Discovery #31: Friendship is a wonderful thing.
Last night MESP held a cultural exchange night during which they invited 28 Egyptians over to the Villa and paired each one with a MESP student. These were, as they call them, our "Egyptian friends." Unfortunately, my friend, Meram's mother was sick last night so she was unable to make it, but I met her fiancée, Wael. Wael was very friendly and he and I had a nice conversation last night.
This afternoon I received a call from Wael informing me that he was having a surprise birthday party for Meram today at Fudruckers (yes...they have a Fudruckers in CAIRO!). So after finishing up a MESP commitment this evening, Christine and I headed over to Maadi to meet Wael and Meram.
Christine and I were very proud of ourselves and pretty excited because this was our first real outing in Cairo without the supervision or accompaniment of the group. After asking some other people in our program for directions, we made it do the Metro station and took the metro out to an area called Maadi. From there, we used our broken Arabic and the help of a few people to catch a taxi to Fudruckers. Meram and Wael were there with Wael's twin brother and his fiancée, Carolyn, and another one of their friends.
It was so wonderful to meet Meram, who has such a kind and gentle spirit, as well as Carolyn who was quite funny and talkative. Christine and I also loved seeing Meram and Carolyn's interactions with their fiancées! After being told that it was culturally unacceptable for us to interact extensively (i.e., beyond a simple greeting) with Egyptian men we met randomly, it was so refreshing to legitimately meet some great Egyptian men and see them treat their fiancées like princesses!
It was a wonderful evening and Christine and I made it home by 10:30 or so. Wael called me a half an hour later to make sure I made it home alright. So today, I'm thankful for wonderful people who are willing to share their lives with me after only meeting me once. Thank you Wael, Meram, Carolyn and others for a beautiful night.
(1) It sounds like you're navigating the city like a pro! When you get back you'll have to coach me on your arabic, I've forgotten most of mine.
ReplyDelete(2) Look at all this blogging! Where was this girl during WJC? ;-)
Gerg, no problem! I'm sure I'll gain fluency in just another couple of days ;)
ReplyDeleteThis girl had a 6 credit internship while at WJC and couldn't bring herself to write after working with economic copy all day!