Cairo Part Two

I ended my "Green News" article on Cairo, Part One, sharing about how something healed in me while I was in Egypt. I still struggle to find the words to convey this. To be honest, part of it is that before experiencing a country like Egypt, whenever I would see someone from that part of the world here in the USA, my first reaction has always been suspicion: Are they a terrorist?

After several days being immersed in this other culture so far away, I started feeling at ease and seeing these beautiful people for who they are. I especially cherished their smiles. You may remember the Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young song "Wooden Ships," which has these lyrics:

"If you smile at me, I will understand
'Cause that is something  
Everybody everywhere does in the same language..."

Every time I took a photo or gazed at an Egyptian face that was smiling, it lit up my heart! And I realized Egyptians are just the same as people all over this world, raising their children and trying to live a good life. Now I celebrate the beautiful smiles from every person, everywhere!

Another part of the healing was that, after two days in Cairo, I suddenly realized that my chronic neck pain was gone! Pyramid power? I can't say how relieved I felt without that constant nagging pain! It lasted for a few weeks upon returning, but, unfortunately, gradually crept back.

The spiritual healing continued with our sailboat trip (a dahabiya) after our conference, the 29th International BPW Congress. (If you did not read about it in my previous article, let me know and I can send it to you.) We took a short flight from Cairo south to Luxor to meet Johanna Marius, a BPW member from Germany, who is also the owner of Luxor Sail the Nile. Her partner, Mohmed Morsy, is the wonderful captain. I will never forget his beautiful smile, nor that of Rabia (a sailor) and Mr. T (our waiter). By the way, the food was excellent, with fresh vegetables at every gourmet meal!

Something interesting I learned right away is that Upper Egypt is south and Lower Egypt is north. That is because the Nile is up river to the south. The prevailing winds on the Nile River blow to the south, so we were sailing against the current! When the winds died down, a tugboat was used to pull us along.

We had a fabulous Egyptologist on board, Mohamed A. Fahmy, who I think is going to be famous some day. He has it all: great knowledge, handsome, friendly, and an excellent teacher and guide! He is working on his PhD in archeology, and taught us about the many temples we toured. Perhaps another reason I was feeling so spiritual was that the ancient Egyptians were very spiritual and connected to nature, making gods and goddesses out of all of their animals!

I felt a profound sense of peace and serenity the moment I stepped on that boat. I had been wondering if I'd get seasick, as the Nile is very big, but the river was calm and steady flowing. My colleagues thanked me profusely for doing research before the trip and choosing this type of boat over a cruise ship. Besides having far fewer passengers than a cruise ship (10 vs. 200), our small dahabiya could pull over and moor at places where a big cruise ship couldn’t. One of the highlights for me was pulling over in a rural area where we hiked through farmland and saw laughing boys riding by on their donkeys. We then walked down a road through a small town. We came upon a farmer with fresh dates. Even though my friend tried to pay him, he insisted on giving the dates to us! We passed a couple of schools, where I made a video of the students yelling, "USA, USA, we love you!" In general, it seems Egyptians love the USA, but give thumbs down at the mention of our president! I have posted the rest of the photos/videos on my Facebook  page at https://www.facebook.com/lauriedameronmusic

Just like in Cairo and most other Egyptian cities, there was much trash outside the rural homes. My colleagues and I had a great conversation one day while relaxing and floating up the river. The Egyptians don't have time to think about trash or environmental issues; they are focused on putting the next meal on the table. I realize that is the same problem here. I'm thinking that if we did not have laws against littering, we'd have trash all over the place, too. Johanna, the owner of the sailboat, has a couple of BPW projects (sorry I don’t have links for them). One of them is in a small town where they did pass a law about littering, and it made a huge difference. Everything seems to come down to money, doesn’t it?!

Johanna also has a BPW project called Women Empowerment. She is involving women in her new business of sailing the Nile. Her sister-in-law, Yamna, does the washing and the ironing for the ship. Captain Mohmed used to have a laundry business do the work, but now Yamna is doing it; she's getting the same pay as the laundry business did. Another two ladies from the family are taking over the baking—bread, cakes, cupcakes, etc. “We pay them and actually spend more money than if we bought the things in a store, but home-baked bread tastes better. The ladies have a chance to make money.”

I must say, I long to feel such serenity again. I have found I need to not listen to the news so much. I have mellowed out a bit with my environmental activism. As if in a dream, I keep hearing the Muslim prayer times. It seems every time I ask God what I should be doing, I get the same answer: Enjoy life, help others, and learn.

Here is a video of Luxor Sail the Nile:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dcYiUHCu0g

YOU ARE A PART OF THE SOLUTION!!!

