For twenty-something years, a 1981 Chevrolet Blazer had been abandoned on Tahrir Street, a notoriously overpopulated, polluted and rowdy street in Cairo, Egypt. The car, originally black, had been painted brown with dirt and sand. The tires and side mirrors were missing and there was no back window, making the car an open trash bin for passers-by. In Cairo, owners often abandon cars because they can’t afford to maintain or repair them, legally register them, or attain a driver’s license. These discarded cars become so much a part of the city’s landscape that one grows accustomed to seeing them, unprovoked by their presence. But unlike many abandoned cars across Cairo, one abandoned 1981 Chevrolet Blazer was destined for a new turned over leaf when Lara Hesham El Fouly, 20, decided to spend four years repairing it. Lara was born to a family of the upper-intermediate class and lives in the affluent area of Mohendessin, Cairo. But unlike many girls of her age and social class whose interests revolved around the latest in fashion, this mold didn’t fit Lara. . “I’ve always been tomboyish,” she says. Instead, she spent her time…
