Saturday, April 10, 2010

Tent Makers Street

My dad isn't going to appreciate me sharing this story but I'll tell it anyways. Sorry, dad. Please let me continue to ride along with you and your security guys. Pretty please?!

Ok go.

On our way to the tent makers street in Islamic Cairo, we were sitting in traffic. This is not unusual. We were sitting on a tiny street with several cars within inches of us. This street was wide enough for maybe one car, but there were cars going in all directions. We were sitting for about 10 minutes and no one had budged. Apparently someone had left his car unattended in front of us. Some cars were squeezing past but some cars couldn't squeeze past because the side view mirror of this particular car was taking up inches of valuable squeeze-past-space. So Mr. Security Guard (the one who is so sweet and gentle with my boys) gets out of the car and walks over to the unattended car. And then...

He rips off the side view mirror WITH HIS BARE HANDS! Like some Incredible Traffic Hulk. Rips it off and throws it to the ground where the glass from the mirror bounces in all directions. He comes back to the car, gets in and we inch forward. Just as we're passing the unattended car, he opens his door and gives it a little SLAM with his door. And on we go. Problem solved.

So we are eventually able to make it to the tent makers street, which appears to be a pedestrian street but is not. Motorcycles and even cars come zooming past you. We had to keep a pretty close eye on Booker so he wouldn't get flattened. We turned away for a split second and he was whisked into a storefront and onto the lap of a curious shopkeeper. I wish I had gotten a shot of his stranger-danger face then. Classic.

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket
I'm pretty sure this scaffolding was keeping these two buildings from falling onto each other.

Photobucket

Photobucket
Storefront with a thousand year old facade.

Photobucket

2 comments:

Emily said...

Ok, that story about the security guy and mirror is hilarious!! Where was your camera?!

Cherise said...

Yes, where was your camera? I have a question... What if the person came out and saw it... There's nothing they could do about it right? No rules... oh well. too bad. ? I'm curious.