Alright, it's March 12th, I think. And I'm driving to work. It's a Vogue Day. It's Thursday. It's 8 AM. And I've had a couple of ideas in my head that I want to record, so don't forget them. It's going to be, so Omar is going to have a couple of events that just clearly frustrate me. And I'm going to be waiting about Egypt and these events are, you know, partially for helping the reader to understand the cultural differences, economic differences. But it's not just another place like the United States. And I will forward about... For example, Omar has basically been sitting around the house, you know, the whole time. And it's clear that his mom wants him to be more useful. But maybe she doesn't know how to tell him. I'm not really sure how old that is going to be, how he's going to continue. But, you know, he's going to be a combination of lazy, combination of just, you know, he's got culture shock. He's too afraid to go out. Or perhaps he just, you know, depressed. So, but finally his cousin, who's, Omar is going to be 12, his cousin will be 18, who just came back from Saudi Arabia, where he's... Trying to think the best way to do this. Yeah, his uncle and cousins arrive from Saudi Arabia where they live. And one of the things they're told to do is to go get some stuff from the market. Like bread. And, you've got to be some kind of produce that you can buy in the summertime. And one of the things Omar asks about is, you know, strawberries. I want strawberries. How come there's no strawberries? Or... You know, he gets a more informed answer from his cousin. Why would you expect there to be strawberries? It's not America where you can get everything you want. We have what Egypt grows. That's it. You want strawberries? You've got to go to the fancy import market. In Mughandeseen. So, you know, after, you know, he gives him kind of like an introduction, you know, as to why he can't get certain things. Egypt is basically, you know, the local market of Egypt represents what Egypt can produce. So, you know, he'll say something like, this isn't everything in the world, but at least it's, you know, it's all made in Egypt. It's all grown here in Egypt. You know, maybe he was bragging too about... Because, you know, he lives inside of Arabia. So, you know, he has access to him, you know, via an American... American goods. So, he can talk about some of the same things. But, you know, one might argue that Omar finds him ultimately will find him boring because he's just like another American kid. He doesn't learn anything from this guy. You learn some things, but in the end, you know, his cousin wants to be American for the wrong reasons. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is, his cousin will like American things because they're foreign. And, although he doesn't, he's not necessarily proud of the Egyptian way of life. He understands it, but Jews is not to live it. Whereas, and so Omar basically just sees him as a, you know, just one big sounding board for stuff that's not Egyptian, except that's American or Western. Plus, he won't be there the whole summer anyway. So, anyway, I got to think of a name for him too. Anyway, they go to the, they're in the local markets and outdoor market, although there are tents or, you know, tarps covering the stalls. There's a stall for, you know, each of the different kinds of foods and it's loud and there flies everywhere. And, you know, he feels like some people's eyes are all on him and his cousin quickly says, oh, did he go over to that guy? Let's say oranges for now. I'm not sure if oranges are available in the summer. But I think they should be. Go get some oranges from that guy. So Omar proceeds, Omar is of course very nervous about it. I can do it. I can't do it. You do it. Look, here's, here's some money. Just go over there and say, and just start and get some oranges and say what to do or anything. So Omar goes over there and he starts grabbing the oranges and the guy immediately takes them from his hands and puts them back. And then they Omar tries to grab them again. And before, and the guy looks at him and says, he looks at him confused. And then, look, how many you want? And he says four or five and he makes a gesture with his hand and Omar says five. And then he says, okay, that's three pounds. So Omar gives it in and then he takes some Omar gives him the money. So Omar thinks, oh, all right, I'm getting this done. I didn't know he had to pick him, but he just got a lesson in a lot of things. And so he's learning maybe he's not allowed to pick the fruit. So he takes the bag back and he goes over to his cousin. And now I don't know if his cousin should, you know, throw, you know, get mad right there in the market or if they should take them home. And then, and then someone in the family say something like his uncle. But anyway, what ends up happening is they do get their oranges, but they have to someone, either his cousin or his uncle, goes back there. And they nearly beat the guy up. That's Omar. You know, he's his description of the happening. And as far as he's concerned, looks like a fight just to just