What makes a fire burn is space between the logs, a breathing space. Fire, Judy Brown

Being an educator abroad in Cairo, at home, in a private or public school, whatever the subject, the level, the context, is a treasure.

This week end, I am once again reminded of our luck, as teachers. Most of us, and I am no exception, have been inspired by one or two incredible teachers, who planted the seed, which grew over the years and made us decide to become teachers ourselves.

To me, the thing about teaching is selflessness and yet incredible gratification. I have had, over the past years, the chance to see the most beautiful, genuine and heartfelt smiles and I often say: Thank goodness there are children! They are innocent, still mostly uncorrupted and their smiles, reactions, comments and thoughts are treasures of the soul. There is nothing more moving than a proud student, a child who gets a question right, who makes a witty joke, who passes an exam, successful at what he or she tried. As I write this, I have flashes of plenty of precious moments; moments I was lucky to witness so far and I know there are many ahead. I also recall those beautiful words of kindness, to peers or myself, given without the intention to flatter and this emotion, which has often healed parts of my soul, without intending to, is simply overwhelming!

Thank goodness for the children!

A month ago, I introduced myself to parents and I told them, truthfully that I am a professional, hard working person but also a mother myself and I will look after, teach and enjoy their children the same way as I would do if they were mine.

My perspective has indeed shifted even deeper since the best two surprises of my life have happened.

I started to look at my responsibility from a different angle. Even though I had never undermined the responsibility that comes with the job, I realised even more how important that trust is. As teachers, we are given the trust to educate academically, socially and emotionally children, whose parents have the best hopes and expectations and quite rightfully so!

And there it is again, I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to do the job I have always wanted to do, the job which never falls into routine, despite its cyclical pattern, the job which helps shaping the minds of our future generation, the job which forever leaves a mark and the bigger, the better for the students’ sake once again, not ours.

The joke goes that if you can’t do anything, you can always teach! It is funny but SO wrong! I once wrote a response to a newspaper, which was underlining how teachers are badly paid and how the situation will not improve. At the time, I suggested that teachers should stand up for their rights and strike (the French trait!) but my purpose wasn’t to start a riot, it was to shake the foundation of those wonderful, key educators, who are losing rights and not standing up for themselves!

EDUCATION is one of the KEY things you can not cut on! Not if you want to have some promising young representatives for your society. These teenagers are shaped by their educators and it is crucial that they feel valued, from every point of view. Because a pedagogue who feels undervalued will not be performing to the top of his/her ability, it is all the more important to avoid such feelings, as they will impact involuntarily on the students, and that is the worst that could ever happen.

We all have one person, who we remember and respect, that one teacher who, once or many times, shook something inside of us and made us feel successful, proud, excited, engaged. Even today, we still meet colleagues and yearn to become as talented and wise as they are.

That is the teacher we all strive to be, as we equip our students with the keys, point towards the many doors ahead and let them do the rest…

Thank goodness for the children!!!

Le Spleen Baudelairien and the Habit theory

·                                             Le Spleen Baudelairien

Baudelaire, in his spleen, wrote the most powerful and inspiring poems.

His concept of spleen, exposed in les fleurs du mal, refers to a state of mind with feelings of isolation, of anxiety, sadness and despair. I can guess it is the best state of mind for good writing, as the best authors were tormented souls.

There is a theory that if you move, not travel, to another countries, you may experience the Spleen Baudelairien after a period of six weeks, more or less.

·                       The theory that it takes 66 times to develop a habit

We have been in Cairo for 6 weeks today and have spent a little less than 66 days. Nevertheless, according to both theories, we should feel down but get used to life here.

Well, in our case, I can't say that I feel the Spleen. 
I guess what helps is that this is our third host country and therefore, you do get used to other cultures and become slightly more adaptable than if you are a first time traveller. 
However, to me, the most important factor that makes me feel happy is the sense of community. The community that we have seen has been really lovely, and takes the potential spleen alerts away from me. Once again, we do keep an eye on the situation, we do reflect on the Kenyan tragedy and feel incredibly sorrowed, but I can't say that I am feeling the travelling spleen, on the contrary.

I am happy to be in Cairo, I feel we have a strong group of people at work, who care about and for each other, support each other. The young generation I teach has been extremely welcoming and has the most incredible sense of humour.

The people we have been around have lived up to our hopes of Egypt's kindness and welcoming nature, very similar to the Turkish culture, which we enjoyed so much.

The habit theory is true, in my opinion. I do wake up without wondering what the weather will be like, I do turn the air conditioning system on without questioning myself, I do walk around and gaze at the landscapes in a non judgmental way, accepting the landscapes, the way things are:  neither shocking or saddening, it is just the way it is.

