Moustafa – Spoofy Randomness

Miss or Not, Part 2

And that, my friends, is a wrap on Not on a Camel! This is the last comic of the series. It’s been a good run, but my contract is up and I’m back in America now so it’s time to end it. Thank you to everyone who read my silly little comic.

Josh gets a cameo here for the sole reason of I needed someone taller than me because of the panel design. And panel two is true in two senses: sometimes, especially with foreign languages, what is meant as a good-natured joke doesn’t always land and I was being cautious, and there was so much stuff at that school that was completely ridiculous/sometimes edging on the illegal side that it would not present well…

I did get the worst food poisoning of the entire two years the weekend before I was due to come home, hence the lateness of this comic. Not fun when needing to pack.

The final panel obviously does not include everyone I met, but I just didn’t have room/skill to draw everyone. I tried to stick to people who had appeared previously, but Rhonda did get to appear for the first time. She is a teacher at Schutz that I got to be good friends with and would have likely appeared in the comic had my update schedule been better this year.

And yes, that is a picture of my visa with ‘WORK IS NOT PERMITTYED’ circled (I did not add the circling). That was a thing that caused much frustration, including (as I later discovered) some of the issues with getting into Turkey. One of the requirements for me to stay at this job was to go to the visa office every few months and lie to a government official, claiming I’m a tourist. That is an experience I will never do again and I absolutely hated it, to the point that I almost left multiple times and probably should have (note: this was not revealed to me until I was already in the country, one of many omissions I encountered). The only thing that kept me from doing so was my life outside of work; I didn’t want to jump ship without completing what I set out to do.

That being said, overall the last two years was a very positive experience and I’m glad I did it. To my friends in Egypt, I miss you already! To everyone else, Egypt is a wonderful and safe place and I hope you get the chance to go sometime!

July 3, 2019

Egypatman

Oh hey, looky. A new comic! It’s been a while. I don’t know that this will become a regular thing like before, but I’ve benefitted from the break and I have a few new ideas bouncing around. I think I will stick to Wednesday updates, though. Not likely going to update next week as I’ll be in London with Meagan!

I bought said shirt when Sarah, Moustafa, and I spent our fall break in Dahab. The reality of this comic is that I really needed no convincing. This should surprise no one.

The Superman shirt is one that I saw in Dubai last year and I regret not buying it. That’s the Arabic equivalent of our “S”.

December 26, 2018

Fasting

I have also learned that ordering food off of Otlob (a food delivery service that has around 100 restaurants on it) is pretty much a crap shoot during Ramadan. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, and sometimes they accept the order and then the restaurant closes and who knows if you’ll get the food or not.

I had realized the food and water fasting, but it hadn’t quite clicked for me that this would also include coffee. Short of sleep + caffeine withdrawal = whee… Yet another reason I’m sort of thankful I was forced to give up caffeine.

I think this is the first time I’ve actually shown a generic student…in a comic about teaching in Egypt…huh. There are some reasons for this, which I will probably elaborate on in later comics.

(Wanna buy some black market water…?)

May 23, 2018

Egyptian Wedding II

AAH! I HAVE TO DRAW EXTRAS! NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

…Ahem. Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system… One thing that was exciting about Meagan visiting was that we could go places together! Alas, dancing did not get to happen, as in Egyptian culture the men all dance on one side of the room and the women on the other. (This also describes American middle school dances, but for different reasons…) Sarah and Moustafa did get some dances together, but a lot of the time even they were separated.

This comic ends the strips about Meagan’s visit. Back to my ‘normal’ life next week! Also, stay tuned for the comic’s summer plans; I should be announcing those by the end of the month!

May 9, 2018

Egyptian Wedding I

Meagan and I did enjoy attending Sarah and Moustafa’s wedding, but Egyptians definitely like things on the LOUD side!

I finally figured out how to free transform text in ClipStudio! Yay! This has been something that has been driving me crazy (but not crazy enough to Google it, apparently).

May 2, 2018

Sister Visit II

Happy New Year! Okay, done with fog comics. But it did help me get caught back up! End of term was a little more hectic than I would have liked (partly due to razzum frazzum grade report issues and partly due to Turkey issues).

