An interesting conversation arose today while waiting in the car for Lori to finish a meeting with a dignitaries wife. Magdi, our driver, was asking questions about what I did for a living, where I lived, and asked about my husband. When I told him I was not married, he then asked how old I was. After looking at me with what is wrong with you... he made the comment of me making the choice to be single. However much I wanted to argue, it wasn't by choice, I thought it best to keep quiet as trying to explain the meaning would be difficult.
Once we got home, I shared with Lori the conversation between Magdi and I... at first she laughed and then apologized for leaving me in the car with him that long. Then she explained that most marriages are arranged here and a woman in their 20's/30's that is still single is in one of two categories...
1.) something is majorly wrong with her
2.) she made the choice not to follow the arranged marriage
Lori explained Magdi's reaction as he could plainly see there was nothing majorly wrong with me so I must have made the choice. She also said that I could have explained it as God hasn't provided the right one yet and see what conversation happened after that.
This topic of conversation came up a couple of other times with other Egyptian men so after this I knew how to respond and was not caught by surprise!
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