More about Egypt

The cars have no restrictions as to how many people can get in. We (a family of eight) pile into a taxi made for five people including the driver. That’s nine people in one car. In some buses the only way to get more people on is to put them on the roof. I have not seen that yet but continue to be surprised everyday. Before the buses are even stopped people will start getting out. The bus will start moving if someone is only halfway in. Oh, and the buses will stop to let people on and off in the middle of a busy roundabout. The roundabouts go both directions. People will stop in the roundabout and put their car in reverse while still in the middle of the roundabout. The taxi drivers are friendly and want to chat even though we can’t understand them and they can’t understand us, they try and so do we. A ten minute taxi ride will cost about ten pounds or two American dollars. We have seen people pushing car quite a few times. We have even seen men pushing a bus. At night the locals do not drive with their headlights on. There is constant honking. Not the long honk we hear in the US but quick short ‘get out of my way before I run you over’ beeps. Men hold hands with other men and men will link arms with other men. I had never seen that in public before. There are water coolers with one cup on top. You are supposed to use the cup to take a drink and put the cup back for the next person to use. Needless to say, we have yet to drink from any of those cups. The sidewalks start and end with no rhyme or reason so we have to walk on the street a lot. The cars will get uncomfortably close, uncomfortable at first anyways. Crossing the street is really just a game of chicken. We have to hold on to the children very tightly while we cross the street.