Moustafa gets all the awesome points for putting up with this chaos without complaint. It got further complicated by the fact that both of our phones died (weak cell signal at the airport…) and he also had to bring his fiancée to the airport (and should have been spending the day with her instead of stuck at an airport with me), so when we realized that those waiting to depart had been taken to a hotel, we figured we should have some time to run back to Alex, get Sarah and power, and head back hopefully before Wendy landed. Moustafa took Sarah to the arrivals and I ran over to the departures just as people started coming out of the airport. Success!

January 3, 2018

Sister Visit I

Merry Christmas!

In case it’s a little foggy (ahem), my speech bubbles are on the left and Moustafa’s are on the right.

This marks the first of a series of strips showing my sister’s Christmas visit to Egypt. Our whole trip will not be documented in comic form, but there are a few moments that were ‘comic worthy’. I’ll comment more on this particular situation in next week’s comic. Suffice to say that I had not seen fog like this in Alexandria until that day, go figure. I’m just glad I was not going home that morning like some of the foreign teachers did. And it had to happen on the first trip someone made to Egypt; I had bought Wendy a SIM card, but she obviously did not have it yet. She will be passing it off and I’ll put money on the account when someone comes so that we don’t have this situation again, but I didn’t have a non-$50-shipping way to pass it off to her to start with.

Because of Borg El Arab’s distance and remote location (the airport in Alex is closed for an indefinite time for renovations; it was supposed to reopen in 2014 but then the revolution happened), I’ve discovered that flying in and out of Cairo is almost as convenient. A little longer to get home, but it’s MUCH cheaper to fly there and the train system between Alex and Cairo is cheap and comfortable. Wendy and I also discovered that domestic flights in Cairo have almost no lines and that part of the airport is nice and quiet; it was an enjoyable experience.

Speaking of the revolution, one side effect of it was that you cannot go into the airport unless you have a ticket. This was confusing to me when I first arrived, as my driver was not able to greet me at the gate and it took a bit to figure out that I had to LEAVE the airport. This also meant that Moustafa and I couldn’t go into the warm building and find a comfy seat next to an arrivals screen, so we had to sleep in his car. (The lack of an arrivals screen is REALLY annoying.)

The Arabic in the comic should give my Egyptian friends a chuckle. I apologize for poor translations. Also, apparently ClipStudio does not like Arabic (or I don’t know how to make it like Arabic, which is equally likely) because it goes from right to left, so I had to screenshot Arabic text from Google Translate and bring the image in. This is the gripping behind-the-scenes stuff y’all come for, I know.

December 27, 2017

Dr Pepper

First of all, let me make one thing clear: if you are not Muslim, DO NOT TRY THIS JOKE. Alcohol is harām in Muslim faith, meaning that it is forbidden to drink it. Moustafa and Aya were also drinking Dr Pepper when they pulled this one on Alaa (and obviously the Dr Pepper was not spiked). It resulted in much hilarity. It also led to the discovery that Dr Pepper is available at one grocery store! We then had a hard time convincing Moustafa that root beer doesn’t have alcohol despite having beer in its name.

Because Egypt is approximately 90% Muslim, this also means that it is difficult–but not impossible–to find alcohol here. Most upper-class hotels do allow foreigners to come in for a drink, and there is one chain of stores (appropriately called Drinkies) allowed to sell it, but apparently not corkscrews to open the wine, oops. I don’t drink much so it’s not a big inconvenience, but if you’re the type to enjoy a good brew with your dinner, you’re gonna be severely limited in your restaurant choices. But hey, drunk driving isn’t really an issue here! You just have to watch out for all of the normal drivers…

Lots more people showing up in the comic! I tried to show everyone who was at Thanksgiving. I thought I had everyone, then I realized I didn’t draw myself. Oh well. Oddly, I have not shown many Egyptians in the comic. That should be changing as I make more friends and attempt to learn more Arabic. Emphasis on ‘attempt’.

November 29, 2017

Character: Moustafa

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