Day 25

DAY 25

Alas, I have almost reached the halfway point of my trip, and yet it feels like theres so much more to do!! Just an idea of some things I have planned for the next couple of weeks:
- Monday we'll be arriving in Sharm El Sheikh (Red Sea resort town)
- July 11 my sister and I will be heading off to see Big Ben, cute Brits, and the Redlight District in our mini Euro-trip
- July 20 we'll be heading back to Alexandria
... and from there, we will decide where this trip will be taking us.


Right now, I'm updating my blog on Mac-y en route from Alexendria to Cairo. As we drive further and further away from Egypt's second largest/most populated, I feel it is only appropriate to quickly share some of the people, moments, stories and experiences I have encountered along the way...
Let me just say, as the younger sister and youngest child in my family, habit has turned into impulse, and I strongly believe one of my impulses is to be a good listener. My limitless curiosity has always sort of led me to be interested in other people's stories, and I often find myself randomly thinking of a funny anecdote or heart-warming/heart-breaking story that was shared by someone I met along this crazy journey of life.
My memory is terrible at best, but sometimes its like my brain erases some of my own silly memories in order to cherish someone else's experience. I am a strong believer that whether young or old, rich or poor, comical or wise, everyone has a story and if we take the time to listen, there is an infinite amount of of wisdom, experience and knowledge to be had from these stories.

Take for example "El Ma'alam" (a term indicting respect), the owner of the shisha cafe near our apartment in Alexandria. After long nights turned mornings spent at his cafe playing backgammon, smoking shisha and ordering every imaginable variety of fresh fruit juice, El Ma'alam began to warm up. The more he welcomed us whole-heartedly and the more I witnessed his little kind gestures that earned him the neighbourhood's respect, the more I too began to take a liking to him.
El Ma'alam is a man strikingly young for his job position, with a kind smile and nervous habit if biting his fingernails. He started off working in some of the many shisha cafes dotting the city's landscapes, before he opened up his own place at 28 years old. Now in order to understand some of his predicaments, I guess one must have a vague idea of how corrupt Egypt's government and bureacracy is (I'll leave it at that). Earlier this year, the government decided to ban the use of shisha's (the famed water pipes, also known as hooka's, that are a fundamental part of Egyptian culture). Now, as with many of the ever increasing laws and prohibitions, there's always a way to sidestep the rules- but this comes at a price. For El Ma'alam, the price comes in the form of regular bribes he pays to the inspectors that come visiting his cafe- this vaguely reminds one of the old Mafia days in which shopkeepers were forced to pay money to mob bosses for "protection". Hah, government racketeering.. I like that (not!).
Such is one of the problems El Ma'alam- a man who has filled the void his abandoning father left by covering the costs of his sisters' weddings and sending his mother on the Hajj to Mecca- must deal with.


Thus, this is just one story among many of one man. Again, some of the stories I come across are funny as hell. Some are filled with awe-inspiring adventures, and some with heart-warming stories that remind me of the innate kindness and comradery human beings can have for one another. And some remind me that beyond every smile there lies an experience of loss, injustice or undeserved suffering...