El Andalous - Scorpions

Clear Waters: My Desired Easy and Uncomplicated Life

This blog would be a lot more exciting if I were a more dynamic person. I sit back and put up with things most of the time, since my preference is for an easy and uncomplicated life. Still, I can live the excitement through others.

Apparently, Kathryn and Stephen took a taxi back to El Andalous one day and got ripped off (she was telling the story in the context of our maintenance fees!). Security in our complex is good and all vehicles are logged with their times of entrance and departure. Kathryn went to security to get the taxi driver’s name and subsequently reported him to the tourist police.

The tourist police asked her to come in to confirm the identification of the driver. She was a bit puzzled when she saw him, because he looked like the driver but much fatter and there was no way he could have put on so much weight in such a short space of time. The tourist police laughed and said that the driver had sent his twin brother in instead.

She was then asked what punishment she wanted to give the driver. This is very Egyptian – their justice seems to be based on personal retribution. Naturally, she was bit baffled. The police suggested prison, but this would mean the driver’s wife and children would have no income, so Kathyrn was reluctant. The police said this was a bad man who needed to be punished. She opted for just getting her money back.

A few days later, the driver returned to the police station with the money, all in small 5 LE notes (that’s about 20p) in a huge bundle. Kathryn asked the policeman to check it since she was a bit overwhelmed by it all. He counted it out and it transpired that the driver had brought only half of the money with him and was trying to pass it off as the full amount. The bad people will still continue to try to scam you at all times, even in front of the police when they're bound to get caught. It’s hard to understand the mentality at times.

We were discussing the meeting about our maintenance fees and those present at the meeting appeared to believe that the management company would happily put concrete in our swimming pools if we refused to pay our maintenance on the basis that it hadn’t been done properly, even though filling the pools with concrete would destroy their own property and reputation and do themselves more harm than good in the process. I said this didn’t make sense.

Kathryn gave the story of the frog and the scorpion. The scorpion asks the frog to carry it over the Nile. The frog refuses, saying that the scorpion will sting him. The scorpion replies “Why would I do that? If I sting you, you die, and then I’d die too.” The frog thinks that this makes sense and agrees to take the scorpion across the river. Half way across, the frog feels a sting. In his dying breath, he says “Why did you do that? Now we’ll both die!”. The scorpion shrugs and says “That’s just my nature. I’m a scorpion.” And that’s what it can be like over here.

I would like to stress that there are many, many lovely Egyptians. I love the people, I love being in Egypt, and they’d give you anything if you are in need. You just need to watch out for the scorpions.