why wy?

My name is Omar, he said, you know, like Omar Shariff?
We are both Egyptian. I know him too... nah just kidding.

I had a four hour shift in the basement carpark today, and at least Omar, who was the rostered security person there, made it interesting. He was impressed by my knowledge of egyptian/arabic things, like sham el sheik, sheesha, haj, which I guess is more than the average australian. I didn't tell him that was the limit of my knowledge though.

Here to study tourism, he works as a security guard at the footy and also at the fish market (crazy 1.30 am to 7am shifts). He is also just married (still saving for the traditional ceremony), and has short clips of his wife on his phone. It's a pretty cool story, he was feeling lonely here, and his friend arranged for him to meet his future wife... at the airport. His friend was going to pick up someone, and she was also going to be there, and her family.

"we didn't talk at all, just said hello. Then her mother said well, do you like this guy, and she said okay, so I went over to her house for a BBQ. But we were never alone, we would be in one room and her family will be in next room.''

""Then her family, they say, we like you but we don't know your family. So we went over to Eygpt for a month, and they met my family, and we got married at the mosque.''

As you can tell, he is rather traditional, he doesn't believe that women should go out dancing by themselves, or receive kisses from other men, even friendly pecks. He tried to get me off pork, saying I should pour coke over a piece of raw meat, and the worms will come out.

"If you see that, I'm sure you won't eat pork.''
Me, thinking of siew yoke (crispy pork), shook my head.
"What? Even if you see worms?''
I guess if you can eat roadside food in south East Asia, then you are not the sort to worry too much about hygiene.

I think he gave up on me as a lost cause then (he was also telling me about religion, and if I had ever thought about who created the world and people - I kinda said it never really bothered me), anyway my shift was almost up.
salam aleikum omar.