Christmas in Cairo

MERRY CHRISTMAS YA'LL!








I laugh everytime I look at this photo. It was December 10th when Leah and I first spotted this tree just down the street from our apartment. The poor thing was good and dead well before then.







The title of this adventure will be

Relearning Lessons I Thought I Already Knew

Leah and I had been planning a trip into downtown to find a postcard/bookshop that we happened upon during one of our first outtings. Saturday was the big day. Needless to say it took awhile since we didn't have the name of the store, an address, or even the street name.

After about an hour of random taxi drives and pointless walking, we ducked into this coffe shop, The Americaine Coffee Shop (?!?that's not even egyptian for "American"), to look at our map and strategize.

Can you tell how much Leah really loves having her photo taken

Despite our attempt at regrouping, once back on the street we continued to look like lost tourists. I was fine with it though, we set out that morning thinking it was a long shot. Plus, the shops downtown have huge window displays (lots of shoes), so I had plenty to keep me amused.

We had nearly given up when Mr. Hussler showed up. He spoke perfect English, showed us his official tour guide I.D. (to prove his trustworthiness?) and so Leah and I headed out, against our better judgement.

Then the hussle began. During our walk, he started out by telling us he had just spent a few weeks in Germany visiting family. Then he told Leah I was arrogant and wanted to know why I was giving him the cold shoulder. A conversation ensued about how we've learned to distrust men in this country because rarely is their intention innocent, or straight forward, or honest or, well, you get the point. And he said he was SO sorry that we had experienced this and he looked so shocked and hurt and disappointed in his fellow male Egyptians. HAH!

Ok, so Leah and I are picking out postcards to send home for roughly 15 minutes. The guy waits for us. Leah and I give each other questioning looks... We figured he'd try to talk us into tea, dinner, etc. even though we said we were going home after.

So we're paying for our stuff, and we say "see ya", but because he's such a helpful, nice guy, he insists on showing us the way to the closest subway stop... oh and by the way, he has a half-american, half-egyptian friend (the guy he was on his way to meet when he just happened to bump into us), that we really should meet, come on, he's working just over here, on the way to the subway stop...


Ten minutes later, we're sitting upstairs in a small perfume/scented oil shop that the friend runs, ("let's just go up here so I can get you a business card") ---getting the grand presentation on various scents. He's pouring oils, packing stuff up, asking which free glass container we'd like. Not once did we say we wanted to buy anything. Infact, we both said we already had perfume we liked and didn't want any more... ugggg. We knew what they were up to, but as Leah said, Mr. Hussler DID help us find that postcard shop.

Ahhh, look how happy we are! We enjoyed some tea with our hosts and had some lovely conversation... right before buying overpriced scented oil that we didn't ask for.

So the distrust is confirmed once again... The irony is that conversation we had when walking to the postcard shop... about how most men here have ulterior motives. His reply was, "but why?" "For money" should have been my answer.

At the time, each thing just led into the other, but on the subway ride home, when we retraced our steps... the more Leah and I talked about it (how disgustingly charming they were trying to be, etc), the more angry I got. I felt like a schmuck. Oh well, it could have been worse I guess. We weren't physically harmed, etc... AND I got a new perfume that I really, really like! The name is complete cheese, and must be said with a husky, raspy whisper, "Desert Secret"

The politically correct side of me understands that when so many people are unemployed, earning a buck is tough. If he had said, "hey come check out these perfumes", we would have said, "no thanks". But the idealistic part of me says that deception and shadiness should not be a natural result of poverty.