Moving to Cairo, I thought the most
important language I would need to learn was Egyptian Arabic. Nope.
It was the language of the road. The roads here are a crazy, hot
mess. Looking both ways before crossing the street is a must, right?
Yeah, but here, even for one way streets, look both ways twice. Or
maybe three times.
 |
| A really bad picture of crossing the street. Not exactly going to stop mid-crossing to try to capture the craziness, but at least there's some microbuses in the background to see. |
Crossing the street is like a game of
Frogger, except the stakes are a bit higher. Like, no extra lives for
one. You know the phrase, “walk like an Egyptian”? Yeah, I'm
convinced that's not a funky dance. That's crossing the street like a
boss; knowing how to perfectly time between those two cars, microbus,
tour bus, and the motorcycle delivering McDonalds without dying.
Whenever I am unsure about a road, I just find an Egyptian crossing
the street and match their steps just a little upstream of them, so
they can make the break in the flow of traffic for me. They are at
the expert level, I am not. Works every time.
Crazy traffic. Cars, big trucks,
taxis, buses, tuk tuks, motorcycles, vegetable carts and donkeys, all
trying to push ahead to get to where they are going. This is simply
the result of so many people being stacked on top of each other in
the same city after a rapid period of urbanization. There's at least
20 million people in Cairo, which always blows my small-town mind.
It's weird to think that more people attend one mosque on Friday for
prayer than live in all of Kalkaska county. For some popular mosques,
maybe twenty times as many. It's a big thought to wrap my head
around.
And then there's the microbuses.
White, crowded, box van looking things (they have the big sliding
doors on the side, which sometimes appear to be optional) zipping
through the streets of the city; connecting intersections,
neighborhoods, districts, cities, basically whatever is economically
profitable to connect. They are each privately owned, and an
incredible example of supply, demand, and the “invisible hand” of
economics. If a route is popular, there will be microbuses to pick
you up.
They are so intimidating to use,
because they move so fast and there's no schedule or sign to tell me
where they are going. So I stand on the side of the street, flag them
down, and yell out a name of a location to see if they are going
there or not. If they're not, they shake their head and keep going.
If they are, I pile in on top of the other passengers and hope that I
said the right place and they heard the right place before I end up
on the other side of Cairo.
I usually flag them down by just
sticking out my hand to grab their attention, but if I was really
cool, I would use all the really cool hand signals that correlate
with specific locations. But they feel too much like gang symbols to
me, what if I do one wrong? Like to go to Giza, you do an upside down
“hang loose” sign. Total gang material.
I don't bother flagging down the ones
that already have a person hanging out of the bus where the door is
supposed to be. Obviously, that one is already full, because that
person doesn't have a seat. Sometimes I don't have to flag them down,
they pull over because someone is getting off. A couple people get
off, a couple people get on, from where I am standing it looks full
so I don't even bother asking. Then two more people will get in,
somehow, somewhere, and I get really confused wondering where they
fit! Then I get upset because I could have taken that bus!
Also I always hope I know exactly
where to get off, so I don't pass it. Everything's so fast-paced, and everything looks the same. Walls with graffiti, restaurants, clothes stores, fruit vendors. It's like a reel of film that keeps looping. There's not exactly signs or
anything. And it gets really old to keep asking the people sitting
next to me, looking like the foreigner who has no idea where she is
going, even though that's exactly what's happening most of the time.
I just always feel stupid, because everyone else looks like they know
exactly where they are going, so I feel like I should be cool like
them and just know. I want to be part of the in crowd already! But
it's nice when I sit next to a nice lady who helps me figure out
where to get off. It's an extra bonus when she is getting off at the
same place and I can just get off with her.
The seats on the buses are bench
style, no seat belts to be found. We just rock with the sway of the
bus, as it zips around the road, dodging traffic and pedestrians, to
the rhythm of the Arabic music on the radio. Since it is all
privately economically driven, there is a strong incentive to get
through the route as fast as possible so the driver can pick up
passengers going the other way. I just try to ignore all the near
misses we have, and all the accidents that could be but haven't been
yet.
The buses that have the sliding door
permanently open have an extra thrill factor. I avoid the seat next
to the door if I can, since one time we swerved and I wasn't prepared
for it. I know in reality I probably only leaned out the open door
maybe ten inches, but at the moment it felt like I was hanging
perpendicular out the door, my head over the pavement. My friend
Sharon though prefers that seat. She says it's because it's easier to
get out when she's at her spot, but I know it's because she likes the
added danger and thrill of it.
The next trick is getting out. I have
to tell the bus driver where I am getting off, he'll pull over and if
I'm in an inside seat, it may require crawling over people to make it
out. Sometimes they are nice enough to get out and let me out, or are
at least skinny enough for me to squeeze by. Sometimes not. If I am
in the front seat, I have to pretend to be smooth and open the door
like a pro. This can be tricky because sometimes the inner handle
doesn't work, and I have to stick my hand out the window and open it
from the outside. Look smooth. Look smooth. Try to look as little
like the blatant foreigner that I am.
I know with time, I will become more
and more confident using this “system” of transportation, but
until then, it's a pretty entertaining adventure every time.
Actually, it will probably always be an entertaining adventure for
me.
No comments:
Post a Comment