3 Realities About Living In Egypt

By Mi’esha

3 Realities About Living In Egypt

Every year more and more people are jumping on the bandwagon to live life outside of the United States. And while everyone has their own reasons for wanting to leave for many reasons. For some, they are tired of the orange man in the White House. For others, it is because of an increase in gun violence. And for some smart ones they just want to make their money stretch. Turns out many places have a much lower cost of living. Despite the reason, it’s important to know that it’s not always better on the other side of the world. 

When I got the email that I was offered a position in Cairo, Egypt, on the continent affectionately known as the Motherland, I just knew I had struck gold!!

I was ready to see an abundance of melanin-rich skin, soft, and honey skin beautiful people. However, when I stepped off the plane and when I didn’t see that, I was highly disappointed. Now, yeah, maybe I should have visited the country beforehand to check things out. But who got those types of coins to just take a trip like that all willy nilly? HA! Not me!

Little to my surprise, that would be the first of the harsh realities. I would soon find out there is so much to learn about living in Egypt. 

Here are 3 realities about living in Egypt…brace yourself because some of them will be jaw-dropping.

Egyptians DO NOT consider themselves to be African

Um, excuse me. You do know that the country of Egypt is smack dab in the African continent right?!  They know that but instead of referring themselves as Africans. They refer to themselves as Egyptian or Middle Eastern. Now there are African people who live here, but most of them are Sudanese and South Sudanese refugees. As you move further south in Egypt to places like Aswan, Luxor, and Nubia, you will see people with darker complexions, to which other Egyptians call them African.

Sometimes you have to be the ANGRY BLACK (or whatever color) man or woman to get things done 

We know the negative backlash that we as black women get, but here in Egypt, sometimes that’s what you have to be to get things done. It has nothing to do with my race, it’s more so their way of life. While in America everything is fast-paced, here is the complete opposite. If the landlord tells you the plumber is coming at 5:00 PM, he will finish the statement with “Insha Allah” which means if it’s “God’ will”. In reality, the plumber may come by 8:00 PM if you’re lucky. There have been many times where I have had to put on my angry black woman persona to get things done just because there is no sense of urgency here.

You will feel like Queen Nefertiti or King Tut 

Y’all, my husband and I overhear living our best lives and here in Egypt, we rich rich. The cost of living is extremely low which makes the cost of everything super cheap. I can literally take 1000 LE (the equivalent of about $62 USD) and get my hair washed and scalp massage, full body massage, a gel manicure, and spa pedicure, and still have a little left over to get me some gelato. Um, excuse me what!?! And not to mention the convenience of everything. We live in an expat community where everything is walkable–restaurants, grocery store, bookstore, everything. I literally live 5 minutes from the grocery store and every week I go grocery shopping and have them deliver the groceries for 5 LE (that’s $0.31 USD)!!! Oh yes, there is also an app that you can download that will deliver your groceries, food, medicine and everything in between.

While I have definitely had my share of ups, downs, turnarounds and everything in between, overall, I am glad my husband and I took a leap of faith to move here. There you have it the 3 realities about living in Egypt. 

Keep up with Mi’esha on her blog here. And check out the travel tab here for more travel posts.