September 28

In order to maintain our sanity, some friends and I decided to leave the hustle and bustle for the weekend and venture out to the desert. We made this decision two days ago and bought bus tickets yesterday. And just a tip, if you're ever in Cairo there’s a good rule to follow: ask 3-4 different people for directions if lost. Everyone gives a varying response and the best bet is to find two that match or are at least similar.

My friend Jeff and I took the responsibility to purchase the bus tickets to Bawiti for our group. I thought it would be a simple task, especially because Jeff has been studying Arabic for two years, but I quickly realized that he must not study too hard! We were sent to three different bus stations and Jeff couldn’t form simple sentences to get any proper directions. First we went to the local station near Tahrir Square, then to the 7th floor of a building to a dentist office (this time my Arabic was bad and I said dentist instead of something else), then to a fancy bus ticket office that only services the Red Sea, and finally to Turgoman Garage. 

Turgoman bus station is a pretty special place. We arrived to the humble station greeted by a gang of 15 obviously very poor shoeless children who demanded money for some unknown service. After the police officer shooed them away, the cab driver demanded 10 Egyptian pounds for a ride that should cost 4 and he was so aggressive we gave him 5 and walked/ran away. Unfortunately we were dropped on the wrong side of the station, but it was an educational walk around the neighborhood. It reminded me very much of the back streets of Marrakech: metal works shops, children working rather than attending school, unbelievable poverty yet smiling faces, and smells that make the tiny hairs in your nose hide in their pores.

We successfully purchased the tickets, ilHamdu lillah (thanks to God), and decided to celebrate with a quiet night of grilled chicken, rice, and Napoleon Dynamite. One truly convenient thing Cairo has to offer is food delivery. Everyone delivers - grocery stores, restaurants, fast-food joints, pharmacies... and all for free! Small conveniences make city life more digestible. After dinner and the movie, I had one of my first successful cab rides home. When I first arrived in Cairo almost a month and a half ago, I was so rattled by the ultra aggressive cab drivers. I soon found out there's a terrible methamphetamine abuse problem among them and that only added to my apprehension. But this guy was polite, spoke Arabic slowly so I could understand, and even waited to make sure I entered my building with ease. ilHamdu lillah for nice cabbies!