Troublesome twosome

And no, it's not me that makes up the pair!

Coffee with Mahmoud, a former student and now good friend. His buddy Mostafa has left Cairo for Kuwait to look for work as he's fed up with the situation here. Mahmoud would like to join him but it means leaving a reasonable job here, with no guarantee of success there, and then the probability he won't get work here upon return.

They're great guys, doing as much as they can to improve themselves but the system is working against them. Under a different system, they'd fare so well.

Men here have go have an apartment to get married. A reasonable salary is 3000le a month, an apartment in a very average area costs 300,000 at a minimum, inflation is 29% and after November's currency devaluation, people are feeling the pressure.