Just Like New York, With Sand

Cairo, the capitol of Egypt, is home to over 17.5 million people. It is huge - compared to anywhere I've ever lived. I think I joked once before I left that I thought it was going to be just like New York, only with lots of sand. Well, it kind of is. Only there are palm trees and the River Nile runs through the middle of the city, and, oh, I don't know, it was one of the starting points of civilization. But aside from its incredible history, Cairo is a lot like any other big city - there's a cell phone store outside my apartment, the supermarket is easily within walking distance, the taxi drivers are crazy, and there are lots of people.

I'm sure you all have heard of culture shock. Having been in Cairo for under 48 hours, I do not yet feel the waves of culture shock. Instead I find myself slipping into "big city shock". Between the two places I've lived - Kalamazoo and Ann Arbor - Ann Arbor has more of a "big city" downtown. Except no one rides the buses, and there aren't any taxis, or nearly as many people, and it's relatively clean. I pride myself on knowing my way around and being good with directions. That is definately not the case here. It's quite a different feeling. But I'm sure, with time, I'll get to feeling my normal navigationally-attuned-self.

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Well, obviously this post was started quite a while ago. I've now been in Cairo for almost three weeks. A lot has happened in that small amount of time. I still find myself experiencing "big city shock", but have also become more aware of everyday cultural differences. So far, none of these differences have been truly knock-me-on-my-ass shocking, but they are just enough to catch your attention and make you consider. For starters (perhaps most obvious to everyone else), the hijab. A large portion of the women in Egypt wear the hijab. Not every woman wears the hijab, and way fewer wear the burqa (burkha). For clarification, in case you don't know, the hijab is the head covering that leaves the face exposed, the burqa is the long, typically black, full face-covering, garment. I find that I'm getting quite used to seeing women in the hijab, but whenever a lady wearing a burqa passes, I have the incredible urge to gawk like a foreigner. I've been told that typically Egyptian women don't wear the burqa, and that the women you do see wearing the burqa around Cairo are often Saudis vacationing in the Amsterdam of the Middle East. I don't know the truth to that, or percentages of women who wear the hijab vs. burqa, but I can tell you the burqa is a lot less common.

There are lots of other things besides the hijab/burqa. Examples: vendors who wander the street with tea carts, women and children who shamelessly beg for money, "welcome to egypt" (more on that later), doing laundry (more on that too), and shisha (hookah). Shisha can be found pretty much everywhere - and for the record, it's flavored tabacco, not weed. Most of the time, you find combination coffee shop/shisha bar. I have yet to see a place for just shisha. Although, there are just plain coffee shops. Another difference, in line with the coffee/shisha places, is that there exist such coffee/shisha shops in which only men are allowed. It's not necessarily written anywhere that women aren't allowed, just generally accepted/expected things will work that way. These places are pretty easy to identify. Usually they are an opening in the side of a building (not really a door, it just looks like the outside wall is missing), out of which spill small tables and chairs, and shisha pipes. The tables and chairs are occupied by men, tended by men, and not approached by women. I think it might be "ok" for a woman to go to one of these coffee/shisha places with her husband, but it doesn't happen often, and I'm not really sure on that point. I have no idea what happens when a woman enters one alone. I'll let you know when I find out though.

As I started this post to say, I haven't experienced much culture shock yet. With the multitude of McDonald's and Pizza Huts in the commercial districts of Cairo, it looks like I won't be missing cheeseburgers as much as I had anticipated. I still get lost everytime I turn a corner though.