Cairo, 1st Night

Cairo

January 12, 2012

Pyramid of Mekaure, Giza plateau

It’s late and I’ve spent the previous 20 hours in airport lobbies and planes. Even sleep deprived and hungry, I already adore Egypt. Cairo is a chaotic mess. Traffic lights change but nobody cares and crowds crush around cash registers to pay without queuing. 20 million citizens jockey to go, whether it’s to walk, drive, or pay, when in this ceaseless game of “chicken.” You are the winner of the right of way when you are the force to be reckoned with. And somehow the city knows it’s your turn and yields.

Sunrise on the Nile, Cairo

I was eating at Gad, as recommended by the pension on my late night arrival. It turned out to be an Egyptian McDonalds, but E-g-y-p-t-i-a-n. So I fight to order a sandwich (still can’t tell you what it was), then I fight to pay, and somewhere I clumsily screw up the natural protocol. A grandmother coaxes me on with a smile and a tug of my shirt sleeve while she points to the correct server. I pantomime ‘thank you’ to her (I hadn’t learned shu kran, yet). A young man, reminiscent of the young men I’ve been seeing in the recent video footage of Tahrir Square, sneaks sideways glances of my unusualness; I catch him out of the corner of my eye. I grabbed my sandwich and decided to entertain us both by eating next to him.

Fishermen on Nile River, Cairo

There was not a trash can in sight and the counter was almost entirely covered in a foot high pile of sandwich wrappings and leftovers (no, that was not poetic license…12 inches high). The guy sees me approaching and shovels me a clear area. We eat in silence occasionally stealing shy glances. I noticed this skinny lad could eat, he had 3, maybe 4 sandwiches! A disheveled man came in begging. The boy offered him one of his sandwiches but the man turned it down. Their back and forth seemed kind and the refusal appeared to be more out of principle of not wanting to take sustenance from the young man.