Taxi ride in Cairo

This is Nichole's story:

Yesterday I took a taxi home from school. First of all, let me describe the taxi and its driver. The outside of the taxi looked like any other in Egypt, but maybe even older if that is a possibility! I'm sure the car had to be older than the finest 1960's model and would probably fail every vehicle standards test given in any other country. The standard Cairo black and white paint - hand painted of course with brush streaks and paint chips revealing the car's original color. The word "tax" slapped on the side with an uneven script, sometimes even spelled wrong like "tex" or "taxe" . . . . something like that.

Now, the inside . . . like most other taxis in Cairo, the upholstery is completely redone. The seats look nice, plush, and bouncy, until you take a seat and your bottom meets the steel frame of the car with an unpleasant wallop. All springs, no substance to the seats :) I learned to "sit carefully" pretty early on. You are lucky if the taxi doors have inside handles. This one didn't - instead just wire shaped like a handle that needs to be tugged just the right way to get the door open. I wonder if locking the doors even helps . . . . hmmm. In this particular taxi, I noticed that the driver's seat was being held up by a broomstick with its broken off end secured by twine wrapped around the hinge.

The driver was friendly and understood my VERY broken Arabic. "Fee Midan Victoria" . . . "Iowa." Arabi quiss." Shokran." "Afwan."
The decorations in every taxi vary widely - but the most prominent one in the car was the tasseled tissue box in the center of the dashboard. Other taxi decor includes obnoxious stuffed animals, colored lights, wood carvings, and even a disco ball. Most have a money counter that doesn't work - all prices are negotiable.

About half way through the ride, the car stalled in the middle of the road. No ruckus was made, no driver was mad: this is a normal traffic occurrence. To my surprise, my driver dug out a screwdriver and inserted it into the ignition. Soon sparks flew and the car started again. The process was repeated about 3 times until my destination. Amazing . . . I wondered how he started the car with no key for the ignition. I think it might have been the dangling wires near the emergency break. . . . .

Well, I finally reached my destination - about a 5 minute taxi ride turned into a 10 with all the unforetold stops. I gave my driver a 10 pound note (=$2) and he seemed ecstatic. He thanked me about 15 times on my way out the door. . . . . . just another everyday Egypt experience!!!