It's Okay, It's Just A Cat

In Aswan, I meet a Greek couple and we see some sights together. We go out together to get dinner and I decide it's finally my chance to try pigeon. I do. It's...pigeon. We are eating our meal when a large group of local Egyptians (mostly woman- all in hijab or niqab) come and sit down. Now, to preface the story, women do not at all have equal rights in Egypt and while men here are very talkative and outspoken and bold, the woman do not speak to anyone who isn't their own, they rarely will even look at you - unless they are blatantly staring. I've talked to or been talked at (a more accurate statement) by many men here in Egypt, but by very very few women. So they sit down and start eating and as they do one of the woman jumps up from the table and screams at the top of her lungs. She is staring under the table in horror. There is commotion and then silence. I am freaking out thinking it is a rat or something, I have no idea. A snake?? A scorpion? I have no idea but her scream was terrifying. Well, my horror must have shown on my face because as I also stared under the table in shock, trying to see what was so scary, one of the woman yelled to me, in perfect English, “IT’S OKAY, IT’S JUST A CAT!!! She is scared of cats!! Everything is fine!” Everyone burst out into laughter. At least twenty people including myself are in hysterics. I even made eye contact and laughed with woman wearing the niques. It. Was. Hysterical. As I type it out I realize that I'll never be able to capture this moment with words. But my god, it was a riot.