My Dream to Be Free

by Juergen Stollin

  In Suez or Cairo would be a hotel for the night.

  After consulting with my daughter, who also freaked out quite a bit, we decided to hail a cab and negotiate the fare to Sharm.

  Some taxis stopped but none of them were prepared to drive through the desert at this time of the night.

  But since it was already late and we had pushed the car a few meters from the road into the desert, we decided to stay there and to wait in the car in till morning.

  It was not cold and there was a starry sky, so we made it romantic.

  As always when I was traveling, I had my cool box with drinks and the lunch box with chicken. Despite all the romantic atmosphere, we were both glad when the first rays of the sun appeared on the horizon. Now my brain was also working again and I could think clearly.

  The next taxi driver, who was driving without any passengers, was stopped and I explained to him of his chance of a nice long-distance trip. H agreed and so we loaded our things in his taxi and I placed the rental car's key under the hubcap of the right front wheel.

  At the Ahmed Hamdi Suez Canal tunnel, it was possible to make a phone call. The car rental company was not thrilled that the car was parked at the edge of the road, or in the desert. But I explained to them that I was not impressed having to spend the night in the car. Finally we agreed that they would pick up the car in the desert and would send me a replacement vehicle to Hilton in Sharm el-Sheikh.

  I did not forget to mention where they could find the key.

  The new car actually arrived three days after us in Sharm.

  The taxi driver did a good job. He was a good driver, but unfortunately he got a puncture - no surprise in such roads. The flat front wheel wouldn't have been a problem, if he had had a spare tire with air with him. But his spare tire was also flat. The driver assured me that the tire was intact but unfortunately he had forgotten the tire patcher, and to to pump air into the tire.

  Of course I had just about had it and wanted to know what we

  wanted to do now. His proposal to drive back by the next passing car and to come back with intact tires, sounded reasonable. It was that simple in the desert.

  You had time of course. My daughter was a little upset and I calmed her down with the experience during my hippie-bus travel I calmed and told stories of what had happened to me at that time. After four hours, our taxi driver came back finally in the public service bus "Sharm - Cairo" with his tire. The boy was even so clever and had brought drinks for us. Some vehicles had indeed stopped and asked if we needed assistance. But I answered that everything was fine and the people drove on. We too did that, after the tire was changed.

  We stopped at the only gas station on the way and the driver said that he had inflated the tire.

  I advised him to inflate the other tires, which were still flat, so that we would not be traveling once again with a flat tire. I turned to Maruscha and invited her to come with me to the restaurant, so that we ordered something to eat.

  Our koftas with rice were excellent, perhaps also because we both were very hungry. Finally at eight o'clock in the evening, we reached Sharm and were guests at the place of Lisa and Claude. We stayed there for fourteen days, then drove back to Cairo with the rental car, which had been delivered to us. Maruscha had to go back home, on the one hand and she had a return flight ticket from Cairo. And I on the other hand, had a meeting with Hannes, the rat. The day-to-day life began again.

  A job interview in a four star hotel in Zamalek was on our program. I got the job and was hired as executive chef.

  The contract was effective immediately and for two years with extension if necessary. The salary was even higher than in my last hotel where I was responsible for two hotels. Once a year I had paid a 4 week holiday and a round trip flight ticket to Germany. I could even choose the apartment, they would help me in this. I would get the budget for the apartment added to my salary. I liked the hotel, the director and the contract. So I signed it!

  It was a tourist hotel in the four-star category with almost two hundred rooms, spread over 12 floors and a restaurant on the twelfth floor.

  The main kitchen was in the basement, the reception was on the ground floor, then there was the 24 hours open coffee shop and a bar.

  I found an apartment quickly and I set it up. I didn’t have many things of my own. An international telephone belonged to the apartment, which is very useful because I could call my people, without having to search for a public telephone for a long time. I too could be called at any time. The only drawback was that I could not push on the invoice to the hotel. But everything else was free. Food, drinks, laundry, light, water, just everything that I needed for living. For the first time I was completely satisfied with myself and the world after a long time. Quickly I came to grips with things.

  The owner was a very nice Egyptian, who also had the general representation of a large German chemical company. Its director was an Englishman and all the staff were a huge team.

  In this hotel, you were a human being and were treated as such. Here too I had cooks with beards but they were of a very different nature.

  Renate visited me again and she came with the idea of staying with me forever. She immediately noticed that the hotel was lower than the star category, but could be classified as higher by many classes in the human category. I could convince her that this hotel could become my home for the next few years. So Renate flew back to Germany in order to regulate everything there and to pull up stakes there. I waited for her arrival so that she remained with me always.

  Everything went on very well in my work. My immediate superior was a F&B Manager here too and this man had even a secretary.

  Our hotel had a Spanish name, it was called "Flamenco", like the Spanish dance, so the bars and restaurants had names like Seville, Andalusia or Carmen. So also the menu card. There were several Spanish dishes on it. I had no idea about Spanish cuisine but with the right books that Hannes got me, I quickly found out what and how people cooked and ate in Spain. After a fairly long time, I had perfected it. Now I had a good grip on Indian, Arabic and Spanish cuisine fully.

