My friend stepped on a nail today, so we went to the hospital to get him a tetanus shot, and we’re in a part of outer Cairo at the time.

I usually think of things in “1990s movie” terms, so if you picture it, this hospital was basically where Antonio Banderas would go after he got shot in Desperado.

Like we wandered up to the hospital in the desert, it looks barely occupied, various street dogs barking outside, and it’s unclear where the main entrance is since it kind of looks like a loading dock on all sides to begin with. There was a blind guy sitting at a desk under an umbrella out front so we asked him if that’s the right way, he said “aye”, so we wandered into some dark hallway that eventually emerged into the hospital proper.

No air conditioning despite being 111 degrees outside, everyone is sweaty, the doors are all open for decent ventilation, and the manager has stacks of papers cartoonishly piled up to the ceiling in his office.

A nurse comes out, looks at the wound, says he sees this all the time, gives him the tetanus shot, and says to come back in a month for a second shot. Friend plops a small wad of cash down on the counter. We’re out in five minutes.