Repairmen

I’ve been a little hesitant to post pictures of my new flat, not that I don’t love it, but certain parts of the walls of my kitchen, bathroom and bedroom have been looking like this:
It's not that I'm exactly ashamed; I just didn’t want anyone to worry about me living in some trashy, run-down flat in the middle of Cairo. Besides, my landlady and her husband promised to have it fixed.

I’ve been waiting for that fix for almost a month and tonight, finally, we scheduled an appointment for the repairman to come. My landlady called and said that her husband would come over while the repairman was here to take care of anything. He arrived at my apartment about fifteen minutes late (which is quite on time by Egyptian standards!) and began looking for the repairman. It wasn’t long before the repairman arrived and walked in my front door, followed by two other repairmen. Apparently the job didn’t just require a repairMAN but actually needed three repairMEN.

They greeted my landlady’s husband in Arabic, completely ignoring me, and walked straight into my bathroom, speaking the whole time in rapid Arabic. I felt invisible. There was clearly a lot to talk about and before long, my shower curtain had been taken down and a man was walking out of the bathroom with a confused look on his face and an armful of American toiletries. Soon the other two were behind him, also with handfuls of bottles and tubes. I wondered what they must be thinking about American women and the effort we take to get ready in the mornings. The comedy continued as two of the men left for a trip to the hardware store (at least that’s where I assume they went; they haven’t returned yet) and I was left to help the other two prepare for the work. By “help”, I mean try to figure out what they were asking me for and then attempt to provide it. Quickly I learned the words for “plastic”, “hammer” and “ladder” (even though I only had the first two). Now I’m sitting here while the men stand outside chain-smoking cigarettes until the other two return from their errand.

Once they finish their work (whenever that may be, since it’s already almost 8:00 p.m. and they still haven't started!), I’ll take some more pictures so I can show off the finished product.