  Our F&B Manager left us, because he received a good offer in Saudi Arabia and moved there. The owner wanted me to take up this post of F&B but to continue to do the supervising and monitoring duties in the kitchen.

  If I agreed to it, we could change the contract and in the column where the salary was, a new entry would be made.

  I would improve my status by two hundred dollars. I signed the new contract and was the F&B Manager and actively responsible for the kitchen. I believed I was capable of doing something once again. Previously I had been responsible for two hotels and now for two departments. My working hours were sometimes very long. Very often I was already in the hotel at 6 in the morning and monitored the breakfast and the chefs. Then I wanted to sleep for a couple of hours during midday but always something else stopped me and so the day dragged on till 2 a.m. in the morning. This happened so many times. Four hours of free time including sleep, which meant that I was in the hotel for 20 hours. I could not allow this to become a habit.

  The secretary that my predecessor had, and had stopped working along with him, had not been replaced till now.

  My director, who came to know of it, that I was spending so many hours in the hotel, made sure that I got an assistant. Now I could go for work at normal working hours, that was still 14 to 16 hours. My work was not physically strenuous. It was a supervisory job with a great deal of responsibility.

  The staff from the kitchen and the service gave me trouble sometimes, just as the guests as well, when they wanted to make a complaint.

  Then my owner and the director stepped in, when it dealt with costs.

  And finally Renate also came from Germany and I knew that she belonged to the candidates who were complaining, when she noticed what kind of work timings I had.

  Also at my request, Maruscha arrived with her husband.

  An attempt to do some kind of restitutio
n to Maruscha. I promised her to pay the rent at least for half a year, if she came with her husband to Egypt.

  My hope was that I could help the two of them to come out of the vicious circle of their friends, who were all junkies. Mother was thrilled by my idea. She was not feeling so well and it was a relief for her to know that I kept tabs on both of them a bit.

  During the time when I was alone and had my free day, I visited Hannes in his restaurant or rather, his bar. This was because he changed his restaurant, which was not thriving so well, into a flourishing bar. Here you could booze until the early morning hours and enjoy Hannes' meatballs, which had more old breadcrumbs in it than meat. Or you looked for a piece of living meat. Hannes had a collection of African beauties in his bar.

  Direct economic aid becomes development aid

  The girls came either from Sudan or Ethiopia and you could take them for a sum agreed beforehand. It was then either in a cheap dirty hotel or to Mahdi, where these girls had a place to stay. But mostly they lived in a kind of commune as this was cheaper. There were women and girls, who had a family to provide for in their home country. Only due to this reason they turned to prostitution.

  I talked for hours with these people and it was not always the sex drive in the foreground. But most of them did not come away from the girls without having sex. They did not want money as gifts. They gave their body for it. Basically I thought it was right too and legal, since I gave them money, which I had and they needed. For this I got the sex that I wanted to have and certainly also needed. So to speak a direct economic aid locally.

  Or you took her to your place, which I did. This was because I had a "place where I could do what I wanted".

  Hannes also had a free day from his bar in the week and on this day we moved around in Cairo.

  Because Hannes was well-known in the scene, we did not have any problems in going to certain clubs, in which only Africans socialized.

  Those were then really only Sudanese and Ethiopians or men and women from other African countries. No Egyptians or Europeans were otherwise there. Of course we stood out.

  But we were accepted and included because of Hannes. Whether it was in the "Borsalino", "Afrikana" or any other club on the arterial road in the direction of the Pyramids, the girls were already waiting for us, as we well paying guests and were also uncommitted. But at that moment the whole thing turned out to be somewhat more than what I had bargained for.

  For quite some time, there was a Sudanese beauty staying with me, so to speak, a household staff or a girl for everything. It was not very difficult to tell her that she had to find another place to stay.

  Then I totally cleared out my apartment and removed everything that did not belong in a bachelor’s apartment. Then cotton balls came out from under the bed and also other stuff, which a single man should not necessarily have under his bed.

  There were toothbrush glasses with used toothbrushes and some other things in the bath room, which had to be disposed of. I was truly a good boy. The day came and I picked up Renate from the airport.

  A week later I had to pick up Maruscha and Leo, who stayed with us provisionally in the apartment. But we quickly found a cheap apartment on the outskirts of Cairo for Maruscha and Leo, for which I paid six months in advance.

  Since the two had time, they could stay on the outskirts of the city and travel to the city by the metro or even by taxi. But the idea that the two of them would get out of their addiction without their friends was probably a fallacy.

  The two of them had very quickly got the hang of how to get the dope in Cairo.

  They confirmed to me that it was easier than in Germany.

  For this reason, I visited their apartment as often as I could and invited them to us to eat, or even to the hotel. But I could not monitor them. Then I remembered one of my former African acquaintances, Mirja, whom I met by chance at Hannes’ place, when I wanted to drink beer without Renate. I had had a relationship with this African woman some time ago and had also spoken to her about my daughter and her problems.

