Saturday 2 May 2009

And It Starts

Another sleepless night,
My nemesis, the running toilet, got the better of me last night,
Again refusing to be drown out by the soothing twang of country, or the sounds of gunfire and Transformers,
The toilet succeeded in waking me at all hours of the night,
As the sun broke through the windows, the sounds of the toilet was joined by the honking of horns and the random rhythm of hammers down the street, I submitted and rose from bed reluctantly,

Patience with Egyptian pluming were again tested when I drowsily stood beneath a trickling shower head,
Apparently there was more water pressure in the toilet then the shower,
I laughed and hung my head at misfortune and proceeded to take the world longest shower, and not because I wanted to.

Dragging my bag down the elevator and up to the front desk,
I declared "I'm checking out",
A blank stare greeted me...
"Oh oh, sheeking owt shir?"
'Yeah that will about do it,' I thought slapping the money on the table...once again, legally robbed in Egypt.

The guys that I will be staying with are great,
Renting a little flat across town, they seem to be the only westerners in the area,
Therefore when I shlepped out of the cab with my bag in tow, I became a spectacle.

After retreating inside to some English conversation and laughs, I put my bags away, claimed my floor space, and headed out once again for a cup of coffee and some food,

Traffic puts a spring in your step, it never slows,
Side mirrors come dangerously close as crossing the street becomes a game of real life Frogger,

While my Arabic is getting better, it leaves a lot to be desired,
And while taking a wrong turn on the way home, I stumbled upon some street kids who had found a soccer ball,
After going back and forth for awhile my Arabic was exhausted and I resorted to all I had left,
We organized a game of soccer,

It started out everyone against the lumbering foreigner, but they quickly took pity on me and gave me the smallest ones,
Apparently between the massive height difference on my team, it brought the average down, and with that they were happy,

Me and the ankle biters took a quick lead, and after a few high fives, the other team got fired up,
A few goals, many fouls and lots of laughs later, my team still retained the lead,

Suddenly, an sad sense of reality kicked it,
A group of Sudanese refugee children walked past and something twisted happen with the soccer teams,
The boys turned to me and pointed at the Sudanese then proceeded to act like monkeys, calling after them.
I yelled, telling the boys off, but they proceeded, and as I turned I watched one of the boys throw a rock at the now retreating Sudanese children.
I grabbed his wrist and yelled at him and the other, to stop, calling after the Sudanese children, "Ana Aseiff" (I'm sorry),
But it was too late, the damage was done

I turned now to the Egyptian boys who seemed quite pleased with themselves,
Scolding them in both Arabic and English,
They had no idea, and questioned me as to why I was angry.

It's terrifying, the lack of reason, the lack of understanding,
The sins of the father, a whole generation.

How far is ignorance allowed to proceed?

And while my explanation may only be a drop in the ocean of frustration, and racism,
I pray that God uses it and the ripples continue.

And who knows, maybe we'll have another game of soccer tomorrow, en sha allah.

Grace, Peace and Blessings,
Brent

1 comment:

The Smith's said...

Great blog today! It was so much fun chatting with you on Skype, we would apologize for keeping you up, but it was more worth it to chat with you.

Miss you!
the Smiths