Street Selling II

The young Egyptian lady with the headscarf, two places along from me on the cafe's cushioned bench, is keen to engage with any foreigner to hand. First it's with the three German ladies working at the nearby Goethe Institute.
'Wilkommen!', she tries. She gets a quizzical look. 'Wilkommen', she repeats, enunciating more clearly.
'Ah, danke shoen!', replies one lady with a smile and half bow. They proceed down the steps on their way out. The young lady looks along at me and smiles. I reciprocate and stir my capucinno again, waiting.
'Where you from?, she asks. I lay down my spoon.
'Scotland', deciding to leave out the UK North bit.
'Ah, near Iceland!'
'Well, yes, up that way...just as cold.'
'You have a skirt?'
'I do! But it's too heavy for this hot weather.' I pause and decide to expand, 'You know, each kilt or skirt has eight metres of cloth or material in it.'
'Not Iceland....Ireland. Near England and Wales.' she corrects herself. I knew kilt stuff would be too much detail.
'Yes...'
'Princess Diana was from Wales.' I decide to let that one go, and nod a yes.
'Do you like Egypt?', she asks.
'Of course, I've known it for a long time.'
'My mother's from Beirut. She says Egypt is terrible...just the same as India but there it stinks more.' We laugh and I decide to lead in with my Sadat story. 'I wasn't even born then.' Nothing else.
'What do you think of the Revolution...what are the benefits?' She gives me a look from head to foot as well as she can given I'm half collapsed into the cushions.
'I'd don't like politics. I don't talk about politics.'
And that is that. The chatty girl's gone. Elsewhere. Not coming back. Completely focused on her tablet. I wait a second, feeling quite high and dry, before reaching for my spoon again and doing some stirring business in my capucinno to cover the transition back to my own world. Still nothing. Not a Scottish follow up question. Not a look detected by my peripheral vision. Nothing. 'Ok', I say to myself, 'Pick up your jotter and get back to your notes'.

In fact, I pick up the newspaper and read that President Sisi has appointed a Board to oversee their new massive grain collection and redistribution logistics project. It's so important, equal to the Suez Canal expansion project, that he's put in the Prime Minister, as Chairman, along with the Ministers for Supply, Transport and Housing. Oh, and representatives of the army. Yes, you read that right, the army. Just in case, I presume.

I also read that the 6th of April Youth Movement (Democratic Front) has protested strongly against everything the President has been doing of late. They are a liberal group as far from the Muslim Brotherhood on the political spectrum as one could imagine but still have their leaders behind bars awaiting trial or serving sentences for...well, no point in asking them as they certainly don't know.

Maybe for statements they issue like the one reported today: 'After this law, and following the suppression of journalists, banning political discussions in universities, the suppression of students, and issuance of the Protest Law, freedom of expression in Egypt is about to become a thing of the past....this will increase chaos and create a better environment for terrorism"

I google them to check their political leanings and see that they have a Facebook page. I am about to go in when I remember I am using 3G with a IP address or data line traceable to my name and passport number. Knowing that all activists internet sites are under surveillance, I desist. For better or worse.