Thank you for 2007

2007 was an amazing year for me. Thank you to everyone who made it that way. (Also people who are not on the pictures, but just as important)

I wish everyone a very happy year 2008! I'm excited to see what it brings!

Half Time

6 month ago I came here to Egypt, was greeted by searing heat (45 degrees) and was generally amazed about this huge city. 6 month later I'm still here, now with blankets over my legs and cursing the absence of central heating and still amazed about the huge city.

I have experienced fasting in Ramadan, I have sand boarded in the great sand sea, I swam and nearly drowned on the north cost, I played some ping pong, I met wonderful people and became close to them, I made a fondue with Gruyere, I came across a dead kitty in the office kitchen, I dived in the red sea and saw a turtle and an octopus, I was confused about the look of Coptic churches, I saw the sunrise on Mount Sinai, I did lots of cart wheels in the sand, I created a 3 days conference for 250 people, I received an awesome package from my sister, I cooked Mexican food with Annika, I ate about half a ton of pita bread and egg plant, I smoked around 100 sheeshas, I saw the burning bush (or what is left of it... maybe), I saw a lot of Nemos, I rode a camel, I saw the pyramids, I saw a mummified crocodile, I had a break in at my apartment, I spoke to the first lady Suzan Mubarak, I discovered some really good Arabic music, I heard a lot about Islam, I started a lot of questions with "but why...", I had a lot of discussions on how to get rid of corruption and how to adopt democracy, I watched a lot of "Sex and the City", I was in a city that was dead, I was introduced to Sweet Potatoes, I stood in a buffet line with Adolf Ogi (and also spoke to him), I biked in Siwa and rode on a donkey chart, I rode a falluka, I ate a lot of Sushi and Koshari, I discussed masturbation and sex before marriage, I designed recruitment materials, I went to Greece, I jumped very high on a huge trampoline, I had an awesome thanksgiving dinner with the Americans, I caught a cold and was barely able to get rid of the coughing, I danced salsa, I sang karaoke and I had my cousin David and his fried Liliane for a visit.

Lots of things I started getting used to, like paying everything in cash, even the rent, or the crazy driving. And I have also gotten dangerously used to some cool things, like that I can have anything home delivered, even a bottle of milk in the early morning or having free wireless internet in every corner of the city. And I have started wondering how many things of my Swiss everyday life I forgot.

I'm still happy, I'm still having an amazing experience and I still don't regret the decision of coming here. Things have normalized, sometimes comes a day that's boring, but overall, things are still cool and exciting.

And in 4 days I will make my way home. I'm looking forward for it. I'm also a bit anxious somehow... How will it be to be back and what will I be confronted with? Will my friends have time for me?
Anyway, I'm excited to come home and I have been counting down the days since the past 2 weeks.

Half the time is up. It's time for a break.

the questions of a metro ride

I take the metro from mohandesseen to maadi and back about 5 days a week. I'm here in Cairo for something more than 365 days. That makes me ride the metro on 260 days in this year. The distance travelled by metro from my station to the one at the office is 14 kilometers. Take that twice, makes 24 kilometers per day.

Conclusion: during my year in Cairo, i will travel about 7300 kilometers in the metro which is equal to the distance between Cairo and Cape Town: exactly all they way through the African continent.

Each way takes me (total time on the metro train itself, excluding all the switching train, etc) 30 minutes. After adding this up over the whole year leaves me with 240 hours, which is 10 days.

In other words: plenty of time to look around in my women's compartment at the people around me and I can not help but wonder...


- How often do women poke themselves in the head with those needles that keep their head scarfs so tightly wrapped?

- Where are all those people going? To work? To university? To visit relatives? To hang out with friends?

- Wow many girls wearing hijab (headscarf) dye their hair or spend too much money on hairdressers just like we do?

- What are the fully veiled women wearing underneath the huge bundle of black fabric? baggy pants and "I love NY" shirts? Shorts or minis? tank tops? :)
Or in general: do fully veiled women maintain a clothing style under their veils just like other women?

- Is there a significant positive correlation between weight and the degree of "veildness"? That would be an interesting field study... interesting when you think of how one would go about this? :)

- How many of the women sitting and standing around me are circumcised? (Actually I already know, if the newspapers and magazines are right: about 75-85 %) But still, it always makes me wonder.

- How can it be, that Egyptian women are always 100% color coordinated in every single piece of their appearance? Do they just have so many clothes, purses, shoes and accessories that they have countless ways of combining things or do they just have 2-3 sets that they always wear together?

- How much do those people earn who come into the metro and sell more or less useful items (like tissues, socks, make up, balloons, stickers or barbie wallets?)

