epilogue

Quadruple shock:

We’ve been back in Canada for two weeks and it still doesn’t seem completely real. We left so abruptly—no last visit to our favourite café, no final visit to the school, and most importantly no goodbyes. I’ve been spending a lot of time sitting my study, staring at the horizon, thinking about what it all meant, trying to manage the transitions.

• Culture shock: from a vibrant Islamic culture with a stunning gulf between rich and poor to the easy life in a moderate secular country
• People shock: from a city of 17 million to a city of 400,000 in a province with 1 million people
• Chaos-to-order shock: from uncertainty, demonstrations, checkpoints and traffic jams to predictable, well-behaved Canadians and the sedate traffic of Ottawa and Halifax
• Weather shock: from 23C and sunny to -18C and snowing

 

What we learned

• Islam permeates daily life. In Egypt, Muslims are reflective, considerate and, for the most part, tolerant (there are 9 million Christians in Egypt.)They make personal choices about how they will engage with their faith. Egyptians look out for each other and they lead disciplined lives (we saw no drunks in Egypt.)
• History takes on a new meaning when you can touch something that is 4,300 years old.
• Laughter travels across cultures without translation.
• Egyptians treat others with kindness and generosity… until they get behind the wheel of a car or truck.
• Egyptians work hard and are not paid very well; many of our colleagues have at least two jobs.
• The young people of Egypt are essentially the same as young people in Canada—they have big hearts and big dreams.
• Nothing is ever quite what it seems.

What we miss

Egypt is a culture of friends and family. People gather daily in cafes to drink tea and talk. There are many children, and they are loved.

 

What we hope

Our deepest wish is that the recent events in Egypt will finally lead to a peaceful , democratic society, with stability, dignity, and hope for all its citizens.

We hope that the progress toward more a equitable status for women will continue. We recognize that this is a very complicated issue (nothing is ever quite what it seems.)

We hope to see Egypt fulfill its huge cultural and economic potential.

We hope that the rise of democracy in Egypt will lead to positive change in other Arab countries.

 We hope to return to Egypt.

 

It was all about the people.

During our time in Egypt, we met many people, and made many, many friends.
Here are some of them.

 

Next

One of the inevitable results of living (as opposed to touring) in a different culture for any length of time is that when you return, you view your home culture from a new perspective.

Our Egyptian friends and students were very curious about life in Canada. We found that “visit Canada” tourism sites and corporate promotional sites don’t really do a very good job of capturing the lives of ordinary Canadians, our diverse environments, and multiple cultures.

We have decided to take our blog in a new direction, examining the experience of living in Canada and taking another look at the country we have always taken for granted. Especially for the benefit of people who have not yet visited Canada, we hope you’ll follow us as we try, from our little perspective, to document  life in Canada.
You can find our new blog here:  http://exploringlifeincanada.blogspot.com/