Bedouin Kidnappers

This past weekend was very tense, the football tragedy happened on Wednesday and people were already out protesting about it on Thursday afternoon, they were marching towards the interior ministry which is where loads of people got killed in November so it was obvious that shit was going to kick off.  On top of that 2 kids got kidnapped on their way to school, they were from a super rich family and went to the German school in Dokki, this was scary as we also have a lot of super rich kids and well we are an international KG too, so everyone was on edge, then there were reports of more robbery's and it was all a bit scary and reminiscent of the revolution's darkest days. I spent Friday watching the news and at some point I read about 2 Americans being kidnapped in Sinai by armed Bedouin guys, my initial thought was wow way to go, another nail in the coffin for the tourism industry, as if the protests, crazy shit going on downtown and the Salafis weren't enough now we have kidnapped Americans woo hoo!! So I followed the news for the entire weekend and the next day the Americans were released and it actually made my day to read what they had said about the incident; the kidnappers were kind! they made tea and lit a fire and then served them bread and dates... they even told  one of the kidnappers that his smoking disturbed them so he went ahead and put out his cigarette! They were constantly told not to worry and to look at it as a special tour of the desert. It was strange, I was surrounded by dark, gloomy, serious and depressing stuff yet reading this made me remember how much I love Egypt and the Egyptians. This is not the place that they show on the news, it's not 24 hour fighting and there is no civil war, the people are warm and kind and are always willing to help. It's so easy to get swept up in the media storm and to believe that nothing is safe anymore, and yes the crime rate has risen but it is nothing compared to other huge cities around the world. there is some horrible stuff happening in certain areas and we should be aware and more cautious  but we should never ever forget the Egyptian people's hearts. I get very frustrated here at times but deep down when I look at the Egyptian people, I just know this country is going to be fine.

There is always a reason to celebrate....

The holidays never seem to end, once one thing is finished another thing starts which means a lot of eating sweet stuff and a lot of days off :) let's start with western Xmas you all know what that's all about and you know it's followed by more celebrations on new years eve, but that's it right? Holiday season over ... Well not if you are in Egypt the next one up is coptic Christmas on the 6th Jan, more cakes and more meat yaaaay then it's a few weeks at work until we have the 25th Jan which means a long weekend to celebrate the revolution so we then go back to work all refreshed to work another week which is followed by another long weekend because of the profits Birthday on the 5th of feb, this is another one that involves lots of eating, oriental sweets are the fare and they are simply delicious. Then we have western Easter in April, followed by Coptic Easter and then the Egyptian spring festival ( this always happens a day after Coptic easter and is a big family day) then at some point Ramadan happens which means finishing work early everyday and feasting every-night Ramadan is of course followed by eid which means a week off and lots of fun :) (the beer shop opens again so I normally celebrate this all week). Then it's the slaughter festival or as we call it at school "the sheep festival" this is a bit of a gruesome one as people sacrifice cows and sheep out on the street and well if you are not into gore it can be a bit much... On the plus side it means a week off. Then we role up to Xmas again ohhhh and of course I have a month in the summer too. He he he love Egypt and love my job xxxx