Deliverance from Hotel Living

After exactly 5 weeks of living at various Marriotts throughout Africa and Asia (work diverted me to Pakistan), I’m finally settling into our apartment in Zamalek. Fortunately (for me) Kathleen arrived at our new abode a couple weeks ahead of me and started tackling some of the less savory tasks such as connecting internet, arranging furniture and picking out curtains. This was very good, for in my world, picking out curtains is indeed slightly more terrifying than traveling through the Taliban-infested areas of northern Pakistan.

One aspect of living in Cairo that has made moving in fairly easy is that anything and absolutely everything can be delivered. As one would expect, furniture and appliance stores have a delivery service, albeit you shouldn’t expect much more than delivery. My work-from-home desk was dropped off the other night by two able-bodied Egyptian delivery men. They stacked the boxed, disassembled pieces of furniture in the corner and explained to me they were "only delivery" and I would have to make an appointment with the store’s “engineer” for assembly. While I can’t imagine anyone with an engineering degree could be satisfied assembling simple desks for a living, he seemed fairly content when he arrived (with his assistant) the next morning to put the pieces of furniture together.

From gigantic superstores down to the smallest corner grocery stores, the stuff of life can be delivered – and as far as I can tell there are no minimum purchase requirements. I might give Abu Hassen Market, from around the corner, a call this afternoon and ask him to run up a pack of gum for me - just to see how it works. There is an Egyptian website called Otlob.com that is a clearing house for restaurant delivery and the options are endless. I ordered a 15£ (less than $3 bucks) shwarma sandwich yesterday for lunch and it only took about 20 minutes before a scooter showed up with my delicious greasy sandwich.

View of Islamic Cairo (not available for delivery)

Working from home with a plethora of delivery options in front of me, I theoretically could never have need to leave the apartment. I could very easily remain sheltered from Cairo for all of my two years here, living off of delivered shwarma and depending on house call engineers to meet all of my furniture assembly needs.

Fortunately, Cairo’s sprawling city streets beckon to be explored and the risk of turning into a delivery-dependent troglodyte is minimal. In fact, I may do some exploring of Islamic Cairo later today, after our curtains are delivered…