Because I liked my first walk into the centre quite a lot, I’ve decided to go for a second walk. The two Pakistani colleagues can’t make it today and the others either don’t want to or can’t join. Never mind. I take my Exilim camera and my two BlackBerries and start my walk into the centre.
Because there are no road maps and neither Google Maps nor Apple Maps are really helpful, I try to retrace and go along the way as the first time. I asked in a shop and some students too if there are any road maps, but I received a negative answer. Some students didn’t even know what a road map is and some others asked me why I need one. What for? To find my way round of course! They just shook their heads and walked on. Probably they thought, now comes a silly tourist from the west and is afraid of getting lost in a small town like Ar’ar. I also tried to find the way to the centre on Google Maps and iMaps, but somehow it didn’t work. The way we walked along the first time is not there. In addition, the street in which our workplace is, is neither on Google Maps, nor on iMaps. That’s why I leave and try to retrace my way to the centre. My Egyptian colleague who knows his way round the city very well, said that if I get lost, I should take a photo of a street sign and send it to him by MMS and he’ll come to pick me up.
Although signs point the way, but as you can see in the photo gallery (opens in a new window), they are in Arabic and incomprehensible to me. However, there is a sign that indicates the centre, but from a certain point this sign disappears.
As I pass by on a main road I see many men standing and waiting for something. Male prostitutes? In the middle of the day? I can’t really imagine that. Prostitution is strictly prohibited in this country. In addition, the men look shabby, as if they had worked in the fields or construction sites. There are no Arabs among them. They are all Africans and Asians.
I go a little slower and look around carefully, play the tourist and make photos of buildings and lampposts. Some men look interested in my direction. Probably I’m a curiosity for them as they are for me. As this really bugs me and want to know the reason, I go into a fast-food-restaurant to ask for the reason and buy something to drink. Unfortunately the shop assistant doesn’t speak English, so I don’t find out what the men are doing there. The men stand sometimes alone or in twos or threes and they stand with a few metres distance between them. As I continue to walk, a minibus, one of the sort that drives us to work (same make, same colour, same age, same size, etc), comes along and stops a few metres behind me. I turn around and see how a few men get on the bus. A minute later comes another bus and takes a few men. Later I learn from the security guard of our residence and the egyptian colleague, that those men are workers and go to a main road after their shift and wait for a bus to be driven home. Of course, there is no public transport in this country! People need to get to work and back somehow. So do we. But we don’t have to wait on the road, our bus is parked outside our residence and our driver Mohammed comes every morning, parks his car, we all get on the bus and drive to work.
Some foreign workers (Africans and Asians) ride a bicycle and don’t make use of the bus service. I see this every morning and afternoon at the building site next to our residence. The bicycles are just as old as the buses with which we all are driven to work and back. In the afternoon and the evenings you can see them ride around town for shopping, etc. There are hardly any cycling paths, but the streets are extra wide. However it is not quite safe to drive on the road due to the driving style of the local drivers.
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