在開羅 避孕和X光檢查都能上門服務
CAIRO — When it comes to home delivery and services, Cairo has most other places beat.
開羅――在快遞到家和服務上門方面，沒有多少城市能勝過開羅。
Suffering from a hangover and perhaps some regrets? Costa Coffee will send around a single shot of espresso ($2.70), and the neighborhood pharmacy will dispatch one morning-after pill ($2).
爲宿醉苦惱？或許爲昨晚的事後悔？Costa咖啡可以送來一杯意式濃縮咖啡（2.70美元），附近的藥店也能送來一片事後避孕藥（2美元）。
Want a Brazilian bikini wax? It can be done in the privacy of your home for $6.
想來個巴西式比基尼脫毛？可以在家中私密環境下完成，價格6美元。
Need a birth or death certificate? Just put in a call to the government, which will dispatch it within 72 hours.
需要出生或死亡證明？只需給政府打電話，72小時內就會得到解決。
For city dwellers in Egypt, almost anything can be delivered, and for nearly nothing.
對於埃及的城市居民來說，幾乎一切都可以快遞，而且近乎免費。
Home deliveries started with fast food, but have come to include an array of other goods and services.
快遞到家服務始於快餐業，但是漸漸發展到一系列其他貨品與服務。
Upscale restaurants will deliver a salad or a single slice of cake; stationers will send pens to the office; liquor stores will supply alcohol if a party runs dry; bakeries will send fresh bread and pastries straight from the oven — most of it carried on the backs of battered old motorcycles.
高級餐廳可以只送一份沙拉或一小塊蛋糕；文具店可以把鋼筆送到辦公室；如果派對上的酒喝完了，可以要酒類商店送來；蛋糕房可以送來剛出爐的新鮮麪包和甜點——多數商品都是用破舊摩托車送來的
Driving the trend is a middle class willing to spend money to avoid hassles, plus large numbers of poorer people willing to zoom around on motorcycles for less than $10 a day.
推動這種趨勢的是中產階級願意花錢避免麻煩的願望，此外還有衆多比較窮的人願意騎着摩托車到處穿梭，換來每天不到10美元的報酬。
Given Cairo’s bad traffic and long, hot summers, the capital’s dwellers need little encouragement to pick up the phone. (Deliveries spike especially in July and August, when daytime temperatures rarely drop below 90 degrees.)
鑑於開羅糟糕的交通狀況，以及夏日的漫長酷熱，首都的居民不用太多想就會打電話叫快遞（快遞在7月和8月會達到高峯，那段時間白日的溫度很少低於90華氏度）。
The customers pay very little for the convenience — delivery charges are typically less than a dollar.
客戶不用付多少錢就可以得到這種便利——快遞費一般不到1美元。
It is too hot for anyone to walk, and no one wants to drive through a traffic jam and then have to look for a parking spot, said Shady Ahmed, who delivers for Costa Coffee in Zamalek, an affluent Cairo neighborhood.
天氣太熱了，大家都不願意走路，也沒人願意開車遇到擁堵，然後還要找停車位，在扎馬利克爲Costa咖啡送貨的沙迪•艾哈邁德(Shady Ahmed)說，扎馬利克是開羅一個繁華的地帶。
Why would anyone waste money on a cab coming and going when we can deliver to them for less?
既然我們可以廉價送貨上門，爲什麼還要浪費錢打車呢？
Even the government’s creaky bureaucracy has seized on the trend.
就連破敗的政府官僚體制也趕上了這股潮流。
In January, the civil registry created a call center for people to renew their national IDs and then get birth, death and marriage certificates delivered to their homes, a service they can also find online.
1月，民政註冊處開放了一個電話中心，提供上門服務，幫人們更新身份證號，之後又提供了快遞出生證、死亡證和結婚證的服務，這些服務也可以上網辦理。
We did this to make life easier, said Ehab el-Attar, the registry’s head.
我們這樣做都是爲了提供方便，註冊處的長官埃哈卜•艾爾-阿塔爾(Ehab el-Attar)說。
Not everyone can use the internet, and this way they don’t waste time coming here and make traffic worse.
不是所有人都能用互聯網，這樣他們就不用浪費時間跑到這裏，讓交通進一步惡化。
I don’t think this particular service is a proof of laziness.
我不覺得這項服務證明人們懶惰。
But, he added with a laugh, there is definitely plenty of laziness around.
不過他笑着補充說，現在確實有不少懶人。
The home delivery culture is spreading into the service sector as well.
上門文化也發展到了服務行業。
Now an ailing runner can have her knees X-rayed in bed for about $55, and while she is at it, get a haircut and a pedicure.
現在，如果跑步受傷，可以在家裏，躺在牀上給膝蓋做X光檢查，只需55美元，與此同時，還可以理髮和美甲。
While businesses have jumped at the opportunities, some of their workers grumble about the customers’ attitudes.
