Manshiet Nasser

The last time I spoke to her, three days before she died, mom told me that one of her greatest wishes was to visit Manshiet Nasser once more, but was afraid that her health would prohibit her from going up the steep hill to the squatter community near the garbage collector's area in Cairo. I promised her that I would carry her up the mountain, if I had to, the next time I was in Cairo.

Manshiet Nasser is, as I mentioned, a squatter (or "informal") community in Cairo. My mother co-authored A Place to Live with Belgin Tekce and Frederick Shorter about the neighborhood.

One of my mother's favorite people lived in Manshiet Nasser: her friend Fawzia. Fawzia owned a tiny little grocery store on a sloping street in the area. Although poor, she raised her kids very well. The last time mom was in Manshiet Nasser, Fawzia's son Osama, whose mother had died several years earlier, asked mom whether he should run for parliament.

I am currently looking for more information about Fawzia and the rest of her family and mom's other friends there. I intend to keep my promise to my mother as fully as I can; I, at least, will go up that hill and convey to mom's many friends there that she had dearly wanted to visit them.