I think I’ve learned something about sincerity in this country. When I got here my first response was to spurn any advances made by Egyptians. It seemed like the more appropriate thing to do to try to fit in and seem like I knew what I was doing; just ignore all the ‘Welcome to Cairo!’s and ‘Ante Gamila!’s (You are beautiful!).
On Wednesday we took our St. Andrews students to the park and as I sat down to play cards with some of the girls, a woman and her daughters asked to join. We ended up befriending the group and they proceeded to spend the rest of the time with us at the park. The mother and I talked for a bit, or attempted to at least with my broken FusHa, classical Arabic, and her strict Eamiya, dialect, and she, for god knows what reason, took a keen liking to me. She insisted that I come to her house for dinner one day, to which I responded Insh’allah, God willing, which any Arab can tell you is a go-to word when you want to politely decline an invitation. Her daughters asked me for my phone number, which I gave them hesitatingly, and email address. The whole situation was incredibly sweet but I just wasn’t entirely sure how to react.
Afterwards, I told Brendan how the woman had invited me over and he said “Really? That’s awesome! Are you going to go?” Just the fact that he asked made me realize for the first time that I hadn’t even considered it. The people here are so friendly and welcoming I think I’d be foolish not to take advantage of that beautiful aspect of the culture that seems to be dying off in the states. Sure, there are a handful of people with ulterior motives and you must be careful about who you acknowledge, but if a flower shop owner gives you a rose for a simple 5 minute conversation in return, like one did to me today, what’s the harm? You get to practice some of your Arabic and, who knows, you probably made their day.
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