Learning lessons in Cairo II
My walk to Arabic class takes me through a lively open-air market where I can buy tomatoes, falafel (actually, it’s called tam’iya in Egypt and it’s made from a broad bean, not the chickpea), fish, and string beans any time of the day. The vendors and their wooden boxes fillled with produce creep into the street and make driving through it pretty difficult for the taxis, service trucks, and anyone silly enough, or unlucky enough, to turn down the street.
On Saturday, I turned the corner and began my walk down the market street to find it oddly quiet. There were no vendors in the streets, no wooden boxes, no vegetables, no stands filled with oranges. I noticed that the employees at the shops along the street were hurriedly taking in the goods and produce which sit on the sidewalks to entice folks into their shops.
People on the streets were moving inside and the street was quickly becoming a ghost town.
“What the heck was going on?”
Well, street vendors are illegal in Cairo and occasionally there are crackdowns by the police. Street vendors – illegal? They are everywhere! Apparently the vendors usually just pay bribes to the police to continue business, but when there is a raid, the vendors risk having all their goods confiscated if they are selling on the streets.
Tags: Egypt, Travel, Tag Index
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