The Egyptian ERA .... Part One

I do remember that we were so poor in Egypt, I only vaguely remember our first apartment, but I know we lived in the roof of an old building, my mom tells us that she used to sell old furniture and newspaper to get us food. My dad salary was 20 Egyptian pounds, this is equal to 4 dollars, but it was of big value at that time.

Anyhow, I did not have many cloths, no toys, didn’t eat chocolate (I guess I am making up for those days now).

But yet, we were tough that education is our only way out. That’s why my mom, who by the way, dose not read or write, insisted on us to study hard, I remember her sitting with us on the table and encouraging us at times, and yelling us at others to study hard. And of course we did to the best of our ability:

My older brother S has a master degree from Arkansas, USA

Sister A has an MBA (Master in Business Administration)

Sister L has a diploma in social work

Me, Master degree in GIS & Remote sensing

Brother N is an architect

Sister E is a graduate of literature.

I mention that to give credit to my mom, who after God, I give her full credit to what we have become.

Ok, back to our life in Egypt.

I think Egypt has had a big influence on making up my personality. It’s well known to us Arabs that Egyptians have sense of humor, even at their worst times. I learned how to laugh from them, I like a good joke, and it was a challenge for me to mix well with Egyptians as a young boy, so I had learned how to make others laugh, without disrespecting anybody around.

Was I the class clown??? I do not know, coz in Egypt the whole class is the class clown J

As time passed by, my father started traveling more, and would spend few days with us and then off he went. Our financial status started to improved drastically, from having one pair of pants for the whole year, I had more than five (see how we used to measure our wealth as kids….by pants !!!)…

And life started getting better and better, in the seventies, my dad had bought his first car, an OPEL car, then He got the Peugeot, followed by VW, then VOLOVO…I am mentioning the cars and their brands now coz it’s a way of recording my memories to those who will read my blog in the future.

see u in part 2 soon ....>>>>>>