Oops! I Did It Again!
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of renewing my license with the ever so cooperative Morour (Traffic Department). I'll spare you the gory details of what that entails.
When I speak Arabic, I mix in English words for the words which I do not know or am not sure of in Arabic, as do a lot of people. My spoken Arabic is almost perfect, (at least in MY opinion) even though a lot of my friends STILL make fun of me. The problem comes when I have to speak Arabic with no English substitution and maybe fill out a form in Arabic, as I did fil morour.
My reading skills are that of a retarded 9 year old and my even worse writing skills are those of a 3 year old. My handwriting always looks like I'm left-handed trying to write with my right hand.
One of the steps of the entire procedure for renewing a car license is to pay any traffic or speeding tickets that you owe. My husband had gone a few days earlier and paid my traffic tickets in advance to save time. When I first arrived, I didn't know where to go from there. There was so much chaos around with people moping around doing absolutely nothing, to people running around looking lost, to people screaming at the top of their lungs at each other.
So I found a police officer and asked him, "law sama7t ana daf3at el tazaker khalas, 3emel eh delwakty? (Excuse me, I've already paid off my tickets; what do I do now?)"
He said, "Tazaker? Tazaker eh?" Neither of us were getting anywhere after that. So he explained the entire procedure to me from a-z mentioning, "...we b3adein betroo7y tedf3ay el mokhalfat...". Oops. Mokhalfat. That was the word I was looking for.
After a couple of hours of being sent from the an office outside the traffic department, to the office on the 2nd floor, to the office on the ground floor, to the office on the first floor, etc, etc. all because the envious government eployees want to enslave your lazy rich ass a little, I was already dizzy with all the sending me back and forth. Trying to keep my poise, I walked up to the cashier window to pay. I said in my most sophisticated voice, trying to sound very Arabically confident amidst the Egyptian governmental employees, "3ayza adf3a el dareebat men fadlak." The guy cracked a smile and said, "Dareebat? aahh..."
Oops again... I realized when he repeated it that it must've sounded funny so I quickly coughed as if I had choked, "ahem... darayeb. 3yza adf3a darayeb." That's what happens when I get tired, my Arabic becomes drunk. Oh well.
I did save myself one embarassing moment though. I was asked to fill out this huge form in Arabic. I couldn't even understand half the things requested, so I told the woman, "Bas ana mesh m3aya nadara. (But I don't have my glasses with me)". A little secret: I don't wear glasses :P. She said, "Tab khalas, ekteby bas esmek. (OK, just write your name)" Phew!
Corruption pays sometimes! :)
posted by Mumbo Jumbo @ 3:51 PM
12 Comments:
Heh heh :) When I got to Cairo I got into a cab to get to AUC. I had had a headache that day, I was tired, I was sick, and so instead of telling him "khosh hena law samaht" I said "shokh hena law samaht".
THAT is so funny!! You cracked me up! I can imagine the look on his face!
How much was GC asked to pay for the bill (the first inflated figure before the bribery takes place)?
700 LE and I DO NOT do anything that would get me a ticket. GC had a wasta that day and got it down to 100 LE. ay kalam.
hehehe... most people i know don't even go to moroor themselves, good on you walahy :)
doh, LE 50 to anyone in the street would have soved your problem. Permantly.
I alwyas advise people to pay for the convience of not having to do things themselves
Duh?
You have to be there anyway to receive it yourself. I've always had someone else do it, but I have to be present for the most of the process anyway, so I just did it myself. So duh yourself.
Hahaha. I'm the same. Thank Goodness my license still says "Agnaby" on it even though I recently got the Egyptian nationality. I can act stupid all the time as if I don't understand. I tend to pretend I'm russian, american, english, italian.. anything to get me out.
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...and who are you exactly?
At least you have some literacy skills in Arabic. I had to practice writing my name in Arabic for my marraige and then forgot to write my first name- so technically my husband was married to my father!
I used to gather the street kids around me when I went to market and pay them to tell me the prices of the vegetables- they loved it.
I once asked a woman to tell me when the train stopped at Misr el Gadeeda- she looked me up and down and then said "Bas enti shaklik mish gahleh"- even though she was right, I was still insulted to be called gahleh!
3ala fekrah,,, enti shaklek las3ah kahles
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