to get some oranges. And what he realizes is that, you know, he clearly has, you know, there's luxury to just going and getting to be able to pick out any kind of fruit you want. And I bet you he gets a lesson from his uncle on this either at the dinner table or after. Something to the extent you see Egypt. There is, there is law is in your own hands. Always. If it is happening in Egypt, it's legal. No matter what the law says. If you let him pick your oranges that you're going to eat, then that's how it's going to be. But if you take them, or if you can, you know, if you are able to take your own oranges from him, then that is how it's going to be. You know, there are many people who, you know, just let whatever his name is, the oranges, just let him pick them for him all day long because they're too scared, they're too afraid to stand up to him and get what they want. And then there are those who won't take no for an answer. This is just how Egypt is. They either get rich or they die trying. So that's kind of the lesson that, and so Omar learns through all of this that, you know, people are struggling in this place. And they put up with a lot of crap, stuff that, you know, he wouldn't even know what to deal with, what to do with. He had even faced with those kinds of things. And so, yeah, so that's the incident at the market. What else? There's taking the bus. And the bus will be interesting because maybe, maybe there will be some kind of resolution later in the story where Omar can prove that he's kind of grown a little and become a little more, you know, Egyptian where he can actually go out and buy the produce himself. But he does it his own way. He doesn't strong arm. The seller. He is just nice. He's just nice. And, you know, maybe they're also scared of him, but, you know, he gets it done. So anyway, the other incident is actually is taking the bus. And that is when Omar learns that he actually has to get on the bus. Get on the bus. That doesn't stop. It slows down, but it doesn't stop. He was shocked when he found out. I think maybe he goes with one of his cousins. And he's too afraid to get on. Maybe his cousin runs and gets on. And he doesn't even know what to do. He's standing there. He can't believe his cousin just ran. Got on a bus. So the first time the bus takes off and with his cousin on it and then Omar realizes it's too late. And he has to chase the bus down the streets of Cairo. And so that's an adventure all in itself where he's running through the streets and he almost gets hit by a car. And finally, he catches up with his cousin who's yelling at him. He's like, why didn't you get on? He's like, you didn't tell me I had to run. Why didn't stop? The buses here don't stop. For men, they stop only for women. What the hell are you talking about? It's true. If you're a woman, the bus will stop. Not for long, but it'll stop. Men, forget it. You better run to get on the bus. Tell me I have to run to get on a large moving vehicle in the middle of traffic. Don't think of it that way. Just think the bus slows down, run, get on bus. That's all you have to think. Don't think like American lawyer. Just get on bus. So he gets on the bus. But the funny thing is that there's no, the second time around, they practice it a couple times. They get where they're, well, first of all, okay, so after he tries to tell Omar to do it, they end up, Omar chickens out. He can't do it. He's not going to run to get on a bus. So they end up taking the cab. They just take the cab and my mom will pay you. And of course, he's cousin never for once. You know, asks for money from his mom. But yeah, so they take a cab and even the cab experience is kind of funny. Because he tells Omar don't say anything when they get in the cab. And then that will be Omar's first experience at riding. They have a driver the whole time when they go places. Or perhaps there's something different about this cab driver that makes Omar remember trying to figure out one's the best time to talk about it. Because why will this cab ride be any different than for first of all, will he have taken a cab before? Or what if he does all that tour see stuff is that done in the cab or is that done with the driver? We'll see maybe they have an argument before they leave and they find out the driver is not available. But see this is Chopra. But they're from Saudi Arabia. So they want the driver. Well, maybe the cab driver that they know and trust is not available. So you can see every trip that his mom took was with this one cab driver who the family trusted. So they paid beforehand or Usra took care of it. So Omar never thought anything of it. It's a cab. This one was the real thing. This guy basically was like an Indy car racer. I mean NASCAR driver. Yeah, I got to say NASCAR because it'll be cool. But Omar will describe the kinds of moves he makes. He just won't be able to be blown away by his driving. So that afternoon when they thought they were going to take the bus they had a crazy cab ride. And the cab ride ended up being the most memorable thing. So it'll be stuff like we passed a guy on a donkey with