Today our assignment here in Cairo was officially at an end … Yet another job finished. And it has been definitely good, a great experience from many points of view. It was the first time for me to work with M and I liked it. It was the first time for him to work with people in the Brussels team and, somehow, I am under the impression that he had a jolly good time in the process too (well, apart from Cairo itself, which he didn’t quite enjoy, but that, again, is a question of personal preference, of course)… That is really great since we are going to meet again, in one week, on the job in Oman. Oh boy, I definitely look forward to that! We will be staying in Muscat at this hotel http://muscat.grand.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/index.jsp. It looks like a nice place :-). I look forward to the ocean and the desert, to a bit of daydreaming while admiring the ocean waves from my room’s window… Moreover, the very thorny, worrying visa problem was solved rather nicely and painlessly – I exchanged a couple of emails with our Finance Manager in Muscat and he assured me that European citizens can obtain their visas on the airport, upon arrival. Nevertheless, I am still amazed that The Sultanate of Oman has neither an embassy nor a consulate in Brussels … Strange.
I am usually not a big fan of socialising, especially when this is imposed and in big quantities. But here, in Egypt, this has really been quality socialising and I haven’t felt it like a burden at all. I have met very interesting people, funny, witty, kind. Last night it was our turn to invite the management to dinner. The reservation had been made at the Lebanese restaurant in our hotel. The food there is, indeed, delicious and the service impeccable – a true 5* restaurant. We spent the most enjoyable couple of hours, laughed a lot, discussed lots of subjects and explored the cultural differences (good grief, we had a German, a Portuguese, a Romanian, a South African and several Egyptians around that table! No wonder we had lots of things to discuss). One of our Egyptian colleagues told me that I look very young, in my early 20s. As much as I wanted this to be true, I felt compelled to reveal my age, to my interlocutor's utter astonishment.
Today, after the closing meeting was finished and M and L were driven to the airport to catch their flights back to Europe, I was invited to lunch by Maha, our HR Manager here in Egypt. She is a great lady, I felt so attracted to her and made friends instantly. She is a former engineer who converted to HR, who believes that, if we really want something in life, we can achieve it, who has brought up her teenage daughter and son on her own as her husband died several years ago. We went to one of the many restaurants on boats and enjoyed a frugal lunch that mainly consisted of spaghetti (I was not hungry at all, I only accepted the invitation because I really like the person). Over lunch I found out interesting things about Egyptian society, way of life, customs and traditions.
Then A called to tell me that he landed and he was on his way to the hotel so Maha and I had to cut our lunch rather short. In the evening, a short nap, a long business long distance phone call and a long fax sent to his office by A later, we managed to make it to the restaurant for dinner. More food! :-(
It has been rather hot this week in Cairo, especially today, and it will be even hotter in the next few days. Luckily I have brought plenty of summer clothes! So much for my plans to travel light!
Easter holiday at last! Tomorrow we’ll go to El Fayoum oasis, a place located some 1.5 hours drive outside Cairo. We have arranged for a car, a driver and a guide to wait for us rather early tomorrow morning. I hope it will all be worth the few hours of sleep we’ll be giving up :-) . Tonight I also settled my hotel bill and I realised that I paid a small fortune for the uninterrupted internet access in the room that I have benefited from during my stay. It might have well been the most expensive hotel internet so far!
There are still so many things to be seen, to be explored in Cairo, the city that never sleeps … It literally never sleeps! There are people everywhere on the streets, bad traffic jams and ear bleeding noise around the clock. But it's so alive! So many things to be seen! And I have only scratched the surface!
2 comments:
So it sounds like you had a good time in amongst the work. Yes, Cairo is quite a cosmopolitan city, and it sounds like your company is also so inclined. It is good to mix cultures and to promote this kind of inter-cultural understanding is what is needed if we, as a race, are to stand a chance of survival. But it is not, typically, the educated people who are intolerant but the ill educated ones fed lies and half truths and intolerance and fear and who don't have the ability to discriminate. They trust in their leaders for guidance, many of whom have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. Sorry - one of my hobby horses - intolerance, and it is nowhere as dangerous at the moment as there in the middle east.
I am glad you've had a good time, and had a chance to gain some insight into their culture.
My little Eger!! Yes, the uneducated people represent a manoeuvre mass in the hands of their devious leaders! And they might well be instigated to intolerance if that is in the cards.
When you work for a multinational and your colleagues are people from all over the world, you realise that people are people everywhere, with more or less the same needs, aspirations, hopes and dreams. And you bask in the charm of the cultural differences. As for having a good time … hmmm … you know exactly how good that has been :-)
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