A Different Drummer

It is awesome to be home. Something that I said to a few of the Egyptians in April when I was here - everyone in the world is blessed to have a home and family. Having a place called home is probably at the top of most peoples lists of things to be thankful for and treasure. People who do not have a home, or cannot go back to their home for whatever reason, spend their whole lifetime longing for it.

And the most amazing thing about travel for me, what beats all the sightseeing and photos and wonderful food and new discoveries - is that sometimes, if you are lucky, you can find a second home. Another place where you feel happy to be alive, safe, among great friends, home....And that is what Egypt is to me. It will never feel like my beautiful house in the countryside in Australia, or anywhere in Australia for that matter, but it will be a place where I will breathe a heavy sigh of joy and relief everytime I arrive....

Anyhow enough of the soppy stuff. Whats happening? Well first, I need to readjust again to a few aspects of Egyptian life that I have totally forgotten about. In particular:

Letting go of the fear of death while driving: any foreigner who has lived in Egypt knows what I'm on about here. Egyptians drive in a way that appears to be, well, how do you say this, fucking insane. Cairo traffic is like something from a video game, the hardest, most insane video game in the world. Basically, everyone drives everywhere, all the time. Cars seem to miss each other, and pedestrians, and donkey carts, and buses, by fractions of an inch every time they pass. The kind of incident that I would classify as a near catastrophe and spend the next day telling all my friends about in Australia is what Egyptians consider to be called "changing lanes". Well, they would call it that. If there was lanes. Or if they were in a lane to change from in the first place.

Anyhow, regardless of the insanity, the is an underlying method and rhythym to the madness. Traffic actually flows pretty smoothly for a city this huge, and everyone drives with a common, albeit crazy, understanding of how things work. It all just works, and the actual physical danger is smaller than most places, because you are never doing more than about 40km/h, which isnt really fast enough to do much serious damage. Although, this may be balanced out by the fact that you are ALWAYS doing 40km/h in Cairo, including while reverse parallel parking, reversing down traffic jammed one way streets, waiting at traffic lights, and going through the drive through window at the shawerma stand.....

After a few months here last time, I had learnt the valuable skill of placing you fate in the hands of the Great Magnet, abandoning all fear and apprehension, and just chilling out while in the passenger seat. I could sit with zen-like calm, staring blankly straight ahead with a blissful smile on my face, silently reciting peace mantras, even while it appeared that we were just miliseconds away from totally annihilating bunches of dudes 50 at a time. Somewhere along the way in the past year though, I have become all soft and pathetic and Euro styling, and I can no longer do it. I was freaking out every ten seconds in the cars yesterday, from the drive back from the airport, all the way until the inevitable 2am drives between different cafes, houses, streets etc. I need to regain my Cairo traffic-zen, fast.

More soon.....