Much Ado About Nothing

A watch I put in for repair last week was due to be collected, and I decided to incorporate a photo-wander around Maadi en-route to doing so. Three-quarters of the way there, a nice blue Arabic sign on a crispy white wall presented itself. Being directly opposite a police station, I paused for a moment, unsure as to whether I would attract unwanted attention. 'What could they possibly object to', I thought, and whipped the camera out for the shot.

Oh dear. You should have seen them. Like Pavlov's dogs reacting to the dinner bell, the sight of a camera doesn't half set the police off in the Maadi area of Cairo and today's lot were no exception. To save myself further hassle, I immediately put my camera away and gestured 'sorry'.

Not good enough.

The leader of the pack approached me waving his index finger and repeating "welcome, welcome" whilst pointing to a rusty green door guarded by two armed men. I immediately decided this was not my idea of how I wanted to spend my afternoon, so I said "La shukran" and walked off.

Again, oh dear. You should have heard them. I actually thought I was going to get shot, such was the noise they were making behind me, but I carried on regardless, not really giving a shit.* I was eventually blocked at the other end of the road by another four men, one of whom was polite enough to not shout at me and instead ask me nicely if he could take a look at my pictures. Satisfied that my images posed no threat, and with a warning to 'NOT TAKE PHOTO IN MAADI', I was permitted to continue walking.

After the drama, my camera suddenly felt extremely awkward and uncomfortable - as did I - and so I decided to save the shutter clicking until I reached The Nile where the armed guard/pedestrian ratio is a lot more manageable, providing you can suss out the blind spots.



*Okay okay, I shat myself a little bit.