Egyptian dispatch: Feb. 17, 2013

Today one of the ugliest people we've met on our trip was in our apartment for a good part of the day — a kind of rat in human clothing.

A couple of days ago a man contacted me to say that he had purchased some items from the apartment from Arda and he wanted to come back and pick them up. He set up various times to drop by and then would call back to change the time. Finally, he came at 11am today. Yesterday I'd found a notebook in which Arda had detailed what he had bought and how much he had paid — in fact he owed Arda 600 pounds. Thin as a rake, with a pale flattened face, prominent nose (he said he was Turkish) wearing a double breasted jacket that hung on his bony frame and smoking endless cigarettes, he darted about the apartment wanting prices on all sorts of items. I was happy to help him, as I wanted to get rid of as much as possible, and since Arda had previously dealt with him, felt him to be OK. We haggled over prices and I quite enjoyed the give and take. His amiable sidekick began packing things in earnest. As the day wore on something about him became repellent. What did it for me was his habit of dropping his cigarette ash all over the apartment, and flinging his matches wherever he felt like. One time I got a real laugh — he lit his cigarette and with match still lit he placed his hand on his hip under his jacket where it continued burning, I laughed and warned him that he was on fire and sure enough he straightened his arm and the match was still aflame. He became increasingly tiresome and I put my foot down and told him that he needed to get the items out of the apartment by 6pm. Around the time we had stopped haggling over prices and he seemed to have had his fill, Koumaki and two of his friends arrived and I started pointing at all the stuff that was left over that they could take for free. I did this right in front of him and got a kick out of giving them stuff for free that we had previously unsuccessfully haggled over. In the meantime Foullee, the building's porter, had got wind of all the activities and entered the apartment with the saddest face he could muster and made it plain that he wanted in on some of the action. I quickly acquiesced and pointed to assorted items that he could take. This seemed to mollify him. 

Meanwhile Mohamed Abla ambled into the apartment, and as previously agreed I showed him the various artworks that I wanted to give him, plus some of Arda's that he could consider for her exhibition later this year. Mohamed took an instant dislike to the rat and you didn't need to be a psychic to sense his antipathy to this man. Finally, the rat had moved all his stuff out of the apartment and we could relax in peace. I then received a phone call from Nevi (Chris' mum) wanting to make sure that I had not sold items of hers that were in the apartment (no, I hadn't thankfully) and wanting to make sure that I wasn't selling off things that Arda had packed for shipping to the USA (no, I had not). I must admit that it had been a close shave with the smart looking Braun food mixer as the rat had demanded a quote on it, but it looked too good for me to be making decisions on whether to sell it or not, and more appropriate for Arda's brother to be dealing with items like that.

We chatted with Mohamed for a while, and then with Foullee and Nina's help we carried the paintings via the secret escape route through the barbed wire and out onto Merghany street and hailed Mohamed a cab.

Coming back into the building with Foulle I asked to see his room. I was taken aback by how small and spartan it was. I take photos of him and his friend, and he then insists I take one with the two of them and Nina. I also snap a picture of his Coptic calendar. Earlier in the day I had taken a photo of the lion tattoo on his right hand — a Christian symbol. As we go to leave he plants a big sloppy kiss close to Nina's lips.

Talking of photos: I wish I had taken one of the rat, but frankly it did not occur to me as my distaste for him was so strong, and now I realize that this feeling is definitely an indicator of when a photo should be made.

In summary, a rather curious day in Heliopolis distributing small items from the family's estate that has left the apartment looking even more barren. Total cash from the rat's sales was LE 2,150 ($320), which I will split equally between Arda's brother and myself.