Hello people! It is a miracle i am back in Africa...this time i finished all my hanging businesses in the UK, namely that thesis, and i´m fully concentrated in my egyptian adventure. This was a cursed break, it was not Murphy´s law, it was Murphy´s constitution!!! the things that could go wrong went wrong, and the ones that couldn't go wrong went wrong too...that is what happens when u have butter in both sides of the toast. Let me briefly remember: my camera (catastrophe!!), the charger of my computer and (another) phone charger all broke in 2 days, i lost the adapter from English plug to Egyptian, the printer of my office broke when printing the final version of my thesis, the battery of my phone lasts as long as a sweet in the door of a school...and this is just the material things, the most precious thing that i lost cannot be explained with words...away from sentimentalisms, i went to the airport with 4 hours in advance (yes, i know is difficult to believe coming from me...) following my mother´s eternal advice...and it actually paid back!!! I was suposed to take a bus from Bath, and (even though i explicitly asked when buying my ticket) the bus was full. Then i found a faster connection through Bristle, and the bus for there was late...great! i finally managed to arrive in Bristle bus station, still plenty of time. I was going to take my bus at 2 p.m. to arrive comfortably 2 hours before my flight. So i went out of the station and indulged myself with some picture taking:
So i was there waiting at 2pm, and minutes passed and passed, and i begun to get nervous. Where is the bus??? we got informed it broke in the way from London...ooooh noooo! They didn't know when the replacement bus will come, and there was no other possible connection (except maybe hijacking a bus with my pencil...but i didnt think that would increase my chances to leave the country :P). I had a nervous breakdown after 35 minutes waiting, after the ultra hard week i had, sleeping very very little, working very very hard and all my life and possessions breaking down...i was going to miss my plane. My future was breaking in front of my eyes...The people in the station were extremely rude and inattentive, they didnt find out the telephone of egyptian air for me, of course they wont let me use their phone...and the telephone booth they (not that) kindly pointed me did not accept calls to the directory. I was really freaking out then...after 55 minutes of tense and desperate waiting there with no possibility to warn the plane, the bus finally arrived. I was going to arrive one hour before the plane...i didn't know if i could make it...and then met an angel :) a lovely angel: Madhuad. This Indian woman is a medicine doctor (i think she said pathologist) working in the UK, very well traveled, unrealistically kind and tremendously funny. I think she got fond of me cos i reminded her to her own son, as well as because she felt compassion when she saw my emotional breakdown in the station. She called her daughter, who called the airport and the flight company; then she let me use her phone to call them in person :) She was telling me that i have to keep the balance (in reference to my breakdown in the station) and then i begin to tell her all the problems of my last week, and that it was just the last drop in the bottle...to what she answered: "if you have lost so much, is that life is getting ready to provide you with a lot of new things" :) well, i don't know what was the spell, but i went into that bus with my head filled with worries, and i went out of it with a big smile in my face and my soul as light as i ever remember it...i love that hindi white magic :) And indeed the magic worked! i got to the check in point literally in the last minute (after breaking the world record of 435 meters airport obstacle)...i was going to make it to Africa, and i actually did it :) This time i have come back to stay, that is my main aim...to generate enough income for surviving here indefinitely...i dont know how naive i am, but im sure that life will teach that lesson to me...again
PS: the new egyptian (bad joke) constitution has been approved the day i arrived...a sad day for this country. At least now is legal to breach human rights...
PS: the new egyptian (bad joke) constitution has been approved the day i arrived...a sad day for this country. At least now is legal to breach human rights...
1 comment:
Well I promised to write something, Antonio. It's an extract from what social scientists would call an 'observation', which I wrote when sitting in a cafe in alex, just below the SDA office. To say that I understand why you're happy to be back.
Love from rainy Baaaath xx
March 2006, Alexandria.
Am now sitting outside the caff on the corner, with the woman who used to wave at me every day before she stopped, probably because I rarely come and drink tea here. Flies are buzzing... I fear there might be a dead cat or something hanging around. Or else it's me.
Opposite is a man leaning on a dusty Renault Clio in front of a collection of plastic crates bearing fruits and vegetables. A man in a long brown dress carrying a large black bin liner on his head walks past. Young men with slicked back hair clamber into minivans. Kids stare, to be shooed away by an old man sitting at a table to my left, munching on cakes from a see-through plastic bag. A woman (or is she) dressed from head to toe, no room for the eyes. A black handbag. How can she see? A donkey pulls a cart with two men and a pile of runner beans. A couple walk past arm in arm. Yellow and black taxi-cabs - old Ladas - drive past spewing smoke. The young men stare; the young women ignore. Some smile. Smoke pours from the men's mouths.
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