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2017DecGreenNewsCairoPartOne

It’s been two weeks since returning home from Egypt. It was so incredible; it all seems like a dream now!  From the moment we arrived at the Cairo airport and then drove into the city, I was overwhelmed with how different everything is from here in the USA!

Looking out the window of our bus at the city’s skyline, we noticed that well over half of the buildings remain unfinished, with the steel rods protruding up towards the sky from their tops. We learned that this is the way citizens avoid paying high property taxes.  And many of the windows were empty appearing vacant. TV is apparently very important here, though, as there were many satellite dishes!

The next morning, my colleague and I decided to walk the six blocks from our hotel to the Mena House Hotel and Conference Center, where we would spend the next five days for our International Business and Professional Women (BPW) Congress. Big mistake—there was only one traffic light, you could barely make out any traffic lane markings, and the traffic was unlike any I’ve ever seen, with horns blaring away! We could not get across the street! Finally, a kind Egyptian man walked out with his arms up and stopped traffic for us. That was the last time we attempted that walk!

The conference was incredibly exciting, with 680 women from 73 countries. I was impressed with the colorful dresses of women from the nearby African countries, as well as the Thai women’s fancy costumes! I made connections with Agatha from Sierra Leone; Keiko from Japan; Judith and Carol from Australia; Vivian, Vickie, and Hellen from New Zealand; Margarita from Brazil; and some new colleagues from NYC and El Paso, Texas—just to name a few.

There was a lot of talk about our BPW sisters and our brothers in the Caribbean who suffered (and still suffering) from recent hurricanes and many that could not attend the congress. 

Our theme for the 29^th congress was “Making a Difference through Leadership and Action,” and I definitely got to see many leaders in action. This was only the second time in the last 87 years that a congress has taken place in Africa. My friends kept asking why we would have the conference in Cairo, where there seems to be so much inequality. Well, there’s part of the answer: Work needs to be done! But also H.E. Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, had previously declared 2017 to be the Year of Women.

I must thank our NFBPWC President, Elizabeth Benham, for making me a voting delegate. That meant I was required to attend the general assemblies every day, where I learned so much. I learned about resolutions, amendments, and voting procedures—which you can imagine can be rather difficult, with hundreds of voters. I got to practice many skills: principles before personalities, detachment with love, and non-judgment. Every time I felt judgment towards someone with a strong personality, instead of judging their behavior as good or bad, I thought of it as strengths and weaknesses. This also extended to self-judgment and being even gentler with myself. Another practice that helps me a lot is, “We believe what they say because it is true for them.”

Being a delegate, I missed out on some great workshops, but I learned some new things from the one I chaired on the environment. Judith from Australia talked about all of the intricacies that happen when an agency moves in to help with disaster relief. This was something I never gave much thought to…these agencies take over everything needed to rebuild and restore, from carpentry to electrical work—and the local workers are then left jobless! 

I learned of a project in Vietnam that is building water stations that filter and treat local water so that tourists or anyone can refill their water bottles. Speaking of water, I have never drunk so much bottled water in my life, but we had to! Developing countries don’t have the infrastructure and facilities that we have to provide clean water. There were so many things like this and so much litter that I need to re-think everything!   

Neelima Basnet (our newly voted in Young BPW of Nepal) spoke of all the BPW projects she helped to facilitate after the recent earthquake in Nepal. Archana Bhatnagar of BPW India shared about her company, Haylide Chemicals, which offers products that do not pollute and are not bad for humans, animals, or the environment. If you’d like to see some of the other projects that are going on, please visit https://www.bpw-memberprojects-experts.org.

We also voted in a new Executive Board at the conference. I am sorry to see BPW International President Dr. Yasmin Darwich stepping down, as she did such a great job. I think it is very fitting that Dr. Amany Asfour of Egypt will be leading the way as our new BPW International President.

There really are no words to explain it, but something healed in me while I was in Egypt. Our five days spent on a Dahabiya sailboat traveling up the Nile was an especially spiritual experience for me. There were days when we were at least a half-mile from any town, yet we could still always hear prayer times at dawn, sunrise, noon, afternoon, sunset, and night, since the sound from the mosques is amplified by large speakers. I began a practice of stopping to feel the stillness and say a prayer for world peace at every prayer time.

Cairo, Part Two will be continued next month.

YOU ARE A PART OF THE SOLUTION!!!

To sign up for Laurie’s monthly music and “Green News,” write to WindchimeL@aoL.com

Or visit www.LaurieDameron.com

Please visit and LIKE https://www.facebook.com/WhatCanIDoSpaceshipEarth