The trip to paradise - Part V (The Tea Room)

Yet another post about my Lithuania trip.
The whole thing was so enriching an experience that one could probably write a book about it. I'm not very good at writing books so I'm posting snippets on my blog :)

I talked before about the youth exchange project's theme "Let's meet for a cup of tea or coffee"

So naturally, one of our main activities (and one of the most fun) was to host a "EuroMed" tea room in a big square in the city Panevėžys where each day one or two countries would serve their national tea and coffee to the lithuanian locals.

Our hosts provided an easy to set up tent to serve as the tea room and on our second day we had an hour or so in our schedule for brainstorming for ideas. We were randomly split to groups, and each group would try to come up with as much ideas as they possibly could. Write them all down. And then all groups met, all ideas were collected and explained and then votes taken so as to which ideas to implement (bearing in mind the feasibility too).
One of the excellent things was that the leaders didn't meet in a closed room to decide what we'll do. It's our tea room, so everybody put in efforts to make it as successful as possible.

Votes were taken and decisions were made, we were then split to groups based on preference as to what ideas you would like to implement. We'd made 6 "Welcome" signs in 6 different languages (those of the participants), we've decided we'd get colored chalk and draw arrows and feet outlines from every direction of the square leading to our tea room, so as to attract people. We had national music of the current tea room country playing. We made various origami decorations with colored paper and attached them to a string to hang in the tea room (Rasa taught us how to make amazing birds from a piece of paper). We made lots of small flags for all the 6 countries which were to be hanged too and we even created the closest thing we could to a big cup out of carton.

And it's pretty amazing what 30 enthusiastic minds (and hands) could create in a couple of hours. Photos will show at the end of this post.

So almost everyday we'd go to the city, set up our tent, and one or two countries would be ready with various flavors of their national tea and coffee. We'd serve to the locals and have the occasional chat with them about whether they like it, where we're from, what they know about our countries...
The Lithuanian people are amazingly warm and friendly, they'd come, chat with us, tell us how much they want to visit our countries, and some of them even became regulars and would pop up everyday to see what's "new" in our tea room. It was just so much fun and yet a very enriching experience, just like every activity we had.

Next time I think I would like to talk about the inter-cultural nights, another major activity but one that is common between all youth exchange projects wherever they are hosted and whatever the topic was.

For now I'll leave the photos to do the rest of the talking and help you visualize the whole thing.

Hope you enjoy :)


Those are photos of the preparations:


This is Rasa, leading the origami group and teaching everyone how to make small birds out of paper. Notice the birds waiting to be "hanged" on the right ;)



Bassem working on the Egyptian welcome sign, this was later decorated by the nicest polish girls because we guys could have never done it that well :)



Antonio doing a great job on the Italian welcome sign.



Beginning work on the big cup



The beautiful Jana creating small flags for all 6 countries.



Renata working on the most important of all welcome signs, the Lithuanian.



A penta-national group helping each other out with the preparations.



And these are photos of the results, the actual tea room in the city:



First of all, setting up the tent



Drawing footsteps that lead to our tea room from every direction.



Babies who happened to pass by with their mums just loved to join the coloring action, we loved for them to join too. I now have a dozen cute baby photos that are just adorable :)



The big cup in full glory, yes it's rectangular, and yes it can't hold any fluids. We still called it The Big Cup!



Almost everyone trying to untie the knots on the origami bird string.



A drawing being made by 3 different people with no coordination whatsoever, amazing how it turned out to be a real beauty



Everyone participating in a graceful polish dance during the polish tea room day.



And last but not least, our Egyptian team with the Egyptian table on our assigned tea room day.

The trip to paradise - Part IV (More Photos)

Well, last post contained mostly greenery photos. That's partly because I was more fascinated with that than anything else and partly because most of my stay was in a small village (thankfully)

But that doesn't mean there are no cities or that they are not that interesting in Lithuania, so here I am posting some photos I took in both Vilnius (the capital city) and Panevėžys.

