Happy Nikolaus

I am getting into a Christmas feeling today, as it is the last day of the week, Nikolaus in Germany, and the whole weekend will be marked by christly activities. Tomorrow a Christmas Bazaar @ the Swiss Club, after a Gloegg Party aka Christmas Party in Swedish Style. Saturday, there is a Christmas Market in one of the big hotels. Apparently this is THE place to be, if you are Christmas Fan. All embassies are selling tickets or 'invitations' if you manage to get through the security. However, on Saturday I might be Christmas tired and rather set off to the desert and get a full load of nothingness, silence and emptiness. Desert became my favourite place and I am stocking up on books about this vast ocean full of potential adventures.

Here a picture of one of the many pyramids on the lesser known spots around Sakkara. A beduin is leading towards the treasures. Sakkara is one entry into the desert and does not show off with big sand dunes, but rather rocky surfaces.

Well, now I slipped away from the subject of Christmas. In any case I realize, how different it is celebrated in Europe. Every country has quiet different customs. Nikolaus in Ireland is celebrated only on the 8th, in the Netherlands Nikolaus is the actual Christmas as I know it from Germany, with presents and all. In Germany, the custom goes that you should clean your shoes on the 5th evening and put them in front of the door. Overnight Nikolaus is coming and based on your effort you get the appropriate reward. In the traditional sense this meant, that blinking shoes would earn a golden shoe brush and dirty shoes only a black shoe brush. These days it is adapted in to a lot of sweets or very few/no sweets... very educational:). Unfortunately, in France this custom is unknown and you just put up a pair of socks, which will be filled. In the UK, these socks come to day light only on the 25th...

Well, and in Egypt: Officially, the whole Christmas thing is only celebrated by the Coptic Community, and that only on the 7th of January. For some reason the 25th is off however, and then again the 7th.... Not that I had a problem with that:).

Egypt Business Network up and kicking.

The Egypt Business Network was initiated by Mohammed Alborno via the online business community Xing. Mohammed recently asked me to be Co-moderator and Organizer of events for this Group. We have currently around 200 members from big international and local companies inside and outside Egypt. In order to make the Network more powerful and create personal relationships - in an otherwise virtual group - the first ever offline meeting will take place next week. I am very curious, where this activity will lead as I have observed a similar Xing group in Dubai that has developed during one year into a huge business community exchange portal, with great sponsorship, big events and loads of interesting activities. The initial organizer there even seems to work fulltime now, as a Regional Manager for this community. Well, not that I am aspiring anything in this direction, but it will be certainly a refreshing addition to the life in Cairo.

If you like to join the group, please visit: https://www.xing.com/net/egypt/

In case you are not member in Xing, let me know and I can invite you.

From the Cairo Airport Lounge

Today I realized that I have pretty much achieved what I often dreamed of during my studies - and that already at the age of 24.... Well, this makes me thoughtfull.


Waiting at the Cairo Airport Lounge, drinking free coffee, a company laptop and -phone in front of me, flying off to Algeria to run some Workshops alone on behalf of my team. And so on it goes... having worked already in so many countries, met so many interesting people as well as the only one I love, had fantastic adventures, and even found a small cat that gives the little bit of extra joy to life....


I guess its time to reflect on all this, put it in perspective.

In what kind of time are we living? Its the age of ever new technology, changing our lives. I could just take a photo with my mobile camera, send it to the pc via bluetooth and then upload it the same second so that everybody with access to the internet is able to see it...and here we talk about some billion people. Also its the age of global ways of working, you need to be connected around the world to do business. Along comes the 'new found' mobile worker, who personifies the office, wherever s/he's coordinates are located. And in this picture of the ideal, super flexible, cosmopolitain employee... we need to fit..... so maybe, the dreams from University seemed so far away, because 6 years ago...life led a slightly different pace. These days, it does not take decades anymore for life styles to change, for corporate mentalities to be overhauled. Maybe what I am experiencing right now, is just a normal professional life, nothing too exotic to be over-excited about?