a trailer full of whatever we passed a family on their mo pet. And I passed a herd of camels. I kid you not. But ultimately another triumph for Omar is when he can actually get on the bus. And it feels good. It brings him closer to the country. He's going to learn the country that he almost lived in. So his father is going to make him think about who his father is because his father wanted to send the family to Egypt. He hated him for that. He secretly was happy when he died because then he knew he wasn't going to Egypt. He just gets rid of all that guilt for being happy. So yeah, that's what I mean, these thoughts back on track here. Omar sees the kinds of things that need improving in Egypt. And he knew that his dad always felt like, look, the United States doesn't need any more help. It's perfect, it's fine as it is. What needs help for countries like Egypt? That's why I want to go back because his dad was always depressed. Not because he felt like he was the one who got everything and no one else got anything. So anyway, he understood that his dad had a real purpose. His dad was trying to, you know, had envisioned a day in Egypt where they could, everyone in the world could get their own fruit the way they wanted to. You didn't have to run to get on the bus and you didn't have to argue with your cab driver who obeyed the laws of the road. Because it made Egypt a better country. It made everyone better. He saw that the entire system would benefit from this. But that's why he's dead because it stressed him out so much that he had a heart attack and died. But Omar finally sees it. He sees that, you know, that's what his dad was trying to do. I mean, he experiences the kinds of things that his dad wanted to improve on. So yeah, that's another part of the story. And an explanation, a chapter explaining how, you know, how his dad died, who he was. Maybe he found some letters that his dad would send to his uncle. But then that would be written in Arabic and he came right here. Maybe he found some things that his dad sent along in a package and didn't realize that maybe he packed up a tape he had intended for Omar and his brother. It's possible. I'm sure that's going to work. So there's got to be some realization. Well, there's some, there's got to be some way to tell his dad's story. I don't know how I'm going to marry that part. It's going to segue into all that. So I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I include the story of buying the produce and include the story about trying to take the bus and then ultimately taking a cab. And then what about just trying to get a coke? Maybe. I don't know. Going between all the different vendors in downtown, Cairo hoping for someone who still has a block of ice in their cooler and won't sell him a hot coke. Hot soda. So yeah, that could be another funny thing for kids. But yeah. Now I still have to figure out how she's going to contact Omar for the first time. And so now she will be the daughter of let's just say Magda for now. The woman, the ex fiance, his father's ex fiance, Magda will be so distraught, hurt by the, you know, you see there, an underlying theme here is the theme. Is can we truly chase our dreams or how do we turn? How do we responsibly chase our dreams? I mean Omar's mom met a friend and she wrote to her. But then one day she decided I'm going to make this, you know, a real friend, a husband. How do you do that? How do you leave your life and create a new one without disrupting the disruption? Is the disruption worth it? I mean why couldn't you find someone like, you know, his father in Texas? Why did you have to go disrupt everything? I think that's a struggle that he's always had and he doesn't understand. And the same goes for his dad. He's like, you were, you were living your life just fine. You met an Egyptian girl and in the minute you find out your pen pals writing you again, you throw everything away for a letter. Is that disruption worth it? So Omar, and he sees the, he meets the daughter of, you know, the woman his dad was supposed to marry. So in some ways she's, he feels a kin, I don't want to say, he feels close to her. But he doesn't, does he know? No, he doesn't know. She knows. Or maybe she doesn't know either. She finds out. What would typically happen? My mom says, don't talk to those people. We don't talk to them. That's that. Yeah. And I had to talk to you. But how? Why? So she found this photograph of a man smoking a cigarette in her mom's collection. The man is not her father. Okay. She doesn't understand. You know, one, she's not going to tell her mom where she found it because then her mom will know that she's been snooping in her personal private things. And two, once she found it, she couldn't go of it. Or maybe something happened, she couldn't put it back. Either way, she suspects that, you know, there was a day when her mom was looking for it. And she was extremely upset. She wouldn't tell her why. But she suspected it was because of that photograph of a man. So anyway, the man with the cigarette, when she sees Omar play, you know, play act smoking with his