Expensive water and a new friend

28 April 2008

Yesterday I was grumbling and complaining about how expensive the bottled water was from the hotel. The day before I had purchased a liter water for 4 Egyptian pounds (the exchange rate is about 5 pounds/dollar) from a store right around the corner from the hotel. However, the next morning when I tried to buy the same liter of water from the hotel, it cost me 13 pounds. I was outraged at how much I had just spent (even though it would have cost more than that in the States—it is the principle that is important!), but I had asked for the water from one of the kitchen/concierge (whatever they call them) people, and each person I spoke with was so amazed that I spoke Arabic (good thing too, because their English was not that great).

This morning when I walked in to eat breakfast, all of the people that I spoke to in Arabic yesterday were standing at the door welcoming people. They said hello to me in Arabic and I responded happily, thinking that I had accomplished something great because the hotel people remembered me.However, then as I was eating breakfast the woman who had helped me yesterday came over and started talking to me in Arabic. She wanted to know where I had learned Arabic, how long I was staying in Cairo, etc etc, and then asked if we could be friends.

Naturally, I said yes!

So, she gave me her telephone number and asked me to call her when I was in Cairo again, and then asked for my phone number! Unfortunately, I don’t have one yet, but she told me to call her when I got one.This was an exciting experience because one: I made a very nice friend just by speaking a little Arabic; two: I understood a lot of what she said even though the restaurant was noisy and I couldn’t hear her half the time, and three: I was able to respond correctly most of the time in Arabic!

I guess that water was worth every pound I paid!