I promise a more verbal post next, hope you enjoy the photos....


The square in Panevėžys where we used to set up our "tea room", details about the tea room to come in a future post.



Another shot for the same square



A very nice castle in Trakai, a very touristic site in Lithuania



The Lithuanian president's house in Vilnius, do not try to compare with the Egyptian counterpart.



A very very interesting street in downtown Vilnius, full of nice small cafes and bars, all kinds of people, and even old churches, walking up and down the street and occasionally sitting in a cafe by the side was a very enjoyable experience.



Inside a huge mall in the city, everywhere inside you'd find live music and dancing shows, this is just one of them.

The trip to paradise - Part III (Photos)

Just came back home and it's 4am here, so I think it's very late to start writing a meaningful post.
So in keeping with my promise of daily posts about the Lithuania trip, I am posting some photos, basically scenery photos in this part to show how beautiful Lithuania is. If you thought Lithuania is boring then this post should help set the record straight.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, if that's true then I'm about to provide you with a few thousand words' worth post.

Click on any photo for a larger version and I will inline a few comments when appropriate.

Here we go.....


A beautiful beautiful place in Lithuania with lots of hills and greenery, a must see. (Rasa if you're reading perhaps you could remind me of the name of that one)



Another shot taken in the same place



My Lithuanian friend Justina (pronounced Yustina) with a horse we'd found on the same place



Country roads in Lithuania with greenery everywhere you look, a regular sight that I never got bored of during my 10 day stay.



Inside a church in Vilnius the capital city of Lithuania.



A small museum that shows how linen manufacturing evolved over the years and how it used to be done manually.


I came back with more than 1500 photos, taken by me and others, the ones I'd posted here were all taken by yours truly, there is a lot more to come so stay tuned.

See you next post.

P.S.
If you notice a small spot/stain on the bottom left or bottom right of the picture don't worry about your monitor, it's just that I dropped my camera once and since then all photos come up with this nasty spot. It seems some part of the lens was broken. Hopefully I get to fix it soon when I'm in the US.
On the other hand if you don't notice the spot then _you_ should worry. Consult your eye doctor asap ;)

The trip to paradise - Part II

This is to continue this post about my 10 day visit to Lithuania as part of a EuroMed youth exchange.

The project's title was "Let's meet for a cup of tea or coffee", don't think that's superficial. During the project I have come to understand that these projects aim at getting participants to know about each other's countries, and to get them to respect diversity and realize there are many different "right" ways to do something. The theme is just one side of the big story.

And to that end the project was a major success. In just 10 days
I became acquainted with 5 different cultures, I learned about each country's history, language, food, drinks, economy, and more significantly made friends from each and every country.

The 10 days were almost a sensory overload. I'd tasted lots of lithuanian, jordanian , maltese, and polish food. I even had a full italian dinner made by italian chefs (the participants) with all italian ingredients. Simply stunning. I'd tasted tea and coffee from each country, tried polish vodka, lithaunian beer and vodka, maltese and italian wine. And this is only the "tasty" part of things.

The first day's programme had lots of "ice-breakers" and "name-games", these are basically fun ways to get to know each other and break the ice. One such novel idea that was so much fun was for each participant to write their name on a paper. Music then played and everybody dances around exchanging papers. When the music stops, you're asked to look for the person whose paper you're holding in your hands and then draw their hair. When everybody is done, another round of music plays, and everyone exchanges papers multiple times, until the music stops and you're asked to draw the eyes of the person whose paper you're currently holding. So now each paper has hair and eyes each drawn by a different person. Another round continues and you're asked to draw the nose, then the mouth, then the neck, etc. until you have a portrait for each person drawn by a handful of different people. We laugh at the outcome, hang the papers on the wall, and in what almost seems like a side effect, each participant now knows the names of 5 or 6 people whose papers he'd had at various stages of the game.
Fun, useful, and very novel.


