Masr! Masr! Masr!

While walking from a party to a friend's apartment last weekend, we happened upon a huge gathering of people dancing in the streets and shouting. Cars everywhere were honking in the pattern: beep (pause) beep (pause) beep beep beep. I started to get nervous when people began setting things on fire, and thought for sure we were about to witness a riot, but it turns out that everyone was just celebrating Egypt's unexpected victory in the quarterfinals of the African Cup of Nations. Check it out:

For whatever reason, the United States hasn't gotten on board the global soccer obsession. Someone told me that it is because soccer is played in two continuous halves without ever stopping the clock, so it hasn't caught on with the big networks because they can't have as many commercial breaks. Nevertheless, for most of the rest of the world, soccer is a BIG DEAL. Two examples: (1) during the World Cup last summer, Cote D'Ivoire temporarily suspended their civil war so people could watch the games, and (2) according to a recent article in the New York Times, universal support for the Iraqi national team has made headway in bridging sectarian enmity in the country.

While I can't tell you the name of a single player on the USA national team, I couldn't help but get caught up in the enthusiasm that absolutely permeates every corner of Cairo for Team Egypt. People tape Egyptian flags to everything, wear them around, and cover their cars with black, white and read banners--all to demonstrate their support for the team.


Having seen the ruckus the victory on the quarterfinals caused (see video above), you can bet we--me, Jillian (my roommate), Rafaela, and Tanisha--decided to do it up big time for the finals. We bought flags the night before the game (after bargaining down the price since we wanted to get four at once) and as we walked home with them people yelled "Egypt!" and "Misr!" (which is the Egyptian word for Egypt) at us from stores and car windows, while cars greeted us with the celebratory pattern of honks.

One of our dorm mates is a really fun Egyptian girl named Dina, and she offered to take us to watch the game at a place where locals go to watch games (as opposed to a hotel bar or somewhere similarly upscale, which is where most expats hang out but would be too pricey for the average Egyptian.) We eagerly accepted and joined her downtown, where many local coffee shops and small shisha bars had moved all of their furniture outdoors into the alley. The place was packed with people--we had to sit on tables or stand--and we watched the game from the crowded alley on an outdoor projection screen. For this the store owner charged us 3 Egyptian pounds--the equivalent of about 75 cents--well worth being able to chant "Masr" with a rowdy Egyptian mob. Two of our upper-class Egyptian friends, Omar and Ahmed, met us downtown and marveled that we were showing them around Egypt - having spent all of their time with the upper crust, they had never before seen how the average Egyptian watched a game.

For a long time the game was zero to zero. Halfway through the chicken shwarma sandwich that I purchased from the stand around the corner at half time, Egypt scored. The bedlam that ensued gave a whole new meaning to the concept of a crowd "erupting." Not only did a roar and the sound of drums reverberate through the alley, but people were shooting fireworks and lighting hairspray (and other things of unknown identity) on fire everywhere.

When the game ended and Egypt won, the energy went through the roof. It really felt like the population of the city had been on hold watching the game and then turned out into the streets simultaneously. People were blasting plumes of hairspray ignited with cigarette lighters into the air, beating drums, and chanting "misr!" It was completely amazing. Tanisha noted that the only time we had ever seen anything like it are when American news plays clips of crowds cheering, shouting, and dancing after something like the American Embassy is bombed--but that's misleading, because it appears that this happens all the time!

After the game the 4 of us went with Omar and Ahmed to an underpass in Heliopolis (their neighborhood in Cairo) where crowds often gather on occasions such as this. We watched the pulsating throng from the slightly less crowded street above until Omar and Ahmed got nervous about the number of guys who had stopped chanting cheers and gathered around to take our picture instead. I am sure that four obviously American girls with Egyptian flags was an unusual sight; however, due to the prevalence of verbal harassment and unwanted touching on the Egyptian streets, staying any longer wouldn't have been prudent. We gave our flags a final wave and headed to a nearby cafe for some fresh mango juice. It was a thoroughly memorable night.