商家抓住機會的同時，有些員工也在抱怨客戶的態度。
They’ll just sit there with coffee mugs and barely look at you.
他們就是端着咖啡坐在那兒，幾乎不看你一眼。
You just want to tell them, ‘You are not rich, this is just cheap,’ said Nagat Hosny, a body waxer who does home visits.
你忍不住想告訴他們，‘不是你太有錢，是服務太便宜’，提供上門服務的身體脫毛師納加•胡斯尼(Nagat Hosny)說。
Mostafa Mahmoud travels the city taking blood from people at home — he is a phlebotomist, not a vampire — and delivers it to Al Borg, one of the capital’s leading medical labs.
穆斯塔法•馬哈茂德(Mostafa Mahmoud)在整個城市四處上門採集血液——他是抽血者，不是吸血者——然後把這些血液提供給開羅最大的醫療實驗室之一Al Borg。
It is often exasperating when you go and find that the person is absolutely fine and just chilling at home, he said.
有時候你上門去，發現那人完全沒問題，悠閒自得地待在家裏，這經常讓人惱怒，他說。
Some even have the audacity to scold you if you are 10 minutes late.
有些人因爲你晚了10分鐘，就敢教訓你。
With an increasing number of goods and services finding their way to the doorsteps of customers, it was inevitable that some high-tech solutions would also come along.
愈來愈多的貨物和服務被直接送上門，一些高科技的解決辦法也就不可避免地隨之而來。
Waleed Rashed is the founder of a company that plans to introduce a delivery app called Voo in October.
瓦利德•拉希德(Waleed Rashed)是一家公司的創始人，該公司計劃在10月推出一款名叫Voo的快遞手機應用。
Voo (the name is meant to suggest the sound of speed) aims to do almost any chore for anyone.
Voo（這個名字讓人聯想起飛速移動的聲音）旨在爲所有人提供幾乎所有的跑腿服務。
There is no incentive to go outside, Mr. Rashed said.
人們不願出門，拉希德說。
Just one hour outside is enough to ruin anyone’s day.
出門一小時就能毀掉一整天。
Voo might, for example, pick up keys you left at a friend’s house and return them to you within an hour for an average of $5, he said.
比如說，Voo可以在一個小時內幫你拿回留在朋友家裏的鑰匙，再交還給你，平均只需5美元，他說。
Ingez, an Egyptian company whose name translates as hurry up, has also latched onto the delivery craze.
埃及公司因格茲（Ingez——意思是趕快）也跟上了這股快遞熱潮。
It offers services such as driving sundry goods — a single cellphone cover, say — from one end of Cairo to another for as little as $2.50, or taking flowers to someone in the hospital on behalf of a busy relative.
它可以把各種貨物（比如說，一個手機殼）從開羅的一頭送到另一頭，只需要2.5美元，或者幫一個忙碌的親戚給醫院裏的病人送花。
Sometimes we find it funny, said Ahmed Farouk, the company’s manager of operations.
有時候，我們覺得這很有趣，公司的運營經理艾哈邁德•法魯克(Ahmed Farouk)說。
I personally wouldn’t request a delivery for a small order myself, but people generally are never shy about it.
我自己從來不會爲了小額商品叫快遞，但是大多數人毫無顧忌。
Ammar Ali Hassan, a prominent Egyptian novelist and political sociologist, attributes such attitudes to the return of many relatively affluent Egyptians who were guest workers in Saudi Arabia and other countries on the Persian Gulf.
埃及著名的小說家和政治社會學家阿馬爾•阿里•哈桑(Ammar Ali Hassan)覺得，這種態度是因爲許多相對富裕的埃及人正在回國。他們曾在沙特阿拉伯和波斯灣其他國家打工。
Many were influenced by the Gulf, Mr. Hassan said.
很多人受到海灣地區的影響，哈桑說。
They think, ‘Oh I am a big deal and can act like a member of the upper class now.
他們想，‘現在我是大人物，可以像上層階級一樣了。
I am too big for queues.’ ’
我太了不起，不能排隊。
Home delivery has become so habitual here that Egyptians abroad tend to feel deprived.
接受上門服務成了一種習慣，一些海外的埃及人甚至覺得失去了什麼。
Salma Adel, a young Egyptian physician who moved to Ireland more than a year ago, said delivery was one of the things she missed most.
一年多前移居愛爾蘭的年輕埃及醫生薩爾瑪•阿德爾(Salma Adel)說，快遞是她最懷念的一件事。
It has to be up there with family, she said.
最好是和家人在一起，她說。
It’s not like it’s just fast food. It’s all food.
不僅僅是快餐，而是所有的餐飲都能送達。
There’s something beautiful about being able to conjure up a beautiful meal out of thin air when you’re sat at home and can’t be bothered to cook, she added.
坐在家裏，不用費力做飯，憑空就有好飯好菜變出來，真是太美了，她說。
