!” “KFC!” and then all the kids sounded together “McDonalds!!!” Everyone looked happy, and I couldn’t help but quietly adding “You had me at Cinnabon.”

As any new development, the compound is quite sterile, with a clear division between housing areas, commercial areas and recreational areas. There’s no history to the area, no set culture and no real community. It’s far from Maadi and Downtown, and well, we don’t know anyone there – yet. It was clean, the air was clean, the Sporting club amazing and the apartments beautiful! Our friends from North Carolina were quite excited about the prospect of living in a private villa, and during lunch we allowed ourselves to fantasize about having a car, barbecues in our garden, bike rides and long sunny days at the Sporting Club. At lunch at an Argentinean Grill, my friend asked the waiter if they served beer. The waiter disappeared to ask, and upon his return he announced happily “Yes, beer, we have. You want?” Whereupon my friend replied “I want? You bet I want.” As we enjoyed beer, burgers, pasta, salad and sodas, we looked around and thought about living in Al Rehab. Within the next couple of days we will be making a decision.