Palais de Rais, Modern Art, Cervantes and Sacre Coeur

Ummm, last week was a rollercoaster of emotions. Of course, much sadness over the bombings. But I'm amazed at how strong the Algerians are. They lived through much worse in the 90s and while very disappointed, they resiliently continue on with life.

After that, I got out to see more of Algiers. I walked by the downtown university campus and saw the students having a big protest/strike against Tuesday’s bombings and for improved conditions and services at the university. I started off at the Museum of Modern Art which is oddly enough in a Franco-Moorish style building that was perhaps a shopping center in the past. The exterior architecture doesn’t, in my opinion, reflect a modernity, but the large windows and wide open interior of this centrally located museum, make up for that.

There are 4 floors, but only the basement and mezzanine are open currently, showcasing some interesting modern art. I enjoyed my visit, and as often is the case, the modern art and a chance encounter with the artist on site left me with more questions. It's great that such a place exists and is free and open to the public.

With an umbrella that is slowly falling apart, I continued marching through the rain westward to the Palais de Rais, Bastion 23. The Palais de Rais is a restored and preserved ensemble of Turkish-style palaces that is open to the public as a museum. The exterior is plain and massive concrete, but the interior has decorative charm with tiles, ornate ceilings, arched patios and some showcase Arabic calligraphy. After admiring the architecture, I went to the extreme wall that faces the sea. There are gaps for a couple of cannons that once policed the sea. I saw the clouds and a whole semicircular rainbow. It seemed to go from the airport of Algiers on the right all the way to an unknown destination in the west...perhaps acrosss the Mediterranean to Spain, I fantasized...la Barca? :)

In the afternoon, I met up with my friend Nabil and we went to a pretty cool café in the Casbah where musicians used to play.

On Thursday, I went by the Fac. Centrale to visit colleagues and discuss upcoming schedules etc. Everybody seemed to be allright, wheich is good news. After that, I headed towards Belcourt for Mhadjeb, an oily crepe with spicy tomato sauce inside. Asking along the way, I finally found Cervantes’ cave - yes the author of Don Quixote. El Manco, Miguel de Cervantes, was held captive here in Algiers by pirates for 5 years. He escaped 4 times, but was caught each time until his family finally paid the ransom to the pirates. It's a cave and there's a monument, but nobody there really. A local guy helped orient me. He says neighborhood fellows get together and play dominos there. As I peered at the cave and wondered about Cervantes torments there, I heard the sound of a deafening roar of soccer fans off in the nearby stadium. Sheep had invaded the streets too...preparations for the big religious feast where they will be sacrificed for Eid-al Adha.

After that, I went home and took it easy.

On Friday, I went to mass at Sacre Coeur, but strangely enough, I was late and disturbed the mass due to some misinformation from a random man that was standing at the door. He told me to wait and wait, though, my brochure had said mass began at 9am. I had arrived at 8:55am and this man told me to wait. I didn’t see anybody else. An old lady came and she walked by, but the man told me to still wait. Finally at about 9:30, he told me the old lady had gone in and that I should ring the doorbell. A nun came and said I could not enter because the prayer had started already and then an angry priest came and stated the same and slammed the door on me. The door was locked due to increased security concerns, I understand. I wouldn’t have interrupted, but it was that random man that said go ahead and ring the doorbell. I felt bad, and I stuck around to explain my error. The priest was upset at me initially, but after we discussed why the confusion and interruption happened, he was more welcoming and let me enter to pray and see the interior. It’s a big church and the modern geometric style is reminiscent of la Basilica de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe in Mexico City. There were only 3 there, the priest and 2 nuns. One of those nuns was British, Janet. She has lived here for 30 years and runs a small community library. She invited me to tea at her place and we talked about Algeria and how to get some more English books here for the public. There’s an organization that donates lots of books, “Books for Africa”. I’m going to investigate it.

Well, tomorrow is Eid al-Adha. Last year for the holidays, I went to Mukalla and the Wadi Hadramawt in Yemen. This year, I’m going deep into the Algerian Sahara…not sure where yet, but it promises to be exciting.