Driven by Curiosity…

I watched an Arabic movie called Tito. My sister Hania dragged Elena (other sister) and I to watch this movie. Claiming that the main actor is actually good. Of course the word “good” is very relative. With this thought and the memory of another ridiculous movie called “the Gang of the Black Glove!” we went into the theatre still making fun of poor Hania .

Good music, nice story, beautiful decoration, excellent effects and most important great acting and the ironic smile disappeared(the lead character is a very good looking dude!)

Of course neither Elena nor me dared admit we liked the movie because Hania would have kicked out butts! The movie was actually very good! I felt the modern Egyptian movie industry started finally moving out of the ridiculous mold it put itself into. The movie is about a very unfortunate street boy, who never had any sort of guidance. He goes into prison as a young teenager and gets out as an adult (that part was very dramatic). Somehow he becomes the errand boy of a very corrupt minister. The young man becomes rich and meets rich people who change his bitter idea about life; he falls in love with a beautiful lady and decides he no longer wants to be a bad person; he wants to become a clean person who lives decently gets his bread in an honorable way. and for a slpit of a second he is really and truly happy. Obviously things do not turn out as he wishes. He adopts a street boy and tries to give him the chance that was never given to him. It was a very hopeless story; still, I thought was good…. (After the movie, you could see every single lady had teary eyes, is everyone super sensitive in Amman and I am the only heartless person? or they all were pmsing?)

I met a lady called E. E is an Iraqi manicurist who goes from house to house trying to make money. She has 3 daughters, 16, 14 and 13 and a dead husband… she has 5 brothers in Iraq and one sister who lives in Yemen. Between her and her sister they manage to feed 23 hungry stomachs….E told me about her story, how her husband died when she was nineteen, no job, no education, no money, no family support. How her life was so tragic to the degree she called her younger daughter (Maasi) which mean tragedies! How she had to go through garbage to feed her daughters. Maasi was with her, a little kid who does not know how to smile, the only thing she know is hunger, ar and terror, just the seeing her broke my heart. E talked and talked and talked… by the time she left I was packed to go and volunteer to help Iraqi people!

I don’t know if there is any connection between the two stories…the point is sometimes it is simply too hard to be positive when there is so much misery in the world!

Couple of days Later….

I feel better…no comment on misery in the world. I read Da vinci code; it is a very interesting book. It made me want to read more about Mr. Brown’s theory about Christianity, which is very similar to the movie, the last temptation of Christ. I am so curious… as always.

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It took me almost one whole week to get over the fact that I am NOT in Jeddah. That I can actually walk in the streets, and I can walk without the Abaya, and I that I can move alone to wherever my legs wish to take me… and what a joyous sense of freedom swept over me. Do I miss Jeddah? Not particularly, I miss two or three people there and it stops there.

We have already finished the meeting with the leaders of the project. We got a 62-year-old Italian man, who enjoys being alive to the max. He is so active and so much fun. 2 French guys in their forties with a very impressive history of dealing with young people, especially young people in distress. And a very well groomed Lebanese lady in her thirties who has flirted with every MALE we saw in the few days they were here, because she is desperately seeking a husband! What a weird bunch. They loved Amman, they thought the hotel is great and the food is excellent. I was a bit worried of the Europeans because Amman is so different of what they were used to, but I was very wrong, it is unfortunately the Arabs that I should be careful about. Our Lebanese lady is very unhappy because the hotel does not have a coiffeur, and from all Amman, the electricity did not get cut off except in her room, I was just a tiny bit skeptic, would you not be?

Today I had a meeting with my university, we were toying with the idea of including 4 students from the university in the project, I woke up every hour last night because I was nervous, this is the first time I go there after I graduated. and I was not very sure about them helping. I just realised cofinancing does not exist for nobodies! you have to be someone to be able to get people to cofinance you!

I was very well received, I was surprised they remembered me, and they were happy to see me (maybe they were pretending, it does not matter, I still felt good) They were totally impressed by the project It was a very successful meeting at all levels. They agreed to allow us take 4 of their top students, they allowed us to use their labs and facilities as long as we needed them, and allowed us to use their stage to make the final presentation. Which is really way much more than I imagined! Do you think I can ask for a bus too? This prject is turning me a professional beggar!

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