Sense of Humor...

You gotta have a sense of humor to survive in the mideast, this goes for both visitors and permanent residents. Even serious topics sometimes are made the subjet of jokes, not because they aren't taken seriously, but because life is hard enough without some comic relief. For instance, an American might get seriously offended if an Egyptian makes a joke about terrorism. "That's not funny, how can they make a joke Osama bin Laden? I don't appreciate someone making light of 9/11." I completely respect each person's right to take offense at what they feel is appropriate, but I would be very skeptical of an American telling an Egyptian to take terrorism seriously. Egyptians have had more than their share of terrorism, the 90's were practical a constant exchange of terrorist attacks and crack downs in this country. Even in the past few years, there have been attacks at resorts, and certainly there have been numerous attacks foiled before they were executed. I probably shouldn't be posting this on my blog, and my intention seriously is not to terrify my mother, but rather to prove that no one needs to remind Egyptians that terrorism is a serious subect. But, like I said, this doesn't mean that you can't crack a few Osama jokes once in a while.

The other day I was at the gym, and I struck up a friendly conversation with one of the trainers. "Morning of Goodness".."Morning of Light!".."Morning of Sweet Cream!"...and so on. He was thrilled that I knew the Arabic greetings, and went to go find my sports bag which they keep in a giant closet. My "sportsbag" is actually a grocery bag, plastic and horriblly difficult to see amogst the dozens of addidas bags in the closet. He was having trouble finding it, and I went back to see if I could help. We finally spied the bag way in the back of the closet, we laughed at how far back it was, and then my hero practically fell into the closet in his efforts to grab the bag. When he emerged, we laughed again (lots of laughing when lost in translation) and then I began to thank him for his efforts. However, one really formal way of saying "striving" or "effort" in arabic is..drumroll.. jihad. So I didn't think twice and excitedly said.."Thank you so much for your jihad!" While he knew what I was tyring to say, he also knew that I was American, and knew what most Americans think of when they think of "jihad". He laughed and said..."no no..I am not Osama bin Laden!!!" I laughed (again) and made it clear that of course I know that "jihad" linguistically just means effort...striving, and continued to awkwardly thank him for his "struggle" for my bag. Just about to leave, I realized that I didn't even know the name of my valiant trainer. "Sorry, what is your name?" A sheepish look came over his face, he smiled, and the looked down at his name tag which read "OSAMA". Then of course, we both laughed.