…yes, you read that right 🙂 

That Little Blue “Piece of Paper”

Here’s some heartfelt advice from your resident foreign belly dancer living in Egypt. Never carry condoms on you or anywhere near you while traveling in Egypt. Never. Same goes for tampons.  Most Egyptians don’t know what they are, and when their curiosity gets the better of them, things can get a bit… uncomfortable.

It just so happened that while I was returning to Cairo one night after a show in the Red Sea area, the security check-point officers decided they would stop our car and search our bags. The three guys who were with me—the DJ, the whirling dervish, and the driver—stepped out of the car for the officers to frisk them. I, being the only woman, was ordered to stay inside until the search was over. As I sat there, I could feel the car bounce as the officers opened the trunk and rummaged through our bags. And then, one by one, the guys climbed back into the vehicle, each with a look of embarrassed humiliation on his face. 

“What’s wrong? Did the officers find anything they weren’t supposed to?” I asked them as we drove away. “I’m not sure,” Mahmoud, the 20-old DJ replied. “They took something from your bag.” “What? They stole something? My jewelry?” I asked.  “No, they took a little blue piece of paper with writing on it,” he said. “Huh? What little blue piece of paper?” I wondered if it was a supermarket receipt. But why would they take that? “I don’t know what it was,” Mahmoud said, “but the officer said it was very bad and that he could have arrested us” After thinking about it for a while, I realized that the little blue piece of “paper” Mahmoud was referring to was a condom!

Now, I had no recollection whatsoever of any condoms in my belly dance suitcase (it’s not like I need them for work or anything!), nor was I about to explain to three young Egyptian men what that little blue “piece of paper” was. Instead, I remained silent for the rest of the two-hour ride, musing over what those officers must have thought when they found that condom in a car that contained three Egyptian males and one foreign female wearing way too much makeup. So that’s why Mahmoud said the officers contemplated arresting us…they probably thought I was a prostitute and that the guys were my customers. Typical. 

“So why did they let us go?” I asked Mahmoud at the end of the trip. “Because you’re American,” he answered. “What does that mean?” I asked. “The officers were ready to arrest us until I told them you are American. In Egypt, Americans are above the law.” “That’s not really true,” I rebutted, admittedly only half convinced. Mahmoud went on explaining how Egyptian citizens and authorities are afraid of messing with Americans and generally avoid upsetting them at all costs. Maybe we have former President Bush to thank for that?

Well then, I can’t argue with that now, can I?