I really wanted to get my friend’s kids gifts from Egypt. I had spied some small stuffed camels in Cairo, and figured that would be good. But after traveling for almost 2 weeks, I still hadn’t found the right ones yet. Some were too big, some were to scary (really, dancing and singing stuffed camels are weird), some were made…of real camel? I was hoping for something small, something that wouldn’t be made of questionable materials, and something cheap. While in the Luxor souk I wandered into a shop that had these small camel keychains. The young seller made small talk as he shut the door so we could negotiate. He tried to get me to buy a dancing camel but I explained that would scare kids. I wanted to get 4 (3 for the kids, and one for me) but he kept at a higher price. We almost walked out twice, but my great friend Elizabeth help navigate us to the price I wanted to pay, around $10 USD I think.
I had gotten two kinds of camels, 2 standing and 2 sitting. I kept one of the sitting camels, because hey, riding a standing one was terrifying, so I much prefer them sitting down. When I gave the kids their camels, I had them guess what I had gotten them from Egypt. I didn’t know if they even knew what Egypt was or where it was located. But the kids were smarter than I had given them credit for. Being little, one shouted SAND! I started laughing. I was happy they had a concept of where I had traveled to. “Sorry kid, if I knew you wanted sand that would have been a lot easier!” And he was actually really disappointed it was a camel and not sand. Well now I know!
Souvenir Saturday is an every-other week series on the items that represent travel memories.
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