How Do You Say Hello?; 11

Is the language of feature length. What you tell me something about how it's written. I see signs and they look like the most intricate and beautiful designs in the world but they don't look like language to me. Know their language they're written from just the reverse of ours. Yes right. Anything else about the language and the way it's written. So one of the different languages of the world would like teddy bears to help the louse. We just never found on what I have to fill in the vowels for myself to read it. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in cooperation with UNICEF the United Nations Children's Fund presents. How do you say hello. A series of radio programs by Charles winter about children of the developing country today from the United Arab Republic. How to say hello.

Would you like to introduce yourself to the girls and boys. I'm 14 years old in Cairo in the UAE are not one of the girls and boys would know where my road was from it's divided into two parts when I'm actually there. When you say it it ends where does the Nile and the feet. I don't want to see the future knowing that I want to go due west from Cairo say five or even 10 miles. But what I find as I get sand in my shoes a bit at that. Tell me more about yourself. Have you any brothers and sisters. Yes I've got two brothers either younger or younger than me. When he was 11 and the other thing well that's a dangerous age for boys. How does it feel to be their older sister.

I thought his bones before they look I have to watch them think that they're studying and I have told my mother in teaching them. Do you find that they remind you when you tell them what they're supposed to do from time sometimes they don't obey me. And then what do you do. You simply go and then my mother and she takes over you. We have driven through many of Cairo's streets and have now come out of a long winding road way into what looks to be a very old section of the city where I we had the fortress of the idea is that Saladin in English yes. Could you tell those who might know about him a little bit about some of them to help in fighting the state. So this goes back to the time of the Crusades. Yes as this is a name he had said this is the mosque was erected by the founder of the royal family which

I would like a long time each. So then we are outside the mosque of Muhammad Ali in the citadel in old Cairo. Yes. Are we allowed inside the mosque. Yes it could get started are there any special rules about going into a mosque. Yes we should do it especially kind of she was prevented from becoming spoilt by the shoes of. The tourist so anyone who comes to visit. Well I didn't bring any special shoes what do we do we give it to us you know isn't that nice. Me we go in. We have put on our special slippers over our shoes and we're now inside. And as you can probably hear in the background there are birds singing overhead. This surprises me how I didn't know that mosques were open to the sky. It's not open this is not the muskets to Yad used for during the feast a Friday speech. Oh and this is a courtyard where they might hear speeches on Fridays. Yes Friday why Friday because it's said that you know

all this is the holy day. Now we are standing almost underneath a gigantic canopy of stone with columns all around and in the middle there's a very large dome shaped carved piece of stone. What is this this is a kind of bathroom a bath. Yes. People usually before they enter the must pray be watched that oh I see so they go in and clean outside and they come clean inside. Yes well it's a very nice idea. He had and I are now leaning over looking down what seems to be an enormous smokestack of a well sent into the courtyard of the mosque here. For him it is the water from this well still used today. I notice on the side here an old metal hinge What's it for. Do people ever come here to throw things down the well to make wishes or anything like that.

No they don't have respect for the holy place. Yes. We have just come through the door into the mosque itself. You probably heard it slam behind us and I am standing and we can only be described as a fairyland of lights. There are good circle after circle after circle each one bigger than the other of hanging Globes with a light inside. And how many lights would there be in this mosque. Saladin 500 1500. Not only are there hanging Globes with lights in but there are chandelier is as well. And looking up I see an enormous Dome right over our heads and circle after circle coming down the walls of colored stained glass. I don't think I've ever been in anything quite as impressive are on inspiring as this but there is nothing on the floor. You know we have furniture. Why is that. Because the people

prayed in the field to show respect. Would the people Nilar say it or there are different actions while they're playing. Sometimes thoughts and sometimes need that nice. I should mention to the girls and boys that they don't kneel on the bare floor though because the entire mosque is covered with carpeting is this customary. Yes I said that the mosque was bare of furniture I was not entirely accurate because they had Looking Ahead on my right there is a very highly ornamented green doorway going up an open staircase. What is that for. At the top of this this speaker stands and he speaks to the people and advise them. Why would they have had a doorway at the bottom of the open staircase to prevent anyone from it except speak. Or you mean people like me. And over to the left at that is that literally the front of the mosque ahead of us. At the left of the staircase there's a tall rectangular object again

highly ornamented on the floor. What is that. This is the place we should face it. Well that is the holy place of the mosque. Yes I notice a gentleman standing over here by the pillar. What is he here for. Just for guiding the troops. Now I told the girls and boys that overhead is an enormous dome and that there's a great circular room. I would suspect that there was quite an echo in here if a lot of people were gathered praying. Is that so. Yes it gives you a very impressive sound when you ask him if he would call for us so we could hear Monk it is that. We had to set it as one of the most difficult languages out there to give me a language lesson in

