Cairo, Day 2

Last night my buddy Sears and I hired a felucca, a small sailboat, to cruise around the Nile. His two Egyptian friends joined us, Islaam and Mohay, as well as an American traveler named Krista and a Croatian living in Cairo, Valentina. We brought a few Stellas—Egyptian beer most certainly not to be confused with Belgium’s Stella Artois. As you would expect, there are many cultural differences between Egypt and the States. To put it mildly I will, without doubt, have a much easier time living here in Cairo as a man than if I were a woman. On the boat, Mohay was cluing me in on a few Egyptian phrases to use in an altercation with a local. One of the words Mohay taught me was, “khowel.” He said it between gasps for breath because he was laughing hysterically, explaining that a “khowel” would be “like a man who cooks for a woman.”


I’m cooking burritos tonight for Alan and I. As well as Krista, Valentina and two girls named Chelsea and Erinn.