As they had the opportunity to familiarize themselves, he and I had to ask our favorite question, Why are you here? As an Egyptian born and raised here, he has his obvious curiosities. Why on earth would someone want to come and live here, when we (Egyptians) are all trying to get out? It's one thing for me to be here, obviously I have roots and family here, so Egypt is not at all foreign to me, it's my second home. But a real expat, one with no ties at all... what brings them here? It's our favorite question to ask our friends.
She answered in one of the nicest ways I've ever heard someone speak about Egypt. She's lived in many places, including Colombia, DC, Eastern Europe and England. But she's been in Egypt for 2 years now, and has no plans to leave anytime soon. She said that what she loves about living in Egypt, is that living here is like having a real, human experience all the time. Being in Egypt, although it has its Western influences and imports, is not like being in the West. There isn't that reliable routine that everyone has where they wake up, head to work, come home, and repeat. Where things have been streamlined and perfected, and problems in the grand scheme of things, aren't really problems at all. Every day in Egypt is completely random, almost so that nothing is reliable. And that's why the Egyptians' favorite term is "Inshallah", which means God Willing. When you make plans with someone, they will always say, 'OK, see you, Inshallah,' because God knows what circumstances you'll be faced with on your way to those plans!
Egypt has almost all of the luxuries of a first world nation, without the structure to really support it. So maybe you won't have hot water or power for a few hours. Traffic is pretty much always bad, but also always random, so you have to factor this into your schedule. You will not travel 10 miles in 20 minutes, it will likely take you 1 - 1-1/2 hours. There's one time a week when traffic is at a minimum: Friday mornings right before and after prayers. There isn't the luxury of reliable public transportation, in fact, there barely is any public transportation, and what exists is awful. You won't find all your favorite foods imported and stocked in the grocery stores. Grocery stores are not going to have all fruit available in all seasons. Your elevator just may not work today. Or for the next three days. It will work again when it gets fixed. You can't exactly walk around in a skirt, even if it's knee length. Hell, even if you're wearing pants and a veil, you will be harassed on the streets. Your bawab will Inshallah take your shirts to the dry cleaner when he has time. The salon may be open, but the girls who do hair and sweet will be here in an hour. You come back in an hour, another 30 minutes. You come back then, yeah she's not coming today.
So her point was that living in Egypt, while it's difficult, it connects you to the real world. The real world where everyone is not living an easy, robotic life like we do in the States or Europe. It's not boring here, there's always something going on, something going wrong, and you really need patience to deal with it. You really have to be able to take a deep breath and just accept that life here is random.
People here have real things to complain about. There is a significant population here that struggles to eat or work. The police don't really exist to enforce the law. Car insurance? But this is a service driven society, where labor is super cheap. You can have anything delivered at anytime, including groceries, drugs (medicinal and recreational), food, etc. Just call and it gets delivered. Most homes have a cleaning lady, some have drivers and cooks. The reality is, if you make money, you can have a great life here.
Our other American friend has coined the terms,
"TIE" - This is Egypt, and "TIA" - This is Africa.We use them whenever we find ourselves super frustrated with any particular situation. Like when we travel across Cairo to see a movie, only to discover upon arrival that it only plays at 10:30am each day (NOT what their website shows!). Or when I booked the Life of Pi tickets at the IMAX theatre online, in advance, only to show up and be denied entrance because the voucher shows I paid, but it didn't attach the seats to the order. (So we ended up being credited and given complimentary tickets to see it the second time, when we had this wonderful conversation). Or when we sat in a Starbucks-like cafe to order one of their 5 fresh juices, only to learn that none of our juices are available. Actually, neither is half of their menu.
We take a breather and laugh,
"TIE Ladies. TIE."
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