I had a successful start back at work..... I went in on Sunday morning with a positive attitude and swore to myself that I would be calm and serene and avoid any quarrels that might cone my way.... Did I manage?? did I hell!
we had training and the day started off quiet well, lots of cheek kissing and happy new year wishes, normally I hate all of this but for the first time ever I walked around the room greeting people and being nice ( I can do it if I really try) it was a jovial few minutes which was then followed by the Indian (or should I say native American?) " heeya heeeeeyaaa heeyaaa heeeyaaa" song, I even managed to smile through this and actually sung along to some of the heeeeyaaas.... so far so good. I behaved well throughout the day and even managed to keep quiet when the training lady stuck her middle finger up at everyone whilst trying to explain some sign language concept (she also did a thumbs up and a point but the middle finger was the one she put up for longest). Later our boss offered around a huge box of chocolates and everyone was happy and gobbled them down a few minutes later on of the veiled girls looked at the box and discovered they were champagne truffles!!! delicious for some but haram for most, this caused quiet a stir and the day went on. Now the training lady isn't a native English speaker but she normally does really well anyway I guess she was having an off day as she kept on saying "shit" of paper as in "if you need a shit then take a shit" and "simply write it on the shit" and "be sure to pass the shit on" it really was too funny but I managed to hold myself together and refrain from laughing unlike the girl sitting to my left who was in fits of giggles. The training lady got pissed off and turned to me and ordered me to take over the training!! I was actually speechless at this suggestion but the giggling girl informed her it wasn't me doing the laughing and I thought that would clear things up...... but it didn't!! she absolutely insisted that I continue the course and the whole room was looking at me, I could feel the anger swelling inside me and I kinda sorta flipped out...... I refused to say a word and told her she was trying to make an example of me which was just wrong as it wasn't even me laughing! Somehow the situation calmed itself and she resumed her training after a few minutes she told us we would finish an hour earlier and everyone was relieved. As we finished we entered a discussion about our next training day and decided to take a vote, the people who lost the vote got very upset and started to sway the others to their course, this was way too much for me and I shouted out "but we had a vote and they lost!!" this might have been ok but I followed it up with a very sarcastic "yeh well we are in Egypt where a vote doesn't count anyway!" there was a collective sigh and I sensed I had pissed the whole room off, we voted again, they lost again and we all went home, well actually me and giggling girl went to the flower shop to buy flowers for our friend who just gave birth. Whilst picking flowers my bag started to vibrate so I dug into the bottom of it and pulled out my phone aggggghhhh 3 missed calls from my boss and an angry text telling me I had to do a public apology the next morning! No bloody way!! so here it was from this comical day it wasn't the training lady who stuck her finger up at us and singled me out who had to say sorry, and the feeding muslims alcohol didn't seem to merit an apology either! but stating the fact (and yes I mean fact) that a vote counts for shit in Egypt means I now have to say sorry??? NO WAY. Anyway I didn't do the public thing but I talked to the people who were most offended and what I learned from that was that they agreed with me! but as I am not Egyptian I have no right to say something like that. This got me thinking, so am I not allowed to say that Cairo is dirty? am I not allowed to say that when I blow my nose the snot is black? am I not allowed to have an opinion on the sexual harassment? am I not allowed to say the truth about something happening where I live just because of the passport I hold? and the sad truth is no, Egyptians would rather you didn't and if you do then you are met with the phrase " if you don't like it then go home!" I want to scream "but you don't like it either!!" but it doesn't work. maybe it's because I have lived in different countries and maybe it's because I look at my own country through a strangers eyes but I really think I come from the world and I should be able to speak up about things I see in the world, there are things I hate about England and things I hate about Germany and I never ever become offended when a foreigner says something about the UK number one it is their opinion and number two they are mostly right!
And I think the reason I find all of this frustrating is that I am not trying to change the world, I am not Naive enough to think that I can but I like to observe and I like to make comparisons, I will write soon about my recent trip back to the UK but as a preview I will tell you I was absolutely disgusted by the lack of morals and the lack of clothing on the women. I think I feel for the first time what it is like to live without freedom of speech... it sucks! but I guess if I don't like it I can just leave.....
That was my first week back at work anyway people.....
