Perception

As my Arabic has improved (a completely unforeseen byproduct of my stay here), I have become more adventurous in my idle conversation with Egyptians. Before I could understand anything anyone said, it seemed to me that Egyptians were helpful, nice, welcoming, and mostly apathetic people. This view is a contrast to how I feel that Arabs are portrayed: angry, narrow-minded, selfish, and rude. 

In my feeble attempts in conversation with good, hard-working everyday Egyptians, I have found that not only is the first view true and the latter view false, but I have found that a little Arabic goes a long way towards furthering the view. Often I will say one Arabic word, and have it be returned with a jolly "Welcome to Egypt!! Where from?" Yesterday, a cab driver called my Arabic "heiyla 'awee." I know about 100 words (I write them down), and that means "very beautiful." Wrong, but thanks! He then told me that I could pay him whatever I wanted, a welcome change from the guys trying to overcharge over the "khowaga." 

I will have other posts regarding the niceness and helpfulness of Egyptians, but I also wanted to point out another hilarious byproduct of this misperception of Egyptians. Right before I came here, I went around asking all my friends who knew all kinds of silly questions about security. Do people hate Americans? Do you get harrassed? Am I going to get deported? Am I going to get blown up? Will I get pickpocketed? Mugged? I lived in Cairo for three days before I saw that all of these questions are absolutely ridiculous. 

The funny part is this: every American coming here for the first time asks all of those questions, and then finds them laughable once they see it for themselves. Egypt may be right in the center of the most closed-minded and turbulent region in the World, from lunatic Pirates to the south to a heated war over existence to the north and unhinged racist political leaders and massive terrorist cells gripping a country on the brink of war to the northeast (both of those articles are from today, by the way), but Egyptians generally have little interest in involving themselves with this strife (and I didn't even mention Iraq, Afghanistan, Darfur, Hezbollah, or insane Emirati leaders who like to videotape their torture, among others). 

So, I can understand why these misperception of Egyptians exist, but they in truth are nothing like the people in this region making the news daily. Hopefully Ol' Barry can shine some light on this during his upcoming trip!

Friday

I was talking to my mother on the phone and she asked me how my conversion to Islam was going. While the odds of me picking up a faith while in Egypt are slim, I figured that, it being Friday and all, I would write a post about some of my more interesting experiences having to do with the heavy Muslim influence in Egypt. 

I was having a conversation with someone I met about the possibility of Barack Obama going to a major Muslim capital within the first 100 days of his administration, to make a speech to the Muslim world. It was quickly pointed out to me that the term "Muslim Country" is incorrect, and can actually make people mad. The man I was talking to said that even though a vast majority of Egyptians are Muslim, and law in Egypt is still based in Islamic scripture, they don't like to be identified as a "Muslim Country". OK. Arab Republic of Egypt. Apologies. 

I have written before about the call to prayer, and that however annoying it may be, it still rings with me as remarkable that there exists a 5-times-daily reminder that everyone here has something in common, a tying bind. But it is larger than that. Coming from America, you cannot imagine something, anything (let alone religion or faith), having this kind of effect on the daily life, routine and culture of an entire nation. 

For example, when I went to Ain Sokhna, Laura and I went to bus station midday on Friday to see the bus times (because heaven forbid they put them on the internet). It wasn't massively inconvenient, since we didn't intend on leaving until the evening, but when we got the station at 12:15 on Friday, it was absolutely deserted. We found a lone security guard, who informed us that the ticket takers were praying, and that we would have to wait. Until 1:10. At a bus station!!?!?! Good luck getting food or any kind of service.  

This sacred morning once a week is not the only influence on culture and society. There are many cultural oddities that I suspect are grounded in the scripture. Wearing shorts immediately labels you as a "khawaga," a somewhat affectionate term implying something along the lines of "silly foreigner." If a cafe serving drinks has an outdoor eating section, alcohol is strictly forbidden in that section. I have never seen a woman sitting in the front seat of a taxi (the normal place to sit for any male riding alone). And when my friends decided they were going to teach me some swear words in Arabic in a taxi one night, the driver nearly kicked us out of the cab. I have no idea what ties these cultural oddities have with the Muslim faith, but to me, the khawaga, random and strange they certainly are, and as I sit here starving on this Friday morning, I wonder what horrific faux pas I commit on a daily basis.