Our Bawab Muhammad
The relative peace of the last few days entering and leaving our apartment has left me with a feeling that something has been missing. I haven’t been engaged in any lengthy conversations in which nothing is intelligibly communicated, or been yelled at, or hugged and embraced, or entered or departed having been forced to consider the life of one who’s work consists of being a apartment building doorman (called a bawab here in Egypt), making less than two hundred pounds a month (roughly forty dollars). This feeling comes from the fact that Muhammad, the bawab of our apartment building, left several days ago and said that he would not be returning, or at least so far as I could gather. He informed us that he was going to Uswaan, what we understood to be for the very sad and unfortunate reason that his father was either very sick or had passed away.
While the character and personality of our former bawab (who was far more eccentric and also seemingly had more than his share of problems than the average bawab) was certainly unique to most bawabs here in Egypt, his plight was alike to most of them. The sad reality that there are presumably thousands of people employed in Cairo as bawabs who’s job consists of watching a door all day and night and performing some basic duties (like trash disposal etc.) for almost no pay at all is a testament to how bad the economic situation here is in Cairo. It’s difficult not to reiterate how inefficient and stagnant Cairo really is. The most cost efficient thing to do as the owner of a rented property is to hire a bawab for almost no pay to safeguard your property. And I realize this work employs many people here which is certainly better than having more people unemployed and on the street (though does spending your nights sleeping in a chair outside a building really count as being “off the street”?) it certainly does not lend itself useful for societal progression, and if anything moves a society in the opposite direction.
Another reality it seems is that Cairo really just isn’t made equipped to handle so many people. The infrastructure is far from being good enough, and the word efficiency is one I don’t think I could ever bring myself to use when speaking about Cairo. But at the same time I’ve found myself warming to the city and all the positive things it has to offer, which just makes it even gloomier to think about the path the city may be headed on if it continues as it seems to be right now. All I can say for now is I hope the best for it, and I further wish all the best to our former bawab Muhammad, who in a weird way I’m going to miss. He may have caused me many a time to think twice about leaving my apartment when he might be there to hound me, or how painfully drudging a conversation with no understanding of another could be, but he got me to think every single time I saw him, and I never left an interaction without trying to understand why he may have said or acted as he did. So Muhammad, I wish you all the best wherever you are, and if you do come back before the end our stay, I know I owe you a pair of pants.