Living Conditions and Travel
The Oasis
We will spend January and February with Dakhleh Oasis as our base. Luckily, it is, in our opinion, the most beautiful and fascinating of the four oases that most closely flank Egypt's Nile Valley (Siwa is wonderful, but geographically distant). In antiquity, it would have taken inhabitants of Southern Egypt more than a week to journey here by camel (and even longer by donkey)! And even in modern times, it is a long 12 hour bus ride from Cairo. Dakhleh is also the largest of the oases, with some 75,000 people in 16 villages, so you should find much of interest.
During the two months you will be based at the excavation house we encourage you to explore. Take advantage of Mut. Dakhleh's largest city is easily walkable from the excavation house. Likewise the countryside surrounding our house is gorgeous, and it affords an opportunity to observe traditional agriculture first hand (farms in the oasis are mostly donkey-powered, and unlike most areas of the U.S. you will observe whole families working fields side by side on a daily basis). Similarly, mudbrick architecture and reed fences are still relatively common in Dakhleh in growing contrast to other areas of Egypt, and they will give you a feeling for the type of material remains you will be excavating in February
The Excavation House
The excavation house is a rambling adobe structure that has been built with an eye towards combining the needs of a modern, state-of-the-art excavation with vernacular architectural forms and aesthetics. It incorporates many discrete areas and functions. While there are numerous bedrooms and common rooms for students and for archaeological personnel, there are also rooms for the directors and for the house staff. Bathroom facilities are shared. We also have a computer room, a library, a dining area, a large kitchen, and workrooms for the archaeologists and ceramicists.
The Team
The dining room at our excavation house can at times resemble the United Nations, as it typically seats a goodly number of Italians, Americans, Dutch, and Egyptians (to say nothing of the occasional French, Polish, and Mexican archaeologists and conservators). You will thus be meeting people with all sorts of skills, talents, and outlooks - and conversation should never be dull. January will be quieter than February, but the house will contain - besides ourselves - some of those working on conserving paintings found at Kellis and those studying the finds from our other excavation at Ain el-Gedida. In February it will be hopping. Although you will not be working directly with many of these people, you'll be sharing meals with them, and we hope many friendships will be forged at dinnertime and in the common areas.
Arabic Language Instruction
You will attend a daily, hour-long (ungraded) class in spoken Arabic during January in which you will learn the rudiments of Egyptian colloquial Arabic. This will greatly facilitate your feeling of ease and independence when working with Egyptians on site in February, communicating with members of the Egyptian house staff who aren't comfortable with English (though many are), making independent trips into Mut, and travelling about the country at anytime. Once you know some elementary Egyptian Arabic, you will find that Egyptians place you in a different category from the great herds of camera-toting tourists. Egyptian Arabic is not only useful because you will be in Egypt, but if you go on with your study, you will find that it is a dominant dialect. This has largely to do with Egypt's traditionally pre-eminent role in the region, economically, politically, and culturally. Egypt also exports much of the Arabic-speaking TV and movies to the rest of the Middle East.
Money and Costs
The cost of life in Egypt is, from an American point of view, fairly inexpensive. While in the Oasis, you will likely spend very little for two simple reasons: 1) you are provided with all the essentials of housing, materials, food, transportation, etc.; and 2) there is really surprisingly little to buy. Students will likely go into town on occasion to visit a cafe or buy treats (the famed "Boreo" cookies, for example). If you are of drinking age and think that you might like to escape to town on the eve of a day off for a beer at one of the hotels, factor that into your calculations. There is currently one ATM in Dakhleh, which works most of the time. To be safe, students should bring enough money to cover any unanticipated splurges at the local Bedouin rug shop or evenings out.
When you return to the Valley and Cairo in March, you will obviously be paying for snacks, souvenirs, books, taxis, internet cafes, etc. But your hotels have been paid for, and they include breakfast, so you should spend nothing in those categories. You will each be allotted a daily meal stipend, which should cover your basic meals without any trouble, leaving you free to spend on the other things you might want to buy.
