Another Day, Another Dead Body

When I was told last year that the American University in Cairo would be switching campuses from Tahrir Square to Kattameya, I remember wondering just what kind of transportation experience I could expect. Now as a native New Yorker, born and bred, I am no stranger to transportation woes. The New York subway is chock full of challenges including singing winos on the cars, aggressive rush hour Wall Street types, trains that suddenly stop for an hour mid-station with the lights suddenly going out and of course that odd piss smell in the subway underpass at Port Authority Bus terminal. Having had those experiences, I felt oddly at home in Cairo's Metro as I travelled to Tahrir from my home in Ma'adi. But then we moved campuses and I suddenly was introduced to a whole new level of terror in transportation: The Ring Road. 

I heard stories about the dangers on Ring Road. Not a week goes by that I don't hear or read something about an accident that claimed the lives of one or more people. And being a bus rider on Ring Road, I often get the bird's eye view of cars swerving in and out of lines and stopping short in the middle of the road only to make a completely illegal and frightening U-turn, causing cars to screech to a halt. I had even seen a couple of accidents, complete with crumpled up cars. But today I saw my first real indicator of the horror that is Ring Road. Today I saw my first dead body.

Riding the bus to school this morning at some ungodly hour, I was half dozing when I heard my seat mate let out a gasp as she looked out the window. And there he was. Sprawled out on the side of the road, bare feet and bloodied. The remnants of what was once a human being, now lay like trash on the side of the road, a pool of blood around him. I was told by some of my students later that he was wrapped in newspaper when they saw him. But he hadn't been mummified yet when I lay eyes on him. And its an image that will stay with me. It will be one of the many images that will stay with me when I think of the new campus. It's an image that makes me long for the Metro in Cairo or even the piss-filled subway underpass in New York.