the shoe thief

Like many of you who have traveled I've learned to always pack enough clothing and such in my carry-on to survive an n number of days, if my checked luggage gets misdirected. This time I only had to last 4 days thanks to the generous people in the Cairo airport. I knew from the moment I got off the plane for my transfer flight that my checked bag wouldn't make the flight. What tipped me off? The large inefficiencies, the lack of a help desk, the confused employees, and finally the man that wrote my baggage claim number down so he could put it on my flight, yet didn't write down any flight info. My baggage became just one of a dozen numbers on his sheet with no destination. Four days though, no problem, as far as clothing goes. However, I only had the shoes on my feet since I packed my running and dress shoes in my checked bag. Minor annoyance since I had to work, and wanted to run during that time but my Sanak (*sandals not a shoe) managed to cloth my feet just fine.

This morning as I rushed out the door, looking business stylish except for my footware, I find my bag made it from Cairo. Excited to no longer feel self conscious about casual footware in a business setting I grab my bag open the zippered compartment to find nothing. A thief decided to co-opt my shoes into their wardrobe. At what point did they pull their fast stunt? In Cairo? In Sana'a? Somewhere in between? Only they know. I just laughed out loud and still smile as I think of the 3+ year old pair of shoes with holes in the soles that only looked good because I polished them right before my trip. I've been meaning to buy new shoes and throw the old ones out for 6 months...fate (and my friend) dictated the time is now. I hope my shoe thief is the most stylish man on his Cairo or Sana'a block and gets some mad props as a result of his newly aquired footware.