Fixing Roshdy's Horn

Car horns are the major source of traffic control in Cairo.  A horn serves as a warning to pedestrians and donkey carts.  It both requests and grants the right-of-way.  One of the reasons that neither Linda nor I drive here is that we don't really understand proper horn etiquette.

The horn on Roshdy's Toyota was clearly defective.  Linda thought it sounded like gears grinding.  I was reminded of a baby goose.  I insisted that we be allowed to buy him a new one.  We selected Saturday morning to do the job.  I suppose I should mention that "morning" is very loosely defined here, maybe before or after noon.

As every mechanic knows, a successful car project begins with a good breakfast.  We proceeded up al-Maryoteya Street to just north of Faisal Street and arrived at this popular "fast food" spot.


Ful Medames is a staple of the Egyptian diet - and every home has its own family recipe.  The owner of this shop has found a winning version and you will always see a crowd lining the the street as you pass by. He began his career selling ful from a street cart and became so successful that he opened a shop selling his popular breakfast dishes.

While there is a long menu posted on the wall, almost everyone here is just looking for the standard ful meal.  The procedure works like this: you pay for a ticket at the front desk - the price is 15 EGP - about 85 cents.   Place the ticket on the counter - if you weight it down with two one-pound coins, you are going to be served a bit more quickly.  You will get a bowl of ful, a bowl of salad veggies and a bowl of sliced boiled egg.  Grab some baladi bread (Aisch Baladi) and look for a place to stand.

Yes, stand.  Ful is meant to be eaten while standing.





We moved on to a tea shop close to the auto-parts dealer and just across the street from one of the many tiny neighborhood mosques in our area.  Here we had a cup of tea as the call to noon prayer passed.  Shortly after we finished the tea, the car parts store opened and we were ready to begin supervising the horn replacement.


The horn on a Toyota is not readily accessible.  The shop owner began removing the grill and then loosened the front cowl assembly.


We still couldn't reach the horn.  I tried contributing by attempting to photograph the horn mount but to no avail.


A Toyota electrical specialist was summoned.  Since the grill was cracked, the parts shop owner began repairing that while we waited.  Plastic parts here are repaired, not replaced.  This job required some epoxy, cigarette ash and a small piece of "bailing" wire.


With the one burner propane stove fired up, the owner heated a nail and used it to "drill" holes for the bailing wire.  The stove also gave us a chance for more tea, which was offered. There is no business without tea.


The electrical expert arrived but could not uncover the magic formula to reach the horn mount either.  We compromised by leaving the old horn in place and adding the new one nearby.  The electrical specialist recommended installing new headlamps which we agreed to.


After two hours work, the shop owner totaled the bill: new horn, grill repair, two new lamps - total, 430 EGP - $24.56

The horn is loud, the lights are bright and I'll bet we cut ten percent off our trip time with the ability to gain the right-of-way over slower vehicles.