MIS 2009

AIESEC in Egypt and the people that I have met through it constantly reminds me of the power of AIESEC. This conference has made me think a great deal about who I am in AIESEC, what I am able to do through this organization, and how to continue developing within the organization. AIESEC is not perfect, and neither am I - but we fit together in a way that has inherently changed who I am. I want to thank AIESEC in Egypt for making this past year what it was for me, and the people in this organization for being members of my Egyptian family.
بحبكم قوي

Dialogue.

Last week, AIESEC Egypt hosted the third Middle East North Africa Exchange and Leadership Development Seminar, and kicked the whole thing off with a Global Village, an event that allows delegates to share aspects of their culture through food, music, pictures, or anything like that. Now, I wasn't able to attend the conference because of school, but I was able to go to Global Village and see the twenty countries represented taking over the Corniche in Gezira. It is strange to think that it was two years ago that I was in Morocco, participating in the same thing. So much has changed since then, but its incredible to see familiar faces so much later.
(Gail from UAE and David Ziser from Kansas/Oman and me and the beautiful Denise from GT). A note on my t-shirt: My 19th birthday present from Katie Mitchell, a Ramblin' Wreck shirt that has the song on the back - this shirt has been worn to every conference and global village I have ever attended as a member of @GT. I am in love with it.)

As there was only one delegate representing the US, which was a little disappointing, but given the financial constraints of the conference and travel to Egypt is a little understandable, we helped deck out the table. Oreos, chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter and jelly, Pepsi (although I was upset that our friend from @Madison bought Pepsi and not Coke...my Atlanta roots were pained by that), a Braves hat, and as much Obama stuff as I had in my apartment. Which was cool when people asked for pictures with us, the table, the flag, and Obama's picture.

Which brings me to the role of the Global Village - to learn about other cultures, build relationships, and use that knowledge to create conversations that may one day change the world. Which is just what Obama is doing. His message to Iran exemplifies just that, the willingness to learn about a culture, reach out to them, and begin a dialogue that will initiate change. It's a small step towards a bigger leap, and the man keeps making me proud.

This is exactly what we need around the world - the creation of dialogue. The inclusion of two parties contributing equally to a conversation about the world. And that doesn't just mean speaking, it means listening, too.

For example, the conflict in Israel and Palestine is many things. Complicated, important, heartbreaking, horrifying. But more than anything, I think it is something that changes in definition depending on who you ask. Before coming to Egypt, I was unsure of everything - I had read about it, and knew basics of the conflict, but my understanding of it has completely changed now. Not because I have chosen sides, but because I have had the opportunity to listen to both of them, learn from both of them. And it is increasingly frustrating to find people who refuse to initiate dialogue from a standpoint of being fair and balanced, from both sides.

If you want a different perspective of the conflict than what is usually reported in the US, check out this discussion started by an Israeli university on the role of their military in the conflict. For the full description, take a look at Haaretz, a left-leaning news center in Jerusalem. It is a step towards recognizing the need for developing an honest dialogue on both sides.

reminders of @Love.

On Sunday, I hosted a dinner of a bunch of AIESECers who happen to be in Cairo - some Madisonians, @CU-ers, and interns - a tradition that I have adopted from our old LC dinners and am trying to implement here. I cooked an obscene amount of food, which of course was not even close to enough, and brought out the little Arab mother in me, making sure people were eating enough, had everything they needed, and were doing nothing but enjoying themselves while I ran around getting food, tea, and whatnot together for them. It was a great evening, getting to see people I hadn't for awhile, and introduce new ones into the crowd that has become a mini-@Egypt family. And the lovely Denise, an @er from GT working here in Cairo, brought me one of the best gifts I have gotten in a very long time. Some love from home - in the form of a t-shirt and a card, which just about put me to tears.

I can't even recall how many times I have gone on and on about AIESEC GT Love. But they are my family, my friends, my coworkers, and my inspiration. They remind me of how to live the Dream, and that while they make me proud, I constantly want to make them proud, too. I can't explain how much I miss all of them or how truly special and unique what we have at @GT is. I'm a gushing mess of love for those kids.

the endings of oh-eight, in pictures.

A room with a view.

A new year, a new start. The view from my apartment. Yes, that is the Nile and most of Zamalek. Jealous? You should come and see it for yourself. More apartment pictures to come...

