the not so great america

first you get cought up with the perfection of everything everything is big and huge and sparkly in the great america they make everything there and they have the best education and healthcare too they are the best in everything and at everything if you want to see the most beautiful trees, if you wanna buy the fanciest cars, if you wanna go see the biggest rollercoaster you will find all that and more. and strangers smiling opening doors for you helping you out saying hi and goodmorning to people who dont need your money is awesome. you will find the biggest popcorn box the juiciest burgers the largest cokes and the best cleanest parks for kids to play. however after the first month passes and second one too, after you get suck in a routine and the days start to be exactly the same you start feeling hollow. the day is so long there. hours pass so slowly. after breathing all the fresh air and experiencing life with so many rights and a well established democratic system i found myself missing the crooked sidewalks of my hometown cairo, i started missing the pollution, the noise of the streets, the authentic egyptian food and the reality of things as bad as they are. despite the perfection of america it is a very isolated life and and an individualistic culture where one is for one and not all for any but themselves. many grandparents end up in senior homes, most families are stretched in different states and they see each other in the holidays and some even dread it. so much loneliness and hollowness along with so much responsibility that is dropped on an individual with so little help. i respect how independent the american culture is however i found my culture in egypt so much more comfortable and a promoter for happiness, you get so much help from a web of family ties that stick together to help pick up any falling member of the chain. its all for one and one for all here. one might get tired and bored of all the closeness and that everyone is in your buisness and the crowdedness of everything, but when you leave for a while you will find yourself running back missing every bit of it.atleast i did. i found my self asking these questions: why is suicide so popular in the places so perfect like americas' best university towns? how come the people of egypt have low suicide rates when so many are so poor and sick? the answer came to me perfection is not the reason for happiness having it all does not mean u r happy. i think the people and family and support along with a community that works to back eachother is what keeps people happy and a great deal of faith n luv. here grandparents are loved n respected and they live with their children when they are old. people die for each other here, they would go to the end of the world to help you here. and if ur car breaks down on the highway a thousand good men will stop to help. yes the education is not good, healthcare is horrible, sexual harrasment is a disaster, the traffic is a nightmare, and the recent revolution has created instability, yes its full of faults here but we love it and we have come to get addicted to it like a bad drug. i came back loving the crooked streets of my old city and the old buildings with all the dust on them because it seems and feels way deeper n more real here i feel whole and connected to reality. being in Cairo now it seems like America is another planet very far and very different. maybe cuz i grew up here and in my blood my country runs, i feel like a fish out of water when i am not on the beaches of egypt in the summer, when i dont hear the call of prayer in ramadan, when i dont visit the hussein mosque and drink karkade on a hot night of the summer, when im not surrounded by the buzz of my friends and family laughing and talking. my people stay up all night in the summer laughing and telling stories together n thats what i missed most.

the ya3qubian building that i live in

the yaqubian building that i live in ive been away was doing something big and important but im back to tell you about our crazy building the elevator was legally shut down by the police based on some judges judgement some where the man in the sixth floor sued the owner for not having a permit to use the elevator and now nobody can use them including him i fail to understand what good did it serve the crazy old dude on the sixth floor to make the whole building suffer first i thought great since i live on the fifth floor climbing up and down the stairs will increase my fitness and decrease my weight and i will lose the extra pounds then i realized all im losing is my good health first day was funny going up carrying my child and bags and then it became unbearable after a few weeks the old ladies with health problems are locked upstairs in their homes unable to go anywhere they say they are working on it to make it work again the old crazy man who was the reason the elevators dont work now went down with his gun threatened our porter to make the elevator work again our porter also threatened to kill the nutcase since he has signed a document to the police promising to keep it out of order crazy building so many details im leaving out but i just wanted to tell you its not easy climbing up and down the stairs carrying two kids and their bags everyday waiting for the silver lining great legs maybe some day soon but until then i just wanna say ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh and if ur elevator works count your blessings if you dont have a lunatic in your building who dramatically upscaled your suffering level phisically for no logical reason be thankful count your blessings you do not live in the ya3qubian building