this difficult language of yours. How about something like. How are you. As I act. Well oh that's a good. How would I say hello. Say it again and I want to say goodbye and thank you again. Now here's a really big test. If I give you a nursery rhyme line by line could you translate it into Arabic for me. All right let's try something like Old Mother Hubbard Went to the cupboard to fetch your poor dog a bone but when she got there The cupboard was bare and so the poor

dog had none at all together. Thank you. No no pardon me. The bazaars of the East are famous and perhaps none more famous than the bazaar in Cairo. The name of which I would like to know. Yes that's right. Oh good it's my is my Arabic improving this bazaar is filled with fruits and vegetables and restaurants and coffee houses and material and all nature of things that we have come to a special area. The workshop area where some of the artifacts of Egypt are made

trainees and so forth. Would you like to describe to the girls and boys and you had what we're watching now this is a major ancient Egyptian made by scientists. Interesting the sounds you hear in the background girls from boys is a man hammering a thin thread of silver into the design grooves on this train very carefully very intricate work. And there's a finished piece beside him that is breathtakingly beautiful. Carol and Egypt are famous for they are we to stand here and here we have to end this is the part of the bazaar we are the silver jewellery has made in the background there's the Sounders over being melted the flowers are people coming designs out of solid chunks of silver. These are like very young boys

in this room. They're being told they're apprentices. This one young boy his name asked Muhammad how old he is what you said to me is only 14 years old. Ask him how he comes to be a sober worker. He says that he likes his family's working and that when Ahmed is the first silver worker in his family. Yes. What does he hope to graduate to after he has learned this operation. At the very bottom of the pile it's a nice one story.

Will you tell me that I hope he makes it very soon that. We have come to another workroom in the bazaar and here there are making boxes of the most intricate design imaginable. How are these put together these so I read wooden boxes made of luggage he wrote in plates with mother and that kind of thing. Well now if you say Mother girl can I see some of the mother Pearl pieces. Slabs of the most iridescent mother of pearl ever seen with the mother Pearl come from from Japan. All right now that is not anything like the size of the pieces they use these should be about an inch square theyre using the tiniest chips do they cut this up. Yes they cut it by hand with the designs be passed on or would each one make up his own. No each one makes episode. You mean if you sat down to make a box youd have a design of your own. But I don't see

why. Let's watch the chap putting this design in No. He's coated one side of the box with blue. He has a very sharp needle like instrument. He sticks it in a piece of mother Pearl and puts it on the bloomin surface. Yes what happens if the glue loosens to pieces all fall off. It's a special kind of fluid doesn't. This is a guaranteed blue them. Yes. Running hot I have been fascinated by this trick through the bazaar and the workshops I have seen brass trays and trays and labels sober and boxes with mother of pearl. But I noticed that I was not sure. The work would have stopped in the one over here has picked up what is now a hobby Bobby went to Hubli pub. They think that the back with a special instrument it's like a bike but it's oh and it's motor water. Yes let's have a sound of that man relaxing from his workbench. Now if I were to go to a restaurant here in your city. What are some of the

foods that I might beat that I wouldn't get back in Canada. Kind of is that the green so green so stop there tell me about green. So it's it's kind of green which just got into any post and then it's put on fire. An out of tune and that's good. You sound like a good cook to me Can you cook. Yes a bit. All right green So now what else might I try. Got this piece of gum to it's good that the beans it's cooked beans. What's the name of it. I beg your pardon. No sir. Don't misunderstand me. Is it really full FOLO. No I was it's bell as you can see it

or this is Arabic but it's pronounced cool and it's made of beans cooked beans in a special there but it is eaten with lemons and only. One about meat only different meats here in Cairo that I might get at home. That's life. You mean actually doves flying birds. Yes. What are they like like chicken small insight. Maybe more tender. Yes. So I could have dinner with doves and here comes that word again. And what about a dessert a sweet good. It's got something good going to connect. Got that by you. Of all of foods you have named is your favorite dish. I think I'll order that first of all when I go to a restaurant. He had and I have come on about a 20 minute drive from Cairo itself and we are now

standing before one of the most famous statues in the entire world if not the universe. The Sphinx and I have a naive question for you and he had it here a she said he. It's Mr. Spinks. You know I look at the Sphinx and I see the body of a lion and the head of a man. What does it represent the God of the sun. So the head is wrong. Yes. Why has he got the body of a lion. Does anybody sprout and authorities it was their springs broke from huge stones as were the pyramids. No it was made the one big block of the carved from solid rock. Yes. What sort of instruments and tools do they use. You tend to think and nothing else. No that is the other dating machine as the Sphinx always been in this cleared area when it was discovered to the Stone discovered to them taking it. Could you imagine walking through the desert and coming across that huge head sticking out of the ground. We had as we talk in magnificent as the Sphinx as my eye keeps wandering to those three pyramids

beyond. Tell me about them what are their names. The first kept his the grandfather and the second youngest to Huff in the sun and the third job is to make a man with his grandson for the caps. So this is really a family compact in pyramids. Yes. I cannot understand as I look at the Great Pyramid for example how they could ever have continued building up in the air. How do they get to the huge blocks up onto the pyramid where wheels used you know they used St stand down the corners of the pyramid then they pushed the blocks on it. And whenever they have finished the one laid out of the blocks they made another little stand and they pushed through and since it was built and when it was completed they to move the things could really the Sphinx and go nearer to one of the pyramids. Yes. Which one should revisit the big What's it called. Earth was not in that order. The pyramid of kinky opps. Yes. Would you like to meet the men. Let's climb that big moment.