There is a branch of Bank Misr (Bank of Egypt) in Mut, where currency can be exchanged. Some towns visited while traveling, like Kharga, are similar, but you will find ATMs in major tourist centers like Luxor, Alexandria, and of course Cairo. The ATMs of several major banks (Bank Misr, Citibank, Egyptian-American Bank, CIB, etc.) are connected to the major international networks (Plus, Cirrus) and will usually accept ATM cards from U.S. banks. Credit cards are widely accepted in tourist centers, but not elsewhere; Egypt is still largely a cash economy. Travelers checks are more difficult to change than cash and should be used, if at all, only for reserves to be exchanged in Cairo or other major centers.
Computers and Telecommunications
Students have found having their own laptop extremely useful for work, for emails (if wireless enabled), and for entertainment. When it comes to how you are going to communicate with home, there are several options. While in Dakhleh, there are computers with internet access at the excavation house, and you can connect on your own laptop wirelessly in some areas of the house. Due to the necessity of conserving bandwidth for communal use, Skyping and instant messaging at the house will only be permitted after 10 PM. You can, however, go during your free time into Mut to an internet cafe and skpe at your convenience.
With respect to telephones, there is a landline in the excavation house in the Oasis, but this is reserved for emergencies. Students must therefore rely on mobile phones for most of January and February. In fact, most students find that the most convenient (and cheapest) way to talk to people back home is via mobile phones, even when they are in the Valley, which is better connected to the rest of the world. There are US-based phones that work in Egypt, but these will be expensive to use in Egypt (typically $2-2.50 per minute) and are not recommended except for emergency use. You can purchase an Egyptian cell phone in Cairo for approx. $70-90 (400-500 EP). Lastly, when on tour, there are plenty of internet cafes in the Valley, and you should never have trouble emailing from 10am until almost midnight in many cities up and down the Nile. Again, the costs are basically trivial, ranging from 1-2 EP for 30 mins. at a rather grungy, dial-up dive to 10 EP for an hour at the swankiest, speediest internet cafe.
Restrictions on Alcohol, Drugs, and Tobacco
Egypt is largely a Muslim country (approximately 85-90%), and because Islam prohibits the use of alcoholic drinks, alcohol is not widely available except in hotels and restaurants catering to tourists; it is also heavily taxed. Beer is the only alcoholic beverage produced in Egypt to an international standard; its quality has improved in recent years. The university will not serve alcohol in the excavation house, and it strongly advises you not to bring any with you. You can if you wish find beer at the hotels in Mut in your free time, and at hotels and some restaurants on the road and in Cairo. Imported wine is available in Cairo but extremely expensive; Egyptian wine has also improved in recent years but is again unavailable except in major centers catering to tourists. We recommend that you go to Egypt expecting not to drink alcohol during most of your stay.
The drugs that are illegal in the US are also illegal in Egypt, and Egyptian prisons are not reputed to be very comfortable. Do not bring any drugs with you or attempt to obtain them in Egypt. Doing so will be grounds for immediate expulsion from the program--if you're lucky. Egypt is an environment friendlier to tobacco than the US, and you will find Egyptian cigarettes readily available and inexpensive, if rather caustic. The excavation house, however, is non-smoking territory, and we expect complete compliance with this policy. You are also not permitted to smoke on the archaeological site or in program vehicles at any time.
Enforcement of Project Rules
The particular nature of a program like this, in a distant country the characteristics of which are very different from those you are probably used to, and with a small group of people thrown on one another's company for an extended period, makes it imperative that all participants abide by the rules set out above. Moreover, the safety of other participants and the continuation of the program may be jeopardized by public violations of accepted norms. The director reserves the right to expel any student from the program for violating any of the rules; in such a case, you will be put on the next plane home and lose credit for the entire semester. Naturally we hope that no occasion will arise for doing this. The director's decisions are final, and in accepting a place in the program you accept the director's jurisdiction.