Navigating Cairo - Part 1

To say my experience thus far in Cairo as been interesting, would be the largest understatement of my life.  Although my time here so far has been fantastic and thoroughly enjoying, I have been rewarded (or plagued, depending on perspective) with living in a more "Authentic" area of Cairo known as Giza, in particular, Teletini.  In the week that I have been navigating the city, I have had so many wierd things happen to me that are, although trying at the time, hilarious later.  One such example happened just last night...

So, as everyone else has stated, yesterday we went to visit where we will be teaching for the first time.  We all met at the girls apartment in Zamalek and went from there to the LAMB center via the subway.  After seeing the center and getting a short intro as to what all we would be doing, I was really excited and ready to start teaching.  Since we were all together, I figured I would go back to the girls apartment again, spend some time with them - and then go home later in the night.  Well, Kathy and I thought we should go to the  local coffee shop for a quick drink and to set up our lessons for the following day - Great Idea right??  Wrong...  As you will see, this was the first mistake in my list of horrible decisions last night.  Some time passed and I realized that should probably be going otherwise I would not be able to get a ride home (where I live is not such a good area, so not many cabs want to go there, especially late at night)  I walked down to the end of the street and hailed a couple cabs before I found one that would take me to where I live. (Mistake number 2).   As we travel down the bridge to cross to the main part of Cairo, the driver pulls out his cigar case to which I thought, "ok, he's going to smoke, everyone does"  until he pulls out what might be the largest blunt I have ever seen, of course, I havent seen more than 5? so Im not really an authority - but still, you understand.  As we drive, he continues to take hits of this enormous joint, then he proceeds to push it in my face and say something repeatedly in arabic which I had no idea, I just said, "no, thank you" over and over.  At this juncture, I suppose I might also mention that thus far, he has not been the best driver (speeding, swerving, etc:)  and I could only imagine how much better this 30 minute drive could get.  We continue to drive erratically throughout the streets of Cairo while Hassan the driver smokes his joint and yells what I could only imagine were bad words to all the girls not in vales as passed them on the street.   We finally get to my street, in one piece I might add, only to have him drop me off right in front of the phone store that I bought my Egyptian SIM card from.  Although at the moment this means nothing to you, it might help to have a bit of background...  So, when I first got here, I bought a SIM card but the store owner needed a copy of my passport for his files to submit to the government.  Well, I didnt have a copy and it was like 3am so the store owner let me go and said bring it tomorrow, well, I couldnt find a copy machine - I swear they dont have them here !!  But anyways, Ive been avoiding him for 4 days now, walking down other streets, running past the shop, etc:  1) because I dont know arabic, 2) because I cant find a copy machine to just give him a copy.  So, he literally drags me into the shop and starts talking in arabic (like I am going to understand him if he just keeps talking)  THEN, two more people come in and they start talkiing to me over and over again, occasionally throwing in the english words "phone" and "number"  as if because of that, I will obviously understand the other words... right?  After about 10 minutes of them talking to me, or yelling as it where, I finally threw down 5 pounds and my passport and said "YOU MAKE A COPY" well, as much as you wouldnt think that would have worked... He said "come" and I followed him down the street, to the back of a store, where he made a copy of my passport for me - had I known it would have been that easy, it would have saved me 4 days of dodging the mobile store owner and his cronies. . .  

Well, anyways - I suppose that I should end with saying that although Ive had some rather trying times in Cairo so far, I am REALLY excited about teaching and cannot wait to explore more of the city for what im sure will be many many more fun stories...

-KEN