After yet another great Arabic lesson with our Arabic teacher, Ashgan (who seemed to have a problem this evening where every time she laughed, she tooted... we learned the word for fart in arabic is "geez" (like keys)), Lori and I caught a taxi to take us back to Maadi - the usual Wednesday evening routine. The taxi driver started speaking to us as soon as we got in, which can be a bad sign of a long drive... usually it starts with "what's your name? where you from? are you married? ... what's your number?...why won't you give me your number? I want you be my friend" and the ride is incredibly awkward from there. This driver, Hani, redeemed my trust in Taxi drivers. The 3 of us talked the whole way about his 2 month old daughter, his 16 year old wife (he was 28), how Egyptian women are no good after they turn 20 because their hair falls out, where he lives in Nasr City, how he has 2 cars that he drives - the taxi he was in that he borrows from another guy for 70 pounds a day (he was appologizing that it was a bad car. it seemed like a nice taxi to me! good taxi bling too, 3 fuzzy stuffed hearts hanging from the front window that said "I love" on them). His other car is a nicer car that he goes to pick up people from the airport in. He showed us a picture of his daughter and talked about her with a HUGE smile on his face. His daughter was the chubbiest Egyptian baby I have ever seen! so cute... He explained a typical day for him and kept going back to when he gets to see his daughter - once again, the smile returning to his face.
The only sketchy part was that he kept making the sign of slicing one's neck by drawing his fingers across his throat with the "kkkhhhhhhh" sound, especially when he said "I'm a bad driver" and "It's very dark here", "there are no police around in this area" and once again did the "kkkkhhhhhh"... lori and I laughed nervously.
Other than that, it was one of the most pleasant 45 min cab rides ever. thanks hani!