That long ride from the Cairo airport to a hotel offers
a microcosm of life in Egypt today. Typically, the driver is a
middle-aged man with a university degree in engineering. He
works at the Ministry of Agriculture in a desk job that pays him
$75 a month, not nearly enough to keep up with rent, food, and
clothing for his wife and five children. With the driving, he can
earn a total of $200 a month. But he is not complaining so much
as he is asking his passenger about where he is from and about
his family. At the start of the ride, the driver may have said that
the fare would be E£5, but by the end of the ride, the visitor
may have to politely decline the driver’s invitation to dine with
him and his family, and the driver has refused to accept any
payment. The visitor already feels very much at home.