Alexandria - good bye...

Have you missed us? I wrote this sitting in a minibus travelling from Alexandria to Cairo Airport to go to on to Beirut after four intense but wonderful days. Alex, as we've come to call it, is different. The traffic is awful, but not half as bad as in Cairo. The surroundings are a little more green and the waterfront has a lot of colonial-style buildings looking out on the bay. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina is an amazing piece of architecture that seems to gleam at you from everywhere. We have had a tour of it, and also visited the very recently renovated jewellery museum which contains lots of fantastic pieces owned by the queens, princesses and kings of the royal family in Egypt. We all wonder if it's possible to ever go into an ordinary jewellery store again.

We met the Governor of Alexandria who governs a city with a population close to that of the whole of Sweden! He gave us some lovely gifts and we also learned abot the mega-project that the Rotary clubs of Alexandria are entering into together with the city - an upgrading of the living conditions for an entire town, with schools, hospitals and other services planned.

Professionally we all had excellent vocational visits. I was hosted by Dr Maged Bedwany, a psychiatrist, at a small charity hospital as well as a rehabilitation center for addicts. Both are showing excellent results and we had such a lot to talk about that we could have gone on for days!

Between this, Rotary Club meetings, boat and beach outings and tours of factories - among them a chocolate factory, Swiza, mmm! - what did we learn? Quite a few things, actually. We learned to be happy to find toilet paper in public toilets. Also that the stomach is a weak thing at times and that it's a joy to recover. We've discovered that we laughed a lot when we're tired but relaxed. Oh, and the honking system - I've learned the code! It's like this, every car honks a lot in Egypt. In Sweden, a honk generally means either that there's danger or an irritable "get out of my way". Here, one quick honk just means "I'm here", in case the others don't see you, and as the lanes are there just for decorative purposes, that's a good thing. A long honk means "I'M HERE, CAN'T YOU SEE?". Two quick taps mean "hello" or "thank you". A long syncopated series of taps, e.g. short short long short is swearing. So don't do that unless you're really annoyed. So there you are, now you can come and drive in Egypt! Oh, but you also have to pretend you're in a video game, drive fast, overtake on either side and go for any gaps that you think you could get through with your rear mirrors intact. Maybe.

Above all, we learned that you can make friends for life in just four days and that saying goodbye isn't easy. Thanks to all our hosts and to Ahmed, Ayman, Shahira, Abdelaziz and all the other kind Rotarians we met!

Pyramides, horseback riding and more

Another two days has passed in wonderful Cairo and it is a little sad to day that this was our last day hosted by Rotary Club Nasr City. Yesterday was busy! All day guided by ex rotaractor Dina Shehab we started off with a visit in the beautiful Mohammed Ali Mosque and visited the Egyptian Antiques Museum. After a good lunch at a local restaurant we continued to the pyramids in Giza. Wow! It is impossible to imagine how big they really are. After a tour on a camelback (!) we got to enter the Chefren pyramid. We were all a bit nervous to climb up and down the narrow tracks and the air inside was warm, humid and contained very little oxygen. Back in the bus Dina translated the meaning of our names based on the hieroglyph signs. In the Papyrus Institute we got a demonstration of the production of papyrus. The day ended up in a Bazaar where we got to try Shisha (water-pipe) and do some shopping.
Today we had our first vocational visits within our respective working fields. After interesting meetings and some adventures in the busy Cairo traffic (well done Yasmeen!) we prepared sushi instructed by my host Tarek Michel and it was delicious! The day ended up in the Pyramid area where Tarek took us for horseback riding in the desert. I will quote Elisabeths facebook status “can easily imagine a life that involves riding by the pyramids on Sunday afternoons... Thanks to Tarek Michel for this wonderful experience!”.



The bags are now packed and we are looking forward to continue our trip to Alexandria where we are heading early tomorrow morning. We would like to thank all Rotarians and Rotaracts in Nasr City that has taken such good care of us and made these five days a memory for life!
Shoukran!

Salamu Aleykum

Another fantastic day in Kairo is getting to an end. Wearing our newly purchased Galabeyas (traditional Egyptian clothing,) we took off to the farmhouse of Rotarian Fadwa El Semman in Berkash. Members from Nasr City Rotary club, Rotaract, Innerwheel, Interact and host families were invited for an Easter Spring Galabeya Bedouin BBQ party.





The day has been filled with typical Egytian food, wonderful meetings, live music, dancing and altogether a nice and, to us, exotic atmosphere. After breakfast we got to see how the meet (to be eaten later) was hung over the glow and then buried in the ground for two hours. I will not even try to describe the taste of that meet but at least we can tell it was delicious! We were served an impressive variety of salads, sauces, rice and noodle dishes etc ending up with baklawas for desert. Yummie!



The day is getting to and end and here in Maadi, where I am hosted by Rotarian Tarek Michel, we have just enjoyed molokhia for dinner. Hopefully I remember how to cook it!

