The "I hate Egypt" days

We all have our days, most of them are better than others... just like Jo Petty used to say: "There are no bad days, some are just better than others"... I have learned to survive Cairo in the sense of finding my way through the city, doing my groceries, crossing the road without being scared of not making it alive to the other side.

As I was walking home from school yesterday, I passed a boys' school; I usually take that road and in spite of their silliness and questions such as "How are you? What is your name?", they seem to be nice boys; I often talk to them. It happened that I was with my friend Leen who was visiting me, when one of them threw rocks at us; I turned around and said that isn't too friendly, then I continued; shortly after, here comes another rock... I turned around and showed my disappointed face. By the third rock I was annoyed, so I started running after the boy. Of course I didn't catch him, so I turned around again and walked with my friend, thinking that should do it. Apparently not, because here comes a fourth rock ; I dropped my bag on the ground and asked Leen to watch it and walked towards the group of boys. They all tried telling me it was not them, but another one who ran, so I asked them all to follow me; we get to the corner of the street where I see the 2 boys who threw stones.... They run ... two others catch them. I continue walking straight to our school gate, where I get the boab and tell him to tell the boys not to mess with me anymore because next time I will hit them! He walks with me towards the corner, when I see the two boys.... I grabbed one of them by the collar and threatened him. Of course he didn't understand a word of what I was saying, but I thought anger is something they understand in any language. Sometimes I wonder why I don't just speak to them in Romanian, as it sounds much rougher than English ... they might even understand me better!

Soon after a security guy came.... I just said whatever I had to say and I left.... Went back to my friend and said, just like all the Egyptians do: "welcome to Egypt!"

I was talking to a mum today and I came to realise that this is the way boys get the girls' attention here; they are rude, rough ... just because they do not know any better!

I felt slightly bad for reacting the way that I did, but in this culture, this is the "language" that they speak in their families and schools.