'Quick' Quirks

We are still in the midst of Ramadan right now. This means that members of the dominant faith continue to fast during daylight hours, not only from food, but also from water… even their own spit! Shortly before 5pm, just as the daily fast is about to break, the roads become mayhem. It’s almost as if ‘patience’ is no longer a part of Egyptian vocabulary (or the Arabic equivalent of ‘patience’… which I don’t know). Suddenly the roads are race tracks where every driver has their own circuit to complete in the shortest amount of time. One ‘lane’ roads become three lane roads. ‘One way’ streets are no longer just one way. Now, I put ‘lane’ and ‘one way’ in quotations because lanes are merely suggestions, as are one way streets. By 5:30pm, though, the streets are barren. It’s the quietest time of day, aside from mornings! This is merely the eye of the hurricane, though, because when these Egyptians finish breaking their fast, the chaos continues. Now everyone is full of food and have entered a blissful state of unawareness. Last week I was riding my bike home around this time and a little boy ran out directly in front of my bike while chasing a ball. He didn’t even look where he was going. I had absolutely no time to stop, so I hit him at a fairly high speed, knocking him to the ground. He got up right away and was promptly reprimanded by bystanders/family who motioned for me to continue on my way. My bike rattled and squeaked more than usual the rest of the way home. It seems the poor kid bent not only the front fender of my bike, but also my brakes as well.

Today I went to wash the dishes (yes, a rarity, but also a nice gesture every year or two). But as I turned the water on (or turned the taps on, rather), nothing happened! This was somewhat alarming, seeing that I am living in a desert. I thought it had finally happened. The Nile had dried up! Our water supply was gone for good. It was bound to happen eventually. People stand around all day watering their gardens and trees. People stand around watering the pavement in front of their houses to keep the dust down. People even stand around watering the sand to keep it from blowing around too much. Nobody seems to care at all about their amount of water usage. I imagined myself having to ration the remaining water out of the toilet bowl in order to make it through the week. I remembered the kitty had some water in her dish, still. I figured I’d drink that up before I dove into the toilet water. Well, before I got desperate enough to drink the cat water, my host family came home. They mentioned that this happens from time to time, and can actually take a couple days before the water comes back on! We decided to order pizza rather than waste our little bit of water in the fridge (which I had forgotten to include in my water inventory) on cooking. Just as we ordered from trusty ol’ Dominoes, the water came back on. Actually, it came on a number of hours ago now, and I still haven’t used any of it. Who needs water anyways? It’s just another crutch that we depend on to get us through each day, much like coffee. From this moment on, I’m going to boycott water! No, wait, I’m really thirsty. I’ll start my boycott after I have a nice cold cup of water. And maybe after tomorrows nice warm shower. And perhaps after breakfast, cause I always need some water to wash down my toast. Wait a second! FOOD appears to be another crutch I rely on to get me through the day. I shall boycott it as well! Boo food. Boo water! But… I like food. I also enjoy the odd cup or two of water. Ok, boycotting is dumb. I think instead of boycotting food and water, I am going to boycott boycotting. Who’s with me?!