Leaving on a Jet Plane
Omar and I are off to the States in two weeks, barring catastrophe--something one always has in the back of one’s mind when one lives in a country as chaotic as Egypt. Whenever I move from place to place, I tend to ‘leave’ before I leave; I check out mentally about a month before the event itself. I think it’s a reflex against sadness. It’s very strange to think of Life Without Cairo. I had the last dregs of adolescence beaten out of me in this city, and like we do all places that test us, I will miss it intensely; in proportion to what I had to endure in it. This is, perhaps, the mercy inherent in leave-taking--you only remember what you love, and come to love what you suffered. It’s one of the mysteries of human experience.
I’m suppressing an urge to quote The Prophet by Khalil Gibran.
On the other hand, as I have been waxing poetic about to the posse, I am very ready for Starbucks. And level roads. And efficient transportation. And American culture--there really is such a thing. People like to pretend there isn’t, but it’s a front. I’ve missed that very particular American subtlety, coupled with that very American bluntness. It’s the contradiction that works.
Posted by on 06/05 at 09:05 PM
have a great, safe trip, inshaallah!
Posted by
shazia mistry on 06/06 at 12:40 AM
Thanks!
Posted by Willow on 06/06 at 09:19 AM
Hi Willow, It’s Heidi out in Fayoum… Hillary and I were just talking online and we thought to check out your website. Are you moving from Egypt??! Oh no! And Congratulations if so! I’m not sure when you leave, but if you have time to meet, I’d looooooove to get together with you.
Talk to you soon, inshallah.
~Heidi
Posted by Heidi on 06/08 at 06:00 PM
Hi Heidi,
We are in fact moving back! I’d love to see you too but don’t know if there’s enough time...things are nuts, as you can imagine. Let’s talk though.
Posted by G. Willow Wilson on 06/12 at 09:43 PM
Why on earth do you want to leave Cairo? Why leave one of the richest Islamic cities and cultures and move back to a land that is inescapably and irredeemably Christian? America is founded on Christianity, suckled on it, champions the independence and freedom of it and is essentially opposed to “Islam”—to “submission”. Americans never say “inshallah”, they never submit and accept. They are slaves to time, to watches, to science, to rationality. Why do you want that? Why when you have such a rich and fulfilling culture would you want to return to the Christian nest. You have outgrown it. Why return?
Of course, there is more money, better health care, lower child mortality, greater freedom for women, and respect for the individual that Islam will never have, but that is the point! To get those things they have refused to submit to Allah, to nature, to their own bodies and to the rightful roles of men and women.
They are sodomites, for goodness sakes, and their women go around unclothed, a temptation to decent men. (Not meaning you, of course, for you cover yourself as a respectable woman does!)
Surely you must realize it is the hidden desire for the forbidden West and not for Islam that leads you back to America and what I fear will be inevitable apostasy.
Posted by Big Bill on 09/03 at 07:40 PM
Chinese Language,
http://www.huangjinjiage.org/,
Posted by 369sadfasd on 05/22 at 09:06 AM
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