Trek Update: Walk Like an Egyptian (July 3, 2006)

"As they say in Egypt, everybody has the right of way!"

I overheard this at the Sudanese church we went to on Friday, St. Andrew's. It's so true. Have any of you played Frogger? It's like that, but the cars don't stay in lanes. The best crossing method is to be downstream of an Egyptian or another guy (A half-raised hand with all five fingers touching – like a tulip bulb – means wait).

Brian is big enough to create a sizeable traffic wake, and Charles has begun to come into his true powers as an Arab. He commands the cars and they obey. Charles is often mistaken for an Egyptian, even though his parents are from Iraq. This is usually useful until people expect him to speak Arabic fluently. People say that when he's with us, it looks like he's our tour guide. So last time we rode the metro home, I held my Arab-English Dictionary and he walked ahead, talking about the metro in accented English and pointing at things.

Sanaa is also often mistaken for an Egyptian (one of her parents is from Morocco), and Ted's been able to pull it off now and then even though he's totally not Arab. Most Egyptians know about California and think that everyone in America is white. When we ride the metro, only the obviously Caucasian of us get asked if we are from America.

There is always noise coming from the streets. It's cooler at night, so people stay out late. People seem to sleep somewhere between 2am and 8am, and again in the afternoon. Tiffany pointed out that their stores are guaranteed to be open later than we expect, as if they were on college time. Egyptians make full use of their car horns. But, even though everyone is honking and yelling, it works really well. That's just the way things go, and it keeps the traffic moving along.

The worst I ever saw was when a bus full of brand new Americans got stuck in a tunnel, blocked up a major traffic artery in Cairo, and had to be rescued when the bus broke down (Oh wait. That was us. And, by the way, the trucks with ropes hanging off the back are tow-trucks).

The Egyptians were very patient and forgiving. Several people came to help. If we did the same in an American city, I bet people would get out of their cars to give us a piece of their mind. If a bus full of non English-speaking Arab tourists caused a major traffic jam in one of our cities, I think they would probably be threatened - maybe arrested - rather than helped.

On Friday, there were religious services being held for Muslims in tents on the sidewalk. Loudspeakers amplified the services so anyone on the same block would hear them. Many Christian churches meet on Fridays because Islam's holy day is Friday, and it's just easier that way. Most schools have class Monday through Thursday and Saturday so that students can have Friday and Sunday off. The guys say that they noticed many more men wearing the long robes and head coverings on Friday.

It's very interesting how much is encoded in clothing. You can tell the conservative Muslim women because they wear what one staff leader affectionately referred to as 'Ninja suits' – the black, full body covering. Some go so far as to also wear black gloves and sunglasses.

I am amused when I see them wearing running shoes. The not-so-conservative Muslim women often have beautiful, long dresses and scarves to cover their head and neck. Their arms are covered. Their faces are uncovered. With their own individual style of shoes, purses, dresses, and head coverings, they really make it look good.

There seems to be a lot of space for individual expression as long as you keep yourself covered. The Christian Egyptian women usually wear short sleeves, no head coverings, and often wear their hair down.

Little kids can wear whatever they want. Most of them look very western-ly dressed.

Girls on the Cairo trek have been wearing long skirts or pants and long sleeves. We do not wear head coverings. Someone told us that with our long sleeves, we look like Muslim girls.

I'm acclimatizing to wearing long sleeves in hot weather. It's really not too bad (Even though I'm the girl who walks around all winter in short sleeves - Brian says when I come home I'll be cold for a few months). We do not look men in the eyes and we try not to initiate conversation with them (Actions like this would be considered very forward. In fact, an important component of the engagement ritual is eye contact between the man and the woman).

Not being able to look guys in the eye severely limits my visually-perceived world because I tend to keep my gaze down and am not yet proficient at looking up without honing in on someone's eyes. It's harder to follow conversations when I can't pick up on the visual cues from eyes and eyebrows very well. Most Egyptian men would prefer to ignore us in favor of speaking with the guys in our group. This is kind of frustrating sometimes.

Jenny and I found wearing sunglasses rather liberating because we could look up more confidently since people couldn't see where we were looking. I have also done my part toward liberating women from the oppression of not being expected to play futbol with the men. I joined a 4-on-4 pick-up game that Charles and Brian were already playing with some Egyptians.

The Egyptian guys looked very skeptical, but when Charles and Brian asked again, they let me play. When I scored a goal, the women who were watching all laughed and they guys made fun of the goalkeeper.

But it was cool. They said I played well, and the rest of the game was so much fun. Charles says he's glad that no matter what language you speak, if you can yell, then you can play soccer. It's universal: everyone can run around yelling and it probably means 'Give me the ball!' I hope we can play again next Friday.

When we are with the trek guys in public, we avoid acting too friendly and we don't touch each other. The trek guys have been wearing pants and short sleeves, and not looking Egyptian women in the eyes or talking with them much. I think it's the conservative Egyptian men who wear long robes and a head covering (like a hat). Some wear a robe without a head covering. Most men I see are wearing pants and a shirt. The businessmen wear suits and ties. I rarely see any men wearing shorts.