Exchanging papers during the game


Look at the wall for the outcome of the drawing game

The first day also had so many other games created for letting everybody get to know each other, and to know about each participant's expectations and fears of the project as well. These were to be evaluated by the end of the project to see what expectations were fullfilled and what fears proved to be unneeded.

A typical day's programme would consist of breakfast at 9am, and then off at 10 for some energizers, which are small games we all play together to wake up and get everybody energized for the rest of the day. The rest of the programme would have what I call "educative" games. These are so much fun that you just go on about them thinking it's just a game. But when it's over and you think about it, you find out that you've learnt at least a lesson or two about different cultures and how they interact.

A sample of such a game would be one where we were randomly divided into groups, and then given a piece of paper and a pen, asked to draw how the dining table looked like back at home when we're having a meal together. Each group had participants from several countries. Everyone drew and then we were asked to meet with our groups and discuss the drawings trying to factor out a list of the common things between us and another one with the different things we couldn't agree on.
Sounds simple? try it with people from 6 different countries and you can never expect the outcome. It's just enlightning. Even at this micro-level of things, you come to appreciate diversity. I have always appreciated diversity, but it has never been so obvious to me and I never got to "experience" it like this. To talk about diversity is one thing, and to get in touch with it and experience it is a whole other issue.


Participants drawing how the scene looks when the family gathers for a meal.


Explaining each group's understanding of the common and different things between each of the group member's families.


Once again it's getting too long, so there it goes, Part II.
The following few days should see a few more parts coming out as well. There is still so much to tell and so many lessons learnt.

See you tomorrow :)

The trip to paradise - Part I

Well, I've been back for 2 days now so it's about time I start writing this post.
If you don't know already, I've been on a 10 day trip to Lithuania among a group of 3 egyptians as part of a youth exchange project organized by the EuroMed.

I have posted before about the trip to and back from there. So this one is about the actual stay in Lithuania.

This was actually my first youth exchange project so I had little to no expectations. Only hoping to enjoy the stay at least a bit, not get too homesick, and to come back not regretting it. Little did I expect to have this so-much-fun, so-much-educative, and enriching experience.


We had people coming from 6 different countries. Lithuania, Poland, Malta, Italy, Jordan, and Egypt.

So going back in time to Saturday the 13th of August at 10:30pm when I set foot in vilnius airport. Our lithuanian host Vidas had come to take us to the small village Upyte in Panevėžys where we should be staying for the most part of the next 10 days. He drove a 270Km round trip just to take us from the airport and back.
First impressions were that it's much quieter than Egypt, 10pm over there seemed like 4 am in Cairo. I began worrying that it'd be boring, but I was too exhausted to even think about it seeing that I'd been travelling for 24 hours (thanks to 12 hours in transit in Prague)

An hour and a half later we arrive at the school which had been prepared for our stay. The jordanian, polish, and lithuanian group had already started in the morning. We get out of the car, carry our bags, only to be greeted in true Egyptian fashion by a group of people we can barely see in the pitch black darkness. "Masr Masr Tahya Masr" (Long Live Egypt), "Belady Belady Belady" (the national anthem), and "El Ged3an, El Regala" were all being shouted and sang. Turns out the jordanian group (knowing arabic) had led the welcoming and the polish and lithuanian were repeating after them the sounds they're hearing. It felt amazing, all my fears of not having fun, not communicating with people, not being welcome instantly vanished and a big smile was drawn on my face and was to stay there for the next 10 days.
A few minutes later and the Italian group arrives. They had driven all they way from south Italy, a trip of around 2700Kms over 3 days.


Someone's photo of my face right upon my arrival


We go inside to unpack, and then start to get to know the place and the people. We were introduced very quickly to everyone, and to my amazement I find everyone sitting around a shisha (water pipe)! Turns out the jordanians brought one with them and so almost each night we'd sit around it, have a multi-national conversation and smoke shisha all together.

