Phone jockeys

It's rather absurd and fetish-like how much people here love their mobiles. Almost everyone has one, in their hand or not far from it, all the time. People answer their phones everywhere: during lunch, during meetings, during church. And no one puts them on silent or vibrate, always loud; we went to an Egyptian church service last weekend and heard at least a dozen phones ring during the service.

When not talking on their phone, people on the train will fiddle with it or pull it out periodically to make sure no one has called. Or they play games on it. Or flip through the pictures they have stored on it. Or -- our favorite -- they'll play music with it, with everyone else on the train obliged to listen along with them. Once I was waiting in a deserted train station and someone came and sat right next to me, music blaring; he could have sat anywhere else, and yet he apparently wanted to share the moment with me.

Our phone hardly works and we rarely have it with us. We don't even know what the number is.