Tact: Hindered somewhat by a language barrier.

I have this friend. In the interest of anonymity I’ll call him…Zeke. Zeke and I are friends in cynicism on this eight-week immersion program in Alex. Occasionally, his cynical shell cracks and looses a surprising gesture of less-cynical sweetness. And once in a great while my politically correct framework of fairness and politeness slips and reveals a dark, sarcastic, most un-politically correct side. Zeke feeds off moments like this. We feed off each other.


At any rate. Two days ago in Media class, our teacher – good-naturedly, no doubt – asked the class as a whole what we do on December 25th. Zeke and the other two (and a half) of us shared a sideways smirk. The smirk turned to giggles when the teacher called on Zeke for his answer.


“Ya3ni,” he began.


“Ya3ni” literally means “mean,” so in good Egyptian form, he began his sentence with “I mean…”


“Ya3ni, I go to the movies. And then go to a Chinese restaurant.” Slowly the rest of the class caught on. “And then I go home and watch A Christmas Carol.”


The teacher didn’t get it. “Why??” She was baffled to hear an account that didn’t fit her stereotype of American Christmas pastimes.


This is where Zeke’s dry wit and cynicism came in handy. There are five (and a half) people on this program who have been very tactful about sharing details of their ethnic heritage with locals. Not because we’re AFRAID of the repercussions, for numerous taxi drivers have ensured us that “We’re all people of the Book. So you’re okay with me!” while, as our classmate Goldy puts it, we “smile and nod and sweat.”


Five (and a half) of us drop our voices when we mention Passover in Egyptian company. We simply reference “youm al-sept” as the time between sunset Friday and sunset Saturday, and leave it to the listener to fill in the blank. Goldy has taken to referring to one country in particular as “the country north of this one.” And we’ve gotten FAIRLY good at talking around certain issues. Though it gets tricky. Try not-explaining “kosher” to an Egyptian who wonders why you won’t eat the rice. Try not-explaining why you can’t carry your backpack to class on youm al-sept.


So Zeke proceeded to not-explain National JEWS Go to the Movies Day. “Ya3ni, it’s just what my family does.”


“Aah!” said our Media teacher, who had made the connection at last. “You get together with your family on December 25th. Meshi.” Washing her hands of Zeke and his non-traditional “Christmas,” she turned to another classmate, eager to hear a more traditional story that fit her Christmas schema. “And you, Basha, what does your family do on Christmas?”


This young man perked up, eager to satisfy our teacher. “MY family eats pickled herring and goes skiing.”


At this point she gave up, and we listened to an Al-Jazeera broadcast instead.


And, on an unrelated note, here are two videos I recently uploaded to YouTube.

The first is a shot down the aisle of the bus that we took from Sharm El-Sheikh, on the southernmost tip of the Sinai Peninsula, through a tunnel under the Suez Canal.

The second is a video of the oud player at our summer house visit two weeks ago. It was a crowd-pleaser.