Now this is getting too long and taking too much time so I will just append a Part I to the title and publish this now and then continue to write tomorrow in Part II.

Stay tuned because things are about to get exciting.

P.S.
This is a picture of the cafe I was using in Prague airport to post the previous two posts on the blog. Just thought you might wanna see it:

On my way home

I am on my way back right now, again from prague, the only place I could find Internet access during this trip. Writing on a czech layout keyboard right now so never mind the typos and lack of punctuation.
The trip itself was A M A Z I N G, these were ten days of heaven on earth. A full report is coming your way real soon when I am back home.

I should arrive at Cairo airport tonight at two am.

Over and out.

P.S.
I noticed the angry comments about czech beer. I gave it two more trials, the beer I didnt like at first was indeed pilsner. This time it was a bit better. But you should try lithuanian beer sometime - and maltese wine, and polish vodka, details later -

Live From Prague!

Currently on my way to lithuania, and I have to stay in prague airport for 12 hours in transit. The czech embassy in Cairo insisted that a transit visa should take at least a week and I hadn't had all that time for preparations so I didn't get one and I'm stuck at the airport, which is too bad since everybody is telling me how beautiful prague is :S

So anyway, first impressions about Prague and Prague airport (given the limited exposure I had so far which are 6 hours spent in the airport.
First, the airport is much larger than Cairo's.
In fact I was impressed at first with Cairo Airport, I'd departed via Terminal 1 and even though it was not that fancy, it was definitely as bas as you'd think it is hearing everyone talk about it.
Enter Prague airport and turns out Cairo airport is not that good after all. This is much larger and much cleaner, we still have a long way to go it seems.

The weather here is just wonderful, 18 degrees celsius with just the right amount of breeze and just the right amount of sun, it's brilliant, why don't we get that all year round in Cairo...

One very strange observation is that it seems to me that girls represent a larger percentage of the population. I'm pretty sure I'd seen more girls than boys today, and definitely more working females than working males. I had breakfast in a restaurant that didn't have one man in the staff. The chefs, waitresses, and cashier were all women. Dunno what's that about.

Stuff is not cheap at all, the currency here the Czech koruna is worth quarter an Egyptian pound, but even stuff like t-shirts cost upwards of 1500 koruna, not what you call cheap at all. I dunno if it's an expensive country or is it just that stuff is a lot more expensive at the airport.

The closest place to a prayer area in the airport is labelled "meditation", something that I found interesting.

One more thing, I'd always heard that Egyptian beer is the worst in the world, well you don't need to believe that anymore, because one thing I can tell you for sure is there is at least one worse beer in the world. The czech.

Wanted to posted the photos I took, but the only internet cafe in the airport doesn't allow you to connect anything to the pc so I can't download the picture from my camera :s Never wanted a laptop more....

Anyway, I still have 6 hours to waste here till my flight to lithuania takes off. Wish me luck :)

Public Service Announcement

Well not really public service, but it's an announcement :)
I should be on a plane tomorrow around midnight heading to lithuania. That should prove to be the interesting experience I am hoping it is.

It's rather recreational, I should meet up with groups from 7 other countries over there as part of youth communication efforts made by EuroMed countries.

I don't know if I'll have Internet access over there but I'll try my best to connect. If not I should report my impressions about the country and the whole thing when I'm back.

Ciao Ciao

Story of an Egyptian

Well, it was an ordinary Thursday, I went out, then saw a movie at midnight. On my way back with a friend I was driving in Salah Salem st. and noticed how nice the Baron palace looks at night after its (partial) renovation, so I stopped to try and take a few photos, it was around 3:30 am

The gates to the garden were closed so I was trying to take a few shots from outside, by the fence, when a security person came from nowhere and asked us what we were doing.

I told him we were trying to take some photos. He was a young man, around 25 years old I think, he offered to take the camera and take some closer shots for us including ones from inside as he had access. I knew he wouldn't be able to take good shots at night and that the photos should come out all shaky, but I said OK, thanks.

