Curious in the Middle East - Summer 2008

Olives

18:36

My father wanted some olives from Egypt, and my Egyptian family bought some for him. I was afraid that the juice would leak and make a mess in the suitcase, so I put the big jar of olives in my carry-on bag. I knew that they'd ask me questions about that, so I was prepared to give my explanations.

At Cairo Airport, they stopped me at the inspection area. I said "These are olives from Shobra" and the Egyptian workers laughed. "From Shobra???" and I said "Yes. I'm a little from Shobra." When I said all of this in Arabic, we all laughed and these men said "OK. You can go", so I got on the plane with the olives. Now I gave them to my father. (^^)