One of the most disconcerting things about being in Egypt is the exchange rate. My relationship with money is odd. My parents always encourage me (Dad especially) to value quality and not quantity. Dad's favorite mantra (which I have repeated to some friends here) is: Don't waste your calories. AKA don't eat anything that you don't enjoy eating. I am all for that, yet I still am a college student at heart and love to save leftovers, salvage food from group events, and buy cheap food and make it myself instead of going out. I try to be as cheap as I can during school especially because Wash U is so expensive (and I can only take so much "healthy" campus food... something about that seems like an oxymoron).
So, taking all that into consideration... let me just tell a few stories from my time in Egypt so far. I had 550 pounds when I arrived in Egypt. I didn't need to withdraw money for another week, after grocery shopping, eating out almost every day for 1-2 meals a day, and random other small expenses. Today, Christine and I went grocery shopping to get our normal weekly foods and to stock up for our cooking day tomorrow (she's making chili, I'm making baklava, Lauren's making chicken, and Shama's making stir fry, I can't remember if I mentioned this earlier). Since I lost my wallet, Christine has graciously offered to pay for any of my expenses, and then I can just pay her back when my new debit card gets here. (Yes, I lost my wallet and no, I don't want to talk about it.) Our bill: 473 pounds. We had SO MUCH stuff, we couldn't carry it home, so the very nice store manager gave us a "boy" to bring home. Haha, aka, this poor guy had to push our grocery cart to our apartment and bring it up the elevator for us. Moral of the story: it was a lot of food. Way more than Mom will buy even when she's hosting a big party.
Then we did the calculations: 473 pounds = $81.55 dollars. For a massive amount of food, split between two people. Fresh, organic veggies, 2 kilos of rice, flour, sugar, eggs, butter, cheese (we were stocking up for the rest of the semester, equivalent to a costco run), rose water (eau de old lady!), and lots of other things. I normally spend $35 a week on groceries at school, and I thought that was cheap! Not compared to here, where I usually spend about 70 pounds a week ($12).
This whole exchange rate thing is playing with my head. I got a good falafel sandwich for 1 pound today. 17 cents. Matthew told us a story about how he was having a really cruddy day once, and gave the old lady who begs and lives on the corner of his street a 20 pound note ($3.40), she stood up, praising God and thanking him profusely for his generosity. He said that this lifted him up so much, that so small a contribution can make such a difference in someone's life. A 20 pound note is good for 20 falafel sandwiches, so 20 days that she doesn't have to wonder if she'll be able to eat that day.
What can we get in the US for $3.40? A Happy Meal?
Now, I'm not going to pretend like I know anything about economics, exchange rates, or anything like that, because I don't. I can't explain why the US dollar is so much stronger than the Egyptian pound, or why so many Egyptians live in poverty (and Americans - but the standard of poverty is significantly different in the two countries.) The only thing I can see here is how privileged the average American is compared to the average Egyptian. It actually makes me, personally, feel terrible, as if it's somehow my fault that the two old ladies who beg outside the McDonald's in Mesaha Square have only a few pounds but I just withdrew 1000 pounds ($172 - sorry for all the conversions, these are mostly for my benefit!) from the ATM.
I don't really know what to make of all this yet, I'm just ranting. I started thinking about this when we calculated how much we paid for groceries today. It made me realize two things. One, I need to be less worried all the time about not spending money and just enjoy myself here. Even if it sounds like a lot of money, if it's worth it, I should do it (because it probably isn't as much money as I think it is. My mental math is getting a lot better here!) Two, I can make an immediate difference in people's lives here. Christine and I have decided that whenever there is food leftover that no one claims after our dialogue sessions, that we will bring at least half of it to the lady on the corner. (She was sleeping last time this happened, so we just left the Domino's pizza box next to her. I hope no one else took it...) We also plan on giving any leftover Egyptian money we have to them when we leave. But in addition to small acts of charity, I want to do something more substantial to help people out who are in similar positions. I've known for a long time that that's one of my life goals, being in Egypt has just sort of fermented it for me.
