The Wilmington morning star., 1946-03-18
Arab Wait Is Handy
BY KAL BOYLE

CAIRO, --tA-Awad Hassan Ally has only
one really bad habit He likes to wash his
feet in the kitchen sink.
That kitchen is workshop and temple for
Awad, who looks like cross between Little
Orphan Annie' and the end man in min
strel show. He is known yariously as "Awad
the Great" "Awad the, First and 1.-THE
Tarboosh Kid
He is a 15-year-old orphaned Sundanese
boy. lean and gangling with feet like tennis
racquets and dangling hands as big as base
ball gloves. He also has a grin as wide as a
Kansas sunflower and sweet and simple
soul shining as his own white teeth.
1t is something Of an open question
whether "Awad the First was adopted by a
group OF Associated Press correspondents
here or he adopted them. In any case his
realm for two years has been their apartment
and his reign is now irrevocably established.
He has more titles than an Indian prince
chief cook bottlewasher, custodian of the
broom, mascot, and on occasions, office bank
er.
Each morning after brewing tea Awad
presents his boss, Max Boyd, with budget
estimate OF daily expenses and the first item
invariably begins food for Awad-six piastres.'
Awad had to learn early thus to fend
first for himself. He was born in village on
the Assam-Sudan frontier When he was one
year old his parents called in local barber
and he notched the baby's face to leave ever
afterward the distinctive scars worn by these
villagers.
His father died before Awad's memory
begins and his mother died when he was ten.
He came to Cairo and helped his brother cook
for an Egyptian family until he took up
Kitchen journalism"
When you first meet Awad you have an
irresistible urge to grab up plate and catch
his hands before they drop off his loose
hanging arms and fall to the floor. Later you
learn those ungainly hands are deft enough at
cooking up an appetizing breakfast although
he has one weakness as a chef Since he is
a faithful Moslem. and therefore forbidden
pork, be dislikes cooking bacon.
1T makes me dizzy he says-so he
usually serves it half raw. Awad will 60 down
in medical history as one Of the most con-
sistent benefactors Of trichinosis-the disease,
not its victims. His own favorite dishes are
beans and potatoes and fried dates.
There have been only two books in his
life-the Arabic phrasebook and the holy
Koran, bible Of his faith Five times day
Awad halts his tasks kneels on clean piece
OF cardboard spread on the kitchen floor,
turns his face toward Mecca and prays to
his God with the fervor of his guileless serv-
ant SOUL At night he sleeps on that same
floor.
Awad earns four Egyptian pounds month
beside his keep and turns most Of 1t over
to his two married brothers. But he has other
mysterious sources Of revenue such as the
sale Of waste paper. He also wasSa war
profiteer and earned substantial amounts dur
ing the period Of the desert battles by selling
bottles left by visiting newspapermen after
beer parties thrown during visits back from
the front.
Most Of this money is sunk by Awad in
strange investments such as the Arab Chain
letter" contribution system under which IS
Arab servants chip in half pound monthly.
Each month one servant collects the full
amount and binges it.
He often lends money TO hard pressed
native news messengers Since the Koran for
bids him to collect interest he gets return on
his investment by compelling debtors to clean
the apartment for him. And in this he is as
hard taskmaster as old Scrooge himself