exchanges in Arabic:- understood a muezzin in Islamic Cairo when he told me who he was, what his job was, asked if I wanted to tour the roof, how much it would cost, and to enjoy the beautiful mosque and when we were done he'd unlock the door and take us upstairs**
- asked my bawab to change my cooking gas canister, responded to his inquiry about whether I had another upstairs, and asked him to get me a new canister to replace the empty
- ordered Koshary, explained where I was from, and got extra hot sauce for my friend's koshary, as well as declined a bag
hooray for language learning!
**btw, I'll post a pic soon; but climbing up to the 'roof' of the mosque was ACTUALLY climbing up a multi-storied turret in the ancient wall that surrounds Islamic Cairo to the roof of it, well above the roof of the 1 story mosque. Some of the steps were likely 1000 - 1500 years old. The climb was tricky, precarious, and magical; and the view from the top was one I will likely never see again.
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