Cairo, pyramids and differences

So, I want to dedicate this post to 2 major things - a bit of sightseeing in Cairo, and the experience of managing things on my own in this immense city; and the other one is a bit of a cultural insight.
(and the first round of pictures are uploaded to

Cairo...20 million people in one place, if you are fast on the highway it takes 4 hours to get around it. And total craze...I thought traffic is crazy in Jordan, well I feel safe back in Amman after the days of Cairo :P

Everyone talks about the legandary pyramids and they are indeed awesome! But did you know (besides people who have already been there) that the Gizah pyramids are actually part of the city? That it is surrounded on 2 sides by blocks of flat and to check out the sphinx you need to walk max 200 meters from the first fast food restaurant? That was an interesting experience :P
Also the camels....yeah, I finally got to ride a camel, but after this I can barely imagine how people survived full days on their backs....it is super inconvenient. So I shifted to horse, thinking that the horse is led by a dude and I just need to stay on the horse, well I was wrong. 2 minutes after shifting the guy gave me the lead, yeah do it alone (for this you need to know that I have no idea how to ride a horse, the last time I was on a horse was at least 10 years ago, it was a pony and it was led in a circle and I was screaming on top :D). But I managed to survive the experience, by the end I was pretty fine with the directions, well the speed controll was never working (I dunno if my horse or I was more stubborn on what we want :P).

It was also really an experience managing taxis in Cairo. You need to argue and bargain for each and every ride. There are taxi meters, but of course not in use. As foreigners we will usually the ones targeted to be ripped off, with not really high success :) we either always had argumentative people, with or without basic arabic knowledge or someone speaking arabic....usually the first version. But by the end of 3 days in Cairo we all knew the key words: numbers and NO.

But sticking to the sigthseeing: before the conference was the birthday of the Prophet...so we went to see the celebrations. Well, they were scary :) a looot of people just shouting and singing in a language I have no idea about. But this whole march did lead us to a beautiful place in Cairo, Khan Khalili - the market. Every kind of things you can imagine...and you can of course bargain for. I was amazed on the effect of knowing a few really basic things in arabic...prices got halfed in a matter of a second. I had very fast a bunch of other foreigners from the faci team hanging up to come bargain, though I don't think I'm the best in it :D

We have also seen the Mohammad Ali citadel and went to a religious garden (sorry I forgot the name) right above Islamic Cairo/the old city. Well the view was amazing from there and we could here the prayer for basically every corner of the city. And obviously we had like half an hour just for pictures....I felt like a japaneese tourist (or I can say a normal young arab guy put on every possible picture, it is insane how much time people can spend here with pictures).

And about the culture...well many people say that all arab countries are the same (though they usually have the picture of a Gulf country in mind). But it is sooooo not truueee, gosh, I never ever imagined such diversity in a region! Even when we say that Central Europe is diverse, it is nothing to the diversity and variety of MENA. Also the so many different ways of being muslim and still being a good muslim. Nevertheless there are common points everywhere, but I would never ever dare again boxing in this region into "arabs" or "muslims" it is just so surficial and has no value at all behind it. I have been facilitator on this conference, and as someone trying to lead people and pass on messages I can assure anyone who tries making one box out of the region: you will not succeed then. Besides knowing that they are all really different cultures it is also true that people are really proud and sensitive of their identity.

Sensitivity of identity, just something random popped up in my mind writing this line. 15th of March happened during the conference itself. I was never a big fan of national holidays, I always somehow felt they are rather a waste of time. But I was wrong again. I think I have never been that proud to wear the tricolor than this day. Feels interesting reflecting on this point. I was not shouting out loud to everybody, but I was proud to be the only hungarian and I was proud celebrating my national holiday.

I guess it is enough of random insights for today....though I have a lot just popping up in my mind. I though that this conference will not give me that much...but it was the best choice I made before heading for the future. Ok, back to work, yalla :P

MENAXLDS....the afterlife, edition 1

heeeeeeeeeey :P

Back and alive after MENAXLDS 2009 :) Sitting in Cairo airport, dead tired but in the same time recharged, sounds cool, ya?
As a very fast start up, here you find the introduction of the Faci team, so that you know with who I was working all this week:

MENAXLDS Faci introduction

View more presentations from alejalaiton.