chocolate cigarette. She's like, she sees the man. Maybe she has, you know, a moment where she thinks she actually sees him in the apartment on the other side of the street. But she doesn't. So yeah. I'm trying to think how they initiate, you know, so when she sees him, that's what makes her immediately want to talk to him and find out who he is. Because she thinks he's related to that man. Why would my mom have, yeah, so that's what makes Omar start snooping around in his mom's things. I would, my mom have a picture of your father, if our families don't talk. So one of the things here, the families don't talk, right? To, they're not allowed to just go out and public and talk. So there's a language barrier. And for, they can't write letters because it'll be weird. I mean, the postman will look at this and say, you want to just send this across the way? Well, then just give it to her. And plus people will find out. So one day when he's sitting with Charles cigarettes, he notices her looking at him. And she's mesmerized. She cannot believe that he looks the way he does. You know, that she's, he is the man in the photograph to her as far as she's concerned. It's not like she saw a ghost. It's like she saw, not even if she saw a genie. What would make someone amazed and not scared? Well, maybe she would be scared. I don't know. But yeah. So one day he's on his balcony. He's reading one of his comic books. And takes a puff of his cigarette. Who's he trying to mimic? Let's think about that. But, but either way. And then he hears a scream maybe. Not really sure. And then the shutters close across the street across the alley. And then he wonders what just happened. So he gets up from his reading and he sees someone peeking out at him through the shutters. And he doesn't know what to do. So he's like third floor up. But he doesn't want to make a scene. He hates making scenes. So he's not going to sit there and call out to her. Plus he doesn't even know who she is. Yeah. So she, but then let's say after about 30 minutes, he looks up and they're open again. Or he hears the latch open. But he sees that she's, you know, it's just darkness. And then a figure emerges from the darkness. And it's her. But she's holding a sign. And the sign is an Arabic. And of course, he can't read the Arabic. Or she's holding the chalkboard. No, why would you have a chalkboard? Yeah. First is a sign. And then later she'll realize it's better to have something she can erase her footsteps. And then it's a good one. And if you were writing notes across the way, or he was hit with a piece of paper. And she that good at throwing. Maybe. That would be kind of interesting. That she throws the note over to his balcony. And so. So pause it.

Alright, so yeah, he gets hit on the head with a note. And in that note, it's written in Arabic. And he just doesn't know what to do because he can't speak. He can't read a right Arabic. And he knows he... Maybe he shows it to his cousin and he says the girl across the way through this that. And his cousin looks at it and shakes his head and just does nothing. But yeah, it's his cousin who's leaving so you can't help him because he's the only one you can translate. So yeah. So he just tells him, look, she likes you. This one, this is trouble. I can't, you know, I don't know how to just say it. I'm not using the right words, but this one, this is trouble. And so it's of course in Trees, Omar. But he doesn't even know how to say, my can't, you know. So he just says, maybe he just tells her English. And see where that gets him. But he's got to wait when she appears again. He doesn't know when the next window of opportunities go. Well, it happens, let's say, the next day. And because maybe her mom came home or his dad came home. I mean, her dad. Yeah, so does this girl have a broken home? You know, and I know. But so anyway. She appears and he throws the note across over the balcony. And he figured if anyone finds a piece of paper, they're not going to know what to think of it anymore. So, you know, he just, so she looks at it and she's like, maybe he watches her read it. I don't know. Maybe he, yeah. And she, she sighs. Maybe she tosses her hands up like, what am I going to do? I can't write English. So, but that is how their correspondence begins. And... Or maybe he, well, the basket would be too conspicuous. Maybe he would have to hide it in the laundry. Or maybe just throwing would just have to suffice. And if you suggest throwing, then that means they both have to be getting throwing. What do they do if they miss who does what? What happens to the one that someone finds on the ground? And what happens? Right, many copies. And she's not going to throw the photograph over her. So, she doesn't know how to show him a picture. So, one of the first things she does is ask him, you know, who he is. And all he, you know, all he, he, so she has no idea who his father is. Because her mom basically never mentioned him. As far as she was concerned, the family that lived across the street had only, you know, two brothers instead of three. So, yeah. So, yeah. So, yeah. So, yeah.