Summary in seconds: the story behind the blog’s name “Under the Light Pole,” a tale of a small Egyptian Town from the middle of the twentieth century till now.
I grew up in Port Fouad1, a small town at the northeast corner of the Sinai Peninsula. At that time, in the 1950s, Port Fouad was an Egyptian town in name only. The town was, more or less, a property of the Suez Canal Company2, a Paris-based global conglomerate from the colonial era. French influences were everywhere, from the wide roads with green islands overflowing with carefully selected colored flowers and aging trees that were a testament to a deeply rooted French firm grip that started many decades earlier.
A wide road divided Port Fouad into two sectors. To the north of that road, top company executives lived with their families in large villas surrounded by extended gardens with a variety of trees. Most of these trees were from the area, while others were not native to Egypt. These foreign-born trees were probably imported from France to prevent French top executives and their families from getting home sick. To the south of that dividing road, different levels of the Suez Canal Company workers lived, from mid-level management to bottom earners. There were all sorts of villas with varying levels of luxury to suite the variety of the company’s pay scale. However, in general, each house was a decent villa-style home with a garden full of fruit trees. Ours was one of them, and we had three lemon trees.
With each family living in its villa, Port Fouad was not crowded, there were few cars in the streets, and almost every resident, regardless of age, gender, or socioeconomic status, either walked or rode a bike to wherever they were heading.
There were few multi-story buildings to serve “others” who did not work for “The Company.” They were mostly providing a variety of services for the rest of us.
Up to the 1956 war3, Port Fouad was a multicultural community. There were sizable communities of non-Egyptians, mainly from France, Greece, and Italy, who lived among us. We, and probably they too, considered ourselves natives of Port Fouad.
On an abandoned plot, at the edge of Port Fouad, stood a single-story home. This castaway building seemed timid to show itself above street level. It was tucked underground, with only the roof popping up a few inches above road-side dirt. A family lived in this house. They sold milk and some dairy products, mainly yogurt. There youngest kid used to drive around town on a bike cart4, selling yogurt. He was my junior high-classmate and a close friend of mine. His name was “Zaki,” which means “smart” in Arabic.
My mom used to send me to the bakery or grocery store to get n item or two that she needed for preparing dinner. Zaki’s house was on my route to the market area, and there was a light pole nearby. Walking alone in the dimly lit streets, I used to see Zaki sitting under the light pole doing his homework; his family did not have electricity in their house.
On the last day of my ninth-grade year, a group of my classmates were loudly discussing the submission of our applications for next year’s high school. Zaki was present, but he remained quiet. I asked him, “which high school are you planning to attend?” He responded, “I’m not going to high school; I intend to apply for a trade school to learn a craft.” Zaki was a bright student, and despite his challenging circumstances, his grades were high enough to secure a spot in high school. When I asked him “why?” He said “you have visited my home and you are aware of our living conditions. What purpose would a high school diploma serve me? I have no plans for college, as I cannot afford it.”
A year later, the 1967 war5 with Israel displaced a lot of Port Fouad residents, including Zaki’s family. Following that, I continued my early evening walks to the market. Not much had changed, but under the dimly lit light pole, Zaki was no longer there, and I have never seen him since. Top of Form
References:
1. Port Fouad:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Fuad
2. Suez Canal Company:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Company_(1858%E2%80%931997)
3. 1956 war: also known as “The Suez Crisis”, “The Second Arab–Israeli war”, or “The Tripartite Aggression”. It was an invasion of Egypt in late 1956 by Israel, followed by the United Kingdom and France.
4. Bike carts: is a three-wheel cargo tricycle, used mostly to sell ice cream or light snacks in Egypt.
5. 1967 war: also known as “The Six-day War”, “an-Naksah”, or “The Third Arab-Israeli War”,was an armed conflict fought from 5 to 10 June 1967 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states.