MMahfouz.com

21st July, 2008:

Drug Dealing, Most Beautiful Girl Alive, And Striking Culture Or: Yet Again, Just Another Day Out.

So my mum had this social meeting with a certain family yesterday in El Gezira Club... As usual, she told me to come and I said no. 2 hours later, I was sitting in front of the pool just watching people training there with my mum on my right, and a Mr. A with his wife and relatives in front of us. I was listening to the conversation which, as usual, turned by magical means about the kids and schools but still had my eyes on the pool. Exploring the area, I saw a 20 year old gal get up, walk towards some stairs pretty near to where I was sitting, and exchange something with a 35 year old guy in a quick swift action with no stopping or talking what so ever. I didn't understand at first but later I came to realize that I saw my first real drug dealing deal. It was just like the Movies, flawlessly quick.

My full attention was caught moments later when I noticed my mum tell Mrs. A that I was in IGCSE after she found out that one of her kids is in American Diploma while the other is still in grade 7. Anyway, moments later, a conversation started between me and Mr. A focusing on education mainly starting with pharmacy, CU and GUC finishing at Dar El Tarbiah Agouza and that's it. At that, the seven grader came and said he was going to watch the Ahly vs. Zamalek match, and I decided to go with him. While we were going, I came across the most beautiful girl... She was carrying a couple of paintings with the one on top being a most beautiful one of what seemed like leaves or flowers and looked like she has been crying for hours. I don't know if she drew because she was sad or she got sad while she was drawing... Either way, I never thought I would be lucky enough to come across a person like her in my entire life, let alone in Egypt. We kept moving till we got to a cafe, sat down and caught the match at mid time with a 1:0 score for El Ahly. Zamalek score only to have El Ahly scoring a couple of minutes later and the match ended 2:1.

I returned to the table, sat down and continued chatting with Mr. A. At first we talked about Ahly/Zamalek and since my knowledge of football can only be seen by a microscope if it was to turn into a physical substance, I only stated the easiest and most famous; 6:1. For a few minutes we kept on arguing even though we both cheer for Ahly only to end it when I confess that I have no idea what we are talking about and that I was making up everything as I go... So human of me, don't you think? Later, the conversations took a more interesting path as we chatted about some Music especially Eftekasat, Yehya Khalil, El Sawy Culturewheel and Cairo Jazz Club, then why do I prefer to sit on my PC rather than go out while the very obvious answer: I see stuff no Egyptian gets to see. I stated that I have been looking at pictures of places all over the world, especially from Norway and Sweden and that I even got pictures of most waterfalls from all over the world. I also said that I am proud to have seen beauty that 99.9% of the Egyptians have no idea it exists only to be answered the best answer ever. Mrs. A showed me a picture of one of her sons riding his horse and asked: "How about this beauty?". I couldn't disagree, I rode a horse only once in my life and it feels better than sex, seriously, truly, frankly, with no exaggeration what so ever. And that's it, I couldn't add anything, I have no excuse this time but I was rescued from my speechlessness when out of nowhere, we turned to a very serious chapter of the evening.

My mum was never a fan of my comments on Hassan And Morcos and she was talking about how dare I curse Christians. Amazingly, my mum neither watched the Movie nor did she read my article, but still, she was mad at me. Anyway, I found out that only person sitting with us, besides me, called George, has actually watched the Movie. I asked him if he found a single good Christian in the Movie and he said no. He also said that Christians will be angry, but not because these are lies... Christians will be angry at the Movie because this is the truth. I agree except for one thing... I'm not the tiniest bit angry at the Movie. Then someone (I don't remember who!) said that we, Christians, are not getting full rights in this country... So my answer was this: "We are in an ISLAMIC COUNTRY if you haven't noticed... What do you expect? The Presidency?".

Mr. A, a lawyer, raised me an eyebrow over what I just said. He told me that in Egypt's constitution, we are a communist secular country and dictated me the whole thing only to add what turned out to be what El Sadat plused to the constitution about how the Islamic sharia' is supposedly how the government rules but what really happens is that the sharia' is only used as a historical reference. But then, I answered that when I was in grade 8 (9th in western countries!). I was educated that the president of the Arab Republic of Egypt must be a Muslim... I was educated wrongly. He kept on talking about this till he asked me what I read lately... I answered that I was trying to read Paradise Lost by John Milton and the most recent novel I read was تغريدة البجعة (The Swan's Chant) by مكاوى سعيد (Mekawy Sa'eed). He praised Mekawy Sa'ed, then me for reading so much but I didn't care because I knew that my knowledge of everything can only be seen by a microscope if it was to turn into a physical substance... As for my feelings, they were completely opposite to his... I praised him or more appropriately, I was flattered. Seriously, how many people have I seen that actually know Brave New World and/or Paradise Lost? My dad knows them... Mr. A turned out to know them. My ex-Chemistry teacher, Dr. Nabil Sobhy, knew Mother by Aleksey Maksimovich Peshkov, better known as Maxim Gorky so I'm pretty sure he knows Brave New World. My sister knows some of these stuff, together with a couple of friends and relatives... By that, I know about seven or eight people that actually know stuff. But then I discovered that I enjoy conversations in which I'm the foolish listener rather than the wise educator. We kept chatting with some like pharaohs and languages finally turning back to Music and I got the regular advice... Play an instrument. Minutes later, the evening has sucked all the oxygen out of the air like a candle and we all were to go home after promises of other meetings and such... Unsurprisingly, I arrived home only to remember the girl as I was going to sleep. I knew that she, and her people, were the only hope for a utopia populated by human. But will I ever get to meet them magical elves again?

[As you must have noticed, I tried to remove personal data, like names, from this article due to the sensitivity of the political content. This is in no way a method of disrespecting these good folks, but you never know...]