Below are some pictures of people I just met walking around. They saw me taking a picture of their animals, and they all wanted to be included in the picture.
Rasheed is located along the Nile. In the photograph below, you can see where the Mediterranean meets the Nile.
We ran into a "friend." He wore a uniform with a Tourism Police patch on the left shoulder and carried a gun, so he was definitely a government employee. He seemed pretty nice and he told us he loved showing his town to Americans and especially students; he said, all students are his friends. I told him that I just wanted to tour the town by myself, but he insisted that he the police needed to protect the tourists against scammers (James, here comes the irony). I was with two other people and they enjoyed this guy, so we let this guy show us around. He actually had a pretty fun plan: nile cruise in a motorboat (traveling 5 mph), tour of an ancient mosque, and a tour of a relatively modern fortress where the Rosetta Stone was found over 200 years ago.
This guy drove the boat. 
There's the ancient Mosque alongside the water.
And, here's a picture of our "friend"
The Rosetta Stone was discovered right around here.
Why is this guy a "friend" and not just a random funny or nice guy? A "friend" is a red flag for you're being scammed. A "friend" seems to be acting out of the kindness of his heart and desire to share his culture with foreigners, but he simply wants money... or as it is known in Egypt: baksheesh. "Friends" can be found on many street corners and sometimes in taxis; every time a cab driver tells me that he is my friend, he usually expects a price of 3x the Egyptian price.
It's unfortunate, but scamming is pretty widespread here. For instance, the tourism policeman gave us a tour of the Mosque and just made up information: he told us the Mosque was 1002 years old (he spoke in English). Well, I can read a little bit of Arabic and I saw on a wall that the Mosque was actually erected in 990, so the Mosque is actually 1018 years old.
Then he took us to the bathing room. There was a man there who threw a bucket down a well and brought up water. Our "friend" told us that the water was not only holy, but historic since the founder of the Mosque drank the same water. He couldn't drink the water because of Ramadan, so he washed his face with the water and then motioned us to drink it. I refused because I didn't want to get sick from the water. He seemed offended, so I copied him and put a little bit of water on my face. While my two friends are putting water on their faces, he tells m, "You know, that man worked hard. If you could just give him a little something, anything." I gave the well-man 1 and 1/2 pounds (around 25 cents), but I couldn't believe (and still cannot believe) that anyone would offer a good/service in the form of a gift and then boldly ask for payment. It's only 25 cents, but I would not have put the water on my face for any other reason then trying to show my appreciation for another culture.
Before I end this post, I have to say that not everyone scams you. Many people are completely genuine with strong values and big hearts, but shotgun friendships sometimes revolve more around money than an interest to understand one another's cultures.
