Collecting treasures in Cairo

The other day, the boys and I were going for a long walk, just for the fun of it, which is something of an anomaly in Cairo. At least that's how it started out.  And then, shortly after we started, they decided it was also going to be a treasure collecting expedition.

Being still of the age where certain scraps of discarded paraphernalia are considered things of great consequence, they decided to amass as many bottle tops as they could. Every few steps they spied another one, and the challenge was on to find one they didn’t already have. The most valuable were those they had to get down on their hands and knees to dig out with a stick, followed closely by the ones covered in rust, which were considered antique and therefore priceless. After two blocks their pockets were full and we had to stop at a kiosk to get a couple of plastic bags to hold the loot.

When we finally got home a couple of hours later, we had a bucketful of bottle tops, which we soaked in detergent and dried off. The second leg of entertainment then followed by lining them up according to colour and brand. Four hours of merriment and not a penny spent.

This is the Cairo equivalent of collecting seashells. My 7-year-old told me it was the second best day of his life, succeeded only by the day he went to Jambaroo, a local water park in Australia.  

Egypt, the land where small joys can be found in the dust.