Is it coming to an end or is it just starting?!

I haven’t been writing for a while… life has been crazy. It feels like yesterday the year has just started and it’s already the end of August. As usual the turnover of people in this place is higher than any other place I’ve even been to. Looking back at the beginning of the year I find myself with a completely new set of friends. Of course, some people from the old group are still around (thank god) but the majority has either left or gotten married and got busy socializing with married couples rather than singles like myself.

In the past 8 months, and as I experienced this society deeper, I was amazed by the level of freedom that I found in this small country. It is supposed to be a conservative country surrounded by fundamentalists but yet the level of personal liberties is considerably high.

I guess this would be attributed to the diversity of nationalities living here. To get a good picture of how diverse this society is, I'll tell you a small story. When my Bahraini friends were visiting me in Egypt, I was driving them around and then one of them was staring out of the window and kept saying "3ajeeb"(amazing) and when I asked what is? He replied: "The streets, the life, the people AND ALL OF THEM ARE EGYPTIANS"

In here, with all these nationalities around, there got to be some sort of tolerance and coexisting scheme… you mind your business and I mind mine.

Wish Egypt had the same.

A deadly start of the year …

The death toll among the people I know spiked this past two months, I lost three people, two of whom I was close to. I can’t really find peace when it comes to death. Although I come from a background that believes in destiny – let alone my own beliefs – I’ve never been able to understand why people so young have to die.

One of my friends who passed away was an American living in Egypt. He was living alone and he died alone, days passed before they figured it out. What makes me any different?? I am living alone in a foreign country and if anything happens to me it would be days before somebody realizes something is wrong.

There got to be a reason for this mess they call life… there got to be some logic behind it all.

Camping in New Year’s Eve...

We headed out to the desert and we reached the camp by 10 PM after doing some shopping for our night in the desert. My first impression was that this camp is really close to the road and you can see cars passing by all the time. But what really caught my attention is that that’s not a camp at all. Its three big tents with all the facilities you can imagine; sofas, big screen TV, satellite receiver, carpets and even chandeliers.

We gathered around the fire, talked, laughed, ate and watched the fireworks. Tomorrow is a new year that carries new hopes and pains that will affect each and every one of us. But today it’s the good company that we enjoy, we might not be here tomorrow, everybody would be busy with his own life, we might not see each other again but today we are here and we know that’s all what matters.

Last year this day was very hard on me but now it’s a far and unpleasant memory that I meet with more sarcasm than thought. I am much better off now than a year ago and I pity whoever left me to join others. But the train moves on, and the list is too long to read from the start and it can only get longer.

What a ride it has been? If only you realize what you have missed.

Happy New Year everybody, may you keep what you’ve earned and may you earn what you deserve.