Engagement Party

I had the day off, and I decided that I needed two more days in my hostel to really figure shit out. In a way, leaving the hostel can be a stretch, because it is a breach of the false comfort zone that one has set up for oneself. Either way, I took off with the intention of finding an English book store and going to the Egyptian museum. I also happened to eavesdrop on an American couple’s conversation at reception in the Hostel about finding an apartment, and it turned out that they had a friend in Heliopolis (the town where I wanted to be) who was looking for a roommate. Without much further ado, I piped in and got the number of this friend, setting a time to meet between five and six, to meet and talk about the apartment. So basically I had time to kill.

I found the book store, almost by mistake, but found the book that I seem to have lost at camp, “Cairo the city Victorious.”

Popping my head into a bakery, this one random dude stopped me and said “are you looking for some real food?” Since I am one to talk to strangers, especially when I don’t know how to pass the day, I put my guard up and said, “Yeah, actually.” And this man went on to explain that he didn’t want to come off as too forward, but that he studied English with the hopes of being able to practice it as much as he could. His nickname was Ali, but his name was Wael. Strange, but normal enough. He took me to an authentic Egyptian lunch, where there was only one thing on the menu, watched me eat and told me his whole life story. His father was quite rich and owned a papyrus company, he wanted to go to the United States one day, and he loved helping people. He then went on to ask me if I was willing to buy alcohol for him. Ha. I knew there would be a catch. I wasn’t sure about this, but I wasn’t quite yet ready to ditch this interesting character. So I stalled him, and gave him neither a yes or no. He then went on to saying how he could help me find an apartment, assuring that he could. He took me into his shop, and interoduced me to some of his friends who turned out to be Peruvian. They assured me that this man was nice, literally knew everyone in town, crazy, but completely harmless. Either way, I had time to kill, he was paying, and he insisted that he could help me out in any way possible. It meant that I had to grab my passport, but once I did, he bought me a tea, and we waited for his friend. We made it to the Sheraton no problem, where you could buy alcohol at the duty free shop. He then took me back to his shop, and showed me some of the papyrus that his father makes. I ended up buying two for an absurdly low price. One for Rudi, and one for me, both which I put in a package that would be sent home. We continued talking, but by this time, I had my guard up enough against this old fellow. He told me that the alcohol was for an engagement party, and that I was more than invited. I thought about coming, but at this time though, I had my meeting with David, a potential flatmate in Heliopolis, which was a great meeting. David was Norwegian, had studied in Cairo before, speaks Arabic, and seemed to know his way around town. We talked for a good 30 minutes, and hit it off real well, but by that time I had to take off back to the engagement party.
The party turned out to be a real hit. I was the only whitey there, but that didn’t really matter. It was a genuine invitation to an event that most outsiders would have a difficult time getting invited to. I introduced myself to the important people (the parents and the engaged), after giving them my gift (some extra Swiss chocolate that I had bought), I sat on the chairs for a while, watching the party go on. People dancing to Arabic music. Lots of clapping. Then at one point, the grandmother pulled me up and started dancing with me. Before I knew it I was in the center of the circle, being demanded to perform. I did, and people enjoyed it, morre clapping. A couple of phone number changing and facebook promises later, I took off.

In sum, life seems to be working out from random encounters, and I have begun to experience the extreme niceness which Egyptians are capable of. It is day 3, I have been to an Egyptian engagement party, and I have a roommate who seems legit in the area where I want to be.