The Great Flower Adventure, Egyptian-style

After 2 weeks of being in Egypt, the flowers that graced our apartment when we first arrived had now sufficiently faded and found their way into our trash can.  The table looked a bit bare, so I started bugging Gary to buy me a new bouquet on one of his adventures around town. Each day, Gary has explored more and more of the city, first by walking, then by tram, and most recently, by the brand new bike he bought.  Today when I arrived home, I was pleased to find a dozen or so roses on the table, but not as pleased to realize that he had cut about 10 inches off of the stems.  However, I had not realized what he had gone through to get these flowers - so I feel like a bit of a heel for complaining that he had cut them too short!

If you are not from Egypt and do not speak Arabic, well, buying flowers is not quite like calling up your local ftd florist.  It can be an adventure, as Gary soon learned.

Here is the story he related:

Around 8:00am, after packing his backpack with water and his phone, he headed off on his bike for the Montaza Gardens. He had taken his time and stayed downtown through lunch, and was therefore out during the hottest part of the day. The temperature was well over 90 degrees F.  By the time he headed home, he had biked about 18 miles and was very hot and tired.  On his way home, he remembered that he had told me that he would get me flowers. He had found a place just a block from our apartment that sold plants, so he figured he would stop there.  When the shop owner approached, Gary asked for flowers.  The owner, speaking no English, kept talking back to Gary in Arabic - and Gary started using hand signs to describe to him that he wanted some cut flowers. At long last, the owner said a long sentence in Arabic where Gary recognized the word "bouquet".  Quite excited, Gary nodded and said "Yes, Bouquet!"  The man then said "One minute" and left to talk to another man.  Gary assumed he would send the man somewhere to cut some flowers from a tree or something to make a bit of money.  The other man was talking on his cell phone, walking around.  Eventually, that man picked up a cactus and gestured for Gary to follow him.  So, Gary followed him across the street, pushing his bike.  After about 3-4 blocks, the man said, "One minute" and pointed at the ground and then pointed that he needed to go a different way.  The next thing Gary knew, the man came up beside him in a Tuk-tuk and gestured to "follow me".  So, Gary got on his bike, with his backpack in his hand, and started chasing a tuk-tuk down the very busy, uneven, Egyptian road, having no idea where this man was taking him or why he was following some random stranger who had just bought a cactus.  Eventually, the man stopped at a store, where he told Gary "one minute" as he walked over to a waiting customer and handed her the cactus.  He then asked Gary, in English, "How much?"  Gary said 25 pounds (which is the equivalent of $2.50 US.  Yah, he likes me that much! lol)  He then asked, in English "Colors?" to which Gary said, "All of them".   The man then started pulling flowers out and handing them to his son.  His son was then carefully wrapping them.  Gary then gave the man a 50 pound note, but he seemed very confused because you almost always have to give exact change when purchasing things.  He then walked over to the woman who had bought the cactus and she started to dig through her wallet.  She found a 20 pound note and he gave that to Gary while she was looking for more change.  Wanting to give the poor guy a tip for his trouble, Gary just waved his hand and said his only Arabic word he knows "Shokran" (thank-you) and left.  He then carried the flowers home on his bike, one handed, through the maze of rubbish, cars, street cats and dogs, tuk-tuks, walkers, potholes, and rocks - nearly hitting a car himself.  By the time he reached home, he was drenched with sweat and exhausted.  And that was the end of his Great Flower Adventure.  Mission Accomplished!