Apples and Cigarettes

Ah, Egypt. The land where you can buy a single cigarette at a time, but you have to buy fruit by the kilo. It's not good for those that 'quit' but just want 'one more cigarette' every thirty minutes or so. But at least people are eating apples five at a time.

I saw something the other day which I think in ancient times people would have said was a bad omen. I was in my apartment when I heard a cat meowing outside. I looked out the window onto the service stairs which connected to the back entrance of my apartment. Only the garbage man uses these stairs to pick up people's trash but, apparently, it was also home to a family of cats. One little cat in particular was on the same level as me, all the way on the seventh floor, and she was looking down on the ground below. I couldn't tell what she was doing but, suddenly, she leaped from the stairs and landed on an air conditioning unit about five feet away that that hung outside a window. I was scared when I first saw her jump at that death defying height, with nothing between her and the ground but air. When she landed safely, I felt reassured that it's normal behavior for a cat. I could see though that the cat slipped slightly, because of dust on the air conditioner that had collect over the years. She looked down at the ground far below from her new vantage point, but soon it became apparent that she wanted to get back to the stairs. She paced around a bit, unsure what to do, creeping up to the edge and then backing away. She walked over to the wall and there was a window open next to her, but she seemed not to know where it led. I knew where that window was. It led to the main stairs just one floor below me, and I was thinking about walking down to help her. I never got the chance, though. After waiting for a few minutes she leaped into the air. The dust must have been slippery because she obviously thought she would make it. I watched in horror as the cat's paws stretched out only touched the stairs. She tumbled through the air, down seven stories, and hit the ground. I put my shoes on and walked down the service stairs that I've never been on before. It was littered with bits of trash and chicken bones. I got to the ground and saw that the cat was dead. I've heard a story that a cat jumped from four stories and landed on its belly. In that story a lady came outside and poured water on it, and the cat got up and walked away. I didn't have any water but I rolled its body over with a stick. It wasn't breathing, it was dead. I walked back up the stairs to my apartment. There was nothing I could really do.

I've been thinking about the moral of what I saw. Why did that happen? Maybe the moral is look before you leap, or don't take risks. The cat jumped and got itself stuck, and couldn't get back. But that's not true. The cat could have gone through the open window next to her. She was scared, scared of the unknown. She was more scared of that window than she was of jumping, even though she was seven stories up. I think that's true for people too. Often times we'll do something that's dangerous or bad for us before we do something that's unfamiliar. Sometimes I feel that my time here in Egypt was more about stepping into the unknown, than anything else. It's not dangerous, it's not unsafe, it's just that I didn't even know what to expect. By coming here I hope that maybe for me, I've conquered just a little bit more of the unknown. I still feel bad for the cat though.