Goodbye Very Much

I arrived to Cairo at 3am on Saturday morning. The wonder has not ceased since. We are staying with Linda and Pressley Wicker, who are friends of one of our family's friends.

My friend Nada got in yesterday, and I was trying to explain to her how I feel like we are inside a giant bubble in the Wickers' apartment, and outside is a kind of magical wild chaotic zoo of amazement.

The Wickers live in a neighborhood called Maadi, which is on the Nile River, just south of the center of the city. But "the city" contains a population of 20 million people, so it's difficult to tell where it begins and ends.

Driving in Egypt is kind of a do-it-yourself adventure. There are few lines in the road, and where they exist, they are not followed. People just honk liberally, as if that absolves them of any wrongdoing. "Beep beep -- I'm coming, you better watch out," seems to be the prevailing attitude. If there is a car to the driver's left, and a car to the right, and neither is going fast enough, then the driver creates a lane in the middle, gives a couple honks, and drives through. Families crossing the road, donkeys hauling food, minibusses traveling the wrong way on the highway -- all can be hindrances.

The streets are lined with immense amounts of trash. Everywhere. Towering buildings surround the highways and streets, and as Linda says, "It looks like bombs have been dropped all over the city." But the reason for this is simple -- when Egyptian landowners build high-rises on their property, they don't have to pay city taxes on the land until the construction is FINISHED. So they figured out that if they leave the buliding unfinished, and start housing tenants anyway, they can collect rent from the tenants without paying city taxes.

My friend Greg loves having fun with new people. Especially new people who he doesn't know, and a trip to Mexico made it clear that he especially loves having fun with ones who don't speak English. Greg would not be able to contain himself in Cairo. Down every street corner I turn, at every stop light the taxi stops, people want to talk to me. People yell, "Welcome to my country!!!" People scream, "Hello!!! How are you?? What is your name??" from across the road. People invariably smile and wave whenever eye contact is made. It is remarkable. For about six city blocks, a truckdriver stayed along side our taxi last night, just so he could keep waving and giving the thumbs up to us whenever we came to a stop.

I have been offered mint tea from shopowners, cigarettes from taxi drivers, bags of bagel chips from perfume salesmen, and complete chicken/vegetable/potato dinners from store-owners whose shops I have wandered into.

Linda took me on a walk through her neighborhood yesterday. We stopped at a butcher shop with crates of ducks and chickens. Two local women were seated, haggling with the owner about how much to pay for a large duck. I told Linda I would love to see how they killed it. The woman told Linda that they were haggling over the price, but it would probably be killed soon. As chaos whirled all around us, everyone within earshot laughed at my curiosity.

The owner of the shop picked up the duck behind its wings and pretended to toss it to me, then asked me if I wanted to hold it. I said thanks, but no thanks. Finally they finished the job, laughing at my shock/horror the whole time. Thank goodness it wasn't a chicken, or I would never be able to visit Chik-Fil-A again.

Then we walked to the bakery. Piping hot loaves of bread were pouring out of the oven, so we walked past the front counter of the bakery to go watch. The men tending the oven were excited to see us, so they asked us what we'd like. I gave one of the men an Egyptian pound (about 18 American cents) and said that we'd just like to try the bread. He looked at the coin for a while, then said "Hmmm....20." Linda said, "No, no no, we just want to try the bread...20 pounds? Won't one pound get us a taste?" He said, "Hmmmm.....No. Twenty." We shook our heads again and said, "No, please we just want a sample." After paying $3 for cab rides all over the city, a loaf of bread couldn't cost a whole pound. A crowd had gathered around us at this point.

Then the man started scooping up loaves of bread and placing them on the window in front of us. Linda and I both realized we had just purchased 20 LOAVES of bread for the one Egyptian pound. We scooped up a few, handed the rest to the onlookers, then left. Everyone was waving and saying goodbye, welcoming us to their country and hoping we'd come back.

Linda went home and I wandered the streets some more. "Hello!!!!", "Welcome!!!!" and "What is your name!!!" rained down from all over.

I passed two young kids on the street who both giggled at me. "What is your name??" one said. My name is Richard, what is your name? Between bursts of laugher, one said "Mohammed." I asked the same question to his friend. "Mohammed," he replied. "Well Mohammed. Nice to meet you. And you Mohammed, nice to meet you too." I asked them what they were doing this afternoon. They said "Yes, Cairo, we live in Cairo." I said, no no -- are you all playing today? Do you have school? "No no, we love to play PlayStation," and pointed inside. We all laughed and I told them to have fun. They smiled and said, "You have fun too!!"

I told them goodbye and started to walk down the street, they waved and said "Goodbye!!!!" I walked about 10 yards and heard "Goodbye!!!!" and turned around to see them waving and smiling. I waved and yelled back, "Goodbye!!" After another ten yards, I heard the same thing, and I turned and yelled back. This happened about six times as I walked almost two blocks. Finally, they both yelled "GOODBYE VERY MUCH!!!!" and I turned around to see them waving enthusiastically, about two crowded city blocks away. I jumped up and waved, and shouted "'GOODBYE VERY MUCH!!!!!"