1. The key money is an advance that is paid to the owner before moving into the apartment.

2. Appadurai (1996) made a distinction between locality and neighborhood. The latter is “the actually existing social forms in which locality, as a dimension or value, is variably realized” (179).

3. Magdy has three sisters and four brothers. Only one of the four brothers managed to travel to Libya and Iraq. The other three have been dreaming of and planning on traveling (without success) to a neighboring Arab country.

4. Paradoxically, to realize his dreams and meet the expectations of others, Magdy has been forced to work abroad for much longer than anticipated. Though his future in-laws expected him to return permanently by the end of the first year after the engagement, Magdy will not be back until the end of the fourth year. He also borrows money from his co-workers and participates in savings associations to secure large sums of money to send back home. When his fiancée expresses her frustration with his long absence, he reminds her that he needs to furnish the apartment and save some money to start a business in Cairo because he does not want to travel after getting married.

5. I say “temporarily” because there are indications that the government tries to break down such collective cooperation by prosecuting individual families separately. So this collectivity may not last for long.

6. A zawiya is usually a place for Sufi Brotherhood meetings. This association, however, was not made in people's interpretation of the name.

7. Many similar apartments in the old and the new housing projects have been turned into shops, workshops, and clinics.