One of our testing locations is at CenterPoint Mall. Located down one of the CenterPoint aisles is a Michigan Secretary of State Super Center, a fancy way of saying that they are one of the few customer friendly offices of the state that has Saturday hours (until noon - yippee!). The driver testing organization that I work for used to have a small kiosk located about 20 yards from the SOS Super Center where a secretary would sign up people for road tests or driver training.
Across the aisle from our kiosk was a little snack shop run by an Egyptian couple. CenterPoint was not my regular location but often when I was scheduled there I would pay the snack shop a visit to pick up a healthy lunch; a cold can of Mountain Dew and a bag of Doritos. I should have posted a picture of the empty can and bag on FB labeled - Tuesday lunch, no left overs - but it might make my cousin Gretel physically ill, healthy eater and food poster that she is.
During all the excitement a year and a half ago with the daily protests at Tahir Square I would often spot the owner reading all about the new developments there on his lap top. No doubt, still having a lot of family and friends back home, each day was a mixture of both excitement and fear. I would ask him how things were going there but we had only limited conversation.
Last year I did a road test for an Egyptian man who came in a very nice and expensive car. He had a lot of things made for him in China and because I had been in a business that did a lot of importing we got talking about the ins and outs of that type of business. The key to being successful in import is to have people in those countries that you can trust, who will find you the best suppliers, negotiate fair prices and who can take care of the inevitable problems that come with long distance relationships.
The Egyptian told me that there was a good sized Moslem minority in various areas in China and that he sponsored 4 men to attend university in Cairo for two years. To attend a Moslem university in Egypt was an almost impossible dream for most Moslem families in China. He ended up with locals who were very loyal and this had worked out quite well for him. His problem now was his uncertainty about ever being able to go home again.
CenterPoint Mall underwent a major redo and lo and behold the little snack shop moved in next to us in the quaint but rundown mall in Wyoming that we call home. The last tennant was clothier Christopher Banks and now the Egyptian couple had a lot of extra space. They filled this with rugs (of course), blankets (Justin Bieber looks twice as cute on an 8' by 12' scene, and a variety of other must have goods such as plastic guitairs in purple and pink and sleeping bags with pictures of whatever you can imagine visible underneath their plastic carrying cases.
Oh, did I mention 24" x 36" metal framed pictures sold for $29.95 each? Like the sleeping bags the subject matter is quite varied. One day I was walking past the store (I have not yet stepped inside) and saw three pictures displayed side by side by side. I am not making this up. The first picture had Robert DeNiro and was labeled "Scareface". The second showed Marlon Brando and was labeled "The Godfather". The third showed our current president and was labeled "Obama".
Maybe they sold or perhaps someone pointed out the obvious but two days later only Scareface remained on display upfront. Next to a sleeping bag with green elephants. Next to a desert landscape. Go figure.
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