We planned to spend a couple of lazy days in Cairo before leaving Egypt and heading to Morocco. Nothing of interest really happened, until our last day, which happened to coincide with Obama's visit to the country. Our biggest goal of the day was to return to the restaurant where we'd enjoyed a fantastic lunch the week before. As we approached the restaurant, our cab driver informed us that Obama had just left the mosque opposite our restaurant. We'd missed him by five minutes!
As we got out of the cab, a woman pulled a large rock (and by large I mean bigger than a softball) out of plastic bag and hurled it in the general direction of Lindsey. Luckily, she had absolutely terrible aim. We looked at eachother as if to confirm that we'd actually just been targeted and Lindsey started to run away. Steve looked at the woman in disbelief long enough to get a rock throw at him as well, which again was way off target. Next, a nearby Canadian couple caught her attention and she threw a few rocks in their direction. The couple shouted "shame & evil" in Arabic which caught the attention of a few slow-to-react secret police who took her away.
Hoping the worst was over, but still very uneasy, we continued walking towards the restaurant. Both our hearts were pumping quickly and our senses were hightened to see if the threat was over. Without warning, however, the woman reappeared waving a shoe violently and headed straight for Lindsey. The police grabbed her again (not sure why the let her go the first time?) and tried to hold back her violent thrashing. Lindsey, however, wanted some revenge and clubbed the woman in the face with her 1.5L full water bottle. It was a pretty solid shot and the police didn't seem to mind.
Next, the police asked us to come to the station, where they offered us tea and tried to take our story. They didn't speak the best English in the world, but genuinely wanted us to feel better about the experience. They told us the woman appeared to be homeless based on her rotting feat and general hygiene and that they suspected she was mentally ill. They tried to tell us she wasn't targeting westerners and was just crazy, but we tend to think that someone who brings a bag of rocks to a mosque where Obama is appearing and throws them at white people sounds well-prepared rather than crazy. Nevertheless, the police called in a doctor, who agreed she was nuts and commited her to a mental hospital for no less than 45 days. After leaving the police station, we continued on to our lunch spot, but the experience made us happy to be leaving Egypt that day. Even though we found Egypt to be extremely welcoming to us as Americans, getting rocks throw at you is enough to make you want to move on!
That evening at the airport, we watched Obama land in a helicopter, run up the stairs of Air Force One, give a wave and take off. It was a rewarding end to a day where we payed for being American!
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