What about my name and you have climbed up and down that pyramid for twenty two years. One two three it is yes. If I as a novice climber were to try it how would I go about it. It took about one hour. It looks to me as though some of the stones are at least chest high How will I climb a stone that's chest high up into the air during when I climbed almost a stone not all seem someone of one meter in the sum helped me carry you know we must forget about the Dow drops so some are not quite as high as others. Well I usually find going up is easier than coming down in anything do you ever find people who get up there and are afraid to come down. Many people doubt that people would know before I guide people Kleinman pyramid and close where you're from the top there. Yet do you know from the high end I had been down that got him down. You carry them down show him some time up close some people eyes they are closer his eyes or do what do you think achieve and helping him and I think him down because he couldn't watch it and he's scared to come down. Do you have any idea what the distance would be

from the bottom to the top. Permit us to permit for the time about doing a climb myself you have to know 700 feet in seven minutes. That's my watch. Seven men in seven minutes. I get frightened if I been two minutes down. You're going to be just taking his wristwatch off and handing it to me. And in the back of it oh it's an Arabic read it for me. Nikita Khrushchev. Yes. Did Nikita Khrushchev climb the pyramid or do you watch me. He did it the easy way yes. Thank you very much anything you had we talked about people climbing up the outside of the pyramid but I wonder as I look at it can we go inside. Yes good in fact I did it once. Look how terrifying it was terrifying. Yes there's a lack of it inside and it's very deep. You can see when if I give you three guesses could you guess what I'm going to ask you next. Could we go inside. Yes.

Well. Well we've climbed a good way up inside the pyramid and have a Happy to say it even knew how it is about 50 years younger than I am is that thing a little bit. You know what I have been noticing. The walls of the pyramid as we climbed and have you any idea how many stones individual blocks are in this pyramid. Yes that about two million five hundred twenty one. That's a lot and there are huge stones or things each one waits about to turn to tens. You can see that there isn't any cement between the stones fixed but precious nothing to do them together don't know how under the pyramid take to build. About time too. I see this next week that we're going up has a much much higher ceiling I would be able to stand up straight now. Has this got a name. Yes the good old gallery while being greatly tall I'm happy that it's got Iris to me. We have just climbed up the great gallery and it's something like climbing up a bobsled slide

it seems to me. Now I notice that we have another low tunnel to go through ahead of us where we have to sort of the king is the king on our right. He had and I are now standing in the very center of the great pyramid here outside Cairo. What is this room they had their own way of thinking and you and I are standing right beside a great stone box with a lid on this is really the worst place in the the compound would be said inside. What sort of a king was this in a kinky ups just going at it. He called my home phone. Yes that's right. It's just like right. He bought his entire energies to billing this huge monument to himself. Yes. I look around me there's nothing in this room except our echoing voices. This great stone box of the lid off and a few other chunks of Masonry. No no gold or

silver no jewels no paintings on the walls was there nothing else in it with him. No that was because they just believe that there is another life after the death of the person. So the only things that we use in our life like food stores and jewelry. What happened all these things were up by putting the therapist with us have been recently long ago. We know it was a long time after the death of the King. Did anyone else get married here with him. Yes. The queen if she's been there. I'm good at that. Has it been opened yet. Yesterday was the Queen's body there with the body of the king of her from no one. So he went to all this work to ensure his burial place would be secure and we get here and what do we find. Nothing. An empty room. And he had I have heard tales and I'm sure the girls and boys had too about the mummy's curse and danger to people who enter

burial places in pyramids. I these troops think so but maybe this is true with most of the fine monuments of the Egyptian doesn't apply to visitors as well doesn't let them defeat. We have seen corridors and great galleries and the King's tomb itself either on their rooms in the pyramid that you know or maybe there are some of the scientists think that the king might have made for the brick inside. So on our way out if we should push a stone in the side and it swings open we might see a room filled with gold and treasure. I think I'll push all the way down what about you. If I would. I have come out of the pyramid who should be standing to greet us but a very large very

neatly settled camel. He had to think he would say hello to the girls and boys. Nothing. Trying to. Well good for him. How do you say thank you. So. This has been a program in a radio series entitled How do you say hello. Produced on location for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. We would like to thank the government of the United Arab Republic for their hospitality. This program was distributed by the national educational radio network.