He went around for 5 minutes or so and then came back (my friend was worried the guy would steal my camera and vanish) with a few very shaky shots. I smiled and complemented him on the photos he took and was about to go home. But he started chit-chatting. I don't normally like it when total strangers, people who are not friends or friends of friends, start to talk and never stop. People like taxi drivers, a stranger on the bus, and such. So it started off with me just smiling and trying to get out of it. He asked us where we're from, and turns out he lives somewhat close to me. 5 Kms from where I live or something. He got so excited about it. He talked about himself a bit, and told a story of how just the other day he caught a guy and a girl sneaking in at 2 am to do "naughty" stuff, we had a laugh about it.

He asked me if the car parked right next to us is mine, I replied positively. He then asked me if I could drive him on his engagement day. It was totally unexpected to me and I was more than a bit surprised at first. I thought it was too daring for him to ask someone he just met minutes ago for his car for his engagement day. So anyway just to be polite I asked him when his engagement is taking place and he said it should be after Ramadan, that is around 3 months from now. I sighed in relief and apologized politely mentioning that I am to relocate to the US earlier than that.

He was obviously bored with sitting in there doing nothing all night and wanted to just kill time chatting with people, so he asked me what I am to do when I arrive at the US. I don't know why but I didn't want to tell him that I got a job at Microsoft and that I'll go there to work for them. Perhaps I didn't want to brag, and perhaps I didn't want to say all that much to a stranger (although I'm publishing it for the whole Internet to see), but most of all, I think I didn't want him to feel bad about it. You know, like you wouldn't wanna brag about your luxurious lifestyle in front of a poor man? Something like that. The guy obviously was only used to one small part of the world, I did not want to be the one who exposes him to the rest of it, I thought it could be quite a shock.
So, I told him I'll think about what to do when I get there and that I was going searching for a better chance to get on with my life.

To my surprise, he wished me the best of luck (looked like he really meant it) and then asked me for permission for him to advise me, telling me that he thinks of me as a brother, he proceeded to tell me about how hard it's gonna be, how I am gonna be homesick, and how I have to make friends or else I won't be able to stand on my feet. It was all useless as it was based on what I told him earlier about how I'm gonna be unemployed there. But his care and sincerity really touched me. He had my interest in his mind and was trying to help. A total stranger that I'd known for minutes and may never see again.

He then proceeded to tell the story about his own experience, and how studied commerce and when he graduated stayed unemployed for a while, till his father (through someone he knew) could get him a job as a security person in the company "Arab Contractors" which sent him to The Baron palace. He told me he's being paid 450LE ($75 US) a month, and talked enthusiastically about how he and his father then thought it was time for him to get married now that he can afford to support a family. So he proposed to this girl who's a neighbour of his, and they set their engagement date to be right after Ramadan, with plans to get married within 3 years.

It was a completely strange and rather enlightning experience. The guy was excited about his engagement, smiling all the while he's talking, he was so simple, so good-hearted, and so full of life. More so than millionaires I know. He gets paid a tiny fraction of what I or anyone I know is paid. Yet, he was not desperate, he was not sad or bitter. And he was determined to make the best out of what he's got.

He talked to me about his past, his monthly salary, and his future plans, while he'd known me for a few minutes. There are people I knew for years who'd be reluctant to give out that much information to me, let alone to a stranger they met by mere coincidence.

It's been a couple of days and I'm still thinking about that guy and his story. At first I felt angry for people who, like him, have to live with so little.
It was almost heart breaking to see there are lots of people living below the line of poverty.
Now that I had more time to reflect on the whole thing. I really don't know if "we" should be sad for "them", with their simplicity, good heartedness, almost no worries life they're leading. Or if "they" should be sad for "us", with our endless needs we have to fulfill, complicated lives, and hidden agendas......