Egypt life
Trackback
RSS Feed
What do you do when the delivery man is too young to be working during the day, and you know that your tip will both keep him away from school and provide his family an income?
What do you do when the man collecting the money for your electricity bill spent four years at university studying accountancy and has better English than you?
What do you do when your friend spent 13 years training and practicing as a surgeon and is looking to move abroad away from his family and friends because he can’t see a future in his own country where he earns 20UKP for an operation?
What do you do when you go to sleep at night knowing that a mere 10 metres from your your cosey feet there is a family of five sleeping in the single room they live in?
What do you do when your monthly shopping bill is more than a teacher earns in the same period?
What do you do when day after day you see young men mixing concrete on the ground of a building site in bare feet?
9 Comments
1.
lynda commented on May 01, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Well… let me see…you could invite the family of 5 to move in with you, do the deliveries for the young boy while he is at school and then meet him at the gate at the end of the day with a his fistful of egp’s in your hot little hand.
You could offer the electricty bill guy a coffee and then give him a tip for the ‘free English Conversation level 12.5) class.
But I am being flipant… truthfully………I don’t know.
2.
Cairogal commented on May 02, 2008 at 10:11 pm
It’s a tightrope walk, isn’t it? You want to treat people as humanely and as fairly as possible, but society places all these unwritten restrictions on that. I found in Egypt that when you were too nice, too fair, too honest, etc. that you were perceived as being a sucker. We move to societies like Egypt were the classist structure enables us to have cheap pedicures, domestic servants, etc.
3.
Iota commented on May 03, 2008 at 12:40 am
I don’t know. What do you do when all those things happen? Do you have an answer…?
4.
trailing grouse commented on May 03, 2008 at 7:01 am
Lynda: Very true. Just one thing though: you left out my surgeon friend - what do I say to him?!
Cairogal: I’ve found that too. If people were earning wages we would expect for ourselves our friends and family, then life in Egypt would be greatly different, however, it may not all be positive.
Iota: I’m not sure there is a straightforward answer. At first I was greatly disturbed by it, then I went through a phase of blocking it out. Over the years I’ve reached a point where on the whole, my motto is to help the people I can to the extent I’m most comfortable with (which sometimes means no help) but to try and be compassionate with everyone. It’s not always easy (and I’m certainly not a saint!) and sometimes, like recently, there are days when I start putting all the random information together and it’s all too much. Ultimately though, it is the way I’ve found most successful for the longest period of time!
5.
lynda commented on May 05, 2008 at 4:12 pm
As for your doctor friend… that is a toughy. Perhaps he should apply for a job as a bill collector? I really don’t know.
6.
Scotsman commented on May 06, 2008 at 5:40 am
Wait you have a white behind? That suggests to me you are adapting to the local conditions you now find yourself in. I’m sure I’ve discussed this before in my own blog or maybe I’m making it up and just thought I did - when other people are tanned Scots can be recognised amongst a crowd to their pale white skin which only comes out after a few hours of sunshine, our real skin colour is a more peelie wallie sickly blue colour. So yeah if I’m right with this theory it won’t be long now that you go from white to umm bright red - the joys of being Scottish.
7.
Scotsman commented on May 06, 2008 at 5:43 am
Whoops! That comment was supposed to be in Moonshine, so yeah I think its safe to say I’m not the brightest.
8.
Scotsman commented on May 06, 2008 at 5:47 am
And now back to this post - I try not to think too much about the questions you raised because quite frankly my tiny little brain has no answers and I prefer to think of questions where having no answer has no unfortunate consequences.
9.
trailing grouse commented on May 06, 2008 at 7:02 am
Scotsman: ooh, peelie wallie sickly blue colour, absolutely true! Thanks to latherings of factor 100 I am more likely to look like a ghost than a lobster…I hope!!!
As for the last comment, one of the beauties of living in Scotland is that these sorts of things only come into your head if you choose! And quite frankly, sometimes that would be a real luxury..not sure I’d swap it for the weather though..!