Another taxi ride story

I decided to have an early start of the day so i met up with Helen to get some work done, although we are still on holiday. We decided to start "in style"and we went for a delicious breakfast at Lucille's on Rd 9. I was very pleased and stuffed!
But the day didnt quite start as pleasantly as it sounds; since i had no Egyptian pounds i decided to go to the Grand Mall first to get some money exchanged. I took a taxi from Kimo market and asked him to wait for me at the Mall.
Well, as soon as i got on the taxi the driver kept going on and on about how beautiful i am. I should be blushing now! LOL Then he went on asking personal questions (which i usually do not mind - especially coming from the children in my class): am i married?, do i have a boyfriend?, do i work in Egypt? etc. It was rather uncomfortable, especially when he started saying that he is single.
At one point he lit up a cigarette asking me if i smoke; my "No"led to another question: Why?
I was puzzled and didnt know what he means; he kept going: "you are beautiful, you do not have a boyfriend, you do not smoke ... you have everything!" He said me and him should be together ...
Hmmm, i pretended i didnt hear that.
Thank God my phone started ringing right when he started saying that he wants to see me again. But he made sure i get that info, so when i got out of the taxi he said it again! I said: "I'm not sure about that!"

So, according to this man, i "have everything" - i guess this is what they look in a woman when they want to get married - single, beautiful, not smoking.... Hmm, i wonder how many eligible women are there for this guy? Probably thousands!lol

What’s It Like To Wear a Burqa?

British journalist Liz Jones wore a burqa for a week and chronicled her experiences in “My Week Wearing a Burka: Just a Few Yards of Black Fabric, but It Felt Like a Prison.” Her inspiration? Lubna Hussein, the Sudanese woman who will receive 40 lashes for wearing pants in public.
When she went to pick up her daily coffee, she realized that she had no idea how to eat or drink in a burqa. Upon seeing her reflection in a window, she wrote, “Instead of me staring back, I saw a dark, depressed alien. A smudge. A nothing.” Wearing the head-to-toe garment, she felt physically oppressed. “I felt blinkered, like a racehorse. Walking to the platform, I could hardly breathe: I kept getting my nose out from beneath its shroud for fresh air. I felt weak, and faint and itchy.”
On one occasion, an Arab man shouted at her, but she had no idea what he was saying. She wondered whether being out alone or eating was her sin. A British Muslim woman told her, “I have had so much abuse on the train.” A Western friend commented: “How fantastic, you don’t have to bother to put on make-up, or wash your hair. How liberating and at least you won’t catch swine flu or be leered at.”
Inside the burqa, she says, she felt “clumsy, slow, and fearful.” For her, the experience was like being disabled. By the end of the week, she felt like a Muslim schoolgirl. “I know now exactly how they feel: marginalised, objectified, kept box-fresh for the eyes of male relatives.”
Ultimately, this journalist’s experiment wasn’t all that dissimilar from Tyra Banks running around in a fat suit. It was close to touching on something important about women in the world.

This was Posted by: Olivia Allin on www.thefrisky.com and it does not necessarily reflect my personal oppinion.

A thought on Arab women

Do you know how we often get those emails with power points attached about random things? I usually dont bother to open them, but some time ago i got one about arab women wearing burkas and how bad they are treated and how much they suffer etc. The powepoint reffered to women in Afghanistan in particular but i couldnt help not replying to that email, especially that i was living in an Arab country.
I did not agree with the sympathy for these women that the email was inviting to. My response at that time was that to these women it is normal to wear a burka and be covered all the time and they find nothing wrong with it; to them, wearing a burka is the same thing as it is to me wearing a skirt.
The email was talking about the fact that Afghan women have no rights at all and how they are forced into arranged marriages, raped by their own husbands etc .... Well, i wont go into that, because to be honest, it happens nowadays even in the Western world, but we do not want to accept it. Just turn the News Channel on and you will be surprised...
I am not here to say that it is right and we should accept what is happening to these women, but sympathy does not help at all.
I kept thinking about this very often since that email and i was wondering if i was right or not - if these women do feel pressured, or have hard feelings because they are wearing a burka...
But now, if you do not know anything else apart from that, how can you say you do not agree? If this is how you were raised and have nothing else to compare it with, how can you feel sorry for yourself, in bondage?
This takes me back to the comunism that me and my family endured in Romania; i know i was still young, but i remember some things. At that time you couldnt have more food than you were allowed to buy, you had only 2 hrs/ day of tv (and that was news and some Russian cartoons for children), you had to have at least 3 or 4 children and i could go on and on about it - my point is that people thought this was normal just because they did not know anything different than that!!!
I remember when my dad came back from Irak, in 1987 or 1988 and he brought us oranges. We DIDNT KNOW what those are because we had never seen oranges before!
So, how could i crave oranges if i didnt know what oranges are? I hope you get my point.

Anyway, i was watching National Geographic and this Arab woman (the first female photgrapher in the UAE) dressed in a burka said: "i do not mind wearing a burka; it represents who i am, an Arab woman, it shows my identity; i am proud to wear it!"...
And i hope this says it all!

More relaxing days ...Aqua Park

We started work at school and after 3 days of training our boss thought we need to relax, so he took us all to the Aqua Park.

Aqua Park is about 45 min drive from Maadi but it is an incredible place to go swimming and enjoy the different types of slides, including the "black hole".

We stayed until 2:30 when the bus came to pick us up; the entrance fee was about 45 LE, which included a drink and lunch (either a chicken sandwhich or fish and rice/chips and veggies). Nichole went for the chicken sandwhich which she did not like at all, so it all went into the bin. My veggies were fried in butter, the rice had a lot of oil and the chicked was deep fried, but i ate it anyway; it was not that bad!

The most amazing thing was to see the way the women go into the swimming pool, completely covered, just as they go out on the streets.

I bet it is not too comfy to swim with all those clothes on!! Both me and Nichole were wearing a one-piece swimsuit and i felt naked; usually at home, girls wear two-piece swimsuit and that is normal, but here, i guess i was the naked one.

A strange things happened, while i was under water trying to do one of the tricks Nichole taught me - a man pinched my bottom and i felt so bad!! I felt violated, but at the same time a feeling of guilt came along, as i was one of the few persons "naked" - according to the Egyptian culture.

All in all, i had a great time there ... i love swimming!!!!!!