EGYPT: Mobile car mechanic works out of his car, avoids high cost of renting workshop
Record ID:
774776
EGYPT: Mobile car mechanic works out of his car, avoids high cost of renting workshop
- Title: EGYPT: Mobile car mechanic works out of his car, avoids high cost of renting workshop
- Date: 24th March 2008
- Summary: STRANDED COMMUTER, ASHRAF SULEIMAN, LOOKING UNDER HOOD OF CAR ASHRAF SULEIMAN EXAMINING CAR ENGINE ABDU PRINCE'S REPAIR CAR APPROACHING SULEIMAN'S STALLED CAR ASHRAF SULEIMAN EXPLAINING CAR PROBLEMS TO ABDU PRINCE AS HE AND MANGA STAND OVER CAR ABDU PRINCE LOOKING AT CAR ENGINE AS MANGA SHOWS HIM A SPARE PART/ ENGINE PART ABDU PRINCE FIXING CAR ENGINE CLOSE OF ABDU PRINCE FIXING CAR ENGINE
- Embargoed: 8th April 2008 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Egypt
- Country: Egypt
- Topics: Industry
- Reuters ID: LVA6NBZN0AV9IJOU15ARVLQOU5ND
- Story Text: Car mechanic "Abdu Prince" works out of his car, travelling around the Cairo area helping those whose cars have broken down, in order to avoid the high cost of renting a workshop in the Egyptian capital.
For the average commuter in Cairo, the city's chaotic, overburdened roadways are often a waking nightmare, a maze in which it seems even the shortest commute might end in catastrophe.
But for some of those who do fall victim to the daily rat race, waylaid by a collision, an overheated carburettor or just a flat tire, help is at hand from the most unlikely of heroes: mobile car mechanic "Abdu Prince"
and his faithful assistant "Manga," who work exclusively out of their car, riding out to those who need their services.
"Abdu Prince" is the name by which Abdu al-Hamid Fawzi is known locally. Like the stranded drivers he helps every day, Abdu Prince is himself a victim of the overpopulation of Cairo, a city where poverty is rife and the population has swelled to some 18 million.
Unable to afford a bricks and mortar shop, Abdu Prince has come up with a novel solution to the high cost of doing business in Cairo, taking his car repair shop on the road, where he works out of a beat up old Seat 133 that is festooned with placards advertising his services.
Every day he and his loyal deputy, Mohammed Kamel, who calls himself "Manga," sit in the Shaaban café in Sayyeda Aisha, and wait for drivers in distress to call for help. When that happens, they quickly settle the bill for their morning "shisha" water pipe and tea and get on the road, albeit at the modest pace their car can manage.
On his way to rescue a stranded driver, Abdu Prince says that working out of his car -- which has his mobile phone number posted on the roof -- allows him to dodge the limitations of the high cost of living in Cairo.
"This idea came to me, actually, because of the well-known problems with regards to workshops, the traditional problems having to do with very high rents, with taxes, with insurance, getting a license from the municipality to use the street, all of these things - life is actually very hard," he said.
But it is the endless tribulations facing Cairo's commuters that motivated him to become a mobile mechanic, says Abdu Prince.
"I help a lot of people on the streets, people who are in danger of their cars being stolen, or being hit, or towed, or at risk of dealing with someone who is not professional or dealing with conmen," he says.
And when Ashraf Suleiman's engine overheated on the highway that overlooks the famous Citadel of Muhammed Ali, he quickly dialled Abdu Prince, whom he had heard about through a friend.
Abdu Prince and Manga's solution to their dilemma may well be innovative, but their predicament is by no means unique. They are like so many in Egypt today for whom an education and the will to work hard are simply not enough to prosper.
While the official unemployment rate is now 7.1%, many analysts say the true figure is much higher. And by all accounts real wages for Egyptians - 40% of whom live near the poverty line -- are falling in the face of rising inflation that has raised the average household's cost of living up to 50 percent according to the UN.
Many years ago, when the young Abdul Hamid Fawzi emerged from university into the work force, he soon found that his modest plans to start a business were overly ambitious.
Refused a government loan, and facing shop rents in the middle class Sayyeda Aisha area where he lives of up to 500 pounds per month, plus utilities, insurance and taxes, his dream quickly evaporated.
But necessity is the mother of invention, and Hamid Fawzi soon transformed himself into Abdu Prince, a white knight with a puttering Seat 133 as his steed, with Manga as his loyal second.
For Ashraf Suleiman, the driver in distress, the manner of this dynamic duo's arrival was somewhat unexpected.
"Honestly I was surprised, when I saw a car like that belonging to someone who is actually a good mechanic. But I said let's see and give it a try, and see if the information I heard is correct," he said.
But Abdu Prince's service is undoubtedly a shoestring operation, and this has led to unexpected situations.
"Once there was a time when we went to get a car running, and after we got it running, our own car broke down. And the guy, after we had fixed his car, laughed at the fact that we had then broken down and he then tried to give us any help he could and we thanked him and said we were sorry for troubling him after we both had the same problem," he said.
Abdu Prince and Manga say that so far business has been good for them, which is not surprising given the number of antiquated cars on the road and Egypt's high accident rate. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), accidents kill around 6,000 Egyptians and injure 26,000 a year. But on days when the phone doesn't ring, they forsake the Shaaban café to drive around in search of drivers to help.
Manga, costumed in a permanently grease-stained jump-suit, says the two hope to grow their business.
"This project is great, and very profitable, but we want to expand it, we have put faith in God because we want to make this project bigger," he said. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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