My Bookmark

There were a few vendors around the Sphinx. The one I talked with was a little boy 10, 12 maybe. He approached me to buy some papyrus bookmarks. I just said “Le Shukran,” he said “English, that’s nice." He smiled a true with his eyes smile and left. I continued to hang out by the Sphinx as I didn’t know where the others were. The boy returned several times. Each time I just smiled and said “Le Shukran” and he left me alone for a bit. It evolved into mutual smiles as we went through the motions of request and refusal. This led to smiles and chuckles in the course of the request.

Finally the heat was too much and I decided to return to the temple and find the others. As I headed out, I heard an older girl yelling at him. They were right in the middle of the crowd and she was very angry. I tried not to scowl, who am I to form or pass judgment? I don’t know their reality or the situation; I know nothing about this country and its people. I know nothing about being 12 and standing in 100 + degree heat, with no shade, selling stuff all day. Despite this, I don't possess a "poker face," it might have inadvertently shown…shock that she would, amidst the crowd, yell at this boy. It was like an alternate reality, maybe the heat affected my perceptions?

A minute later as I headed down the ramp to the temple I heard “Madam” and turned around. It was the boy. He held out a bookmark and said “for you, a gift” and broke into a big grin. I said “thank you, um ... shukran!" he ran off and I continued down the ramp.

Since this situation I’ve seen many “gifts” offered, but they usually seemed to be in the context of expecting the gift to draw in a sale. Or if you are paying a ridiculously high amount for something, due to being a poor bargainer (such as myself) a gift might be thrown in. It’s nice, takes the sting off of knowing you’re paying too much, but it also lets you know that you are paying too much! It’s a very interesting and exhausting dynamic.

This situation remained different because this boy did not wait around for me to decide to buy more bookmarks or anything else. He gave me the gift and then quickly turned around and ran back to the crowd. This felt genuine, as if he enjoyed our little banter with smiles and chuckles. Or maybe he saw the expression on my face when the older girl was yelling at him? Whatever the reason, this felt genuine.