Egypt Provocative

These 3 little girls wrangled 20 pounds out of me for soda and chips (but they were so cute!). Women traditional and modern. The Alabaster factory and shop: hard to resist, right? A Brazilian woman from our Valley of the Kings and
Queens tour group with young Egyptian women at Queen Hatshepsut's temple.

The architecture of ancient Egypt evokes powerful images of a gilded past. We see

fantastic, almost surreal, monuments to Kings and nobles. We see craftsmanship and

exquisite beauty. We learn how ancient Egyptians viewed themselves and the world,

all in beautifully graphic ways. As one scholar said of the ancients, “They thought graphically,” in images and pictures, not intellectually, not in words. I'm no expert, but the art of tombs, temples and pyramids support this view.

Contemporary Egypt is something else. It is more provocative than evocative; mostly in the hustle and bustle of daily life. From art for the dead, to the art of the deal, Egypt has come a long way!

Egypt is a Moslem country with a mixture of Islamic conservatism and modern practices. Terrorist threats are also an unfortunate reality, reflected for example in the recent threats and attacks on Coptics, Egyptian Christians. A recent suicide bombing killed 21 Christians, I believe at a church service. Jud and I passed a large Coptic demonstration on our last evening in Cairo, with the police out in force. It’s a sad commentary on lack of tolerance, although educated and thoughtful Egyptians bemoan the trend. I also do not understand the role of women, but it seems patriarchy rules. Some women are totally covered in burkas, head to toe, some with only a tiny slit for their eyes, a vision that seems mysterious and eerie to me. Many cover their heads only, including young teenage girls. Others dress in jeans and tee shirts, contemporary and upbeat, some with and some without head scarfs. It is, moreover, customary to have many wives, and thus many children, and to treat wives without much regard for their person. Why do women accept this? Aladdin, our guide through the Valley of the Kings, expressed concern about this and the resultant over-population. "It's big problem," he said. Again, more modern practices are emerging, driven by water shortages and related problems, the influence of the internet and the global economy, and the press of modernity, but the mixture of old and new and evolving is provocative.

Architecture for the dead. Artifice for the living. This is a central contradiction or dichotomy of Egyptian life. No matter where one goes, but especially in large cities like Cairo, there are scam artists, hustlers, and vendors waiting to make a deal, to up the ante, to get as much tourist money as they can for everything from magnets to papyrus to perfume and trinkets. I found it difficult. I am one of those “soft” tourists, as Steve Ricks calls us, who is not good at negotiating deals on every little thing. We stick out like sore thumbs and draw vendors like magnets! Most distressing are the hustlers, those who accompany you on the streets as you are walking along admiring the scenery. Charming and articulate, they befriend you, gain your confidence, say things like “don’t worry, I’m not after your money,” and then take you to a family or friend’s business. I ended up at three perfume shops in this way. The first turned out to be rather pleasant, but the perfume is so watered down that it hardly has a scent now. The second one made me mad, and you would have thought by the third time I would have been wiser. Jud was. He saw through the scam immediately and continued on to the museum, while I was seduced and sidetracked by a hustler who told me about an art gallery right up the street. HAH! Turned out to be a friend’s perfume shop. Then the perfume vendor couldn’t understand why I wasn’t a happy camper. Smile, he said. Don’t worry, be happy. Full of cheer, he continued selling me perfume all the while, aggressive, persistent, insistent, relentless.

Same thing happened when Aladdin made one tourist stop at an Alabaster shop. He said it was to learn how alabaster is mined and shaped into beautiful vases and other objects. And there was a little demonstration of this, before being led into a huge warehouse of a store where we were to buy some of the products. The lead vender stopped me along the way several times to pry me with objects, and at one point even asked for “baksheesh,” a tip. Such encounters always left me flummoxed and feeling bad. Just ignore all vendors, advised Kundar and James, the professors at the American University in Afghanistan, and yell at them if they don’t stop. It’s okay to yell at them? Well, sure, you must say no very firmly.

So it’s in our hands, the tourist’s hands, to resist such efforts, to say no. The vendor’s job, the hustler’s job, is to trick us into buying, in whatever way they can. I’m not sure how to explain this, but it is always a “no-win” situation for the tourist! Vendors and hustlers do not take “no” for an answer. Some will even chase you down the street, yelling every trick in the book about the deal they have for you. Young kids learn it from their elders, by the way, and are also very adept at this art. This is the side of Egypt that makes it a challenge, and I must admit by the end of our stay in Cairo I felt comfortable enjoying tea in our hostel! On the other hand, if you are wise and firm, you can avoid being entrapped, misled, and otherwise taken advantage of for the sake of a few pounds. And there is so much history and astonishing art and beauty and adventure just being in this ancient land.

This is Egypt provocative.