Change

This happened quite some time ago, but I can find no post about it, so ….

I am in a taxi downtown, sitting shotgun.

We are winding our way through Midan Tahrir on our way north. This is one of the larger cluster f*cks traffic wise in this area.

We are dodging buses, mini-buses, micro-buses, other taxis, car, motorcycles, scooters and the occasional intrepid pedestrian.

A taxi pulls up next to us on my side of the car and the driver is holding out a 50LE note and yells “fi fakka?” (got change).

My driver says “ay” (what?). I repeat what the other driver says.

My taxi driver replies that yes he has change.

The other taxi driver hands me the 50LE. We are still driving mind you. We are through the traffic circle and are heading north at this time.

I hand the 50 to my driver. The taxis part like, well, the red sea, to go around some tourists trying to run across the road to the Egyptian Museum.

My taxi driver rummages through his pockets and makes change for the 50. Which he hands to me.

I wave to the taxi driver, he pulls his taxi close and I hand over the change. A chorus of “shokrun” and “ma salema” ensues.

We go our separate ways.

Another ordinary taxi ride in Cairo.