Ya Mozza! pt 2
So it turns out the Egyptian government’s psa’s are not about sexual harrasment per se, but about treating the tourists well. Last night I saw one with an old American guy and an Egyptian shop owner who tries to sell him something over the marked price. Basically friendly big-brother reminder of who’s bringing money into Egypt.
Speaking of shop owners, Mallory, Evan and I went to Khan El Khalili this weekend. It felt so surreal. Except for the tacky souveniers, the market seemed like something right out of a movie. Shopkeepers threw out flirtations, flatteries, and all sorts of catchphrases. The best by far was “I do not know what you need, but I have it right here.” Close second was “Oh it broke— my glass heart,” accompanied by a gesture of trying to catch something descending from his chest.
Earlier the three of us were sitting in Al-Azhar park looking at the view of the city and trying to pick out landmarks. Mallory found the pyramids.
“It almost seems fake. Like, look— it’s the pyramids! Not just a backdrop, but the actual pyramids,” she said. I agreed emphatically.
A lot of the time I’m here I feel like that. It seems like at least part of this is a big masquerade and I’m not privy to the real Egypt. The way foreigners imagine Egypt impresses itself on the reality of Egypt. Khan El-Khalili would not be so rife with tacky sphinx figures if tourists didn’t buy them. People would not be there shouting silly phrases in English (and Japanese, Spanish, German, and Italian) if the tourists weren’t there. Who made who?
Also, men in the khan kept saying to Evan “Ohhh two wives, lucky man!”
We’ve never gotten that anywhere less rife with tourists, so it almost seems like they give people want they want…they want to come home with stories of how they went to a real bazaar and oh some guy actually thought we were both his wives. How exotic! Or maybe this is what the shop owners really thought and I’m just too caught up in what I want Egypt to be. Polygamy does happen here, but most of the Egyptians I’ve talked to know it doesn’t happen in the U.S. (sorry Mormons).
So yes, the pyramids are visible through a veil of smog from the top of Al-Azhar. How can I feel anything but lucky to be sitting there with such a view? At the same time, this itch persists that I am not doing or seeing anything real. Perhaps that’s why I’ve been here nearly a month and I still have not visited the pyramids or even the Egypt museum.
