Dear Friends,
Over the past few weeks, I have written multiple posts in my head. I am sorry you have not been able to read them.
In short, I moved into a new room with poor internet connection, my weeks got exceptionally busy and I found myself overwhelmed by the multitude of experiences occurring on a daily basis. Let me see if I can briefly catch you up here with reflections on both love and life~
I have been to prison, to multiple rehabs, sat with men and women, both Christian and Muslim, lamenting over relationships, parents, God, addiction, the state of Egypt, dreams for life, and more. I am full with the details of experience that immersion in another culture provides.
Many, many years ago, I was talking to someone. I stated, "I want to understand people from other cultures--what they think, how they feel and if their alternate experience of life, different from my own in the U.S., has an impact on their thought processes". I have had the awesome opportunity to explore just this interest.
The answer is yes and no.
Yes...culture, parental relations, expectations, faith, dreams, and similar all play a part in how we think, process and react to life. And no...at the core, at the true core of who we are as human beings, what we really want, regardless of all the previously stated influences...is love. It is so simple and yet, can be so difficult to obtain.
The doctor that I have been traveling with told me a very interesting thing in past weeks. Love is forbidden in Egyptian culture. This creates a deeper desire for it and yet, makes it all the more elusive. The men and women I talk with are desperate for love in all forms. Egyptians are desperate for love in all forms and its scarcity is evident every single place you look.
I have asked many people about this statement from the doctor with mixed reaction. "This would be for Muslims", "I know many Christians who understand love", but the doctor and I talked again and she restated her view only slightly and more emphatically. "Love is forbidden in Arab culture and its root is in Islamic influence". This is a disheartening statement, and yet, makes so much sense for what I hear and see.
So, in these past weeks, I set out to love anyone, including street kitties, I came across. I wanted to share it and spread it everywhere I could. On the subway, with the women through a smile. On the street, with the men through a smile (not recommended, but I didn't care). With the men and women in rehab through time, listening, tears, hugs and laughter. Through the sharing of heartache and experience. Through the feeding of street kitties, Glory, Morning and Brutus in front of my guest house and around Cairo.
What is so brilliantly fantastic about addicts is their vulnerability. The walls have been knocked down, the masks have been pulled off and they are raw, sensitive human beings with no filter. When I look back now at my statement years ago, desiring to learn about people from other cultures and their thoughts, I realize only God could have foresaw a practicum serving addicts in Egypt. Only God would have known my questions would be answered while He revealed his own heartaches for the people of Egypt and the Arab nations.
When I travel, I feel completely and totally submerged in the grand, global flow of life. That is why I love traveling so much. I love marinating in God's multiple expressions of creation and all He may desire to reveal. Many nights, I travel on the subway to and from my daily destinations. Though I am submerged in Egyptian culture everywhere I go, there is no better place in my estimation than the subway for complete immersion. I am virtually the only foreigner there and I get to stand side by side with the life I hear about on the television, read about on the internet, and muse about from comfort in the U.S.
Last night, I was returning from a particularly long day with the doctor that had culminated in a painful ending. I watched one of the women I have come to know well over the past weeks, crumble under a bipolar episode. It was heartbreaking and I knew underneath, this young woman is desperate for love, freedom, identity and stability when it is all said and done. At 12am in the morning, I was riding the subway home and got on the women's car, as I usually do. Another young Muslim woman, pretty and petite, got on with me. She looked around and we both realized the car was full with men which is quite abnormal. Very quickly sparks flew between this young woman and the men on the car and at the next stop, she stepped in front of the door and pushed it open. Another Muslim woman joined the effort and started pushing the doors open as everything came to a stop. Anger, yelling, screaming, bells ringing, crowds gathering around the two women as they pushed through with their endeavor. I stepped in and pulled both women back from the doors just as an angry policeman waving a baton came to break up the situation and get the subway car back on schedule. He pulled one of the rowdy young men off and with that the doors closed and the train started. Everyone was shaken, angry. I held the young woman for fear of her safety with the men, knowing that in a moments notice worse could ensue. The other woman faded into the background.
From my small gathering of what occurred, these women were fighting for their rights for respect. I have learned that there is actually good reason for the women's car. Not only is it segregation, but the women are in many ways protected from the men when they have their own car to ride in. They don't have to endure the male harassment when they ride with other women. I can't say who caused or started the fight, but what I can say is that these women are fed up. It would be one thing if the young woman acted alone, but when one of the only other women in the car besides myself got into the scuffle, I knew respect was being demanded.
In my many discussions with Egyptians, it has come clear that the Revolution has brought opportunity. There is significant fear that Egypt will return to the way it was under new president, El-Sisi. But a door has opened unlike never before, and has literally been pushed open. Egypt is fighting for change. In many ways, they don't know what that change is...they don't fully know how to articulate it, but part of what they are fighting for is love. A love that breeds respect and individuality. Love that allows young men to build their own lives without doting parents squelching their human drive. Love that allows young women to flourish and grow and change the world. Love that respects each individual for the precious, God-given treasure that they are.
With humility,
Christa
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