The Signal Journal days 6 to 7

First Day fo6or

In a room with a dozen people, sitting in a chair right next to Yehia, holding a mug of tea and laughing,
An hour before I and Ayad arrived to Yehia’s home, he invited us for fo6or, came to pick us with his fiancé and there we where, meet with his sisters and mom and right after us the rest of his family, aunts, uncles and cousins started to arrive

After a brief weather conversation, a typical stranger’s topic, it was time to have fo6or,
I must say it’s very similar to the one we have in Kuwait,
Break our fast with dates, followed by soup and then food, lots of food :D

As I was sipping my soup, I felt a chock up my throat, so sudden and strong sadness that hit me, I’m not with my family, I could have braked crying right there and then but I had an other sip, swallowed my soup and with it my cry…

Now standing by the table taking food Yehia’s mom saw my plate and without asking took it from me and wouldn’t bring it back till it was full, of everything!!

Rice, two types of chicken, meet, ma7shey, béchamel, oh my god that was a lot, but the food was great, and I was starving :-P

After the huge feast, we prayed el ma’3reb gama3ah, my god that felt so peaceful and I felt God is taking care of me, al7mdellah

Back to the room, the comfort that comes from them is effortless, they treat you as they’ve known you for ever, and they act so natural, not stiff or pretending, easy going and can joke about any thing so fluently

Of course for me, after I stuffed my self with food, breathing and moving was a very hard thing to do, so I laid back and started listening to there conversations

Ayad was sitting in the opposite side of me, every time he would speak about the gulf country or people, he would look at me, I don’t know why, was it reassurance or inviting me to step in to the dialogue but I kept silent cause really my head was having difficulty getting blood since all of it went to my stomach,

An hour later he looked at me and gave me the signal, it’s an eye contact based signal pronouncing it’s time to leave, I want to go and you should go with me, a very stupid smile came across my face!?!? I blinked yes and off we went back to the hotel

There was a plan that I wanna go wild for few hours before I leave Cairo, my definition of going wild is, going and having so7or out, let’s just say I’m starving right now,
first of all I had a flight to catch enshallah tomorrow and the real first of all is I’m ‘7awafah, I don’t see how I’m going to tell my parents, you know what I went out at 11
pm and came back the next morning!! At dawn!!

Various,

I fell on my knees in the street and I hurt my left knee pretty bad, it’s swollen and blue
I spilled hot water on my fingers as I was making tea
My wisdom tooth is growing, again!!

Other than that, I’m fine al7mdellah


Second day fo6or

Sitting alone at a table in Starbucks at Dubai Airport waiting for my flight back enshallah to Kuwait
Have my fo6or on a sandwich and a Perrier, that’s pathetic

Ayad and I by pure coincidences had the same flight back, when I first stepped down from the room this morning to check out, I told the concierge I’m waiting for someone, few minutes later,

C, tela2ey 9adey2teik lessa ma 9e7yetch
M, no he is here
C, mien ? fein?
M, pointing at Ayad
C, …..

A bit later

Con, Your friend is coming!!!
Maha’s head, eshme3na hathy el jomlah bel tha_at in English? Miste7ey etgooly 9a7bik is coming???

At the Airport

The guy who carries the bags

The Guy, Dah gowzik?
M, No
The Guy’s face, a dirty smile!!!
Maha’s head, WHAT THE HELL!!!!

That’s the thing in all Arab society; you can either be married or be a Bitch and her Bastred, people with rotten minds!!!

The true element that creates the moment is human actions, I must say that I’ve been very fortunate in this trip that the human element of it was great, nice people, good company and simple

And for me, it was so natural and 3ady, before when I get to travel with guys at work, I hardly remember any of them being Arab, and I thought maybe that’s why it’s very natural and easy to be with them, but even this time it felt the same and much better given that we speak the same language and understand each other better, I did enjoyed his company, but purely as a friend, shame it had to stop right there and then as we said good bye and each walked in his own path in life

The End

Cheers,
O

Update,

Perfect moment, 19:45

if any of our actions would have been delayed by a fraction of second we would have missed each other, if I stopped for one more second checking the bags or if I looked the other way or someone would pass right in front of me, but nothing of that has happened, as I was walking to my gate a figure emerged ascending from the escalator, and there I was face to face with him, again :’) guess it’s not so dramatically final, as long as it’s destined for our paths to cross, then it shall be…