Symphony of Cairo: Embracing the Vibrant Chaos of Everyday Life

I’m not sure what I expected of Cairo. It has its own unique “music” that we’ve not heard elsewhere. This morning we awoke to Muslim chant, which is a Call to Prayer, and you can hear it from nearly everywhere five times a day. Birds are chirping if you listen very carefully. You don’t have to listen carefully at all to hear the incessant rapid fire short bursts of horns blaring, regardless of the time of day or night. Not always long horn blows but equally there are beep, beep, beep, beep, beeps by nearly every single driver. Drivers beep hello, get out of the way, do you want a ride, I’m cutting you off and want you to know. There also are cell phones ringing and construction noises. Women with their heads covered sit in a circle, share stories, and giggle. Vendors haggle over prices while as motorcycles backfire as they speed through the alleys. Little children laugh and tease each other as they rush home after school, and old men are clacking dice in games of tawla (backgammon to you and me). Let’s not overlook the gurgling hookah shisha pipes and clinking teacups.

The cacophony is quintessentially Cairo, and as multiple random strangers say to us as we pass by, “Welcome to Egypt”!