A new MCP.
Tiffany Curtiss, one of my heroes not only in AIESEC but in my whole life. One day, this woman cornered me after an AIESEC meeting to come to dinner. Her (gentle) pushing is the reason I have come so far in this organization, the reason why I have such high goals that I am working to attain, and why I have been inspired to see every side of this world, know it, and make it a better place. If you don't know her yet, you should get to know her. You will know her someday either way because when they say change agent, this is what they mean. This picture is from the very very beginning, and always makes me smile to think of all that has happened since then. Congratulations Tiffany, I am so excited to come back to AIESEC in the US in June and work with you!

A friend heading back stateside.
Roommate number two to head back to the USofA. This girl has infiltrated my vocabulary, made these past few months bearable, renewed my love for hopping around like a crazy, and is totally ball-hair. I'm going to miss bovering her and commenting on various repressions that we experienced in this country, and so much more.

A Jenny-Benny.
Hey guess what? I miss you. Yeah, that's right. Like tons.

A city that I love.
Cairo, Al-Qaharra, Masr. I love this city. Yes, you can see the pyramids in this picture, if you look really hard. I'm celebrating the entry of 2009 in Siwa with Christina, and in just over a week I will be flying to London and Paris. But Cairo is becoming home.

Happy New Year. 2009 I'm feeling will be a fantastic year, insha'Allah.

sup-dates.

1. ACTIVATE = major success. such AIESEC love. more later when I've got the time.
2. my whole body is sore, most probably because of the AIESEC dancing and complete lack of sleep. standard post-conference exhaustion.
3. the Russell Brand show is no more. there will be a hole in my heart.
4. I miss people at home - for serious. wa7eshtenikoo awy awy awy.
5. Working on a video for @GT. Yes, there will be @love.
6. It's November already. yeeeeeesh.

why yes, I AM activating Egypt.

ACTIVATE 2008 starts tomorrow - but I'm heading off today for what will be my fifth conference facilitating. By far, this is the most organized, most well-thought-out, and most inclusive planning process that I have worked in so far in AIESEC. EVERY session is something new that we created in the past few days, and EVERY faci has been excited, involved, and full of ideas. It's a different working culture here, and I'm pretty sure that I'm in love with it. The sessions are going to be so exciting - they are situated around homegroups, and I've got the newbie track, so it will be even more fun. More dancing, more inspiration, and more talking about this insane organization that I love. This will be my first conference with a full-blown simulation (this one is about PBoXes) and actually discussing the AIESEC Way, History, and organizational structure without censoring or filtering it. I bet all of your Halloween candy that it will be a fantastical spectacle.

yellah AIESEC Egypt!

Prepare for little to no sleeping...

because ACTIVATE 2008 shenanigans start today.

Sunday: Planning 7:30-10:00
Monday: Planning 6:30-9:00
Tuesday: Planning 12:00 - 9:00
Wednesday: Planning 10:00 to whenever we finish.
Thursday through Saturday: A face-meltingly awesome conference.

get ready...

a much needed reactivation

After a week filled with some existential crises, I've found out that I am on the Faci Team for ACTIVATE 2008 - Egypt's NLDS. I'm pretty excited about it, and the 150 newbies that will be in my track. I guess it's time to brush up on my dancin' skillz.

and another generation begins...

Congratulations to Amira, the new LCP of AIESEC GT!!

It's weird to think it's been so long since the last election, and even more so since I started my EB term. What a weird, changed world I've got around me now.

Good luck to the next round.

A messy rebirth.

I don't even feel like I need to write about it, but I can't wrap my head around it yet. It's a chance for us who have been calling for something better to be that change in the organization that has so irrevocably changed us. Where do we stand, reborn? How do we grow again? Who will be the leaders, the teachers, the guiders? Can I count myself among them when I will be so far away? Will I be the new AIESEC US? Do I have the strength to be greater than those whose shoulders I have built upon? To be stronger? To be more humble in the face of the members that give me power? Because we are nothing without our smallest member, our newest face to the AIESEC family. I just know that my home, my family, is back on the map, and I couldn't be more proud of the work that they have done in the past two years I have known them.

epic failure.

I am an example in failure of Cairene blogging. And there is so much to write about, I apologize. There is so much here to share with you, I don't know where to begin. This summer, already, has been a revolution in perspective and in identity for me.

And on the note of exciting revolutions, I am so proud of the members of AIESEC in the United States for starting their own. It's time to start my part over here, Incha'Allah.

Spreading the Dream in two days or less...

