Don't pick up my kid!! And don't stare!!

I had the most annoying dinner the other evening filled with nosy, annoying people. OK, so here's what happened. Mike had to pay Tiberh her salary, so we all walked out to the cash machine to get money so she could get paid before the weekend. We got cash, and paid Tiberh, and then we decided to walk to the Marriott to have a quick dinner in the Tea Garden, which is one of our favorite Cairo haunts because it is a garden cafe-type place where Maya can run around outside while we wait for our meal. Plus, it's just a 5-minute walk from our apartment.

So after Tiberh walks away, Maya is spaced out in her own world. We call her to "come with mommy and daddy" and she starts crying because she wants to continue walking in the same direction as we were going before. But within a few seconds she turns around to follow us. Then some random Egyptian guy who was standing near us beckons to her, and tells her in Arabic: "Oh, don't worry, your mommy went that way" as he swings his arm toward Tiberh in the distance. Grrrrrrrrr. (Of, course, I'm not meaning to dis Tiberh in any way though, as she is way cool!)

Anyway, so we continue on to the Marriott to have our dinner. There are some new guards at the gate -- who don't know us as we have been on vacation in the US -- who stare at Maya and do the typical quizzical stare at us, look at each other, and say: "Izzay????" We hear that word behind our backs so much. And when they look at Maya and us, they tend to extend the last syllable into a little whiney pitch. It means, essentially: "How the hell?"

We ignore that and go on to our dinner. All the waiters already know us and Maya, so they give us no reaction. We set the typical Maya parameters, which are basically that she can wander around within about 10 feet of the table, but no further. Of course she immediately goes farther than that, Mike runs to get her, has a little chat with her again about boundaries, and then lets her free again. She again starts to sprint away from us as fast as possible, so she gets a one-minute time out.

After her time out, she starts wandering yet again to a table behind us. I turn my head and start calling her to come back. As I am calling her name, telling her to come back, and waving my arms at her to demonstrate that she must return to the table, the Egyptian woman at the table behind us extends her arms and beckons Maya to come to her. Of course, that pleases Maya to no end, so she goes to the woman, who then picks her up and places her in her lap. Seriously, what is with that? So Mike had to go forcibly take her back from this woman, who then asks: "Oh, is she yours?" Hello!!! We were only calling her name, waving at her, telling her to come back to the table.

But our dinner comes and we get over that incident. Then a group of young, upper class Egyptians comes and sits at the table next to us. Maya of course sees this as a great opportunity to go make friends. So she gets down from the table and walks over to them. At this point, I see where she is headed and see one of the girls at the table getting ready to try to pick her up. So I get up from my chair and take Maya's hand just as this woman is reaching down to lift her into her lap. As I put Maya back into her chair, I catch snippets of their conversation. They include the ubiquitous, whiney "Izzaaay?" I also hear the word "Samra", or black, and "bint" or girl. But I just ignore it.

Yet as we are waiting for our bill, I feel them staring at me. I turn around and every single one of them is staring completely unabashedly. So I turned back around to face Mike so I couldn't see them. Maya clearly feels our discomfort and starts crying. Great! Finally the bill comes and we pay and get up. As we turn to get up, I see they are STILL staring at us. They cannot take their eyes off us.

One of them says: "Is that your daughter?"

I say: "It is not very nice to stare at people."

He says: "Yes but is that your daughter?"

Me: "Yes, she is my daughter. But it is RUDE to stare at people just because they are different."

Then we walked away as they continued to STARE and totally didn't seem to get what we were annoyed about. Mike thinks I shouldn't have even answered their question, but I guess it's easy to say that in hindsight. But I am pretty proud of myself for at least saying something, since I am usually too hesitant and the moment just passes.

I think it is hitting us how much people stare and make rude comments here because during our 3-plus weeks in the US, hardly anyone said anything to us, and we didn't notice anyone staring -- at least not like they do here. It was really nice to just go around in the US with people pretty much ignoring us.

Anyway, in other news, Maya is finally getting over her jet lag -- this morning she woke up at 4:30 a.m., which may sound bad, but is at least almost morning. And we are slowly turning Mike's old office into a play area for Maya. We have dismantled the computer desk and transplanted the bookshelf, and concocted a way to babyproof the sliding glass door. So Maya is well on her way to having an indoor place to play when it is too hot to go to the park -- ironically just in time for the onset of winter. But it will be great for next summer.