There is a lot to write about, besides the conference I have been tavelling a bit, mostly seeing Cairo (and between Sharm el Sheikh and Cairo feeling like canned meat in a minivan for around 9 hours, yaaay).

As a faci team I truly had the pleasure to work in a team which was committed and reeeallly open. And I think this openness was some sort of a key, we moved forward understanding each others concepts fast, bonded with light speed. A true multicultural team (around 10 countries, 4 continents) as an amazing experience on how you can get the most out from diversity.

Learning and next steps....well, if I'm honest I do confess that I went for a holiday. Even though that many of us know that a conference is not about sleeping, but hard work especially as facilitator, but the change of atmosphere the flow of new things, ideas, meeting new people just makes it at the end a very refreshing journey. Of course I did learn from it and I belive it helped me reinforcing that I am making the right decisions with regards my future.

Pictures are being collected and very soon uploaded ;) Also a bit more structured and concrete post is to come, I just wanted to send the first message of me being alive.

Ehh, just one more fun thing for the Global Village - finally I have experienced the full traditional Jordanian outfit, see the picture just above :) But sooo much more pictures to come :P

MENA, MENA, MENA.....

I'm in Egypt, just sitting on the pre-meeting of MENAXLDS 2009 :P and this is just to indicate my excitement of how much I look forward to my last international conference as active AIESEC member!!!!

I have already spent one day in Cairo, was indeed amazing and sooo many things happened. I'm excited like a little kid when getting the new bike :P And the Jordan delegation is arriving in less than 2 days, yehaaaa, first delegation as full member country!!! Yalla Jordan!

stories and pictures coming later! (most probably after the 23rd of March, hehe, I guess I will not have any more time to wirte even this short blogpost :D )

Long time....for what?

It's been a long time since I have posted anything over here (sorry guys :P)

Why? I was not always in the mood (or when I was I did not have my laptop :P) or I just did not have time or did not find anything to write about...but mainly the first reason.

Even though a lot of things were going on. Not neceseraly travelling or something, rather thinking deciding, looking into the future, etc (the usual crap for this part of the year).

Some great news: I'm going to Egypt! From the 10th till most probably the 22nd of March. For MENAXLDS, the biggest regional AIESEC/youth congress :P And as facilitator. It was one of my dreams to be facilitator on a bigger international conference and it is finally working out :) And obviously I'm not just staying for the congress, but hoping to have some sightseeing in Egypt.

And the world is small. I would have never imagined meeting Karuna at MENAXLDS - an Indian friend, with who I worked in Hungary and the next time we meet in Cairo...funny enough, right?

I also made my choice on what is next for me (more or less clear on it). One thing is for sure...I'm gonna work, outside of AIESEC. The Country? Yeah that is still a question mark, though whatever happens in July I will be in Hungary for sure. I was thinking for a while to apply as MCP for Jordan, but I realized that I'm out of "fuel" I wanted a good job and if I want a job, it is time to look elsewhere.

But if we are already at the job part...work is just simply crazy. Deadline after deadline (and the question is where I will reach my dead-line....can't wait to be in Egypt!). And I usually tell myself that the next period will be easier, and somehow it never happens :P I know I should not complain, I achieve and I do like my job, but somehow it is not the same, it is not enough any more (am I becoming more demanding, or it is just another sign for the need to change?)

And I wanted also now to write about so many things. My Christmas (the let's say not really existing one), about the Gaza conflict and how I lived it through here and about many other random topics - like I signed up for gym, which I never thought I will ever do - , but somehow at 10:30 pm they ran away :P

Nevertheless, the point of the post is to show you I'm still alive and moving :D Have a good day all of you!

Adventures...Edition 2 - Wadi Rum, Aqaba

So the next day of the trip....starting with waking up at 5:30 am, just to be able to catch the one and only bus to Wadi Rum.

