No finger is the same

It’s been a busy couple of weeks again. I’ve done a lot of things, but the impact of the impressions are starting to weaken. I’ve become used to daily life and there is not a lot that surprises me anymore. Nonetheless I’ve done some amazing stuff. After Sharm-El-Sheikh I went to the desert to camp there and do sandboarding. On our way back we decided to go to Alexandria for a few days to relax, enjoy the beach and see what’s happening over there. The beach was actually not that enjoyable to say the least, in fact it was the most disgusting beach I have ever seen. People just throw their garbage in the sea and on the beach, which means that when you take a dive the likelihood of coming up with a plastic bag around your head is bigger than just coming up without touching anything. The past weekend I spent my time in the black and white desert, enjoying the oasis and hotsprings together with very nice company and tomorrow I’m off to Beirut to spend two nights with Nick who’s doing his internship in Amman. I realize now that the previous sentence can be interpreted in many ways, but it just means Nick will be accompanying me.

My time in Cairo is almost done. It has been a truly amazing and impressive experience. The daily life was not easy to get used to but I think I managed quite well. I leave the door every with a big smile on my face to see what the day will bring me. It’s hard to explain but I’ve grown attached to kindness and friendliness of the people. They are so easy to talk to and generally so happy to see you. It will be hard for me to go back to the more ‘closed’ society in the Netherlands. That’s for sure.

Dare to share. This is the slogan of the Nour project and it has intrigued me from day one. What does it mean? Why would I need to dare to share my culture or experiences? But if you think about it, it’s not that strange. The culture I come from is so different from the culture I’ve spent the past two months in, that it’s not easy to understand what’s happening every day. It’s really difficult to be open minded and not to judge. Taken in mind all the stereotyping that is taking place in the Netherlands it’s even more plausible to assume that one really has to dare to share his or her culture instead of just comparing.  I’ve found it very hard to share my own culture in contrast to the Egyptians, who really want to tell everything about how Egyptian society and daily life function. I realize just now that I’ve been living under the assumption that my very direct way of approaching people was normal and logical as well. In a way, I’ve been expecting that people would be the same as me in that respect. Not that I didn’t know from myself I can be very direct and this is not the norm for the rest of the world, it’s just something that you are not consciously aware of when you’re actually doing it. Interacting with my fellow interns from other countries actually made me realize this. I still need to get used to the Chinese way of responding to a question for example and it actually still annoys me every day. I think that’s why I like the Egyptians so much. In a way they are also direct and very open just like me. 

But again this is a partial ‘analysis’. Not every Egyptian is nice, just like not every Dutch is direct. I guess it’s just human nature. Some are good and some are bad, but in general the Egyptians are very good. When I talked to a guy I met in Alexandria and he asked me how I liked the Egyptians, I answered him that I love the openness and friendliness of the people, but on the other hand I strongly dislike the people who are trying to get something out of you or are constantly annoying you. He told me that in Egypt they have a saying for this: ‘no finger is the same’. People are just different and you always have to bear in mind that some of them are out to get you, but I ‘m strongly convinced that if you treat others the way you want to be treated, everything will turn out just fine. Or as we say in Dutch: “Wie goed doet, goed ontmoet”.

This will definitely be the last blog from Cairo and maybe also the last one in general. After the explore Egypt photo exhibition I will leave for Dubai on the first on August and will go to Tehran afterwards. This will be just holiday and I’m not going to really dig deep in the respective societies. I do imagine the Ramadan to have quite an impact, so if it is worth I will definitely share this.

It’s been a worthwhile challenge to share different perspectives on the world and it has benefited me in a lot of ways. This mutual sharing allows for such a better understanding of each other that I believe it could solve a lot of problems in the world, if people would just listen to each other. It brings me back to my first arrival on Amman airport two months ago. Above the coffee shop was a quote of Augustine which said:

“Life is a book, and if you don’t travel you only read a page”

I would like to finish the book, so I’m going to sleep now in order to arrive in Beirut with a clear state of mind.

All you need is luf.