- And why does it always seem that the people selling the more useful things (tissues) are in a far worse condition than people selling the less useful things (barbie wallets)?

This world I love

In Greece

The last 10 days I have spend back in Europe. I was in Athens to facilitate an international conference (WeGrow).
It’s the first time since I have come to Egypt that I went back to Europe and it stroke me how much I have changed, how many things have become very normal to me and how much I have forgotten.

3 Stories:

I believe I have so far always seen Greece as one of those southern countries that are quite disorganized, cities are dirty, public transportation is in bad condition, things are cheap and traffic is frightening.
I came here and I was amazed of how clean everything is, how modern the subway is, how very neatly the traffic is following the rules, how fresh the air is and how expansive the food. I did not see that in comparison to Cairo. I just saw the streets. They are clean. There is nothing on the ground. The garbage is in the garbage cans. I don’t think “it’s clean compared to Cairo”. I think “Wow! It’s clean!” and I have a hard time imagining how anything would be cleaner than that. And so I assumed that well, Athens is just a much nicer place than I imagined. But then the other Europeans here in my team don’t quite share that opinion. They find it dirty and disorganized. And I wonder: Have I forgotten really how clean streets look like? Or has my standard of “normal” shifted? Or have I developed a new sense of appreciation?


I walked out onto the streets with a red light and nearly got hit. It did not occur to me that there could be a street light. And even if: I would think the car can see me stepping onto the street and would have somehow reacted and not just kept on going. 20 years I spend in a country that has street lights! And I forgot that it’s not normal to step in in front of a slower looking car!


We were having a pretty perfect facilitators premeeting. We really did. We have modern transportation the office, we can all use the wireless internet there, we have comfy chairs to sit in, we are in the centre of Athens, there are lots of stores and restaurants around us, we get to see the site 2 days before the conference and we get even food reimbursed (and we have food!). I have not found anything to complain about. Yet, in these 4 days I think I heard as many complaints as I haven’t heard in a long time. My European friends are finding many things not quite meeting their standards. Apart from feeling slightly annoyed about that, I actually carry a smile inside myself. I know I was just like that. I like to complain, I still do. But I wanted to change that. I wanted to work on that and these few days have just proven to me that I did manage to do so. At least a little bit. :-)

Siwa

Siwa is a small oasis in the middle of the Sahara close to the Libyan border. It’s a 12 hours ride away from Cairo and therefore often too far away and in the wrong direction for the common stream of tourists. During Eid, the holydays in the end of Ramadan, Egyptians prefer to go somewhere to the beach and therefore, our little international group of internationals working in Cairo was among the few only tourists in Siwa on that long weekend.



Of all places I have seen in Egypt so far, Siwa by far felt the most Egyptian. It lies far off from everything, surrounded by beautifully eroded rocks and thousands of dark green palm threes which grow the sweetest dates of whole Egypt and behind it all starts the impressive great sand see.







The village of Siwa is build of small clay houses and the streets are alive with people, donkeys, horses and bikes, but barely any cars. From everywhere in the town you can see the ruins of the old city which dates back to the times of pharaohs. It is impressive as it was all build of clay and has been washed away and broken off over time, by now it looks like a hill with a ghost city on top. You can clearly extinguish the outer walls but on the insight all that’s left are countless pieces of clay walls that stand there, peacefully reaching up into the sky.





Siwa was the home of an Oracle that had quite an influence during the times of Alexander the Great, hence the reason for Siwas importance at the time and the number of ancient ruins all around the oasis today.





Our group, we came there on an overnight bus took one day on donkeys and bikes to go around and discover the village and all the different ruins. At night, we went to a restaurant where everyone would sit on carpets and pillows on the floor eat couscous and have dates straight from the threes. It was paradise: Laying on the pillows, under palm trees and the starry sky and smoking sheesha.

The next day we made our way for the great sand sea. We got 2 jeeps and drove out into the desert, which is more adventurous then one would think and it goes up and down, quite similar to a roller coaster. The Bedouin guides we had with us set up the camps and we stayed out in the desert for 2 nights. We slept on carpets on the sand, under the stars, we had Bedouins cooking excellent food for us, we spend a lot of time playing in the sand like kids, and although you wouldn’t expect it, a lot of time swimming in lakes and springs.







This is the funny thing about Siwa and the desert around it. Everywhere you can find fresh water springs in which you can swim and when driving through the desert you come across many lakes.







Overall, Siwa was amazing and I would advise anyone who is in Egypt or who will come to Egypt to pay this cute little far off oasis a visit. It’s truly worth it. And I realized one thing: The desert is one of the most beautiful wonders we have on earth.

it's raining!

I just felt the first rain drop ever since I have been in Egypt. By now it's raining slightly and it's fascinating! :D