Piped Gas

My endless wait for the bohab to rouse himself to replace my empty gas cylinder is finally going to be over! We are going to get piped gas!

After weeks of promising to turn up to install the gas pipes, the workers finally land up on the one day that my maid takes off. Out of fear of further procastination, I allow them to work in the kitchen, and, now, it looks like the khamaseen had visited!

I look around the kitchen to take account of the damages - a hole in the wall which he will patch up tomorrow (inshaallah), cement dust all over the floor, broken legs of the cooking range (now I wonder how he managed that?) and, a grining worker who nods towards the pipe and grins and asks me "kwayyis (good)?" I cant help but grin back. There is something so irrepressible about the Egyptians that you can't help but grin back even in resignation!

"bukra mumkin (possible tomorrow)? " I ask in my faltering Arabic, hoping that this will end tomorrow. If it was not bad enough to have the contruction work outside the house, it seemed like I had carried it right into my home. "Hadr, mumkin bukra (Yes, possible tomorrow)" and some other stuff which I am afraid I did not quite understand!

"Feyn (when)?" I ask hesitantly, hoping that this would not be another day long vigil. The man, very engaging smiled and shrugged his shoulders. So great, there go my plans for tomorrow in smoke, but hey I think its worth the sacrifice, if I can get piped gas from tomorrow!