BY MILT THOMAS

EDITOR’S NOTE: InsideVero Contributing Editor, Milt Thomas, is traveling in the Middle East, and will be corresponding with our readers as he journeys to Egypt to the United Arib Emirates.

CAIRO –  We arrived an in Cairo and hour and a half early, at 11am.  On the plane, I met Tariq el Layeb. He is US citizen from Sudan who lives in Greensboro, N.C., and works for US Post Office. He is coming to Egypt to get married. His fiancé is coming up from Sudan.  Tarig will be in Egypt for a month, and will going on to visit in the Sudan a few weeks, before returning to US. I invited him to our cabin in western N.C. next summer. He is a laid back, serious type but all smiles when I did little things for him, helped put his luggage up, passed his food to him.

Ashraf met me, took care of my luggage.  The airport was quiet, not crowded like the plane. Waleed called, will see me between 7:30 and 8 for dinner. Asked if I want pizza, I said no, Egyptian food, would prefer pigeon.

Went out with Ashraf to car, Magdy driving. We went to la passage; Ashraf took care of checking me in and leaving Hamdy’s bags with porter. Porter took me to room, then I came back and we went for breakfast.

Waleed had recommended a roadside café called Hamada Sheraton, which has nothing to do with the Sheraton. Crowded, all tables outdoors, warm sunny day, around 70 degrees, residential area, all high rises, shops in first floors. Place was a bit dirty from discarded papers, table not clean. It’s a take-out place, meals served in tin bowls. Egyptian version of falafel called Tamiya, shoestring fried potatoes, large rounds size of personal pizza, wheat fresh, doughy, strips of eggplant in peppery tomato sauce and salad swimming in oil and vinegar and pepper. Tear off pieces of bread to dip and scoop the fool, which is stewed fava beans and spices, not unlike refried beans – and bottled water. Then we walked a block to a coffee shop where we had tea with mint and smoked the sheesha. It’s a local place and they don’t offer the flavored tourist tobaccos, instead they have saloum, a stronger tobacco but filtered through the water just the same.

We talked about politics. Magdy is the manager of a tour operator and Ashraf his employee. Business has been poor since the first revolts against Mubarak, again supporting the reason the plane was half full. Although I have to say it was quite comfortable without someone in the middle seat, fast service and no problem waiting in line for bathroom.  Magdy is married to the daughter of Hamdy’s older brother Abdul Azim, whose wife died just after my last visit from cancer. Nahla, his wife, is much better now. Omar, their son is now 16. He was a lot easier to raise when he was young, but changed when he became a teenager.

Magdy is able to make enough of a living to support his family but they have to watch the budget with business so slow. It’s a struggle for most people except the wealthy with high unemployment and uncertainty about what will happen, but whatever happens with the government, people just continue to live their normal lives as best they can. Traffic is still horrific in Cairo, roadside stands and cheap restaurants doing decent business. We passed a roadside fool vendor, one of many in Cairo as this is the poor people’s staple. A bowl of fool and bread is enough to sustain them during the workday.

After tea and sheesha we headed back to my hotel, they dropped me off at 2, now I’ll relax until Waleed comes for dinner. Tomorrow, Hamdy comes in and they will pick me up at the hotel at 10.

Room is typical airport hotel. Small room but big flat screen television, plenty of stations including CNN, BBC, US television shows and movies with Arabic subtitles, French, Italian, Spanish, German stations.

By the way, as I got on EgyptAir plane I greeted them with Sabah el kehr and when a flight attendant accidently bumped into me I said “mafeesh mushkayla,” which means, “no problem.” From then on they only addressed me in Arabic. I was also the only non-Egyptian on the plane other than the fellow I sat next to.

I went to the lobby for a beer and to wait for Waleed. Had Sakkara beer, relatively new, owned by Heineken’s.  Waleed had said he would be there between 7:30-8. He came at 6:45. We sat for a while, and then walked over to a nearby mall and the Kenoz Restaurant. Upscale but nearly empty. Had buffalo shank soup, which was broth and three pieces of beef, two of which were fatty gristle. Also had tahini, which was very soupy and picked olives and lemons a particularly tart condiment with a distinctive Middle Eastern flavor. Entrée was stuffed pigeon, rice and onions, French fries on the side. It was messy because you pick up the pigeon at both ends and eat from the middle. Also ate head, which is crunchy but not overly so.

After dinner I had sheesha. We talked music. He loves Led Zeppelin, pink Floyd and Black Sabbath, looked at some YouTube sets along with early Pink Floyd featuring Syd Barrett.   I had mint tea, then hot chocolate. He paid for meal and we walked back to hotel. He has to see a cousin who has to have nerves reattached to his hand from an accident a month ago, and is decisiding on the U.S., France, or Germany for surgery.