Tomorrow we will see the Pyramids In Sha’Alla!

Second day in Egypt and its just getting better and better. This trip is amazing.

We started our day by going to the Culturama Panorama in the "Smart Village" (like a science park) in the city "6th of October" to learn about the Egypt history and heritage. At the Culturama we got a great tour of their amazing databases, they covered everything from architecture, music, flora and fauna etc, we watched a tour through the Egyptien history in a panorama cimena (with 9 screens) and looked at beautiful historical pictures in 3D.

We continued our morning by going to the "Hope Village of Psycological & Social Rehabilitation Center for young street mothers" and meet and interacted with the mothers and their children. This experiance really got us thinking of how unfair life can be, but also how wonderful people can be at helping each other out. This visit will always stay deep in our hearts. After being served a fantastic lunch at the centre, with a lot of egyptian specialities and desserts, we continued our day by heading for the Nile.

When we arrived at the Nile a Felluca (an Egyptian sailbot) was waiting for us and it took us for an amazing sail on the Nile. During the sail we enjoyed the company of some Rotaractors and the Rotarians Fadwa El Semman anf Tarek Michel. We sang songs, both arabic and swedish and we enjoyed some typical egytian snacks.

After that we threw ourselfs out into the crazy Cairo traffic, in the hunt for the perfect Galabeya (an Egyptian traditional dress) for tomorrow´s Galabeya Bedouin BBQ party. After finally managing to find a spot to stop in the crowded street, (never seen so many cars and people trying to get somewhere at the same time) we jumped out and found our way into a crowded market were we all found beautiful Galabeyas.

Now we, Evelina and Hanna, just finished another lovely dinner here at our host Manal Amins residence and we are soon ready to relax and prepare for the big Happening tomorrow at Fadwa El Semmans farmhouse.

Good Night and In Sha'Alla

Tebah alla-kheir! (Good Night)

We stared our trip early this morning from Landvetter Airport in Gothenburg, Sweden. We arrived to Landvetter the night before and stayed until today at the Landvetter Airport hotel. Our alarm clocks woke us up at 4.30 am this morning after 4 hours of sleep. After a pleasent flight we arrived at Cairo airport where we were received with flowers by the wonderful Rotarian Fadwa El Semman. The welcome we got was more than we could ever expect, and if we were a bit tired before the people receiving us gave us new energy.



From the airport we went straight to the Le Meridien Heliopolis Hotel for our first Rotary meeting and presentation. During the evening we made our presentations about ourselves, our district and Sweden. We enjoyed local soft drinks (made from Hibiscus flower) , "High tea" (a mix of local wonderful dishes) and met the Rotarians, the Rotaractors and members of the Innerweel from the Rotary club Nasr City.



A very long and interesting day has come to an end. Here we are, Hanna and Evelina, well installed in the lovely house of Manal Amin. We just enjoyed a tasteful dinner, together with Manal and her daughter Maii, who´s leaving for Mekka tomorrow. We wish her all the best and a pleasant journey!

We are so happy to be here, the welcoming was great and we look forward to wake up to new adventures tomorrow!


Insha'Allah!

Last night at home

The suitcase lies open at my feet, stuffed with all sorts of clothing. There are still things to pack, but I'll wait until my little girl is asleep - right now she's quite unhappy that Mother's going away for a month. I've tried to teach her to use MSN, and hope I'll get the chance to talk to her across the miles.

Tomorrow night we'll be at the airport hotel, since the plane leaves so early we would have had to travel at night to get there otherwise. We'll do another rehearsal of our presentation to see what else we need to cut out. Our rehearsal on the 27th was an eye-opener - we had to cut the thing by about two thirds! Well, we knew it was too long, we just didn't quite realise by how much. That's what happens when four ambitious ladies get together to do something, I suppose. The Rotary Club of Nasr City I hope will be kind to us, hosting our first presentation on the night of our arrival - that's on Wednesday!

It will be great to finally meet all these people who have spent so much time planning for our visit. We're on our way!

Marhaba – hello!

Time is passing very quickly and we look forward to start our trip in less than four weeks time now! Last weekend was devoted to intensive planning and preparations. We finished a fist disposal of our Sweden presentation and even started a packing list. A squeeze breeze has the first position on the list so far. I am not even sure about its exact functionality but it should be some kind of water fan. Considering that we just woke up from the longest winter rest in decades we might need it when coming to warmer parts of the world.

Egypt was the fourth country to get a closer presentation, which was made by Elisabeth. We all knew that the Nile is a long river…but THAT long, about 3 times the length of Sweden! Having a glance at each country is a real appetizer.

Tomorrow Hanna and I are invited for lunch with Rotary Jönköping Öster local club and we will have the opportunity to present the team, the interesting trip we have ahead of us and how to follow the blog. Welcome back!