The Lonely Planet Finally Coming Through in the Clutch

While waiting for my one of my roommates to get ready for work this morning, I was perusing the pages of the Lonely Planet Middle East book looking for the glossy picture pages. None of the other material interested me, except for one particular black and white picture on a random page.

At first I was oblivious to what I was looking at. But upon closer inspection I realized that the man in the picture was a bowwab (door man) from my street. And, incidentally, one of the people I say hi to and shake hands with every morning. He's one of my favourite people in Egypt. Needless to say I was shocked. What are the chances that the one Egyptian Arab shown in the Lonely Planet is someone I know quite well?

When I showed him the picture he showed about ten emotions all at once...bewilderment, shock, awe, amazement, disbelief, bliss. I know that's not ten, but I've run out of synonyms. In any case, I'm pretty sure it made his year.

All that's left now is for Luke, Chris, and I to have a little photoshoot in the neighbour sporting our galabeyas.