gjOe in Moggama3 el Ta7reer: Part II

well, madam fat7ya is a typical Egyptian woman.She is veiled, a proud mother of 3 gurls ,a bit chuby, puts on lots of makeup for work, sotaha 3aaly, and betfally elly oddamaha men saso le raso! other than that she is sooo sweet..
madam fat7ya is a manager in an admin. where they help ppl who study travel abroad to get a degree.."be3thaat" and they manage ppl who are here to cope with the egyptian educational institute."wafedeen"
i went to meet madam fat7a as a step towards our graduation project where we want to interview some users of the program-to-be that we are developing.
Mainly it was a questionnare. It should have lasted for 30 to 45 mins but it stretched out to 3 hrs..
madam fat7ya did most of the talking .. the interview was formal but she went out of the topic sometimes..she explained in details the work flow and processes going there. and we Had to listen although what we needed was far more simpler than that.Anyways we had to thank her..

At the end of the first hour and a half, she had said it all..
we thanked her and were abt to leave when she remembered that she had to give us some papers or whatever..so we had to wait 3ala mal papers tetsawar..el mohem
we had to staaay and with no complaining. Then she started the real talking:
she told us that ppl who travel abroad to study never come back.
that if they came back, a million things would get in the way of him/her trying to make use of the degree.She gave us an example by saying if a guy returned with a PhD. Dr.s here would envy him and would try with all means to push him away.
She told us that the ppl working in public sector are not only tired but they feel oppressed by the system.
She told us "barra el zabbal zay elwazeer..law 3amalteelo 7aga ye2ollek ana leeya 7o2oo2y..laken hena el nass betet7'arag men kollyet tebb w to3od 3ala el raseef w mesh la2aya sho3'l".
"barra el bany2aadam 3'aly ya benty..maynfa3sh yeggarbo 3ala bany2admeen keda zay fe tebb 3andena.."
"el balad feeha fasad..law gom ersheen fe ayy edara..law etlafety hatl2eehom et7'do lel nass el kebeera.."
"el balad aow7ash 7aga feeha el fasad el edary..mafeesh dameer..w kollo rashawy w araf..w bey7sal balawy fel balad deh ya benty w 3eeny 3enak"
"ya3ny enty masaln awel lamma tet7'argy haddawry 3ala eh..mesh 3ala wasta? aady awel fasad fel mogtama3..3omr 7add hay2ollek ta3aly esht3'aly 3ashan kaf2tek? naader awy naader.."
"el balad deh mesh haysle7aha 3'eer 7aga wa7da bass..saowra..fakra ya benty fel taree7' lamma kano bey2olona ahdaf el sawroa aamet 3ashan yesheelo el 7agat el we7sha..aady koll el 7agat deh mawgooda delwa2ty w aktar"
"e7na dawla mot7'alefa..w hanfadal tool 3morana mot7'alfeen law fedelna netaty keda"

she even gave us advise(!):
"lazem teggawey wa7ed zoo markaz..3ashan ye3raf eddafa3 feeky kam 3ala matet3almy w tekbary ..ew3y ta7'dy wa7ed a2al mennek..wes2aleeny ana.."



she concluded by apologizing if she gave us a "black" version of egypt.
nothing she said was new or unheard of..but the way she said it gave me the impression that she deals with corruption everyday. it made me wonder how bad things really are?
and are we reaching the point of "it can only get better".. or there is still worse to come?
how am i going to survive all that in the future? how do ppl cope with that? and how many decided "el nass kollaha bet3mel keda" and went with the flow?

anyways..back to madam fat7ya..her words were an eye-opener on things that i have seen earlier but never gave it a name "ya 3eeny 3aleeky ya balad"..

gjOe in Moggama3 el Ta7reer:Part I

A huge building no doubt..full of history, dust, files, beuracracy and People!! When ever you need to extarct a paper or a document somehow in the dreadful lousy process u'll end up in moggama3 el ta7ereer...My encounter with moggama3 el ta7reer was not as dramatic as i thought it would be..although i did hear, see and smell biZZare things!
okay..my picture of moggama3 el ta7reer was all from Adel Emam's all-famous el erhab wel kabab..i thought that i would be going up in a spiral until i get to the office i want..and i thought that i would find a sucisidal person in the elevator and i thought i would find rice being handpicked on desks..and i thought i would find people leaving thier work and praying when there was no prayers to be done..and i thought i would find an unnoticable "wa7ed beynnadaf gezam" by the stairs..
to my dissapointment.. i have found none of that..

