Something that I struggle with here is always feeling like you are being cheated just because you are a foreigner. I am slowly starting to realize just how much. Getting in a black and white taxi at the beginning and paying 10LE for a ride and then getting into a white metered taxi and finding out that same ride should have only been 5LE. Getting in a taxi to go to the same place you have been several times before and you know the way but yet the driver thinks you have no clue, so they drive you in circles or way out of the way to run up the meter. Going to a fruit stand where all the numbers are in Arabic and having the guy ask for more money just because he thinks you do not know how much you owe. Eating in at a restaurant, getting your bill, paying and then not getting the right change back. Which by the way they bring you your change with no receipt and somehow you have to convince them that you gave them a 200 LE note and not a 100 LE note. All because your waiter or waitress want to pocket the remainder of what ever they can. Getting a taxi in any tourist area or any major shopping center where you have to get a taxi because you have way too many bags, so they know that they are your only hope of getting home, so they triple the price and refuse to turn on the meter. I have had several drivers leave me on the side of the road because I ask them to turn on the meter.
Where does it end...Oh and did I mention if for some reason a grocery store does not have change they used to pay you in candy or matches but now they just round up and give you no change. It may only be 50 piasters (Which is a half a LE) or so but after a while that adds up and at the end of the day these people are pocketing all that extra money. You also have to check your receipt and make sure you are not being charged for more items than you have (I wish I could count how many times this has happened) I now check my receipt before the person behind me can go. They may get annoyed at me but I am tired of being overcharged! Oh and the museums that are 2 LE for an Egyptian, but 50 LE for a foreigner, come on now I never heard of this going on in my home country. Yes students always got a discount which is why college students try to keep their ID for several years after they graduate but because of where you are from?!
It may not be a huge amount of money for a "foreigner" but when you live here, it adds up fast. I have to constantly be on guard and always watch my back. I had to learn very quickly...Everyone here seems to be out to get whatever they can from you especially if you are a blonde haired blue eyed American. They can spot me from a mile away. I need to learn more Arabic!!!
I do love living here and I want to make my life here for as long as I feel called but some days I get SO frustrated and it can dip in to how I treat people here. I feel myself rude at times because the last person lied or cheated. I try to be Christlike in all that I do here and show Gods love but on some days it is just HARD. I try to remember that not everyone is exactly like the next but here it is very few and far between that you find that honest cab driver, waiter or cashier to wait on you...
Egypt is a great country to live in and if you can get over things like this, life can be good just sometimes a little frustrating.
Kolo tamem!
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