Categories
Cultural Differences

My waiter, the Egyptologist.

So, the Good Doctor and I were have dinner at one of the upscale restaurants in Zamalek.

I had my hat with me. It is an “Australian Walking Hat”. It is a wide brim, ventalated hat. I am often hailed as “hey cowboy” here while wearing this hat. Etc.

The waiter asked about the hat and asked if it was common to wear such a hat at night.

I said, not usually. It is more for during the day to keep the sun off my face and head. But since I left the house several hours ago when the sun was still up, and I had not yet been home. I still had it with me.

He replied: “Ah. Because I have seen these kind of hats in America, but not at night.”

It seems that he spent a month in Memphis (the one in Tennessee) as the “Exhibition Manager” for a load of Archeological artifacts that were on loan to a museum there.

He is trained as an Egyptologist.

That is his day job.

His night job is waiter/bartender at a swank restaurant.

Knowing what I know about government jobs here, I would be willing to bet he makes a lot more money at his night job, than he does at his day job.

Interesting fellow.

Categories
WTF

So, does she leave it on, you know, “all the time”?

This post deals with some, uh, indelicate issues.

If you don’t want to read it, don’t.

Categories
The Ordinary

Daahts

The Good Doctor and I went over to a friends house to play darts the other evening.

We were “subs” for some of the regulars who could not make it.

There will be another post about the evening in general. This post is about the accents.

There were a few people there with Boston accents. One was mild, one was somewhat middle of the road. And one mom’s accent was particularly pronounced.

Note: The Good Doctor and I are from the “boston area” originally. I grew up there, of parents that grew up there. My accent used to be “wicked strong”. I worked on taming it and, I like to think, that I did a pretty good job of it. [hush, my dear.]
The Good Doctor was already starting to speak when she moved to the area, and her family had none of that accent. She picked up some of it, and was able to discard it much more easily when she moved away.

Anyway, it was startling to me to hear it in the context of a Cairo suburban home. It produced a sort of “worlds colliding” vertigo for a few minutes.

After I recovered, I asked her what part of Boston she was from, and sure enough, the answer was Dorchester. “Doahchestah”.

To hear such a pronounced accent, here, in the middle of Cairo, was entertaining.

My accent came back “wicked fast” and I had to work “hahd” to tame it again.

One of the other folks there, who is friends with the woman with the strong accent, says that she often has to translate for her to other Americans.

She (the woman with the Boston accent) told an amusing story of having to go to a conference at her sons school (an American school here in Cairo, taught by Americans).

The teacher was concerned that her son had a speach impediment and needed speach therapy. The teacher was from the MidWest US and had, apparently, never actually heard a full-blown Boston accent before.

When the mom opened her mouth and spoke with the teacher, the teacher was in a mild state of shock and unable to speak for a few minutes.

After further conversation, it became clear that, while the child may have some interesting speach pathology, there isn’t really a need [as perceived by mom] for therapy.

It did not occur to me at the time to ask the mom to speak some Arabic. That might have been interesting.

Categories
Cultural Differences

The Zebiba

Many Muslim Egyptian men have prayer bruises on their foreheads.

Some of them are quite large and pronounced.

I have spent some time looking at people as I sit in public places, and I have watched men pray.

From what I know of physics and my observations of the topography of some men’s foreheads, I fail to see how these bruises could be formed in the shapes and sizes that are exhibited.

There are many here who are quite convinced that these bruises are enhanced. I have heard many explanations as to how this is done. The most painful sounding one is with a hot iron. Ow.

These bruises are referred to, somewhat derisively, as zebiba (prune) by those who have no bruise. Either “secular” Muslims or Christians.

The largest bruises are on lower income individuals, though one will sometimes see one on a well dressed, more weathly looking individual.

And most of the bruises are on men 40 and younger. Again there are exceptions.

We have now visited 3 other mainly Muslim countries (Morocco, Qatar and Jordan) and have not seen these on any other Muslims other than Egyptians.

If my suspicions and the comments of others are true, and these bruises are enhanced, it is obviously some sort of display of piousness.

Interesting.

Categories
Uncategorized

Is it hot in here….?

Somebody flipped the switch.

First was sandstorm season. Most days it was very pleasant.

Every now and then, the sand would get blown in off the desert and the temperature would soar into the 90s.

Then it would drop back down.

Then we had 2 or so weeks of very pleasant weather: mid 70s during the day, cooling down at night.

Then, WHAM. 95 degrees.

No gradual increase in temp. It went from 75 one day to 90 the next. We thought that maybe it was another sandstorm coming in and it would drop back down and resume a gradual increase in temp.

Nope.

It appears “spring” is here to stay.