Everyone, meet Ahmed. Ahmed is the most important man in our building. He is our bowab. Ahmed is married and has 5 kids. He lives in the basement of our building. I can't imagine my life without Ahmed. He runs all the errands that you do not want to. He goes to the vegetable market, the grocery store, the meat market, he pays our phone bills, he gets our newspapers, he takes care of my street cat, he deals with the trash people. Basically....Ahmed keeps my life running smoothly. Not every building has a bowab like Ahmed. Ahmed has been with my husbands family for the past 21 years. You can trust Ahmed with your house keys, money (large amounts), family members and pets. He always takes care of my birds, guinea pig and fish when we go on holiday. When my mother-in-law had heart surgery 3 years ago, she introduced Ahmed as the owner of our building. We are lucky to have him. Most bowabs don't stay that long at buildings, and they do nothing but sit at the door all day. I think one of the major reasons why Ahmed is so awesome is that he is from Upper Egypt. He is decent and loyal compared to some educated Caireenes. Ahmed doesn't read very well, he is like the majority of the poor here, illiterate. Once my sister-in-law caught him outside of the door of our building with my English newspaper in hand. She said he had it open right down the middle and was acting as though he could read it. She said "Mmmmm, next time check the pictures to make sure it is right side up, ya Ahmed." We all got a laugh from that, but illiterate or not, we love Ahmed very much and are happy to consider him a part of our family. Ahmed is also well known in our neighborhood. He knows all the information, tid bits of gossip, breaking news, comings and goings, businesses opening and closing and everything in between. He is primary source of information, the news has nothing on our Ahmed. We always laugh when we talk about moving back to the US.."Ok, but there is no Ahmed in the states!!!" So true.

Until next time,

A Woman of Egypt