!مصر! مصر! مصر (The Africa Cup)

The scene at El Horea.

So, all this stuff we've been blogging about has been happening within the context of a pretty significant sports event: The Africa Cup. Of course, for Americans, nothing soccer-related will ever seem like a big deal, but here, the Africa Cup is second only to the World Cup, and they are both like a Superbowl multiplied by three World Serieses. Like the World Cup, the Africa Cup only comes once every four years, and it's freaking nuts. There have been a couple games every week since we arrived, and as Egypt got closer to the championship, the streets grew wilder and wilder. On Thursday night, Egypt won the semifinals and the whole city flipped out. But nothing could've prepared us for tonight, when Egypt won the Africa Cup.

Laying the national flag on your friend's back is the Egyptian equivalent of rally caps.

We played Cameroon (it feels a little weird saying "we," but after my involvement in tonight's scene, I feel pretty comfortable doing so), and Peter, some of the rooomies, and I went down to El Horea, our favorite bar (the name means "freedom," awesomely enough), to watch the game. It was exceedingly well-played, with no scores in the first half, but right around the switch into the fourth quarter, Egypt scored a goal, and every man, woman, and child in that overpacked bar jumped up and screamed with joy. It was just a defensive game from that point on, and when the clock finally ran out with Cameroon still scoreless, the city exploded. It was incredible. It had all the energy and singing and dancing and hollering of a Red Sox World Series win without any of the car-flipping or drunken brawls. In all honesty, there's really no comparison. The streets were filled with a cacophony of cheers and beeps and chants, and people led impromptu parades by foot and packed onto mopeds or the the beds of pickup trucks or even just holding onto the tops of cars while they sped past. As Americans, we were at first just part of the crowd, but after the initial celebration, people began to see us sort of as novelties, perhaps the way we'd view groups of

Egypt scores the game's only goal.

Chinese students cheering for the Patriots or the Cavaliers. It was a little disconcerting to be the center of attention in that way, but it was also very interesting to have everything flipped around, for once to be so clearly the foreigner. Nevertheless, as usual, once you'd get one-on-one with an Egyptian, he'd be overwhelmingly friendly. Peter talked for some time with two young men from Cairo, both of whom were just thrilled to pick his brain and practice their English. Anyway, here are some pics and a video to show you just what I mean. Oh, and Masr is the Arabic term for Egypt (pronounced almost like Muss, but with a quick little R thrown on the end). That's what the chanting is in the video and also that's what the title of this post says.

!مصر! مصر! مصر Woot! Woot!