What do you need to know about Wadi Rum? If you have ever heard about Lawrence of Arabia, or have watched the movie the name must be familiar, as Wadi Rum has been his "headquarters" during the Great Arab Revolt (1917). But this is not the most important about it. The pictures can not really give it back how beautiful the view is (it seems like a lot of sand, but what is so nice on sand? :P ). It is again you have to see to understand....Sand, rocks and magnificent mountains.
The hard thing is to believe that people lived and still do live in that area...the usual question is that from where the heck they get water :P

But let's list all the adventures:
Getting there - it was not that huge advanture besides a few things. The bus left from the hotel at 6:20, our hotel is only one stop. I ordered five tickets, the bus driver remembered 4, but never mind, we did manage very easily this part (one more person paying the ticket...so no points of debate). But getting to the bus was funny, as the gate of the hotel was locked, and noone was at the reception. So we search and found someone sleeping in a hidden corner "guarding" the hotel reception, but he did not have the key, only knew where the dude with the key is sleeping - so one round of running as the bus was already there for us. But this was also sorted, we left Wadi Musa (Petra) without any remarkable story.
Then in the middle of the way the bus stopped, everybody waking up on what is going on??? We have been stopped by the police, our driver almost ended up in jail for a week, coz instead of 80 km/h he was speeding with 120 and the bus was also overloaded. How did it end? With a ticket to the bus driver worth 60 JD (around 70 Euros). Dude coming back swearing, and starting to tell us about his 'heroic' fight with the police, that he was already locked, when he managed to negotiate (like the hero being on the corner of death, but escaping with an inch :P ).

But we did arrive to the visitors' center in Wadi Rum. We wanted to get to the village, but they told us that we can go only if we buy a tour for a hillarious price. We did buy a tour, but for half the price :P

So we bought a jeep tour for 3 hours. As we were 5 of us it was not epensive, so we thought, it is all ok.
It was ok....but....our jeep broke down in the middle of the desert. In the middle of nowhere getting stuck with the only working vehicle....fun :P though it was not that bad, as we were at a tent, with a few beduins, consulting over the dead car like in a medical consilium :P And one of them even had a super weak, but operational signal on the mobile, so they managed to call another jeep for us from a top of the one dune the phone was working (I don't want to know what we would do if we break down only a kilometer deeper in the desert :P ).
Our new driver was then indeed amazing! I felt like in a rally in the desert on the top of an open plato jeep!!!! We were racing, loud music (Papi Chulo like 15 times :P) from the driver cabin and racing on the dunes...super awesoooome :D. I guess the guy was not used to young people enjoying the situation, but we really had great fun. Of course we stopped for a bit of climbing or to check out the house of Lawrence (or rather what was left from it) and sometimes also for a beduin tea (yummeee). And our 3 our trip ended up to be a 5 hour one :P
Poor Eyad who came from Aqaba to pick us up needed to wait for us because of our sudden compensation for the dead car :P He was sweet coming and picking us up from Wadi Rum to take us to Aqaba.

So we did go to Aqaba. There is not that much to see in this town, the only port of Jordan to the Red Sea. It is a holiday zone (duty and ta free, so I got winter coat, muhaha), so it is really great as the end of the trip for relaxing. I rather mention some pleasure moments in points, just to give back the feeling:

• Having beer in the sunset of the sea, at the shore of a 5 star hotel where we sneaked in :P
• Having breakfast of hummus and fool for 2,5 JD, at 11 o'clock in T-shirt looking at the sea
• Having a fast swim and sun bathing on the public beach - on the 11th of December
• Feeling like in the zoo, coz we were the only foreigners on the public beach (most foreigners have their hotels with private beaches :P, we are rather adventurous people than rich :P)
• Walking around in the city, searching for the shade of palm trees in short and T-shirt (again, it is still december :P )

I still need to get the pictures from Aqaba are not yet uploaded, those are coming soon, also some additions to Petra pictures to be epected!

The end of the story....getting back to Amman, arriving by 11 pm, closing with another adventure.
What? Oh yeah, after 11 pm in Amman taxis are not using taxi meters. So we got into the cab started to go on the way. Then we realized the meter is not working....awesome, so we asked the dude to switch it on, answer is obviously no. Ok, then how much? 4 Dinars (the normal fair would be 1.8, but of course there is not hope to get that). But we learnt from our 2 days earlier experience and ended up paying 2,5 JD.....which is barely a bit more than the usual fair. We are foreigners, but learning fast :P

I guess you can see from all these stories that it is worth coming to Jordan, seeing a bit of it and enjoying your time (especially that you would have a guide who is already experienced in the Jordanian way of taxi 'management' :P ). These 3 days were amazing...and really needed in the same time. My brain is totally refreshed, I can approach my challenges with a fresh, again solution oriented, approach. My energies are back...though I almost wrote that the old Szaki is back, but that is not true, this country changed me, I like the changes I feel and I already know that I will feel really alien when I go back to Hungary.