Mornings

One of those f* mornings, where nothing f* drives you to do any f* work...who on earth likes mornings? I absolutely do not. Especially, when the morning starts with a traffic jam, right in front of your house and drags along 25km until the office. Traffic in Cairo is hell, and gets worse by the day. The influx of people in this city is a two digit percentage per year. Recent estimates suggest between 15 to 20 million inhabitants, depending on the definition of the city. Annually, around 3 million new cars are registered. A number which is growing with increasing wealth of the population. Infrastructure design is one main concern of course. They started building bridges on top of roads, and in certain areas, one can even find 3-level roads....all clogged with cars. Nevertheless, I do not think this is the only bottleneck. A big part is driving behaviour. Due to missing rules and regulations, everybody is selfishly trying to take advantage of every situation. Examples would be to cross a 4-lane road from the right side to the left in the last minute, in order to be the first at the U-turn and sneak in front of everybody. Naturally, stopping all the passing traffic. Or another example would be to speedily overtake you on the left, break in front of you and just make it to the right turn...causing you to use an emergency break manouver. Well, and then not to speak of the buses and taxis trying to pick up people on the left and right, or sometimes in the middle of the road.

Hmmm, but then. There is absolutely no use in getting frustrated and angry about this. Better use the time in the car for a good conversation, listen to relaxing music (I am very grateful to Nile FM) or even watch a video. Unfortunately, I do not have a DVD player installed in this car....but sooon....Now enjoy this hilarious tape, to get back into a good mood. And....HAPPY MORNING TO ALL OF YOU!

Hashish very innocently

Finding things in Cairo can be at times tedious. I still have the line in my mind from one of the books for foreigners living in Egypt: "You will find virtually everything in Cairo, EVENTUALLY". And so the story goes, I am looking for fertilizer, specifically for gras/lawn. Spending the complete Saturday running from one nursery to the next, asking left and right of the street and by the same token, immensely increasing my Arabic vocabulary for everything around the garden, I come across a funny revelation: Hashish is an Arabic word. And simply, innocently means gras....

So now, I am just wondering, what is the word for the 'real' thing? Or in case it is the same, how big was the risk of getting arrested while looking for more greenery in my garden?

The weekends in Cairo

What to do in the weekend in a 20 Million metropolis? You try to escape from it. The options are various and beautiful. From an escape-the-touts excursion to a float-in-the-sea-all-weekend or a jump-from-one activity-to-the-next day out, everything is available in this country, you only need to choose.

Last weekend I choose a combination of 2 and 3 and tried kite surfing for the first time in my life. This is a kind of surfing, where you are standing on a wake board and are dragged through the waves, by a huge kite, which is flying some 50m above you. Today, obviously I have a nice pain in my back from trying to hold onto the handle, PLUS a huge mushroom on my nose from looking up into the sun aka kite. Next time sun blocker will be part of my inventory!

So, this is what I will try to learn now over the next many weekends, in order to fly through the air like that guy soon…

Life continues in a new country...

Hello friends, family and accidental visitors to this page :-),

Updating my blog from Egypt, my new home for the next couple of years, I am not sure how to continue this webpage. My camera is bust and the lust for picture taking has not yet come back. Maybe my eyes are too spoiled by the colours and vast difference they have witnessed in India. Living in Cairo, I feel much closer to Europe and do not find much that is surprising. Being in Africa, so close to the desert also seems to wash away some of the color intensity.

But away go the colours, up goes the joy of living. Egypt is a great country for expatriation. All the amenities are here: Big supermarkets, opera, metro, diving, very friendly people...nevertheless, it is interesting and crazy enough to offer enough for new exploration and funny happenings. I remember, recently on the ring road, which is a 3-6 line (depending on the time of day) highway. 10 Camels on the back of a - not so big - pick up van, their soft lips flying in the head wind at 120km/hour. They seem to enjoy, like that dog who loves to put his nose out of the car window.

Ah, and before I forget. There has been an addition to the 'family'. One day, a teeny-weeny cat (maximum 4 weeks) came running towards me in the middle of a street. After some detour via the inside of a parked car, that she used as a refuge after suddenly someone scared her, she has grown into a beautiful Egyptian cat called Yoki.

Well, lets see how I'll continue that page, but if there are not so many photos, just come and see Egypt for yourself!

Kath