Thread by @LarryTaunton

EGYPT’S “GARBAGE PEOPLE”:🧵

“Where are we going today, Mr. Alex?” My Egyptian driver asked.

“Garbage City,” I said.

“Mokattam?” His tone was decidedly unenthusiastic.

“You think it’s dangerous.” Mine was a statement, not a question. The concierge had tried to dissuade…

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…me.

“I’m Egyptian, and I would never go there. But you?” This was a warning.

Ibrahim had been my driver on multiple occasions. He likes it because, he says, “It’s never boring with you.”

And I like him because he’s a good. (Pro tip: When in the third world, always…

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…get a local driver who knows the laws, customs, and can talk his way through road blocks and run-ins with police.

Besides, Cairo traffic is akin to that of Delhi, but with the African’s disregard for life. But in every other meaningful way, Egypt isn’t “proper Africa.”…

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…It’s part of that ill-defined socio-political mass called the Middle East.

For Americans, it’s a single entity that might just as well be labeled “AL QAEDA” or “TALIBAN” or “TERRORISTS LIVE HERE.”

But it is, in fact, a place of endless cultural nuances, customs,…

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…dialects, people groups, and religions.

And it was these nuances Ibrahim had in mind. It was as if I was Luke Skywalker and had just told him I wanted to go and chill out with the Sand People.

The Sand People in this case were actually the Zabbaleen, which literally…

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…translates from Egyptian Arabic — yes, there are big differences between Egyptian, Saudi, Moroccan, etc. Arabic dialects — as “The Garbage People.”

They live on the edge of civilization itself in a suburb, a colony really, where the gov’t put them decades ago.

Why?

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…Because they are Coptic Christians in a Muslim majority country. They are, therefore, excluded from full participation in society and in the economy.

The relationship between the Zabbaleen and their Muslims overlords had become violent more than a few times. Ibrahim…

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…understood this better than I did, and now I had instructed him to drive into what seemed to him the heart of darkness.

“I am not comfortable here,” he chuckled nervously as we entered Mokattam. The big black Mercedes E Class attracted attention. But that was…

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…unavoidable given my intentions.

“Stop,” I directed. “And wait for me here.”

“What? You’re getting out?” He was unnerved. “I will wait for you in the car! Don’t leave me here!”

Lest you think I am cavalier with my life, I am not. My wife takes a dim view of that,….

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…and I try not to upset her with activities that assume foolish risks. Indeed, I’ve been in countries where my hosts had to hide me.

But these were Christians, and I surmised Ibrahim’s anxiety was due to the fact that he’d never been in a situation where Muslims didn’t…

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…vastly outnumber every other religion — and Ibrahim was not only Muslim, he’d never been out of Egypt.

We recorded a quick video and then Ibrahim watched me disappear into the “Garbage City” crowds.

Tuk-Tuks, the third world’s automotive rickshaw, moved up and…

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…down the streets with purpose.

For generations the Zabbaleen have done one of the few things they are allowed to do: collect garbage from Cairo’s 20 million residents, sort it, recycle it, and sell it. Hence their name.

But Garbage City is nothing if not orderly….

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…Men collect the trash, women and children sort it according to its kind, and men then see that it gets processed.

The whole of Mokattam’s economy revolves around trash. Here, the saying, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” is true. No one lounges about….

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…Everyone, from grandmothers on down, is busy.

But here’s the really remarkable thing: these people, persecuted and marginalized, don’t see themselves as victims. Nor do they see their work as anything other than honorable.

There’s no shame in this work. They do it…

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…with efficiency and dignity.

90% of Mokattam’s residents are Coptic Christians. Coptic here simply means Egyptian. Most bear a tattoo, often crudely done, of a Coptic cross on their wrists.

This tradition dates back to the tenth century Muslim conquest of Egypt…

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…when Christians were given the infamous 3 choices:

• Convert to Islam
• Pay a tax
• Die

Many Christians converted out of fear. (This remains Islam’s chief means of making converts.)

Those who could afford it, paid the tax.

But those who couldn’t afford it and…

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…refused to convert, were beheaded.

Those who were parents, knowing their children would be raised as Muslims, put these tattoos on them in the hope that they would, one day, question their heritage and know they are descended from Christian martyrs.

Just beyond…

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…Garbage City lies the Monastery of St. Simon. A church forms part of the complex. Built into a cliff face, it seats 25,000.

I had Ibrahim drive me up to it and accompany me inside. He was astonished.

“I had no idea this was here,” he said. “I have never seen…

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…anything like it.”

As a priest told us the story of the tattoos, I could see that Ibrahim was moved.

“I’ve been driving for the hotel for many years, and no one has ever asked to come here. It’s amazing.”

“What’s it like being a Christian in Egypt,” I asked the…

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…priest. He shot a glance at Ibrahim.

“The gov’t does not help us. But that is okay. We ask for nothing. Walk in the city, see for yourself.”

Ibrahim didn’t approve of this advice. “I think you should stay in the car. No more adventures for today.”

I leave you with…

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…this: I wager very few of you have ever heard of the Zabbaleen. As children in America are told they are victims while they live in the freest country on the planet, real victim go unseen and unheard.

But they would object: “We are not victims. We thrive in God’s…

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…grace and mercy.”

Are not such people worthy of honor, of praise, of emulation?

I’ve met their kind before, but only in countries where Christians are persecuted: Cuba, China, Nigeria, Vietnam, the former Soviet Union, and elsewhere.

Pray for these people.

THE END