208 CultureShock! Egypt
bottles, fi ll them with tap water and sell them to customers
as bottled water. If someone tries to sell you a bottle of water
with the seal broken, politely request another bottle with the
seal intact. If they say this is all they have, thank them and
go to another vendor.
After a while, you will begin to slack off on the bottled
water and ‘germ-free’ imperative. This is particularly true
if you are integrating into Egyptian society. When you are
invited to someone’s home, it is extremely rude to refuse
your host’s hospitality and not eat their food, whether it is
a tomato and cucumber salad or fresh grapes. Usually, you
will be offered a variety of drinks such as colas or fruit juice
as well as water. If you are still on a strict regimen of bottled
water, and water is what you want to drink with your meal,
just take your water with you. Everyone understands the
newcomer’s concern with drinking water. So, it will not seem
rude or even unnecessarily strange for you to be cuddling a
bottle of water when you appear (unless, of course, you have
been living there for six months or a year, in which case you
will be perceived to be very strange indeed).
You will not fi nd chilled, public drinking fountains in
Egypt, except perhaps in better hotels. Instead, you will
notice large pottery jugs full of water located at various fairly
inconspicuous places along the streets. The jugs keep the
water cool and are there for all to drink. These are public
drinking fountains, Egyptian-style. You will notice that people
walk along, stop, say a few words (perhaps), maybe give the
storekeeper a small tip, pour water into the community cup,
take a drink of water and continue on their way. Unless you
are well adapted to Egyptian life, it is probably best to avoid
drinking from public water jugs.Spice Glossary English/Egyptian
English Egyptian Arabic
allspice boharaat, bohar
ammonia (powdered) nashader
anise yansoun