Renovate a Village

Before the January 25 revolution in Egypt, I was touched by a village and inspired to help make some changes. My husband’s family is from a small village in north central Egypt called Elisha. It is about a 2 hour drive north of Cairo and a 2 hour drive south of Alexandria.

This was my home for almost one year. I learned a lot about people and life from this little village. On any given day the electricity would go out and the water would stop running. Unlike the big cities, you are prepared for these little bumps in the road, and life certainly does not stop. The water pump is situated outside our front door and we have kerosene lanterns ready to go!

It is an agrarian village: dirt roads, old mud huts still standing, donkey and cart, and to my dismay no garbage system.

I struggle with my ideas. I am a visionary but find it challenging to make those ideas come to fruition. I don’t want to let this idea get tossed with all the other garbage. My husband and I have built a new vision of this town in our minds. We see paved roads, a recycling/garbage system, land for collective farming, a market for residents to share and profit from, and a park area for children to play without getting hurt and sick from garbage and other items that are just tossed to the side.

There needs to be an element of education, infrastructure to be created, process, and ultimately community support and commitment.

But how do we start? Where do we begin? I hate using “money” as an excuse to not do something. I also don’t want to duplicate efforts. Ideally I want to approach institutions that can donate time, skill, research. I want to turn this into a community effort. I want the people of Elisha to owns this so that they can have the sense of pride and commitment that is necessary to building and sustaining a healthy community.

This post is not very clear and concise. It is an attempt to begin to vocalize my thoughts and dreams for my other family and home. The people in these small villages have no hope. They will tell you that they are already dead. Their environment is challenging and modernization has had a negative impact. Small stores lined with packaged junk food and pop bottles have added to the garbage that is accumulated because no system has been put in place to deal with this kind of debris.

I will begin with researching. Perhaps I should look into writing a letter to the Environment Minister in Canada and to touch base with the Environmental Faculty in Geulph, Ontario or even University of Alberta.

I am committed to finding a path for a solution! Please send me your ideas, comments, suggestions! All is appreciated!

Poof!

We are here! It’s over! The first ugly, dreaded, inescapable phase. We made it. We did it! After 16 months, from start to finish, we made it here to Canada. In retrospect it wasn’t that bad. In fact, it was a period of beautiful moments. There were a lot of unknowns and some pressure, we bonded together and we did rise above it and become stronger people and a stronger couple as well.

This past trip to Egypt was certainly bittersweet. This time around I knew I was going home, but not alone. However, this time my husband‘s family knew we were both leaving and we weren’t sure when our next visit would be.

Egypt this September was still quite hot. I was acclimatized from my last visit, but my dad was not. There was a lot of sleeping and just laying around. We kept it low key and spent most of our time with family. I miss them already. Especially my nieces and nephews. They are going to grow up so fast! We hope to maybe skip on over next year. A pit stop in Paris first.

The flight home was long. This was my third time in less than a year. Although I love to travel, I am happy to not set foot on a plane for awhile. It drove the husband a little batty. We had no relief on our stop over in London. Our plane arrived late from Cairo. We were escorted to our connecting flight. Thank god I checked us in online. They were waiting at the plane with signage. They had has running to the plane! Once on board, we had to settle in for nine hours of flying. So, in the future when we visit Egypt I have decided to break it up and choose a different connection in Europe so we can visit for a few days before and/or after our trip to Egypt. Just to break things up a bit.

Once we landed in Edmonton it was fairly smooth except that the husband’s luggage did not arrive. Mine did. My dad’s did too. So we first had to go to Immigration. The lady got Sameh to initial and sign a few forms and stamped it and welcomed him to Canada. He is officially a permanent resident. Next we had to fill out a form for lost luggage, then we had to fill out a form for claims.

FINALLY, we left the arrival area and scooted out to be greeted by my mom and my friends, Lora, Leeann and Victoria. Husband and the gals escaped to the great outdoors for a cigarette. Poor guy, 15 hours and no smoking!

We arrived home, alone. Ate, and slept. The following Monday I started a new two week gig, and a few days later the husband had a small painting job.

His SIN card arrived in the mail. He has a new iPhone 4 and an Edmonton phone number. He is working on another job, and soon we will be studying for his drivers.

All of this in 14 days! Not bad I say. Throw in a long weekend and I think we broke some record for the fastest settlement ever!

And so now the next phase begins…REALITY. We have friends and family to meet. A party to plan for November, I hope, and work to do to keep the cash flowing in!

I kind of like this normal life. Get up, work, come home, eat, visit, love each other, sleep, and repeat. I think I am starting to get the hang of this. Please don’t throw me any curve balls right now. I need to keep to this routine for a bit.

I love my life. I love my partner, and I am so grateful for all the support and love we both have received from all our friends and family! What a blessing! Now it is our turn to share the love!

Ma Salaam.

Focus on your own story

The interview arrived. I was a wreck. Waiting on the other side of the world. Wanting to be their to support my husband. He had to make the long trip to Cairo, early in the morning, sick, and during Ramadan. His best friend was with him, relief set in.

Two days prior we were cramming. Ensuring that we knew every little detail and every important date. I had asked the husband to call me prior to the interview so that I could pump him with more information. A couple days earlier when “studying” he told me he was not a computer. Point taken. He did not call. Instead I was trying to call him but his phone was turned off. I panicked for a brief moment and then calmness washed over me. He’s got this I thought to myself. He knows me and he knows us. It was a blessing that his phone was turned off.

One hour later he called. In a frantic voice I asked how it went. Mr. Nonchalant told me it was easy and that everything was okay. He went through the questions with me.

Here’s the thing. When we are involved in government processes like Immigration, all gates are closed and there is no information that best helps to prepare you. Instead, it is easy to get caught up in other people’s stories that you may hear about or read on the web. You hear about  multiple immigration officers interrogating you. You hear them ask difficult and really personal questions. You also hear that the other spouse may receive a phone call to verify the answers. We had to step back. Well really, I had to step back. I had to remind myself, and have others remind me, that this was routine and that our relationship is real. That will shine through. And it did.

They asked my husband maybe 10 basic questions that were already on the application. He even cracked a joke. They told him he will hear from Immigration in 2-3 weeks. Two days later I checked his email and there was a message sitting in the inbox. I opened it. Nervous. I scanned the email and began to cry with relief. I called my husband and he told me he had a dream that night that he received his VISA and was waiting for me to call. I called. He was so excited. I could hear the stress wash away from us both.

Why did we ever have doubt? Easy, there was not enough communication throughout the process. When you do not know what is going on, your mind begins to wander and that is when you buy into other people’s stories.

My father and I are flying down a day after Ramadan, September 10 and will be returning on September 30. I already have a part time job possibly lined up for my husband and I can begin seriously focusing on my business.

But I think for a day or two we might just turn off the phones, lock the door, and focus on our own story!