A group of Egyptian construction workers in the crowded Paris metro
Today, line 7 of the Paris metro was worse than usual. There was a technical problem and the metro was unbelievably full, to the extent that I couldn't even get on the carriage. Finally, a group of men who looked potentially North African made way for me and I could get in.
Then the unthinkable happened, one of those men made way in order to let me lean on the foldable seat. I told him I wasn't going to be there for many stops so he should keep his place. I said this in French and he didn't seem to understand. I decided to take a closer look at this person with exceptional manners. His hands looked worn, calloused and were covered in white dust and plaster. I deduced he was a construction worker, a job often occupied by undocumented Egyptians. He also had a Zebiba or a brown mark on the forehead that comes from praying on a rough carpet. I decided to take a leap of faith, and say something that would either be spot on or make me look extremely presumptuous and stupid:
-You're Egyptian, from the Delta region, and you have newly arrived to Paris without living in Cairo right? Where from the Delta are you?
My polite friend looked rooted to the spot, I suppose extremely surprised, meanwhile, his friends started laughing and saying that I was مرفوع مني الحجاب, i.e. that I had supernatural powers.
-I'm from El Mahalla El Kobra, Ostaza, and this is my second month here.
He said this and looked down to the ground, keeping an appropriate distance between us, in a demonstration of extreme old school Egyptian politeness that one only sees in rural areas nowadays.
The metro started and one of his friends said:
-Well it's about as bad as back home, I wonder what bought us here in.
-I think you're forgetting that when the metro gets crowded in Egypt, the whole carriage rocks from side to side and people push and pull you, I said. People in Egypt are no longer as polite and kind as they were.
At this my new friend said:
-It's because of poverty, how do you want us to be nice when we are barely surviving ? I work in construction and in Egypt I work all day and can't make a penny.
Another man interjected, an older Egyptian man whose demeanor clearly showed he had been here much longer:
-No, no, no. It's us Egyptians, we no longer want to work. We don't want to do anything. I've been here 30 years and I built a life for myself. Back home in my village, we all wanted to eat but we no longer knew how to feed ourselves. We wanted butter, we wanted cream, we wanted milk but you couldn't find a single cow anymore. The only cows left are the people. We're farmers but we no longer plant. We just want to sit at the coffee shop and talk about politics, but we don't know the first thing about these subjects, and if we just got to work we would be just fine.
Of course this man was completely out of touch, except with regards to the disappearance of agricultural land and traditional skills. However, my new friend, in a display of perfect Egyptian etiquette, inclined his head and didn't answer because he was afraid to contradict an older person.
