Monday, February 28, 2011

Flickr

I have jumped on the great Flickr bandwagon too: http://www.flickr.com/photos/souzanmansour/

:)

Monday, February 14, 2011

Baladna.


Baladna [noun]: our country.

Last month, if you had asked any young adult in Egypt who's country this is, they would've said, "baladhom" - their country. Theirs. The people at the top. The people who have been running this country for the last 30 years or so. The corruption, the poverty, the unemployment, the inhumanity. Theirs. Baladhom.

Tuesday January 25th 2011. I remember thinking, "Why is everyone calling it a revolution? A few thousand people are hanging out downtown. Whats the big deal? They're gonna get rounded up by the riot police before we can all blink." By the end of the night, there were a couple of hundred thousand. The next day there was a quarter of a million. By Friday, there was a million. There was violence. People died. But there was a revolution, and nobody could deny it or say otherwise. Unless you've been living under a rock for the past 3 weeks, then you've heard about all this already.

Friday February 11 2011. The end of Hosny Mubarak's dictatorial 30 year rule over Egypt. But I bet you knew that too.

Here's what you don't know: the Egyptian youth have memorized more nationalistic songs in the past 3 weeks than they're ever likely to memorize. They have stood shoulder to shoulder with people they were willing to die with. They know who our ministers are. They understand politics. They even have a political opinion. They have learned to hope. All of them.

I have never felt quite as Egyptian as I'm feeling right now. I've memorized the songs, stood with them, understood our politics, hoped with them. Felt the change. Wanted and fought for freedom, humanity, liberty, and dignity. Basic human rights that the youth of this country are only starting to feel today for the first time. Human rights I would've fought for anywhere in the world.

Today, if you ask any young adult in Egypt who's country this is, they will say, "baladna" - our country. OURS. Mine and yours. Mine to stamp out the corruption, mine to clean up (literally and figuratively), mine to voice my opinion about, mine to work in, mine to thrive and grow in.

For someone as homeless as me, the events of the last 3 weeks have reassured me that I will always have a home in Egypt.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Balance

Ok. So have you ever felt like you life is completely whacked out? I've been feeling unbalanced lately. Something is just completely off these days. And it's leading to some serious focusing problems, where I can barely keep a thought in my head long enough to even know what I'm thinking about. It literally feels like I'm walking a tightrope and I keep slipping and forgetting to just put one foot in front of the other. D'you know wha I'm talkin about?

Ok. So maybe it's because I've been cooped up in Cairo for the last month and I'm gonna be here for the next month before I start traveling again. First I was just taking a breather between travels, but then the whole political revolution (YAY) is now happening here and traveling in and out of my house has become difficult, let alone trying to travel in and out of the country. Anything can happen right now and if I do somehow manage to travel out, then there might be problems coming back in...

Ok. So maybe something else is going on. I just started reading this book, Getting Things Done, by David Allen, it's supposed to be really good. And right off the bat in the first chapter he says that whenever there are unfinished things in your life, they keep pulling at your attention, and your subconscious mind keeps thinking about them in the back of your head, making you unfocused in the rest of your life. Does that make any sense? It kind of hit a note with me. I'm just not sure what kind of unfinished business I have going on. Maybe it's an unfinished conversation, or maybe it's a relationship I'm trying to figure out, or maybe it's just all in my head. I need to get out of my head and do a complete life assessment. Sounds easy enough...Right?

Friday, February 4, 2011

Houston, we have a problem

Alright. So I'm in Egypt, Cairo to be exact, right now. Things are tense. The country might explode. And I'm too glued to the TV/Internet/Twitter etc to actually be blogging. However, I shall post as soon as things calm down a little bit.
Prayers plz!

Note: I have jumped on the awesome Twitter bandwagon! Find me: SouzanMansour
*gasp* you now know my real name haha it wasn't kept a secret on purpose but it really didn't matter... did it?