It is also the time when I start thinking on the next steps, outside of AIESEC. I give myself till the end of January to see if I can fit into Jordan and line up my options and chances. Then it is time to decide which country will see me in the next 1-2 years as an employee :D But this is a story for later on ;)

Adventures...Edition 1

So, let's get started with the story of travels during Eid al Adha (nice looong holiday :P)
I think I'm gonna make it into more posts, it has been three intense and amazing days, a lot happened, so I try having things in pieces.

The outline of these three days: Petra, Wadi Rum and Aqaba....Ruins of an ancient, magnificent city, then stunning view of the desert and feeling a kind of sidewind how powerful it could be, and at the end going back to the summer in the middle of december! I guess it shows that things did happen and it was extremely fun!

So startup - planning. As I already mentioned in the previous post promises we had, which did not come through...but Lonely Planet guide is always there to help us :P So we started reading, figuring out how to get there where to sleep, and had a bit of Jordanian kind of 'we will sort it out on the way' approach (like how we get to Wadi Rum, where we sleep in Aqaba, how we get back to Amman from there). We had idea about everything, but we did not fix too many things...just the destinations.

Though we easily managed to book accomodation in Petra, a pretty ok one, for good price, yeah, it was not luxury, but had beds and was clean enough. We also figure out that there is a south bus station from where there are usually minibuses to Petra. So we went there early in the morning, but has been told by lovely tai drivers that there are no buses during Eid. This very soon (but too late to change decision) turned out to be a lie, as the whole way we followed the bus to Petra :P Also we had the fun of fifteen turning out to be fifty, so we gave each other good lectures: english and bargaining....for them english, for me bargaining. (result: already on the way back when we arrived with the bus we managed to significantly decrease our late night tai costs :P). Of course I was really upset at the beginning, not becuase of paying more, coz it was still a totally ok, but the principle and that we have been fooled, simply becuase we were all foreigners. But it was gone very fast, I learned what needed to be learned from it, and then left the topic.

So we arrived to Petra - or rather Wadi Musa, found our hotel, turning out to be pretty ok. Then immediately embarked on the trip to Petra, the Rose City, one of the new seven wonders of the world! And it is indeed wonderful!!!

The city is carved into the stones, the whole area is full with artificial caves, tombs and magnificent cathedrals in the mountain itself. And it is not how most people would imagine, 2 hills and that's it, but it is magnificent! Truly you can see the marks of a full city, you can easily imagine how it could have looked like, and I would have loved to rowk in that city, so protected, so nice....and a city which has played strategic role in the region when it was existing and really alive. And the treasury, the simbol of the city...well nice, but I don't think that is the best part of it, but really to feel and see, that it was a city!
So indeed, Petra is something really worth visiting! And spending really a full day there, it is just simply beautiful! And with a bit of imagination you can really make a lot out of it....imagining how a usual day could have look like a few thousand years ago.
But this was again a trip which has not that much to talk about, Petra is something to see and experience :P

After the long walks and rock climbing we went for dinner, and managed to find a cool restaurant, giving fried chicken in a nice amount, enough even for me :P So the first day of travel was ending really well, we were, I mean 5 of us, ready for the next day (about what I'm gonna write tomorrow....sounds like a movie series, right :P ? )

Commitment

The post about the culture....and probably my biggest shock, I could just start handling. I was also looking for the most appropriate title, and I found that the key of the whole story is commitment. I will soon give the explanation why.