I have sold AIESEC to at least 10 wonderful women solely based on my ability to smoke hookah and rattle off an elevator speech like it was a description of the weather.

totally Boss.

first Egyptian days...

three days in Cairo. my findings:

1) awesome ladies. from AIESEC and from AUC/ALI. fantabulous.
2) haven't met very men of the AUC boys yet (segregated dorms and all that), but they look like promising cohorts.
3) Stella, the local brew, is not too shabby (much better than India's Kingfisher, for sure).
4) I apparently am a hookah "champ". I blame AIESEC and the gentlemen of the modern American hookah.
5) I love AIESEC. and all that comes with it. Especially the people.
6) Tamiyah = delicious. whoa jeez.
7) An incredible whirling dervish performance can simultaneously make you dizzy and lifted. more on that later.
8) I miss everyone at home. Just so you know.
9) I am so ready for school to start. Cairene life requires Arabic, and I have never wanted it more.
10) Internets work best after 1am. Anytime else it is slow as anything.
11) Cairo = breathtaking. Yellah.

it's the FINAL COUNTDOWN

RoKS is here.


Bring it on.

talk about a recognition structure.

I should start a love affair with AIESEC Madison. This is reason number 73. Talk about recognition structure and enjoying participation. Zaps to the badgers from the north.


PS. I have a test in less than three hours. Study? No. AIESEC work? yes. nomadlife-ing? abso-fucking-lutely.

I bet Carmen Sandiego never had to deal with this...

My heart goes out to my beloved Shanky. The boy challenged himself to travel halfway around the world, Live the Dream, and then experiences something monstrous - a brutal attack. I am simultaneously worried and proud of him - half of my heart wants him home, safe, but the other half wants him to continue living. And I know that these monstrosities are not limited to Kenya, they happen in Atlanta, too.
I experienced something similar (although much milder and less scary I'm sure), and more than anything I wanted to come home. I remember crying, in pain, in an Indian hospital torn between home and continuing the challenge. If I had gone home, I would have been a different person. I would be a different person. So much of that challenge shaped the direction of the rest of my experience (and little did I know, a great deal more of my life as I spent several weeks later in the year in the hospital) - if I had left early, there would have been so much that I would have not known. As terrible as it was, it shaped something spectacular for me.
Knowing the extent of the attack, I was also torn on another decision - whether or not to tell my parents. I crave comforting about the issue - god knows how worried I am about Sean. But on the other side of the coin - would my parents comfort be worth their ultimate worry about my safety in the year to come? Would continue to support my decision to spend the next chapter of my life in what they have labeled a "dangerous place"? Of course, comparing Cairo to Nairobi is a little like comparing tequila and rum - both are exciting, potentially risky, and delicious - just differently. But would they see that? I have the feeling that they would lump together all the places they didn't understand and categorize them under "Places we will not let our daughter go." Their understanding and support in my decision to face that challenge are nearly as important to me as the experience itself, and I know that without them this challenge would be about impossible. I guess it is hard for them to relate, my cravings for international experiences are a little, for lack of a better and less cheesy term, foreign to them. They still expect me to "wise up" one day and put on an engineer's hat, to chicken out, marry, and have those babies that my wide hips were made for, and are still wary of my passion and desire for all things Middle Eastern, challenging, and international. I think that they are proud in some ways, but find it difficult to explain why their daughter is on the other side of the world, why she spends so much time in a student organization they have never heard of, or what the hell her path through life spends so little time on native soil. My new friend faces the same issues convincing her parentals to experience the greatness of the traineeship rocketship. But again, it all comes back to the Dream. And if it comes down to living it or letting it pass by, you better be sure as hell that I am going to be living and breathing all I can of it.

Daily Paradigm Shift

I respect, more than anything, the willingness of others to change. I revere individuals that embrace this phenomenon, the people that leap into change head first, not solely accepting changes that happen upon them, but their entire ambition is to constantly change and grow while supporting, pushing, encourage others to experience the same impact.
From reading about a revolution in perspective, to discussions with my role models about their direction in life, from gentle pushes from across the ocean to examine how to improve myself to improve others, to a hero of mine sincerely forcing me to look into the direction of my own - it constantly pushes me to change myself, my perceptions, and to focus my direction. To discover my purpose.
I am consistently impressed that AIESEC has placed these incredible people in my life. That their experiences in this organization has shaped them in away that they have been able to shape me, that their changes in perception of individuals, of cultures, of growth and the globe have so significantly changed my own. That taking on these challenges, whether it is a traineeship, an international conference, or leading other such amazing individuals, do not accept that they have overcome these challenges, but are constantly looking for new ones.
It is amazing that the slightness of one action impacts so many others. That missing a bus my freshman year allowed me to read a flyer advertising AIESEC, that one night of hunger turned into a dinner that cemented my personal connection to some other AIESECers that have been some of my closest friends, that one delayed plane caused me to have some of the most constructive and inspiring conversations of my life. That allowing myself to be dragged to one information session a year and a half ago could give me so many of the opportunities that AIESEC has.
Preston told me this, in a dead-tired, half-aware state on the plane somewhere over the Appalachian Mountains - there is a reason that change is in the word exchange. Because exchange may be the medium of AIESEC, but change is what we do.

start spreading the news, I'm leaving today...

