With Doaa

Lovely to meet Doaa today who was one of my very first mentors when I started in Cairo. She was also part of the team who I went to Istanbul with, and so I got to know her better then as we did a bit socially together too. She’s a very talented, strong and independent Egyptian women who’s not afraid to break the mould.

We met at Left Bank, another of my favourite places on the Nile. And where I arranged to meet others. I was then joined by Sarah, another former student who’s young enough to be my daughter. She’s strong too, but wasn’t strong enough to deal with family and community pressure to get married. And now unhappily so. We could both see it coming, and we spent time talking about it, but also just enjoying our first chat in more than a year.

Two more friends joined us, then Sarah and I left. As much as I love catching up, it gets overwhelming. We walked in Zamalek then went back to my hotel for sunset drinks from the 11th floor, overlooking the Nile. Mahmoud joined us and we had a lovely time chatting, taking sunset photos and laughing.

Sarah had to leave (after tears from both of us) and so Mahmoud and went to dinner at Osmanly, a Turkish restaurant serving delicious food with good service, including a hand washing ceremony.

I was sad to say goodbye to Mahmoud, one of my great friends.

A good day, with friends who are treasured. And while some have left and moved to other countries, there are some special connections who will always be there.