Citizens Lives – Everyday Interactions

My favorite part of being in Cairo has been interacting with the locals and watching them interact with each other. It is so fascinating to see how people live, how they talk to each other, their verbal and non-verbal languages, the social and cultural courtesies and everything else the results from human interaction. Some of my favorite experiences are the ones that are least desirable, but they are part of life and I liked see each in its environment.
Orphan Boy: The first I saw while in the Khan al-Khalili the other night around 9 o'clock. I was walking up the stairs of an overpass that crossed a very busy 4 lane road where traffic actually sped by. Along the overpass were a number of street vendors selling their various scarves, clothing, and tourist trinkets. As I walked by I noticed a young boy probably only 8 or 9 scamper by as he looked back. About that same time one of the vendors reached out and grabbed him by the shirt and started yelling at him. The boy looked at him and in a very defiant voice, that comes from having to experience more of life's realities and cruelties than one should at that age, told the man off. The man continued shouting at him and then backhanded the boy. I was surprised by it all because I had yet to see anybody get physically violent. I know it happens but most of the arguments I have seen were restricted to a lot of yelling and cursing but very little physical interaction. It must have hurt bad, I thought so based on the boys age, the mans age, the sound it made when he was hit, and the immediate change in the boys tone. It went from the overly confident, adamantly defiant tone of a teenager to that of a helpless child. He whimpered and spoke some more and by this time I was out of earshot and had started down the other side. It had barely reached the bottom of the other side of the overpass when I noticed the boy run past in a hurry to get far away from the situation. I don't know exactly what happened but from what I observed and the little I understood I think the boy attempted to steal from the vendor but was caught. Because he hadn't actually stolen anything the boy didn't think there was a problem, so he responded defiantly and the vendor decided to punish him for his attempt both physically and verbally. Imagining the things I went through as a kid when I got into trouble I can't really image how that boy must have felt except scared and wanting to get as far away from that place as possible and hopefully to a place much safer. Sadly enough I don't know if the boy even has a safe place to go. Perhaps he might have a physical place where he can be safe, perhaps not, but either way if he doesn't have the ability to secure the necessities of life then no place is secure for long, and no physical shelter is enough when there isn't food or water available. It is amazing how the importance to which you place on something drastically changes when your circumstances change, or when your perspective changes.