  She lived with others in a commune, and as chance would have it, right next to the house where Maruscha and Leo lived. I arranged an "accidental" meeting with Mirja and Maruscha and lo and behold, they both liked each other and they became friends. From that day, I did not need to go to Mahdi so often to visit or rather monitor Leo and Maruscha

  The two of them hung out together almost daily at Mirja's place in their commune; they met in Maruscha's apartment to play some games or they often went out into the city together. I knew that Mirja smoked a joint now and then, which was however not bad. But she promised me that she would take care that the two of them did not obtain any hard drugs. They could have hashish and smoke it too but they had to just stay away from the needles.

  But it had to be seen if she would have success.

  For Leo it was all too late.

  He had to go home and it would have been the best, if he could have registered himself for a therapy. The problem was solved on its own. One morning he came to me to the hotel and told me that he wanted to fly back home. But Maruscha would continue to stay here. I got him a ticket and accompanied him together with Maruscha and three girls from Mirja’s commune to the airport. I was relieved to see when he had checked in with the other passengers. But Maruscha already wanted to fly back home as well after a few days.

  I did not have any other choice than getting her a flight ticket to Germany and to bring her to the airport.

  Since there was not much more time remaining in the six months, for which the apartment was rented out, it was not so tragic and I gave back the key to the landlord.

  Almost six exhausting months had passed and I hope that Maruscha would let go of her addiction a bit. But it took months before I heard from her again.

  Meanwhile, I was doing my job in the hotel to everyone's satisfaction, which earned me a good reputation. Since Renate had a lot of time and had asked me to get a job for her, I rented a small shop for her and very much time and you had asked me to get her a work that I have rented a small shop and got items purchased for her. A clean chocolate and pastry shop in pale pink became her dream.

  In Heliopolis, a part of the city of Cairo, there were the "Swiss restaurants, which employed their own Swiss confectioners and butchers, who produced the best chocolates, cakes, pies and sausages. She bought her wares for her small shop from there. The small business made good sales. Soon had Renate to hire two Egyptian women as shop assistants, as otherwise the work would have become too much for her. Also I proved myself as a confectioner and produced chocolates and marzipan products.

  One day Renate opened the shop and a brown, smelly liquid flowed towards her direction. The shop was in a multi-storied residential and commercial building and the sewage pipes of the whole building ran in a corner through Renate's shop. Somewhere on the floor above her there was a pipe leakage and the whole sewage water from toilets and other waste water flowed on the walls and collected in her small shop.

  After much back and forth, as to who should pay for the damages, we came to the conclusion that no one wanted to pay for that. So nothing was done to repair the pipes.

  We had to destroy the wares; the craftsmen came after a fortnight and heaved the old pipes out the wall and then again after a fortnight, we noticed that the pipes were laid in other ways newly. If we wanted to open the shop again, then we had to make sure that the walls were bricked up and we also had to attend to applying a new coat of paint. If we did not want to do that, we could move out but we were told to hand over the shop exactly as how Renate had taken it. The caution deposit, which we had paid, would not be paid back! I closed the shop and threw the key into a gully, directly in front of the building! The owner of the store, who also owned a daily newspaper, never contacted me again. Thus the case was closed.

  Here I noticed again that foreigners were welcome.

  I saved myself the trouble of hiring a lawyer since I already had enough from my Hotel Sapphir
e adventure. The hotel obviously did not have to pay me a cent as compensation. This was because the Sundays, that is, my free days, did not count in the three months. Since I did not work on those days, they did not count them as working days and thus four days were missing per month multiplied into three months, which meant twelve days of the contract.

  In addition, we found out later that I had the same lawyer as the hotel!

  It was in fact the lawyer responsible for the contract law of the hotel.

  I had not ever heard a bigger joke! Also here the same words that if something did not suit me, I could go home.

  That's the way it was, if you were a "Khawagha". Also in case of an accident, you were immediately guilty. The very obvious reason: If you had not been in the country, this accident would not have happened. Always these foreigners! Earlier you were always right, but only as long as the British called the shots. But now the Egyptians were their own masters.

  As for me, it had all been a bit more civilized in Flamenco. There we foreigners had the same rights as the Egyptians or vice versa, our Egyptians had as many rights as we foreigners. That worked out wonderfully, thanks to a good management.

  Our friends from Sinai visited us, Renate and I visited the Sinai, whenever it was possible for us. I was able to alleviate Renate’s dissatisfaction by introducing her to wives of cooks and other Europeans because she did not have anything to do anymore after her sweets shop went bankrupt. There was a large German community in Cairo.

  Renate joined these women and they drove to the Pyramids twice a week, to rent out horses in a riding stall and to ride around behind the Pyramids in the desert. Renate had a lot of fun until one day her horse fell and sent Renate flying of the saddle into the air and she cracked her spine in the bargain.