thoughts on cairo

i’ve been in egypt for a little over a month now.  i spent the first week of my time in cairo.  the following are a list of things i noticed during that first week (which should not have been surprising to me, having been to cairo many times in the past, but i guess i forgot).

• in cairo, many times, i would say salam to people and would get no reply.  maybe this was because the area i was in had many christians and staunch christians tend to not like to answer the salam greeting because some of them consider it a religious greeting.

• the attendance of the masjid near where i was staying didn’t have a large attendance for the various prayers.  my friend later suggested that this maybe because there are so many small masajid in the area and everyone goes to the masjid closest to them (and thus you don’t see too many people in the small masajid).

• maybe this is also a result of the area i was in having many christians - but anyway, i walked into the pharmacy to get some medicine for my sister after prayer (and was wearing a thobe).  the lady didn’t answer salam (ok, understandable) and was very arrogant in her treatment.  my sister didn’t like the medicine i got her so she wanted to go change it.  i warned her about the lady being arrogant.  my sister went and in the middle of the discussion with the woman, mentioned to her that “i live in america, and there, doctors don’t recommend antibiotics unless necessary” - my sister mentions that afterwards, the lady’s treatment completely changed towards her, she was very friendly, and even offered her a discount.

• the type of clothes worn by girls in cairo is only slightly less bad than that worn by girls in the us.  the weird thing is that this is against the culture even, not just religion - eastern cultures tend to be more conservative, and as thus, it’s really surprising to see that the western style of dress has become commonplace in major cities in egypt.

i’ll write my thoughts on alexandria in a later post insha’Allah.