How many camels? • Frank Morin

If you’re feeling down about your appearance just head to Egypt. The boys and men there love to flatter every woman they see. Several of them (who were trying to sell us stuff) would say “you lovely” or call me milady as we talked. I don’t know if they just like women with blue eyes or what, but even though my body is far from perfect, by the time I got back from Egypt I felt beautiful.

One time, on the Nile cruise we took, we were docked quite close to shore. It was night, and a group of Egyptian men and boys were gathered on the dock. As we approached the bow of the ship, I thought, I wonder if they are going to try and sell us something? Well, I shouldn’t have wondered, because the Egyptian will always try, even if the boat is 20 foot leap from the dock.

One of them held up a black galabiah robe, with lovely gold sparkly beads. When we said no repeatedly to his sales pitch and laughed he said; ‘you lovely!’ and asked Frank, ‘how many camels?’ We laughed again. I have to say, I’ve been a lot of places and seen a lot of sales ploys from street vendors, but I have never heard that one.

Later on in the week, another guy at the Cairo market asked Frank How many camels? Too many for you, my friend. Considering a camel goes for 25,000 Egyptian pounds, which is about 3,500 in US dollars, that really does make a girl feel good.

The second surprising encounter: at Queen Hatshepsut’s funerary temple, Frank had stepped away for a minute to take a picture of the front of the monument. I rested in the shade, and a teenage boy asked me for a picture. He posed with me. Then two more of his friends asked for one, and other kids started asking. Pretty soon, I was surrounded by Egyptian teenage boys all wanting a picture with me. It was so crowded they started blocking the narrow passage into the court of Hatshepsut’s monument. When I realized that was happening, I tried to put a stop to it. I have never been so relieved to see Frank coming around the corner. He helped me fend them off. For a minute there, I felt like a movie star. I didn’t like it, not being one who likes to be in the spotlight. (Later, one of the same boys tried to get a second picture with me! I told him: ‘You already got a picture!’ and walked on.) Even though they were pushy, I have to add that all of them were very careful not to touch me. So in that way, they were respectful.

At that same monument, we spotted a group of Egyptian scouts, with white shirts and purple neckerchiefs. Very polite, not pushy. Frank talked with them and told them he is a scoutmaster. I willingly posed for a picture with them, and we tried to get a shot of both of us; but the camera had turned off and we were still in the narrow passage slowing down traffic, so we called it good.

The girls were not very interested in pictures, but some of them let me take their picture, as you see.