‘They changed the call to prayer a little over a month ago. Instead of saying “come to pray,” it says “pray in your homes.”‘

– Erica Eastley, Cairo, Egypt

Erica Eastley has lived an adventurous life in several different countries in Central Asia, the Middle East and beyond. We’ve never met in person; in fact, I think I first came across Erica when I stumbled on her fascinating blog, The Golden Road to Samarqand, where she was explaining how she cut the bindings off all her books and scanned them so she could take their contents with her abroad, which I found equal parts intriguing and horrifying.

Erica discusses growing up amongst a family that still lives in the same house as when she was a baby, but knowing from very young that she wanted something else. She talks about why Central Asia and Cairo both feel like home to her, when Saudi Arabia and Mexico did not. She tells us what’s going on with the pandemic in Egypt, what has changed and what hasn’t, and how she is trying to help the refugees she works with make it through this difficult time.

Erica Elsewhere

Follow Erica’s long-running blog for more on her adventures in Cairo and beyond: The Golden Road to Samarqand.

Photos courtesy of Erica Eastley.

This episode features music by Meydän under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

Podcast produced by Sarah Bringhurst Familia on the canals of Amsterdam.