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Not too happy to be a ‘shisha man’

AL AIN — Tamir Abdelbary, 26, from the Egyptian city of Al Mansourah has been a ‘shisha man’ for the past six months. Before that, since the time he came to Al Ain in 2005, he was a waiter at the same place.

Tamir begins his day early. After a quick breakfast, he comes to his work place located in the Jimmi area in Al Ain in one of the biggest shopping malls in the city. He works till midnight with a small break during the day.

A graduate from Tourism and Hotels Institute in Egypt, he had no idea that he would be serving ‘shisha’.

“The job of serving ‘shisha’ has fallen on me because there is nobody in the ‘shisha’ corner to serve the customers,” he says.

Tamir says that his day is mostly full of frustration because he has to take care of all the customers at the ‘shisha’ corner, and adds that most of the customers are always in a hurry and expect to be served before the others.

Some young customers bother the ‘shisha man’ as well as the waiters, they are noisy and inpatient. “They just don’t know how to deal with waiters and the ‘shisha man’,” he says.

The ‘shisha’ smoke often harms Tamir’s eyes, especially when serving ‘shisha’ in closed places. Since Tamir doesn’t smoke, he sometimes suffers from dizziness, headache and chest pain as a result of the ‘shisha’ smoke.

He adds that what he doesn’t like about his work is that he has to serve ‘shisha’ to youngsters despite his negative opinion about smoking as he considers it a bad habit.

“I do not like my job,” he affirmed with a great deal of anguish.

Though Tamir is not married, his salary barely covers his monthly expenses.