A leader of an Egyptian Christian youth group told us that they appreciated us wearing nice clothes instead of shorts and tank tops, etc. They really don't like it when loud Americans come here and wear shorts and tank tops. They consider this a sign of immorality.

I've only been here for a week and I'm starting to feel somehow offended when I see people, especially girls, wearing shorts. Women who don't wear head coverings actually stick out to me. I even start wondering if they're Christian or a tourist or a more rebellious Muslim girl? Sanaa and I met a very nice Muslim girl on the metro, and hopefully we can meet up again sometime this week for tea.

That's what you do around here when you meet people. You invite them
over for tea. People seem to prioritize social interaction more here. Charles spent a couple minutes on the metro talking to this crazy smart inventor guy and got retroactively invited to go on a vacation with his family to Alexandria 3 weeks ago. He had to refuse, since none of us have a time machine, but that's just how people are here. It's not well, maybe after I've known you for a good year or two, I might call and invite you to my house like it is in America.

Egypt is a country where you're allowed to be hours late for meetings because the people understand that on your way, you might meet a friend. Then, of course you would have to sit down and have a drink and talk with them before you could continue on your way to the meeting. And once you get there, you will enthusiastically greet everyone in the room and ask how they are doing. A proper round of greetings is important, and if you're meeting back up with someone you haven't seen for a while (like, maybe an hour) you can all hug and kiss each other on the cheek and say Habibi! or Hababti! (My beloved!). Even guys.

Guys, if you've ever wanted to show your brotherly affection by holding another guy's hand without enduring the uncomfortable looks of Americans, you can go to Egypt! Despite the intense aversion to homosexuality, guys holding hands is ok.

Intertwine those fingers. But, don't swing your arms.

Oh, and I like tea.

I previously only liked Chai (with milk), and sometimes mint tea.
But Egyptian and Sudanese tea is great. I think this is because of the multiple scoops of sugar. I'm starting to wonder if I should forget the tea bag and just start drinking hot sugar water.

Mom & Dad, I don't know if I can be trusted to refill the hummingbird feeder anymore. I'm thinking about trying to make tea popsicles. I will take Ted's laughter at that suggestion as encouragement.

But, let's be serious now. I have discovered that the U.S. has fallen far behind Egypt in some important technology. They have achieved remarkable mobility and stealth that far surpasses our current machinery. I have been to an Egyptian supermarket, and I must report their shopping carts have advanced much farther than could be predicted. These babies are smooth, silent, and… they can move sideways. They can glide in perfect circles when properly guided and pivot instantly in any direction except up or down. It's almost creepy. Let us learn from this.

Anyway, we started volunteering today. I'll write more about that in the next update. We get to our worksites by bus, metro, and walking.
There are cabs, but those are more for situations of emergency lost-ness. The metro we use is a highly convenient, frequent public transportation service that runs north and south. It's a few blocks' walk from our apartment.

The first 1 or 2 cars are women only (1st and 2nd before 6:00pm, 1st only after 6:00pm). Women can sit in any car they want, but no men are allowed in the women's car. The women have been known to defend their car with their purses. I've ridden mostly in the women's car, but as we get more confident, we'll probably take a men's car more often since it is sometimes inconvenient to walk all the way to the front of the metro. The doors aren't open for very long, so if it's crowded, you just kind of squish yourself in and everyone sorts their space out after the doors close.

The buses are crazy. You know the Knight Bus in Harry Potter? Sometimes it feels like they're driving around kind of like that, but there's no magic. There is the full-length bus, the half-length bus (minibus), and the large van bus (microbus). If you hear a strange midi-like rendition of It's a Small World After All, it's probably coming from a microbus.

The first time I rode the minibus to my worksite, we barely fit. By this, I mean that Brian was standing on the last step to the vertical railing near the open door. There were two chairs on either side of the aisle. The seats were filled, the aisles were packed, and Brian was almost hanging out the door. I was right in front of Brian. We slowly squished our way in as other people got off. I had Brian's water bottle in one hand and the front middle rail near the stick-shift in the other hand like those bucking bull torsos they have in bars. I've never been on one of those, but I still think it's a good comparison. When people get on or off, the bus doesn't stop so much as it slows to a jumpable roll. Don't worry, parents. There's usually enough of us getting on or off to make the bus come to a more complete stop.

We also do a lot of walking. Most of us are wearing sandals and when we come home, our feet are so dirty. Sometimes I don't know what my natural foot skin color is. It gives me a more accurate image to consider when Jesus says He that is washed needeth not save to wash [his] feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean. There's a lot of dirt to walk through on the way to our worksites, not to mention that Cairo is sort of polluted. I shall adapt to wearing sandals, even when playing futbol.
I am in favor of washing feet.

Ana mashee maa Jesu-a (Sudanese Arabic)
I will walk with Jesus

-Tracy

P.S. Hacky Sack:
This week's full hack count: 0 on the Nile River! (All of us) Ok, so we didn't actually get up and hack on the Nile. But we were in this boat… and Ted had his hack… so we could have.

P.P.S. Disney is over here too. The Egyptian youth group had a little get-together for us, and there were Kleenex boxes with Disney characters. This prompted Jeremy to talk about how he researched Disney and found them to be evil. You know, like sweatshops and stuff. He boycotts Disney. So DD, you are not alone.