Leaving for New York this afternoon with my fearless leader to step into a whole new fray - Subgroup.

I am slightly mixed about this trip - I am excited to be more involved on a national level (which I have not been able to do between being abroad, being sick, and becoming an NFT) and be integral (or hopefully so) in the direction of this organization. On the other and less pretty hand, there are some aspects of Subgroup that I find less than tasty - a great deal of transparency issues, favoritism, and interaction/dependency on external consultants (also issues that I have raised with national staff) make me wary of not only the efficacy of this group, but also its objectives.
I plan on entering the meetings this weekend with an open mind to the work that Subgroup does and the people involved with it, but also to constantly remind myself (and hopefully those that I will be working with) that everything we do in this organization, all the time, effort, blood, sweat, tears, and other bodily fluids - it is always to make the mission more attainable, the experience of the general member more meaningful, and to create a bigger impact in our communities, in AIESEC, and around the world. So much of the loss of focus on that mission and goal, or what I perceive of it anyways, is the loss of the bigger picture. We are part of something greater, and I think AIESECers in the US, particularly ones that have dedicated a considerable amount of time to the organization (even more so the ones that dedicate that part of their lives without experiencing the glory of the traineeship rocketship), forget that. So much of this organization depends on the belief that life is more than the sum of its parts, kiddo. AIESEC is the same.

it's february...already.

1. so excited about RoKS. in a month. This genius (also available here) told me to host an LDS - this as close as I can get at the moment, being the Conference Coordinator (in charge of content development and the FACI-TEAM. yes, they do deserve all caps.) - Any suggestions are most welcome, by the way.

2. i just finished my application to American University in Cairo's Intensive Language Institute - a stint this summer that will hopefully be an introduction to the full year. More hopefully as a Boren Scholar/Fellow. Most hopefully living The Dream for a full calendar year.

3. I'm no lemming. I'll find my own cliffs to leap off of, thank you very much. Lemmings, however, somebody should bring back. Especially to my computer. (later searching has discovered it here...thanks Firdaus)

4. I'm getting my life together. finally. And it is about fucking time.

5. AIESEC in Madison is incredible. Read their conversations about growth, community, organizational culture, and AIESEC...seriously. I spent most of my past week trying to keep up - exactly the way I pictured nomadlife working when I signed on nearly a year ago.

6. I am least sure what I want in my life this minute. But the most sure of where I am going with it.

7. I am craving, more than anything right now, a Spotted Cow and an amazing conversation around my hookah. Any takers?

and 60 years later, we are still fighting.

Today marks the sixtieth anniversary of Gandhi's assassination. His ashes, with Hindu custom, have been mixed with the ocean and sent to sea.

I remember spending months researching his life, his mission, and his death - one of those all-consuming semester projects that usurped the Spring of fourth grade. Back then, Gandhi was my hero, my guiding light. I read his letters, read accounts of his friends and family, craved reaching the same unattainable goals in my life; peace, fulfillment of humankind's potential, discussion over conflict. I quoted the man in my speech at graduation (as I am sure most people do in one speech or another).

It wasn't until I left for India that I really understood his work, or him for that matter. Americans exclaim that he brought together his country and his people - but India remains as divided as ever, as does the world. India loves it's Mahatma, but there is still a person behind the symbol that Gandhi has been forged into. Simply, a person - flawed, raw, and full of emotion. Ultimately, his humanity is what fascinates me the most. That the unattainable he was searching for was became a capability, and perhaps that my unattainable goals are not invincible either. I have felt the impact that I have created, experienced first hand what belief, what determination, and what the dedication of one person could achieve.

We are so much to so many, and there needs no national holiday, no day of remembrance to understand that. I wish the people who have changed my life could see what they have done. I wish my life could be laid out and show the changes in its course. I am beyond thankful - at this point I don't even know how to start.

maybe I should just start with you. Thank you.