Provincial Egypt, Tunisia, turtle, rain, Arabic

In the last 3 months I traveled to non-touristic provincial Egypt for business trips. After over 2000 km on the road, 7 cities and dozens of people met, I can draw some conclusions and share some experiences.

People – I met fantastic people and I confirmed my sympathy for Egyptians. The people I met were all working for NGOs but most of them had many things happening in their lives: business, teaching, government jobs, political involvement. In Suez I met a 70+ year former member of parliament, in Tanta I met the owner of the only telescope factory in Egypt, in Arish a PhD in Bedouin society, in Bir El Abd a former camel racing and football referee – just to give some examples.

I had very interesting conversation about the projects they are working on but also about different aspects of life. I learned that Bedouins call most other people “farmers” … they have a nomad life and mainly rear goats so for them the ones settled are farmers, they stay in one place and work the land. Also, in Bedouin society a woman to get married needs to have approval from her cousins, from the “stomach”, branch and tribe she belongs to.

I also learned about a woman owning an olive tree farm. After she attended an IT training she went on the internet and learned how she can improve her farming and in one year she doubled her income from selling olive oil.

I found very kind and hospitable people and was actually overwhelmed, representing Microsoft in their community meant a lot for them and treated me as a VIP. In this sense the best thing they can offer is food, good one and in huge quantities. In Suez and Delta it seemed that mix grill was the best thing on offer. They didn’t even ask what I want, they ordered for me, 7-8 pieces of meat and some salad. Since the first time it was very heavy, the second time I asked for chicken when I heard them ordering mix grill so they brought me chicken and … mix grill! Double trouble! In Alexandria we had fish mix grill, and a lot of it, 4 different types, 2-3 pieces each. In Arish we had goat cooked Bedouin or Gulf style – they dug a hole in the ground, make fire, put a pot with rice and water, cover it and on top the goat, cover the whole thing and leave it for 1-2 hours. This way the rice boils and the meat cooks very tenderly … we had a whole goat for 10-12 people! The next day for 4 people we had a fish weighing 4 g + 1 kg shrimps, 1 kg hamsi, salads and rice!
Food is pleasure, a lot of food means a lot of pleasure, as simple as that.

By now I realized the role of the Nile for Egypt. It is by far the most populated country (80+ million) in the deserted areas of North Africa and Middle East though Algeria and Libya have bigger surfaces. The reason for this is the Nile, it gives them food and water. As long as you are close to the Nile, the scenery is green and there is a lot of agriculture; you see green fields, donkey carts, buffalos, tractors, horses and crowded places, it is surprisingly beautiful and alive. As you move away from the Nile you see desert and very little life.
Some pictures here.

Besides these visits I also went to Tunisia for a 2 days internal training and I took another 2 days to explore. The best place I saw was Sidi Bou Said, a village up on a hill with white and blue houses, very beautiful. Another amazing thing about Tunisia was the food, very delicious and with a lot of tuna, I think there is no coincidence that the country is called Tunisia, they eat a lot of tuna. The last night I spent it at the site of IPM, going back to an AIESEC conference after some time, it was great, I still knew people from AIESEC and also met alumni attending the alumni conference. The party was great also :)
Some pictures here.

In late December as I was snorkeling in the Red Sea by a reef, I saw something big moving, it was a huge 1.5m turtle, she saw me and swam away, I followed her and she stopped on a reef looking at me, I waved :) but she was still staring, after a few minutes she swam again and this time I didn’t follow her. It was so beautiful; I was extremely excited to see it! This is more or less how she looked like, I couldn’t take myself a picture of her in the water.

After 5 months here i finally got a decent rain for a few hours. Egyptians not being used to it got into a lot of troubles, traffic became a nightmare and many accidents happened. In Arish they had huge floods and a lot of damage. Is interesting how something I am very used to, here creates chaos.

Also in this 3 months I started Arabic lessons, shuya-shuaya I am learning to read and speak :)
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