Home sweet home

Its funny how it hasn't taken long for me to think of Oman as home. Being in India in then staying in Cairo really made me appreciate where I live. They are both dirty places. People have zero interest in being good stewards. I did see some funny things, like two kids riding a running donkey through the streets...I doubt I would've found it funny if the donkey was walking or trotting, but these kids were in a hurry.

So yesterday the Oil Minister of Egypt made an appearance at the oil show. My understanding is this guy is like a rockstar. I couldn't begin to tell you how many cameras and video cameras surrounded this guy. Not to mention his 5-8 personal security guards keeping a perimeter on him at all times. I've never experienced people in that kind of frenzy over another person before. It was odd, especially being someone I've never heard of before. I imagine he's very wealthy and that alone is worthy of a following in the middle east. Like I've previously referenced the folks here are way more caught up in the appearance of status and wealth. And people really do treat one and other to how they outwardly appear. It's pretty sad and the saying "you can tell a lot about a person by where they spend their time and money" seems to hold true in this region of the world as well as the States.

The last story I must document is my little encounter with a $5 dollar cup of coffee. Apparently, if you buy anything from the hotels it's crazy expensive, otherwise Cairo is pretty cheap. So I was in desperate need of some coffe/caffeine so I ventured to the lobby of the hotel where this show was. I asked for a to go cup of coffee and was given this dinky, supposively 8oz to go cup. Well I give they guy my credit card only after trying to explain to him my I wasn't staying at this particular hotel and therefore did not have a hotel #, there were serious communication issues with this particular individual. So he goes across the room for like 10 minutes and I'm watching as he and three others are trying to run my card (its a company credit card). I can see him swiping the card multiple times...and I'm thinking great, I don't have enough egyptian cash and they obviously have no clue how to use their credit card machine. So he comes back and says its declined...I laughed and replied, "really?" but I wanted to call this guy a moron for not knowing how to swipe a card and plug in the correct numbers. I knew this guy wasn't being truthful because the limit on the card is crazy and this coffee is 5 bucks. And on top of that a little later I called my credit card to double check there wasn't a hold on it. So I resorted to the only thing I could think of, giving him a false room number. I scribbled a fake name and wrote a room number down so ambigious it could've been someone's name. I signed the false name, said thank you, and quickly made my decent to the show 4 floors below. I downed the coffee and about an hour after the interaction took place a waiter came and found me. Had I been wearing a suit instead of a bright blue polo I doubt he would've found me. He was very courteous and asked me for my room number, it wasn't until this point I felt bad because he obviously still didn't understand I wasn't staying at the hotel. So I gave him the egyptian money I had and luckily he said he'd gladly take my 2 usd as well. My boss gave me a sideways look when the transaction was going down and after I explained he had a good laugh at my attempt to steal coffee. I told him it wasn't stealing if they fail to know how to operate a machine that pays for the coffee.