# Strange/Bizarre/Wierd Things you have been told or heard in Egypt



## CatMandoo (Dec 16, 2011)

Top of my list would be a comment made from an orthoepedic doctor. Sitting in his office with a female acquaintance who was experiencing a lot of pain in her leg bones; without ordering any tests, or even examining her, he stated "You know you Americans are famous for your psychiatric problems, that is what is wrong with you". 




I did promptly rip him a new one before we slammed his door on exit!


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## Lanason (Sep 1, 2009)

CatMandoo said:


> Top of my list would be a comment made from an orthoepedic doctor. Sitting in his office with a female acquaintance who was experiencing a lot of pain in her leg bones; without ordering any tests, or even examining her, he stated "You know you Americans are famous for your psychiatric problems, that is what is wrong with you".
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Sounds like a smart guy - do you have his number :eyebrows:


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## CatMandoo (Dec 16, 2011)

Lanason said:


> Sounds like a smart guy - do you have his number :eyebrows:




You get a "like" for your sense of humor.


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## Lanason (Sep 1, 2009)

CatMandoo said:


> You get a "like" for your sense of humor.


errr . . . . I was serious eep:


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## CatMandoo (Dec 16, 2011)

Lanason said:


> errr . . . . I was serious eep:


 Just give me a minute while I look it up

*thinking to myself.. now where did they post those numbers for the phone pervs*


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## PaulAshton (Nov 18, 2011)

As weirdness comes looking for me I have many and I go looking for it, I have many however not suitable for a family forum

I have been told a bus is a taxi when it was a bus, when challenged apparently the bus changes into a taxi after 6pm and the fare goes from 2LE to 40LE 

I have also had an Egyptian inviting us to "schmell....schmell..schmell my finger.."


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## CatMandoo (Dec 16, 2011)

Superstition abounds among many of the locals in Alex.

I used to have this cleaning lady that would go through my trash in the bathroom and bedroom. Gross! I asked her to stop doing this. One day I finally figured out what she was doing. If I had discarded any hair from my hairbrush, she would take it into the bathroom and burn it (window was open so I never caught on till one day when it was raining and I smelled burning hair ew!!

I was discussing this with another woman in Alex and she said that the maid was protecting me. It seems that if someone doesn't like you, or has problem with you, they will take a bit of your hair, and anything else they can find from you garbage and make a little "effigy" out of it. They tie it to a stick or pole in front of your building - to bring bad luck to you.

I was on constant lookout for one of these after being told about it, and did actually see one tied to a street pole in Azarita area.


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## PaulAshton (Nov 18, 2011)

CatMandoo said:


> Superstition abounds among many of the locals in Alex.
> 
> I used to have this cleaning lady that would go through my trash in the bathroom and bedroom. Gross! I asked her to stop doing this. One day I finally figured out what she was doing. If I had discarded any hair from my hairbrush, she would take it into the bathroom and burn it (window was open so I never caught on till one day when it was raining and I smelled burning hair ew!!
> 
> ...


We take all our own rubbish to the skip, except the weeks collection of dog poo

If I find a strange effigy by my door with little eyes made of stones and twig arms I will be scared, the skin tone won't be like mine though


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## marenostrum (Feb 19, 2011)

The weirdest thing I have experienced here in Egypt is reading one of Paul Ashton's posts.


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## RPC (Mar 17, 2011)

I was once walking in Road n. 9 (Maadi) when a taxi (a normal old 4 doors black FIAT 128) stopped in front of a coffee shop ... suddenly, the 2 back doors opened and 2 sheep were pulled out the car.... I had never seen a "sheep" in a taxi before ?!?!?!?!

I wonder what next taxi customers thought when entering for a ride )))

:ranger:


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## Sonrisa (Sep 2, 2010)

I certainly entered some taxi's that smelled like sheep sh it
. Must have been the same taxi.


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## hurghadapat (Mar 26, 2010)

Having to feed new born twins camels milk to stop them turning into cats.

When a boy is circumcised taping the foreskin to his arm until it withers then throwing it into the nile.

When children lose baby teeth they have to be thrown to the sun....no tooth fairy in egypt!!

When moving into a new house or business lighting incense and placing it on floor then you have to step backwards and forewards over it seven times to bring good luck..or get rid of the evil eye.

Slaughtering a sheep then dipping your hand into the blood and leaving your handprint on the glass or building.

Washing the floor with sea water or salt water.....once again to keep the evil eye away.

There are many others but can't recall them all right now....but Egyptians are quite superstitious people.


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## hurghadapat (Mar 26, 2010)

hurghadapat said:


> Having to feed new born twins camels milk to stop them turning into cats.
> 
> When a boy is circumcised taping the foreskin to his arm until it withers then throwing it into the nile.
> 
> ...


Here's a few more!!

Another means of averting the evil eye is to throw dust or dirt after a person who is believed to have cast it as they passed by.Another method is to break a piece of pottery behind the back of someone suspected of possessing the evil eye,this destroyed their power.In Egypt it is believed that hair and nail parings can be used against you if they fall into the hands of someone who wishes to harm you.
It is also a common belief in rural Egypt that the soul can leave the body during sleep and so it is unwise to wake someone suddenly as the soul may not have time to return to the body.


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## MaidenScotland (Jun 6, 2009)

On finding out I am Scottish I was asked on several occasions to shout Freedom.. as I understood the feeling for Palestine as I was living it in Scotland with the English.. Braveheart was still doing the rounds at the time,


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## ArabianNights (Jul 23, 2011)

CatMandoo said:


> You get a "like" for your sense of humor.


Oh come on! Dont tell me that you have never heard of this new fashion craze of teenagers going into rehab and being on anti depressants and sleeping tablets/etc along with the heavy alcohol, drug use and the ever famous Britney Bipolar - which nearly every 1 in 20 American teenagers also have been diagnosed with, ever since Britney Spears, along with a line of other celebs, who have made it 'fashionable'


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## CatMandoo (Dec 16, 2011)

ArabianNights said:


> Oh come on! Dont tell me that you have never heard of this new fashion craze of teenagers going into rehab and being on anti depressants and sleeping tablets/etc along with the heavy alcohol, drug use and the ever famous Britney Bipolar - which nearly every 1 in 20 American teenagers also have been diagnosed with, ever since Britney Spears, along with a line of other celebs, who have made it 'fashionable'


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## ArabianNights (Jul 23, 2011)

CatMandoo said:


>


OK you've lived in Egypt for too long


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## Lanason (Sep 1, 2009)

CatMandoo said:


>


:confused2: me as well - 

must be my sense of humour :tongue1:


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## CatMandoo (Dec 16, 2011)

:noidea: :nerd:


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## ArabianNights (Jul 23, 2011)

Lol


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## SHendra (Oct 18, 2010)

There's a Fortune Teller, a little old lady who walks around on Abou Kir beach(very east or Montazah). She came upto me one day and got a friend of mine to translate that I am in danger of not Egyptian men but of Egyptian women! She said they would be jealous of the whiteness of my skin etc etc and for this reason to protect myself from envy I must carry a piece of fishermans net in my purse! She then gave me this bit of netting and insisted I must put it in my purse. She did not want money at all she just wanted to protect! 

Funny I just realised I still got the netting in a little pocket in my purse, must be working well back here in England I've had no strange happenings at all! lol


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