Today's Prompt: What Life Experience Drastically Changed Your Thinking on Something?
In July of 2002, Joe, Megan, and I moved to Cairo, Egypt.
Joe was hired by a subcontractor in the United States to teach the Egyptian
military how to make parts to repair F15s. The employment was supposed to last
from 2002 to 2004 or longer. We ended up staying for one year.
We lived in Maadi, a suburb of Cairo. We lived in a flat in the
same building as the organization that oversaw all the American’s daily lives
in Egypt. Our building also had a bank, a post office, a DVD rental office
(free), a library (made up of a few bookshelves), IT offices, a medical clinic,
and armed security. Our three-bedroom two-bath flat was spacious and luxurious compared
to anyplace Joe and I had lived before. Joe drew a better salary than he had in
past jobs. The company paid Megan’s schooling, our jeep and fuel expenses, and all
our housing costs. We also received an additional $75.00 per diem per day.
When we were in Egypt
two percent of the population was Coptic-Christian and ninety-eight percent was
Muslim.
Living in Egypt changed my thinking in at least eight ways.
1.
I learned that people are people no matter their
religion. All the Egyptians we met and befriended were kind and generous of
spirit, no matter what their religious beliefs. They were more interested in
how we treated them than in our religious beliefs. In fact, nobody ever asked
us our faith.
2.
I learned that we stop seeing what is in front
of our nose when we are inundated or immersed in a situation repeatedly. I
recall our first drive from the Cairo airport to Maadi, all I saw was piles of
rubble and filth. After a month or two I stopped seeing the rubble and began instead
to see the beautifully colored buildings. Before this, I always wondered why
people do not see what is obvious. I learned our brain can shut out the
sameness. I eventually could see the same happening about safety in companies I
worked with. It is important to have new people if simply to see what we have
stopped seeing.
3.
I learned that the Egyptians look at faces. A
person who will look at their face earns respect faster than the person who
avoids any eye contact.
4.
I learned that to some of the Egyptian people, I
was a celebrity because I was an American. If I wanted respect, it was based on
my actions. I received excellent treatment in the marketplaces. We discovered
we paid less for watermelon than other folks in our neighborhood. Everything can
be bartered on there! The two small grocery stores in our neighborhood and the Egyptian
boys ages ten to twelve would carry my groceries even though I could carry them
myself. They enjoyed practicing their English and earning the equivalent of
$.05 in American money.
5.
Joe and I received a manual to read about the
customs in Egypt. Joe and I followed the customs. We were sad to discover this
was not true of other Americans working for the same company. Being visitors,
we tried to be respectful. In the past I thought the
Ugly American” was a fictional character. Sadly, not so.
6.
I learned that my daughter, Megan, was better
off in a private school or homeschool than in the public education system. There
is not a one size fits all in education as much as we would like to believe it.
My daughter excelled in the private school she attended. She got to interact with
children from sixty different nationalities. She learned about being a world
citizen as well as an American citizen. Prior to this experience, I was adamant
that my child could get a solid education in the public school system. I was
wrong. Her experience in Cairo cemented her life-long love of learning.
7.
Poverty is rampant in many countries. Americans
like to think we are the exception to the rule. Some political parties and
pundits act like people are poor or homeless because they want to be or that
they are lazy. As someone who grew up in a working poor family, I already knew
this was not true. Poverty is rarely a “choice.” However, seeing the disparity
between our lifestyle and those of the Egyptian families serving our building,
I learned that there is a poverty of the soul, and it is not among those “without.”
The Boab’s wife serving me a cup of tea
in her basement flat, with a mattress on the floor and a small table with two
chairs, as she proudly shows me her newborn baby girl, will always be one of my
most treasured memories. She spoke no English and I spoke no Arabic. We
communicated with smiles and our eyes. (Boab is the name for the building
caretaker).
8.
I learned that Joe and I are risk takers. If you
had asked us this prior to this one-year journey we would have said, we were
not risk takers. Yet, we packed up our house in two weeks, got passports, and
flew with our ten-year-old daughter across the world where we knew nobody.
I am forever grateful for the opportunity to live in Egypt.
To see what a world much older than America looks like. There were so many
moments that I was equally grateful to have the privilege to have been born in
America and to have the abundance in our country made available to me.
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