Life in Cairo is NOT bad and as I watch pictures from a friend in Dubai, looking as though several modern architects have been designing each of their ideas, and built their own buildings, a 'futuristic' (let's hope not) and incoherent glass clean jungle, I do feel happy, the exact opposite of the spleen, to be here.

In Cairo, you will find the poor, the rich, the chaos, the noise, the traffic but it feels real here and that matters more to me.

A tale of two cities: Istanbul and Cairo

Analogies, dissimilarities and discoveries…

Travelling between places, the only point of reference that you know is where you have lived yourself; it influences your vision, understanding and open mindedness to the new host country.

Having experienced life in France, England, a snapshot of the Estonian culture and Turkey, I expected the latter and Egypt to have a lot in common. They have the obvious similarities as for the predominant Muslim religion but also the distinction of cultures, as Atatürk radically changed the future of Turkey by making it a secular country. Both countries took very different paths ever since, as Turkey, once an Arabic speaking country, developed the Turkish language and its entire country’s dynamics changed economically and politically, using the European models.

Each country has its turmoil and it obviously shapes its future, the Egyptians are, as we “speak”, creating their future today and I can only put things in perspective as an eye witness, as I insist on remaining unprejudiced and objective (The best way to travel and enjoy travelling as Paul Theroux implies).

My love for Istanbul is still strong and I know that this is a passion that I will keep forever. I cherish the wonderful city of Istanbul, its incredible history, the beauty of the people whose kindness never ceased to amaze me. I miss Istanbul every day, and it is not only because I am in the city of Cairo, I will miss Istanbul every day in any city.

One analogy that I can make between both cities is the size. Both are incredibly big, with more than 15 million people, buzzing with life and wonderful people.

There is also the culture of “temper”. People here and in Istanbul often have heated discussions and on appropriate topics, the body language, the intonations in voices would make one believe that people are arguing, even though they aren’t. I am myself very fond of this, the temper, the passion in people, it shows authenticity and livelihood.

Another one is the “kolay gelsin” attitude, which is exactly the same here. It stands for “take it easy” in Turkish and it is a great saying. Coming from Europe, where everything work, life passes you by as you run around and everyone is being judged on how quickly they can deal with you, you learn in Turkey and Egypt that you have to take it easy, in every shop, institutions and restaurants! Yes, forget stressing, it will happen, in its own time, inshallah and I personally love it (most of the time).

Nevertheless, there are enormous dissimilarities between both cities.

The first one is the hardest on the eye; Istanbul is simply astonishing, the Bosphorous, the buildings, the colours are vibrant, whereas Cairo’s main colour is beige, and small patches of green if you are lucky. 

Another one is about us ladies. I saw many more women on the streets of Istanbul, either moderately dressed or wearing the tank tops and shorts or skirts that you would see in any European city. Istanbul is a place of freedom as a woman, where you don’t have to think twice before stepping outside. Well, if you remember the grading scale, Cairo is different. The reputation of this country and the harassment towards women is unfortunately real; yet, I would like to stress that generalisation is never applicable or fair and not every man is going to hassle you.

The buildings are also very different here compared to Istanbul. The Turkish landscape changes almost overnight, as they build so much and so fast, however, the buildings are all finished. It isn’t the same here, as most buildings are unfinished and the ones which are, are partly inhabited, partly abandoned.

Some things are not quite the same but you can identify some patterns.

The litter is one. Now, Cairo is DIRTY and that is the best way to say it! There is trash all over and it is smelly and chaotic. There is the strong culture of throwing garbage pretty much everywhere and not bother about anything ecological. Istanbul is much cleaner of course, and most places are cleaned on a daily basis. Yet, there are remnants of the trash culture to be found on the sideways, also in the forest in Istanbul, where it is a habit to have a picnic, put your trash in a bag and leave the bag behind (hoping the trash troll will come and dispose of it).

Another similarity is the driving culture, even if Cairo is MUCH worse. I used to be very anxious in Istanbul, when the taxi would drive on the hard shoulder, slalom between cars as if we were on a racing circuit, and hate when they could use the brake at the last minute! Well, here in Cairo, I have learnt to miss those crazy Turkish soförlar, because I don’t recall seeing someone coming the wrong way, or cutting through the entire lane, or seeing donkeys on the motorway (even though I did see horses once)!

“A tale of two cities” is a work in progress and I will surely be adding to it once I visit more of Cairo, one of the greatest historical capitals, as Constantinople was.