Kareem and Louis

Today I met two Egyptian teenagers drinking coffee and smoking shisha in a cafe in Khan al-Khalilii. We had a delightful chat in three languages – English, Arabic, and German (the order is no coincidence, it denotes the amount of conversation in each tongue). What I found particularly interesting was Kareem’s unrelenting curiosity about dating. He provided a quick vignette of how he had recently asked a girl for a kiss on the cheek, only to receive a full forced slap across the face instead.

Remember that dating in Egypt is quite taboo – young men get married around the age of 25 (at least according to Kareem and Louis) without having much contact with their bride. Therefore the concept of “dating” was quite foreign, cognitively, geographically and culturally. When I explained my understanding of dating in America (however skewed it might be with relation to pop culture) is was obvious that my experiences were something that he and his friends lusted after. Egypt was stifling their social life, he thought, by eliminating any extracurricular (outside the classroom) contact between the sexes. This references a stagnant and antiquated ideology that starkly contrasts the desire for mobility – as expressed through the more internationally and progressively minded youth.

Egypt is treading water. Our group has repeatedly observed a predominant lackadaisical attitude in the work force – nothing happens on time or to professional standards. Personal experiences with my Internet, broken toilets, electricity, apartment issues, interactions with cops, or restaurant owners only support these unfortunate observations. The general lack of ability to improve one’s conditions appears to have a withering effect on the work ethic of many Cairenes.

Although I recognize that my observations probably reflect only a small percentage of Cairo’s populace, I unfortunately have not found overwhelming contrary evidence.

Having said that, I do believe that I experienced a breath of fresh air with Kareem and Louis. Their simple query on dating made me believe that they want more than what is available to them. That does not mean abandoning Egypt, but rather patiently sifting through the problems to identify the potential solutions.