A post card from Egypt

We have just returned from twelve days in Sharm-El-Sheikh. It was our first holiday together for nearly eighteen months and the plan was totally Jewish... To eat, drink (diet coke and bottled water), lie  in the sun and be waited on. within 40 minutes of our plane landing in the Sinai wilderness we were checking into the Hilton and being shown to our upgraded suite ( being a relative of Mister Ben in these parts has untold benefits!) and immediately started the holiday process of relaxation.
The next twelve days followed a very similar pattern. Breakfast followed by the morning at the water-slide pool. Lunch followed by a sleep for the boys and an hours quiet reading by the pool a stones throw from our hotel room the afternoon ended with a snorkel in the Red Sea and watching the sun set with apple juice and water in the pool bar. The day ended with dinner followed by ice cream in Soho Square and a visit to the mini disco.
Friends of mine were surprised that we were visiting Egypt. Why are you going to an Arab country even my most liberal friends would ask? "It's about £1500 less than a trip to Eilat and Israel" my husband would grumpily respond. "They hate the Israeli's" people would tell me... "So do the extremists in the UK" was my response. The fact that Israel and Egypt have been living in relative peace my entire lifetime seemed lost on a huge number of people. The fact that the revolution and the moderate violence that took place in Cairo was  practically a day trip away was also lost on people who were warning me to stay away from large crowds.
Throughout our holiday we spoke to a number of holidaymakers who were returning to Sharm for the umpteenth time. Why were they returning agin and again? The service, the friendliness, the reef and the weather all formed part of their answers.
For me, as a person with the tendency to over think and as a lover of people watching and wondering I spent time on the holiday wondering about the people who were at my beck and call. Amongst a huge staff, there were only two Egyptian women. In fact there were relatively few women on show throughout my time in Egypt. as someone for whom gender equality plays an integral part of my work I was concerned about the role of women. what kind of country that professed to be modern would have such a male dominated industry? It actually got me thinking about the economics of Sharm. Tourism and the Suez makes Egypt a comparatively  wealthy country in the Arab world. Over 39% of Egypt's hotels are in Sharm. Over 95% of Sharm tourist workers come from other parts of Egypt. The working conditions at first glance are horrendous. Our waiter started worked at 7am and finished at 10.30pm. He worked everyday for a month and then had ten days off (during which time he returned to Cairo to see his mum!) his pay was about £25 a week (apparently that is much higher than Cairo wages) not including tips and he got board, food and transport to Cairo and back. He firmly  believed that he was one of the lucky ones. Most waiters were young men who considered themselves to be the lucky ones. I was aghast and indignant for a while on their behalf. The loneliness and isolation they must of felt was unthinkable. The long hours and little pay, the shared living quarters screamed exploitation to me and within a few days of the holiday I was determined that this would be my last trip to Egypt. However, less than a week later my views changed as I realised I was thinking about exploitation In the context of my life, not theirs. Whilst I couldn't imagine working thirty days in a row in shifts of approximately fifteen hours for a paltry amount our waiters saw it as an opportunity. The very reason I declared that I would stay away is now the very reason I want to go back. These people were warm and friendly and couldn't do enough for us. My children fell in love with Samy the MaitreD and Adriano our waiter and I think they fell a little a bit in love with our boys. Over twelve days they became part of our Egyptian family and within that we got to experience the warmth, optimism and reality of being an Egyptian. The Egyptian people have been through a lot over the past two years but there was a mood of optimism amongst those that we met. Inordinately proud of who they are and how far they've come. We are often told that we should model exemplary behaviour for those Arab countries embracing change. After two weeks in Egypt I'm not sure we need to.