Eating With Your Hands in Egypt

Eating with your hands is something that I was always told not to do.

Then I moved to Egypt, and everything changed.

I was confronted with the oh-so-scary Different Way of Doing Things.

It started uncomfortable.

But after doing it enough, it soon become normal.

And eventually, even important to my own growth as a person.

Over-dramatic, but true.

…

Eating without utensils is much more common in Cairo then my country.

In America, that’s just rude.

In America, it’s disrespectful.

But Egypt?

The complete opposite.

Sure, Egyptians have forks and spoons and knives, too.

They just don’t use them as much.

A huge part of the culture is ripping off chunks of bread, picking up vegetables or meat with your bread chunk, and then snacking away.

There’s often no fork and knife; no prim and proper way of avoiding getting your hands greasy.

This is just how it is.

And that’s OK.

…

At first, eating with my hands in Cairo was weird.

I felt like I was doing something wrong.

Like I was refusing to use a perfectly good plate.

Like somehow I was disappointing my mom.

This cultural reality (which exists in so many other countries, as well) wasn’t part of my reality.

And because of that, I felt that by eating with my hands, I was weird.

But I wasn’t.

That was just my own culture following me around, watching me try to fit in, and whispering in my ear that this wasn’t the American way of doing things.

It was uncomfortable, and in experiencing a Different Way of Doing Things, I was confused.

…

But that’s pretty cool, right?

The chance to go outside of your own cultural competency, experience something new, and feel completely out of your own element?

Realizing the world is not like you is not only uncomfortable.

It can be a supremely valuable thing.

It expands your reality.

It makes you a little more understanding.

People that are different from you are no longer weird, but just that.

Different.

When I first got to Egypt and ate food with Egyptians, I thought they were the crazy ones.

Now ripping off a chunk of bread and dipping it in something is quite the rush.

Then again, maybe I’m just a nerd.

…

Either way, Cleo Lingo’s suggestion (if you are a hygienically-inclined Westerner like myself that likes to insist that pasta is consumed with a fork) is to just embrace it.

We all have a tendency to assume the world acts the same way we do.

And that’s just stupid.

Ditch the spoons, and graciously accept (for however long you are in Egypt) a new way of life.

You never know how a Different Way of Doing Things will change the way you see the world.

Eating food is easier that way, anyway!