„Today we are washing the dishes“, says my German friend as we are sitting in the middle of the desert after a great meal prepared by our two Bedouin guides Sameh and Sayed. „I don’t like being served“, she continues and I know exactly what she means. I have been feeling like that countless times during the weeks and months that I spent in Egypt. After some discussion – and because we were lazy – we figured: If we were in a restaurant in Germany we would also see no reason to help in the kitchen after our meal. Sameh and Sayed are being paid for doing this job. And yet, there is something that just does not feel right about it.
I think about this a lot in Cairo, because my Grandmother has a driver, Hassan, a maid, Mona, and a cook, Soheir, who work for her regularly. I like them all very much and they like me, too. Maybe because I behave differently than other Egyptians that could afford employing them. I always sit next to Hassan, never in the back seat. He is almost like a grandfather to me. I never give orders to Mona. I sit with Soheir in the kitchen and learn recipes from her. And these things are not to say that I am such an awesome, generous person that is even kind to the servants. No, it means that these people to me are not servants, they are people who are employed at my Grandmother’s and who are in every way equal to me. But unfortunately that is not how society sees them, sees us. Continue reading
after the uprisings in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt. These in no way objective pieces of news are causing an „I told you so!“ mentality in the heads of Western so-called democrats, who believe that they have a monopoly on democracy. I hear them talking of the Arab revolution attempts as a ridiculous effort that has hardly any chance of succeeding. 
Now the unique experience of this culinary treat is that the first four bites are dedicated to every ingredient by itself. You may take in the full pleasure of four delicious spreads right after eachother. Have you ever experienced something like that before? Will you ever experience something like that again? I think not. (By the way, it’s all legal.) 
It is unbelievable how much stuff one piles up in four floors or even just a few squaremetres over the years. That makes it really difficult to empty a whole house at once. Sometimes I wish I had a huge trash can to throw everything into. All that stuff that you will never need again but because you needed it once, you just can’t get rid of it. Well, I guess the more things you take with you, the faster your new living space will feel like a home, too. 
