A Smack of Good Humor

The last week has certainly been a struggle - starting from witnessing discrimination against my students to being locked in the nursery with manic 6-year-olds. Just as I was about to sink into my frustrations, Cairo smacked the laughter back into me. Literally. As I was walking along one of the many narrow and crowded one-way streets in Garden City, I started thinking about how much I hated walking in the same direction as traffic, because it's impossible to see what's coming. A truck drove past me and SMACK - I was hit in the back of the head with some kind of dry grass/stalk thing that was sticking out of the sides of the bed. That whole moment was so typically Egyptian, so crazy and unpredictable, but that I somehow should have seen coming, that I couldn't help but burst out laughing. The two other girls I was with, who had also been whacked by the the plant, were just as hysterical as I was, and when the driver stuck his head out of the window to apologize, all we could say was "maalesh."

"Maalesh" is one of the typically Egyptian phrases that defines life here in Cairo. It means something like "whatever," but in the most positive sense of the word. When things go wrong in Cairo (which happens everyday), it's necessary to roll with the punches, adapt, and otherwise move on and not get upset - this is the idea of "maalesh." When bus drivers decide to go the wrong way down a one way street: maalesh. When the people who run your school decide not to show up and unlock the classroom: maalesh. When random plants sticking out of a moving vehicle hit you in the head: maalesh. And when small street boys run up to you and incessantly shout "Ashrub! Ashrub! Ashrub!" (I drink! I drink! I drink!) so that you have no choice but to give them your water: maalesh. (That also happened to me today. As much as I was annoyed to be without it for the rest of the day, it isn't an issue for me to buy another bottle, and every street kid I see now makes me think of the kids at Ana Al-Misri... and my heart melts).

The other critical phrase in Egypt is "in sha Allah," meaning "God willing." When I first came to Cairo, I thought in sha Allah was an easy way to escape commitments you don't want to go through with or invitations you don't want to outwardly decline. In a society as religious as Egypt, who can argue with an answer like, "yes - if God wills it"? The reality though is that for anything to go according to plan in this city, it takes an act of God. For example, the class I taught today was on nutrition, and since we introduced so many complicated ideas, we really needed our translator for the first time this summer. Of course, today was the one day that he was too sick to come to class. I guess while my small scale frustrations in previous weeks blew over quickly, sometimes things pile up, and everything and everyone seems to be conspiring against you. What you have to do to survive in Cairo is say "maalesh," laugh it off, and have a little faith.