I am a Walking Plague

Important background notes:

1) Egypt is freaking out about swine flu (pardon me, H1N1). They have been for awhile actually. They’re killing all the pigs in the country (based on no scientific evidence). This is probably more political than health-related, since the swine flu revealed the large number of pigs in the country, and it’s just not cool for a “Muslim” country to have so much pork sitting around. But still, they’re scared. Bird flu hit them really, really hard a few years ago, and it’s still lingering, as are its effects.
2) A few days ago, the first cases of H1N1 were discovered in American students studying here. As a result, one of the American/International student dorms in Cairo was quarantined. The students with confirmed cases were fairly “fresh off the plane” but they’ve definitely started something that will spread. AND, you better believe that EVERYONE, from the president of the country down to the shoe-shine man, knows that American students brought the flu into the country.

Now me: Tonight I got into a shared taxi (aka, a station wagon into which you cram as many strangers as possible). As I got in, I heard the men in front of me start talking to each other: “She’s a foreigner. Be careful. She might have the influenza.” Before they could kick me out I said, “Don’t worry, I live here. I don’t have the flu and I’ve been in Egypt since before the flu came to America.” They still looked worried, but they welcomed me to Cairo and I sat in the back and tried to look as healthy as possible.

Right after the taxi, I got on the Metro. Somehow, in the crush of people, I ended up standing RIGHT next to the Arabic poster describing how to stop the flu from spreading. I saw some women look at it, look at me, and then whip out some Kleenexes and cover their mouths and noses. I didn’t say anything – just sighed, again tried to look as healthy as possible, and waited out the ride.

But seriously, it can only get worse from here. Pretty sure people are going to start avoiding me on the street soon and the harassment of “oh! Beautiful!” will turn into the men saying, “OH! Influenza!” and trying to get away from me as opposed to trying to walk into me. Not that this would be entirely the worst thing, but I’d rather that people NOT assume that I’m the cause of a pandemic.