Reality :

i went there by 11..i found ppl having thier breakfast..
i found women fighting over nothing..
i found ppl sleeping on desks..
i found careless tired egyptian faces all over the place..
i found ppl not doing what they are supposed to do: work
i found an undescribable blend of smells..

the general attitude of ppl there: am not paid enoff to care..

i didnt expect nothing other than that really..but it was a first time encounter with the building..

The most interesting part though is still to come : madam fat7ya !

Im Walking Away

Ill walk away...
ill walk away and not look back
with no regrets, with no memories.Nothing but my learned lesson.
it's the right thing to do..and it was the rite thing to be done from the very start..
Days will go by and ill be proven wrong..and then more days will go by and ill be proven right..
i should have listened..i should have watched..i should have knew..but it doesn't matter..no regrets..There is nothing here for me to stay for. There is nothing worth waiting for. I've made up my mind and I have decided to walk away.As Far and As Away and As Fast As Possible.

no coming back and that's final..Ill walk away gladly, gracefully and with no harm done..
Ill walk away quietly,walking with one thought on my mind..I know I 'll survive this one too :)

Zihuatanejo

I wanna go There.Zihuatanejo.The land with no memory.It's not that i want to live there..Its just an idea..a concept..a symbol of a paradise-ish getaway..some place where no one knows you and no one is expecting any behaviour, attitude, or ever assignments from you.Zihuatanejo is just the place for me..for anybody i think.You may wonder how did i know of such a place.well, ull have to watch "The shawshank redemption".And you'll understand the symbolic meaning i give to the place.
Am so trapped in the box of everyday life and everyday problems and everyday routine and everyday same-old-same-old.I wanna go there!
I love beaches in general. Watching the sea makes me feel the Greatness of its Creator.Closing my eyes and listening to its roaring waves crushing on the shore makes me feel the Mightiness of its Creator. Let alone the Wideness of the sea..and how it meets with the sky at some faraway line called the horizon..And the breeeze!!The breeze is so relaxing and so refreshing..i think it is such a mood lifter just to feel the chilling-warm breeze by you skin.So gentle.So Comforting.

Freaky Friday!

2day was fe3lan fe3lan..yoom 3'areeb, unexpected, unplanned for, hectic, long, exausting..

2day i almost cried and i laffed out loud in the same minute..

2day ppl surprised me..they really did..el nass fedlo a3deen le7ad essa3a 8!

okay ill start from the beginning..

ennaharda ro7t el kollya..mal2tesh labs w mal2tesh datashow w mal2tesh participants..dah 3'eer tab3an enny abl mnzel men el beet el prez sa2altny 3ala el phone te2olly feen el moderators..
el mohem ya3ny ..kollo kan me2ale2 men 7ewar mafeesh particpants dah..
w fe3lan kan workshop feeha abt 6 participants..6 out of 40..

time for..IMPROVISING!!

and we did improvise alright..olna ne3mel merge w ne3mel debate between the 4 workshops..pretty risky and pretty amazing at the same time..lamma el nass betegamma3 keda feh situation wa7ed betbaan awy different personalities..w betbaan awy different types of ppl..and tab3an sooo many attention grabbers..some one shoot them..shoot them all!

and God el masryeen love to talk..ya3ny el mafrood el break yeb2a 3ala 3..its started @ 4 30..
kollo 3ayez yetkallem ba2a w kemmet el inconsistenecy..wel Improvising wel unplanning..


wel coffee break ba2a..makltesh feeh 7aga 7'ales..:( gabo taffet bateh w noss torta maslan..

bass bardo 3ala ra2y modertor: "ennaharda..no comment"fe3lan its true..e7na ettsarafa w 7'alas..and i think we did as best as we can..bedaleel enn kann feeh nass a3ada lel a7'er..
bass bardo kan feeh nass keteer meshyet..bass bardo u can never satistfy koll el nss..
el mohem ya3ny it turned out okay fel a7'er el 7amdollelah..

aktar 7aga day2etny ba2a the guy ely a3ad mestany ya 3eeny for like 4 hrs 3ashan ye2ool el kelmteen elly 3ando..
i didnt even aplogize..i was too embaressed menno w men el mawkef..bass begad makansh yenfa3 a3mel ayy 7aga.. 7asal 7'eer :D

bass el moderators essara7a ya3ny need fel3an a million thanks ..we2fo wa2fet reggala..w kan feeh radd fe3l saree3 w nadafet dema3' and surprisingly ..almost no complaining!
and they controlled the participants smoothely and the participants looked up to them..el7amdolellah fe3lan..things could have been much more worse..

the good thing was el debate zat nafsaha..fe3lan ma3arfsh leeh 7aseet la2 el balad kwyesa ya3ny..
and i decided to stay..
ill stay here! Egypt..
ill stay here! Home..

Ill keep this friday here blogged for the record..