Thoughts on Egypt

Egypt was the most fascinating place I’ve ever been. To be sure, I was mesmerized by everything around me. The burkas and veils, the desert, the men smoking, the people staring, everything. It was all I had anticipated, all I had envisioned. Here are some of my impressions, in no particular order:

1. Hookah: On every street, in every café, there were men smoking hookah. It was everywhere. Not twenty seconds passed without seeing a group of men sitting and smoking. In my whole time in Egypt, I didn’t see one woman with a hookah, but that wasn’t surprising. When I volunteered with the International Rescue Committee, I actually brought my hookah over to the apartment of the Iraqi refugees I was working with, and we had an amazing time just relaxing. But the women didn’t smoke, and it wasn’t a proper thing to do. One of the females said she would smoke with her father but that was it. In public it would never be acceptable (I hate that! Who determines that? The men!). Regardless, there were hookahs for sale and I even saw the shisha I had bought in the states. Even the exact flavor. We weren’t allowed to buy water pipes and bring them back on the ship…oh well.

2. Traffic: I know this is becoming redundant, but it’s so pervasive and so different than what we encounter in the states. If you continue reading my blog when I go to India (eleven days after I return from SAS!) I’ll definitely be comparing what I experienced in Egypt to the traffic in Bangalore. Anyhow, it was crazy. But I was surprised at how quickly I got used to it and I can say that it’s crazy, but if I were on the road right now in Alexandria, it wouldn’t be unsettling. Luckily I didn’t have to do much crossing of the street so I had a very different experience than in Naples, but in Italy, I hardly was in moving vehicles. So two different ways of experiencing the traffic and I can say that they were equally irksome. Although in Naples, I really did think I was going to get hit by a car time and time again. In Egypt, for some reason, I trusted the drivers. I trusted the honking. But, I wouldn’t advise an American ever to get behind the wheel in Egypt.

3. The Muslim Culture and Gender Relations: I have been no stranger to the veil. In the past year, I was always near people wearing a headscarf or veil, and honestly, it wasn’t that foreign to me. And even in Egypt, it didn’t feel completely different to me that 90% of women covered their hair. And of course it was, but I didn’t have powerful reactions to it. I would say about 20 % of the women wore the full burkas, only with their eyes shown. But everyone else wore headscarves. Well, almost everyone. My tour guide proudly stated to us “I am Muslim and I will never cover my hair!” She of course, was very “western” and her name actually translated to “revolutionary” in Turkish. Since the age of three, her mother had spoken to her in English. She was actually one of the only women I interacted with Egypt. I felt completely disconnected with most of the women, because my contact with them was minimal and my interactions with the men were so considerable. And the main difference that laid between us was our dress. In our logistical preport, we were advised to dress as modestly as possible so as to not attract more attention than we wanted (being told we are worth 100 camels, so on -which happened regardless) . Dressing modestly was difficult at times simply because of the heat! Undoubtedly the warmest place we’ve been thus far, wearing long skirts and shirts was not fun, to say the least. But still, we stuck out wherever we went and even though my legs and shoulders were always covered (and I always had a scarf on me) I felt peering eyes at me all the time. The women, from underneath their veils, seemed to be critiquing us with their at times unfriendly body language, whereas the men looked at us like we were meat. I’m completely serious. In Italy, if you remember, I remarked that I didn’t feel that the men were looking at us with crude thoughts running through their minds, but in Egypt, it was clear that they were. Simply because we had some skin showing, the men would make obscene gestures and facial expressions repetitively. But with the men I actually talked with, they were a lot more polite. Although some would try to kiss my cheeks and grab us a little too tight when we took pictures, I never felt that uncomfortable around them. Actually, I bonded with a lot of individuals. I would spend maybe 20 minutes talking with one or two Egyptian men about life in general and traveling. I encountered no anti American sentiments but I heard from others this was not the case for everyone. One of my roommates told me that she said she was from Canada and many Egyptians were satisfied that she wasn’t from the states. Some went as far as to say Americans were unwelcome there. But of course, they all hated American foreign policy and Bush especially. No surprise there.

4. Tipping/Money: Egypt is a culture where tipping is very important but it became a little extreme during our stay. Men wanted money all the time. Everywhere we went, if someone even said two sentences to you, they wanted money. In the Egyptian museum, we asked an employee where the exit was, and after showing it to us, he wanted a tip. At one of the pyramids, a guy started talking to me (telling me I looked Egyptian!) and after a few moments of conversation, he then asked me for money, “for his luck,” he said. He wanted me to give him 50 Egyptian pounds, or 10 USD! Seriously…it became ridiculous. And that’s quite sad, because it deterred me from speaking with more Egyptians, for fear of them asking me for money. They would be so nice until you left. And in the bazaar, as we walked, every man would shout out “you are beautiful!”, “I love your smile!”, or in one case, some guy said to me, “excuse me, I love you…” and I laughed and he replied “no, you don’t know what you’ve done to my heart…” Truly, I heard more compliments in the bazaar than ever before. But they just wanted us to come into their shops to buy something. In a way it was fun, dozens and dozens of people paying you attention, one after the other…it was an experience I had never had before. What was interesting is that they learn how to say these compliments in multiple languages, so Momoko was hearing the same phrases in Japanese (even though my girl momo chan is indeed beautiful and the guys probably sincerely believed everything they said).

Hmmm…that’s it for now. It’s almost 10 pm and I want to get a good nights rest before my first day in Greece tomorrow! The homeland! Finally! I’ve decided I’ll be spending the majority of the time in Athens, with a SAS trip to Poros, Hydra, and Aegina on the third day. I wish I could write more I think I need more time to digest everything.