my doorman’s view

Most buildings in Cairo have a bawwab, or doorman, sometimes more than one. They tend to come from the South, and in many cases they stay on a job for only half a year or so before moving to another building; others stay for years at a time at one place. Their job is to keep an eye on who enters and exits the building, and to clean the stairs and the entryway once per week. Generally they sleep in the lobby of the building itself, often on a primitive cot. They earn next to nothing, so it’s important to tip them fairly well each month. Indeed, I tend to let them carry my luggage upstairs for an extra tip whenever I return from the airport.

My current bawwab is named Alaa, and he looks to be 25 or younger. He’s more taciturn than my maid, but he’s now happier than I’ve ever seen him. He has a big Egyptian flag planted in a large flower pot in front of the building. While leaving tonight I congratulated him on the flag, and congratulated him on Egypt more generally. He flashed the biggest possible smile and started congratulating Egypt himself, and now he does the same every time I enter and exit the building. For many people here, there has been a total change of mindset that is hard to imagine unless you saw both the “before” and “after” photos.