What made me realize that I'm dealing with cultural and not personal problem was a Global Village. Currently in the same building we are 9 foreigners in 2 flats, covering all the continents (except south pole :P
So we organized last Thursday a cultural night. Everybody was preparing for two days, cooking traditional food (paprikáskrumpli rocks :P ), making presentations, downloading videos and some of us even visiting the embassy for some brochures. So we all really put energy into it.
What shocked me is that how 'welcoming' the situation was and now I'm being bitterly sarcastic. I have never seen Global Villages where people made fun of any presentation, saying that there is not much unique in the country (yeah, it was not Hungary that time, what is clearly different than Jordan, but still). But for all presentation, getting people's attention, not to chat and laugh out loud, why you are trying to introduce your country.
Being a patriot was kind of far from me. But here I did realize I do love my country. Here people are proud of being Jordanian....there is no problem with that, rather it is something I do think many Hungarians can learn from them. But being a guest or being a foreigner living in the country it is something very different. These people here are very sensitive to what is happening with them, internally, causes effecting them from the outside....but sensitivity towards how they effect what is in people who are not 'their kind' is a different issue. Yeah, indeed I am the one, we are the ones (all foreigners here) who should be adapting. This is why we are all here, this is what we aim for. But we all do require a minimum level of respect.....and this is something that Jordanians, the locals here need to learn....that even if they are proud, others are also sensitive (even if not as much) to protect their home (whether it is family, country, or just a corner).
This was one of my points (oh, yeah, and again I gave a harsh voice to this opinion, which I will get back, but I don't mind.....I know that I need to learn a lot, but not I am the only one;) ). This was one point, but I would rather say this is the top of the cake...this alone would make me feel bad for an hour that it ould have been gone.

Commitment....the key to my issue. My comitment? Not really... Other's comitment? Closer to reality.... The contrast between these two? That is the real point!
I'm just coming out from a situation which required comitment to the end. Also I'm not really someone who is giving comitment than withdrawing...if it is given, then it is given....and like here, what is normal. It is again something not good or bad....not like the previous point I wrote about (that one I do judge), but this one, is just a conflict of my values and something different. I do think it can be done in a different way and a small change of attitude would lift the middle east to high grounds they don't have know, but I am noone to judge their choice.
But here if you just don't show up for a meeting that is not a problem, if you promise something and don't do it or cancel in the last minute...no problem.

I do think that this value, the lack of commitment is in the very core of the culture, coz it does explain a lot! Like business culture: Why people doublecheck everything? Why you need to have proven results in business, that you deliver what you promised? Why family is the most important? Why everything is happening through people you know and only through them?
I have wrote about relationship orientation, importance of family and networking....yeah, it is all true, but what forces it? What is not allowing such basics to change or even to get weaker? What is in the core?
I think here the right question - is standing as an answer for everything I just pulled up - is: How would you trust anyone in a country where noone takes comitment for anything?

The best examples just from the close future: I have been hearing for like 3 weeks, that we will have a trip organized for the holiday.....and then having nothing when it starts! (So finally we did it ourselves, with some funny and adventurous mistakes - for what we heard back: you should always have a local with you - a statement which makes me laugh now). Or the mistake we made is that we tried agreeing with taxi drivers (who by the way simply lied that there are no buses working during the holiday) to take us to Petra....and saying fifteen JD as a cost per taxi, then when we arrived they still said fifteen, with the extra that in arabic fifteen means 50 (the debate was kind of harsh, but also made me realize that I can be much more daring in bargaining and 'negotiating' than I thought.) - adding to the situation that I know the numbers in arabic, so they could not even say that I had no chance understanding if they would have told their offer in Arabic :P.
These examples are just to very fast prove my theory - this is why people save phone numbers of taxi drivers they like for example. But besides these examples I would be able to pull up million from daily life: from taxi drivers trying to fool you or companies asking you for one million proof of delivery, meetings getting cancelled with no real reasons, etc.
Again I must say, it is not bad....but you have to know your way in this country (as in any other) to survive. And until I did not really figure this point I could not totally make my way here...and it made me angry, made me feel useless, made me feel fooled and betrayed all the time.
But now it is gone. I know why it works like this, and this makes it super easy to understand how it reall works and how I can work my way through. Like it is cool to be a better networker...I indeed improved, but now I see true purpose, a meaning behind it! That is the feeling which makes me feel good after all the crap happening and after all the time feeling down.

I wanted cultural experience - I got it! And so far I was questioning that do I really know so much more about the middle east and Jordan than others, do I really know enough to say I worked in this environment, I know how it works and in a job I can build on it or I can work with the middle east. So far it was a doubt, coz this is undoubtedly one of the most important learnings from an internship or an MC abroad---- it was a doubt, but not any more! I think again an exciting time is coming, when I can really learn to be successfull here! Yalla, time to succeed!