Imagine, for a moment, you have moved to a new place, one that you know little about, you don’t understand the language or the customs. You have been informed that all deliveries etc. must be escorted to your apartment by security. There is a knock on your door, and when you open it, there is an older man of indeterminate age, in a loose turban and questionably clean galabayya insisting, “Issmee Ibrahim!” (“I am Ibrahim!”) He is smiling and friendly, but you are left wondering, “Who the HELL is Ibrahim?”
This happened to us about the 2nd or 3rd day we were in Cairo. We eventually learned who the hell Ibrahim was. Apparently he has some “agreement” with the Hostel and some of the other AUC living units in Zamalek to be the unofficial “go-fer”. Ibrahim can bring you cases of water, wine, beer, soda, toilet paper, paper towels….you name it. He comes by the apartments about weekly to “take orders”.
We were skeptical, at first, about this old man who wanted us to pay him in advance for goods that we were not sure would ever arrive, nor did we know where they came from. (I must say, we are HAPPIER not knowing…nudge, nudge, wink, wink) We asked our neighbors and were heartily reassured that Ibrahim is legit and can LITERALLY get you ANYTHING YOU WANT, for a price. As Murphy’s Law would have it, of course, once we’d decided that we wanted to use Ibrahim’s services, we didn’t see him for 3 or 4 weeks!!
We’ve now “ordered” (very successfully, I might add) from Ibrahim. It seems that whatever we want, he tries to convince us that we NEED 2box…3box…more boxes, what about Wine? Beer? Toilet paper? You must need other things….
So we’ve taken to referring to him as “Mumkin Man”. The arabic work “mumkin” means “maybe” or “perhaps”. As we negotiate with Ibrahim, he tells us, “I bring mumkin Saturday, mumkin Friday, mumkin Sunday…” The interesting thing is that, if he delivers and we are not here, he just piles it all on our doorstep and goes away. He is confident that he will catch you sometime and you will pay him anything owed at that time.
Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.
We all need an Ibrahim! Where can I find one!
Does this mean, by the way, that you do not have the issue of no wine and beer as Jack had feared???
KD – Well, we can GET beer and wine, it is not “of the quality” or taste that we would get elsewhere. The beer is almost all relatively weak lagers, and the wine is passable at best. Ah well, there are worse things in life than cutting down on the beer and wine, right?