Retracing the streets of a familiar city is one of my favorite pastimes. Reliving old memories and reimagining years past—is it really how I recalled things or did my memory discolor reality? I arrived back in Cairo last month and it has been like walking through a dream, meeting old friends in new locations and new friends in familiar ones. The past blends into the present and, in some ways, I feel as though very little has changed. Then I turn a corner and nothing is the same as it once was. I have not been to Cairo since December 2019. In the intervening three years, the city has battled the COVID-19 crisis, a currency collapse, and a steep fall in foreign reserves as external investment drops and import bills rise and rise. Back in late 2019, the Egyptian pound clocked in at around USD 1 to EGP 16, today USD 1 will stretch to EGP 27.5. Looking around, there are countless new buildings, new restaurants, and even new e-scooters. Yet, despite all of these changes, the city has endured for millenia; three years are unlikely to make a dent…
