I DIDN'T EVEN ASK HER, HER NAME

by George Njoroge (Kenya)

Making a local connection Egypt

I had just been in 6th October City, Egypt for one week and I was still very much excited about being in a new country and all the exploring and documenting opportunities I would get. All very thrilling. By this time I had familiarized myself with the public bus transportation; microbus that was fairly cheap and efficient and so on the morning of July 2, 2018 I felt confident to go on a blind daytime exploring adventure to Giza district in Cairo by myself before attending to my evening engagement at an area known as Lebanon in Cairo. I got ready, had breakfast and took the Microbus to giza, Cairo. It still hadn't hit me yet when I alighted that I had no idea of where I was and how I would get a microbus to Lebanon area after I was done with my little exploring of Cairo, but I guess when the excitement kicks in, you loose all manner of sense. The excitement started to wear off as I continued to stroll down the old streets as I realized that most of it looked like most of the cities I had been to and I started to think more aggressively about how I would make it to Lebanon. I started asking around for directions to get a microbus but since English isn't spoken widely in Cairo, no one understood me. my pronunciation of Lebanon as I later cam to learn was also wrong. To add to my misery was that my phone had no battery at this time so I couldn't use it to help my situation. This is when I met her, a conservatively dressed, middle aged lady. I remember being so frustrated and on the verge of losing all hope of getting to Lebanon when I approached her to ask for help. I asked if she spoke English and when she said yes, the rush of relief I felt was so divine and present. At first she quickly but also dismissively answered me and told me to give her a few minutes to finish what she was doing. I didn't understand it all, I was confused and also a bit impatient because if she wasn't going to help me I would appreciate decline so that I could continue looking for help. Now when I think about it was just being ill mannered. The sun was scorching hot as I waited at the side of the streets for the lady to be done but when she finally did, I had hope that human beings could be kind and Selfless. She walked me to the train subway station and caught a train with me. Prior to this I had never been on a subway before and I couldn't have appreciated enough the timing of when it was happening. As we conversed, I found out she was a banker and had taken time off so she could get me to get the microbus to Lebanon. When we got out of the subway, she walked with me to the microbus to Lebanon and repeatedly talked to the driver ,reminding him that I needed to alight at Lebanon; of course all this was in Arabic. She had not only taken me through this hand in hand but also insisted to pay for all the transport fare. I was speechless and star-struck, Could a person be that kind and willing to help a stranger? I was so touched by that act of kindness throughout our interaction and all the walking, subway rides and being in an unfamiliar place that I only realized while in the microbus to Lebanon that I didn't even ask her, her name.