A home away from home

I wander through the streets of Cairo and I see this animated city full of life with so many people who come from different backgrounds and mentalities. I am walking with caution cause I look different and I know it but I feel like am at the heart of my own culture….i love the smell of spices in the market. Al Hussein is sacred, it is holy it is special..it is egypt…just like the nile it runs through my blood…real Egyptians are found there with their spirit and values or principles that no longer exist…I continue walking holding my camera taking as many photographs to capture a reality that is now forgotten the heritage and story of a people…my people…the Egyptian people….with their kindness and humor with their respect for differences with their hearts as pure as gold….I know am one of them but we somehow drifted apart….but in the deepest part of my heart I know for sure this is where I belong…on al fishawy…or at the barkouk mosque or just talking to the woman or boy selling parying beads…this is my home…where I find myself most at peace….I went into a shop to buy a sebha…one of these famous ones with the smell of anbar or 3oud…they re simply amazing…I love them….they give me the feeling of depth…and the smell arouses all my senses of belonging to this place. Then reality hits these boy come closer and closer…they look scary and real vagabonds. They start talking to me and wont leave me alone….i start running like mad to my car out of fear of what will happen next…this is when I know for sure I don’t belong..to every part of this beautiful market and area of Cairo…I am just like the foreigners walking in the market…am not like the locals….am also subject to intimidation cause am different…am not like the woman in the black galabeya…the big me3alema who no one would even dare look at her cause they d be eaten alive…or even the girls from the manteka whose brothers or family would kill any man who dares to glimpse at them…...the khan with all its beauties, its depth and clarity…it is a home away from home when I wanna feel more in touch with my culture but that’s where it stops…this is the truthJ