CAIRO: Stuck on the 6 of October bridge, with a dead public bus parked to the side in front of us, 40-year old Mahmoud Sabry blamed traffic on the ongoing protests. Having been a taxi driver for over 10 years, Sabry told me that Cairo's deteriorating traffic problem has got him looking for other options to feed his family of 7. With smoke escaping from the window next to him, Sabry complained to me about the increasing number of churches in the country, as he inhaled on his cigarette. “Every time we build a mosque, they want to build a church!” Sabry said with the cigarette peeking out through his thick dark moustache, after asking me whether I was Muslim. Scratching his bald head, Sabry said impatiently, “It's very provocative to see a church being built right in front of a mosque,” adding that the number of Christians in Egypt is too small compared to the amount of churches that keep “popping up.” Miles away, a woman replaced a small dark plastic bag on the metal shelf, as soon as she got on the metro. A few moments later, we hear a dripping sound, and see that the plastic bag on the shelf is now dripping some kind of liquid all over the passenger sitting beneath it. Wearing a blue blouse, the passenger stared at the owner of the bag as if to say, “Do you mind?” Embarrassed as she realized what was happening, the owner of the bag apologized and grabbed the plastic bag, which now instead dripped on the floor of the metro car. Interrupting everybody's unconsciousness watching of the liquid dripping from the woman's bag, a 6-year-old boy selling Band-Aids walked through the aisle. “For a pound, for a pound!” he shouted – his voice so juvenile, but serious. I unfortunately couldn't get past his age, because he was “too busy – working.” BM
