Wrong Place, Right Time

Having ridden metros in many of the worlds biggest cities during rush hour, I thought Cairo would be no different. Get your place along the track and move like a sheep with the crowd towards the metro door closest to you. This however would not be the case, as pure mayhem begins the second the approaching train bell sounds.

Having separate cars for men and women, I found myself surrounded by men of all socioeconomic statuses. Men in business suits, students, soldiers, elderly, children, and more. All at once their status is forgotten and all resort back to a primitive, every man for himself mind sets. Everyone begins pushing each other violently out of the way and cramming on the cars before people are given the opportunity to get off.

Regardless of it being a father with a small child, a handicap, or an elderly man they are just seen as competition and in the way as people shamelessly throw them aside to jump aboard. Once on board the animal instincts are not forgotten and the job is not done. At this point you begin pushing people off the train to make more room for yourself. An absolutely shameful display of mankind and surely not the teachings of Mohammed.

Disgusted by this display, I exited the train as soon as I could, having gone in the wrong direction and several stops past my intended location. Finally emerging victoriously into the open air of the metro I stumbled across a blood drive for a children's hospital and thought it must be fate for me to have escaped the barbaric metro and stumble across this. Without hesitation I filled out the forms, hopped in the chair and began pumping. Passerby's found it humorous that a foreigner was donating blood in a metro and when asked my nationality, with pride I proclaimed USA.