P.S. Mom, when you said in your email that hopefully someone who needed the money found my wallet, I actually felt a lot better. Thanks :)
So, taking all that into consideration... let me just tell a few stories from my time in Egypt so far. I had 550 pounds when I arrived in Egypt. I didn't need to withdraw money for another week, after grocery shopping, eating out almost every day for 1-2 meals a day, and random other small expenses. Today, Christine and I went grocery shopping to get our normal weekly foods and to stock up for our cooking day tomorrow (she's making chili, I'm making baklava, Lauren's making chicken, and Shama's making stir fry, I can't remember if I mentioned this earlier). Since I lost my wallet, Christine has graciously offered to pay for any of my expenses, and then I can just pay her back when my new debit card gets here. (Yes, I lost my wallet and no, I don't want to talk about it.) Our bill: 473 pounds. We had SO MUCH stuff, we couldn't carry it home, so the very nice store manager gave us a "boy" to bring home. Haha, aka, this poor guy had to push our grocery cart to our apartment and bring it up the elevator for us. Moral of the story: it was a lot of food. Way more than Mom will buy even when she's hosting a big party.
Then we did the calculations: 473 pounds = $81.55 dollars. For a massive amount of food, split between two people. Fresh, organic veggies, 2 kilos of rice, flour, sugar, eggs, butter, cheese (we were stocking up for the rest of the semester, equivalent to a costco run), rose water (eau de old lady!), and lots of other things. I normally spend $35 a week on groceries at school, and I thought that was cheap! Not compared to here, where I usually spend about 70 pounds a week ($12).
This whole exchange rate thing is playing with my head. I got a good falafel sandwich for 1 pound today. 17 cents. Matthew told us a story about how he was having a really cruddy day once, and gave the old lady who begs and lives on the corner of his street a 20 pound note ($3.40), she stood up, praising God and thanking him profusely for his generosity. He said that this lifted him up so much, that so small a contribution can make such a difference in someone's life. A 20 pound note is good for 20 falafel sandwiches, so 20 days that she doesn't have to wonder if she'll be able to eat that day.
What can we get in the US for $3.40? A Happy Meal?
Now, I'm not going to pretend like I know anything about economics, exchange rates, or anything like that, because I don't. I can't explain why the US dollar is so much stronger than the Egyptian pound, or why so many Egyptians live in poverty (and Americans - but the standard of poverty is significantly different in the two countries.) The only thing I can see here is how privileged the average American is compared to the average Egyptian. It actually makes me, personally, feel terrible, as if it's somehow my fault that the two old ladies who beg outside the McDonald's in Mesaha Square have only a few pounds but I just withdrew 1000 pounds ($172 - sorry for all the conversions, these are mostly for my benefit!) from the ATM.
I don't really know what to make of all this yet, I'm just ranting. I started thinking about this when we calculated how much we paid for groceries today. It made me realize two things. One, I need to be less worried all the time about not spending money and just enjoy myself here. Even if it sounds like a lot of money, if it's worth it, I should do it (because it probably isn't as much money as I think it is. My mental math is getting a lot better here!) Two, I can make an immediate difference in people's lives here. Christine and I have decided that whenever there is food leftover that no one claims after our dialogue sessions, that we will bring at least half of it to the lady on the corner. (She was sleeping last time this happened, so we just left the Domino's pizza box next to her. I hope no one else took it...) We also plan on giving any leftover Egyptian money we have to them when we leave. But in addition to small acts of charity, I want to do something more substantial to help people out who are in similar positions. I've known for a long time that that's one of my life goals, being in Egypt has just sort of fermented it for me.
P.S. Mom, when you said in your email that hopefully someone who needed the money found my wallet, I actually felt a lot better. Thanks :)
The difference between even what is average and the poverty line can be striking. Our driver in India didn't consider himself poor but wore the same clothes everyday for a week because it was too expensive to buy more clothes... The justification for the mentality comes from the environment. Whereas in America, being poor still means you live in a society with such a strong infrastructure that heating, electricity, food are almost universally available. You'll do amazing things one day with that head on your shoulders!
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