Motorcycle Diaries

Day 21 June 11 – Motorcycle Diaries

So I have been living out of my backpack for the last 12 days, I left my suitcase at Abassa. I brought clothes, books, and some accessories with me. The books I brought in my backpack were The Sun Also Rises, Riding With the Blue Moth, and Heart of Darkness. I started Heart of Darkness, quickly got bored with it, then read the first ten pages of The Sun Also Rises and they sucked. So then I read Riding With the Blue Moth, which was amazing, and now I,m bored because the only other two books I have are awful. I know, someone is reading this saying, well you only read the beginning of those classic books, they will get better. Well no, if a book sucks in the beginning I will assume It’s going to suck in the end. All of my favorite books are good from page 1; that is one aspect of what makes them such good books.

So today was another day when I wake up and find the house empty. It turns out that Dr. Ishmail left really early in the morning to drive over the Suez Canal to Sinai with a load of fingerlings. Because Dr. Ishmail was gone until the afternoon, I worked with the third in charge, Ahmed Faruqe. We did lots of everyday work, feeding fish and checking on the other workers’ progress. Then I helped him do his English homework, I am always amazed how driven people are to learn English. Helping someone learn English makes me realize how bad my own English is. Cuz and K (because and ok) are not real words, at least by Scrabble rules.

When Dr. Ishmail came back he reminded me that I was leaving tomorrow! I have not been keeping track of what day it is very well, the plans are made around me but I’m usually lost. Well I had mentioned before that I wanted to do a BBQ for Dr. Ishmail and the workers to show my thanks. So I talked to Ahmed about it and he offered to drive me into the nearest town to get the supplies. I agreed and we got onto the motorcycle just after dark.

On a side note: Some of the workers own their own motorcycles at the farm. They are used to both drive to work and to shuttle between the two farms, which are 1/3 mile apart. I have often ridden on the back of the motorcycles between the two farms. The motorcycles are usually 150cc bikes with a top speed of about 60mph.

Well I’m just going to apologize to my mother now because she will not like this next part at all. So we head off, or course without helmets because this is Egypt. Sunset is the time mosquitoes come out, mosquitoes are attracted to light, so we ride without the lights on…. Now remember Egypt is a third world country, they don’t have nice roads, but they do have random speed bumps. So we are driving 50mph down a dark and broken road without helmets or headlights. I have having more fun than I can describe because what I was doing was so wonderfully ridiculous. Well the ride was lots of fun and we quickly arrived in a small city named El Hamol.

I quickly realized El Hamol was not a tourist destination by the amazed stares of little kids and adults alike. This is not the first time I have been the target of stares because I’m white but it always surprises me. Well Ahmed showed me around town and we got soda, steak, and spices. The steak defiantly wasn’t USDA triple A choice prime rib, but I am pretty sure it came from a cow…

The ride back was lots of fun, I really want a motorcycle. Sorry Mom. At least I said no when he offered to let me drive…