Zills

A brother in the US had asked me to pick up some zills or finger cymbals for him. These are the type of cymbals used in dancing, like belly dancing or spanish dancing. I agreed because I am pretty much easy going and figured it wouldn't be that much a hassle and probably not that expensive. So I ask brother A, to pick some up. He look at me kind of funny like each time I ask and moves his fingers and thumbs together, and remembers and says, oh yeah, the belly dancer thing they use. I respond, "yeah brother, hand cymbals, zills." Then he always says that he will get some. I explain they are for an important brother in the states, each time, and he agrees. But we have been running doing odds and ends all week. So I ask again and this time he says he will for sure.

So, we pull in front of his shop, where he sells statues, legal antiques and such and he has his nephew come over. His much younger, about sixteen, nephew is there as well. So he tells us he is going to have his older nephew pick the zills up, since he knows where to go to get some good ones. He tells me to give him, a 50 or a 100 Egyptian, I don't remember which, whatever the case, under 20 US. So he gives this to his nephew and in Arabic explains what we want. The younger nephew just starts busting up. My wife is in the car with me and the assumption is that we want them for ourselves, to do sexy night time dances, or whatever. He is looking back and forth between me and Candice and just busting up.

We look at him and recognize this. They all speak manageable English so we explain that this is for a shipment to the states. They still are looking like, yeah, right. So we explain it seriously and Brother A, clears it up. We have a bunch to do, so we head off and go into the city part of Luxor, head to our favorite spot, and have turkish coffee and tea.

We return home and we go in and eat and such. Later on that evening, I call Brother A, and his phone is off. I assume he is asleep. Later we go to the cafe down the street and have coffee. He tells me that he was indeed asleep earlier, but that he had been interrupted in his sleep.

Brother A's nephew had brought the zills and left them with his wife while he was asleep. His wife got the package, opened it and went directly to where he was asleep. He told me that he was in deep sleep when she asked, "what's going on with you? You going out at night dressed all fancy. What you up to?" She yanked the cover and blanket off the bed and threw the zills down. He had to explain that they were not for him, not for some secret liason, but for his American brother. Further, he had to explain that they weren't really for us, but for us to send them back to the states. Yeah.

So, anyway, he managed to explain all this, somehow in Arabic, and everything is cool but I wish I could have been there to see that one. Talk about too funny.

I will try to catch a photo of the zills before they get sent. But hopefully they are on their way to the US already.