Someone asked me last night: so... how was your week? I replied that my week was a pretty good one as i had had the opportunity to visit Cairo, Egypt. A simple little statement isn't it? Yep, this is the life we're living: 'Mum, just off to Cairo for the week'. To this day I still find it hard to believe I hoped on a plane for this odd four day visit.
Right now I am sitting in my room, feet up on the desk, typing on Kyle's Powerbook, listening to the roaring Irish folk punk. Nothing beats the Pogues for Saturday morning wakeup.
Egypt aye? After a 32 hour journey, including a couple of hours in Singapore and another 6 or 7 in Kingdom of Bahrain's International Airport (note the irony... where exactly have they hidden the domestic airport?), I arrived and was met by my new team at the airport. Meeting these guys and being in Cairo was a bit of a rollercoaster of emotion. On one hand it added dimension and shape to my coming year in Qatar, on the other it signalled an end to all I know to be my current life. My family, Kyle, my friends, my house, my pets, my team, my pubs and hangouts would all be placed on hold for a year. I was nervous and excited, tired and curious, so much to learn.
My new team are great, a range of personalities, coming from five different continents and five very different roles in AIESEC. After a couple of days work we had pulled together what I would consider to be a powerful powerful plan, clear roles, other team building systems and gained an understanding as to what it will be like working with each other in the coming year.
Cairo: how I love thee. The city felt alive, it was a throbbing, energy filled place with sites and sounds to be had at every corner. It was dusty, dry and loud, but man did it have character. My two days did no justice to this magical place however in that short period of time I was able to: see Iran, fly across the Arabian desert, see the sun set over the Nile, eat amazing spices and food, drink new unheard of beverages, visit the pyramids (of course!), ride the minibuses and taxis, effectively learn a couple of Arabic words, visit mosques, visit Christian churches, have random and engaging cross language conversations with strangers (they spoke Arabic i spoke English), visit the souq, sit in an old-schoolee shisha cafe smoking it up with Egyptian friends, eat kebabs, drink sugar cane, bargain and barter at the markets and engage in high brow literary conversations at a local sheesha cafe.
One of my favourite aspects of Cairo was the call to prayer. It sounded haunting, foreign, magical and encouraging. i can only imagine what it is to live your life spurred on by a reminder of what you have and the challenge of: how are you going to use your next five hours to do your best to achieve. Thanks to the help of the guys around me I came to understand a lot more about Islam. That sounds kind of weird but from where i sit here in Australia it is difficult to imagine the degree to which the religion is integrated into day to day life. I am impressed and curious. As I mentioned, being in Cairo gave me a better picture as to what life in Qatar could be like (albeit a lot smaller and more traditional). It was an essential step in preparing for the year to come.
Jen and Chris: thanks for providing this awesome experience. This visit to Cairo has given a lot more context to what we are about to do and was an important preperation step for my role in the team. Cheers guys.
