Week 3: On Manners
For noticeably foreign females harassment is typical in Cairo. No one has ever tried to touch me, or harm me. But when you walk past you get a lot of comments, usually they can be broken into two groups:
The Welcome to Egypt! Group: usually said by shopkeepers, small children and assholes.
The shopkeepers want your attention, because they want to sell you shoes, water, airline tickets, fake papyrus paper that they hope you'll think its real papyrus paper. Small children are either beggars, or just kids who know a couple words of English and want to try it out, repeatedly, while following a foot and a half behind you. Finally the assholes- this is a chunk of the male Egyptian population… "Welcome to Egypt.. okay! What's your name! What's your name! Where you from! You are Beautiful! Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me. Sex-ay! Welcome!" Pick any 6 of the 9 phrases and shout them at blondes who walk down you're street and you are re-creating a traditional cultural experience right there in your home town.
The other group is the:
Arabic Shame/ Arabic Asshole : these are old men who glare and say things as you walk by, the young men who inch a little closer when they pass you on the street and say something half to themselves half to you. I can't understand it so it doesn't bother me much. They are just doing it to make themselves feel better and go ahead old man, scream "Shame! Shame!" At me from your car as you drive past, I can't tell. I'll probably think you're just warning me to watch out for the giant holes in every sidewalk in this city.
Why am, I telling you this? Because it's true, it's also an interesting juxtaposition to another aspect of Egyptian culture: genuinely kind people. Last week, we went to one of the grocery stores in the city (there aren't that many). Around 45 minutes after returning home there was a knock on the door. One of the friends we had gone with had left her wallet in the cab, and the cab driver was there to return it. A few months ago, my roommate left her laptop and all her DVDs in the back of a cab, within two hours the cab driver had realized it was in his back seat and driven back to where he left her off to return them, apologizing for taking so long to see the black bag on his black seat. There is a certain understanding of goodness here that I don't think a lot of foreigners recognize. Yes, a cab driver will try to charge you more because you are foreign, but they would rarely steal from you. There is a high degree of self-policing amongst Egyptians. They want to protect the people around them.
This morning, I took the metro to work for the first time. It is a 15 minute journey by cab, and a 3-stop 20 minute walk (45 minutes in all) by Metro. I was dressed pretty conservatively; sunglasses, pants, a shawl, but had already received some Welcome to Egypt commentary on my way down to the train. Once leaving the metro I began my trek and wound up following a middle aged man who was walking briskly down the same street. The first time someone said something in Asshole Arabic to me, the middle aged man glanced behind him. The second time he did the same. Soon enough I realized he slowed his pace so he was walking a little closer to me, and kept it at that easy-to-match stride. Every time we approached a stranger, I saw him look the stranger in the face. From that point on comments stopped. We passed trio of young men standing a few feet away and I braced myself knowing they were going to say something. He shot them a look and they kept quiet. There was nothing exchanged between him and me, no words, we didn’t even look at each other. But still, I realized that he was taking a measure to protect me.
People say Cairo is one of the safest cities in the world, and I'd believe it. It's not the tourist police on every corner that make me feel particularly safe, but the way I see people help each other out. While I'm sure I'm getting ripped off for being foreign, I've never felt threatened or scared yet. I also am not foolish, if I don't know an area I go in daylight, I take all the typical stranger in a strange land precautions. All in all I can say my parents shouldn't be worried about letting their idiot of a daughter move out here, I've done okay.
Next tales of adventure which were not written about today because I have pictures! :
A) My battle of Horse versus Megan versus Small Horde of Egyptian School Girls.
B) A proper introduction to Kaitlin, my roommate.
The Welcome to Egypt! Group: usually said by shopkeepers, small children and assholes.
The shopkeepers want your attention, because they want to sell you shoes, water, airline tickets, fake papyrus paper that they hope you'll think its real papyrus paper. Small children are either beggars, or just kids who know a couple words of English and want to try it out, repeatedly, while following a foot and a half behind you. Finally the assholes- this is a chunk of the male Egyptian population… "Welcome to Egypt.. okay! What's your name! What's your name! Where you from! You are Beautiful! Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me. Sex-ay! Welcome!" Pick any 6 of the 9 phrases and shout them at blondes who walk down you're street and you are re-creating a traditional cultural experience right there in your home town.
The other group is the:
Arabic Shame/ Arabic Asshole : these are old men who glare and say things as you walk by, the young men who inch a little closer when they pass you on the street and say something half to themselves half to you. I can't understand it so it doesn't bother me much. They are just doing it to make themselves feel better and go ahead old man, scream "Shame! Shame!" At me from your car as you drive past, I can't tell. I'll probably think you're just warning me to watch out for the giant holes in every sidewalk in this city.
Why am, I telling you this? Because it's true, it's also an interesting juxtaposition to another aspect of Egyptian culture: genuinely kind people. Last week, we went to one of the grocery stores in the city (there aren't that many). Around 45 minutes after returning home there was a knock on the door. One of the friends we had gone with had left her wallet in the cab, and the cab driver was there to return it. A few months ago, my roommate left her laptop and all her DVDs in the back of a cab, within two hours the cab driver had realized it was in his back seat and driven back to where he left her off to return them, apologizing for taking so long to see the black bag on his black seat. There is a certain understanding of goodness here that I don't think a lot of foreigners recognize. Yes, a cab driver will try to charge you more because you are foreign, but they would rarely steal from you. There is a high degree of self-policing amongst Egyptians. They want to protect the people around them.
This morning, I took the metro to work for the first time. It is a 15 minute journey by cab, and a 3-stop 20 minute walk (45 minutes in all) by Metro. I was dressed pretty conservatively; sunglasses, pants, a shawl, but had already received some Welcome to Egypt commentary on my way down to the train. Once leaving the metro I began my trek and wound up following a middle aged man who was walking briskly down the same street. The first time someone said something in Asshole Arabic to me, the middle aged man glanced behind him. The second time he did the same. Soon enough I realized he slowed his pace so he was walking a little closer to me, and kept it at that easy-to-match stride. Every time we approached a stranger, I saw him look the stranger in the face. From that point on comments stopped. We passed trio of young men standing a few feet away and I braced myself knowing they were going to say something. He shot them a look and they kept quiet. There was nothing exchanged between him and me, no words, we didn’t even look at each other. But still, I realized that he was taking a measure to protect me.
People say Cairo is one of the safest cities in the world, and I'd believe it. It's not the tourist police on every corner that make me feel particularly safe, but the way I see people help each other out. While I'm sure I'm getting ripped off for being foreign, I've never felt threatened or scared yet. I also am not foolish, if I don't know an area I go in daylight, I take all the typical stranger in a strange land precautions. All in all I can say my parents shouldn't be worried about letting their idiot of a daughter move out here, I've done okay.
Next tales of adventure which were not written about today because I have pictures! :
A) My battle of Horse versus Megan versus Small Horde of Egyptian School Girls.
B) A proper introduction to Kaitlin, my roommate.
