Football in the Desert

Only in Egypt do you have to drive for an hour just to play soccer on a red clay field. Only in Egypt are your lungs reduced into fits of convulsion after running around for an hour.

Some Aussies, Egyptians, a Brit, and a Mexican joined me in playing a game of soccer (football) last night. We drove all the way out to a place called 6th of October City…Cairo’s new bedroom community. One side of the boulevard was lined with apartment buildings, while the other was desert. A 100 metres in was a well-lit area featuring fake-turf, dirt, and red clay soccer fields.

After about 15 minutes of running around at top speed, I was sucking wind furiously. Maybe it was the cool desert air, maybe it was the one-a-week shisha, maybe it was my complete lack of fitness. In any case, the pain was well worth it. Too bad our hodgepodge international team lost to the homogenous Egyptian side. I think we’ll get ‘em the next time, though.