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Wednesday, 01 February 2012 00:00 |
It has been 17 years since Pat lived and taught in Egypt. A recent visit revealed just how much had changed in that time, and how much remained the same.
She returned to Cairo in October to attend the GHNI annual conference, and spent some time with another Global Hope-affiliated couple who are working to develop a centre to serve the urban poor.
"I remembered more dirt roads and older buildings," she reflects, "no modern shopping complexes and armed police everywhere."
Although modernity seems to have marched through Egypt, it has only taken hold superficially.
"Typical of third world cities, it's become modern but rubs shoulders with slum areas and traditional mud brick housing." Overlaid are highway flyovers and tree-lined suburbs with wide, paved streets and a variety of eateries on offer. "Generally, though, it is a façade of prosperity behind which the narrow streets and crammed housing still exist," Pat says.
While there, Pat visited the nearly completed community centre that her colleagues were working on.
"The view was provoking – the sheer size of the slum area, the dirt and dust and make-shift dwellings. It was hard to tell which were storage sheds and which were human dwellings – all were shared by donkeys and rats. There had to be rats living in there – I saw so many dead ones!"
While some signs of progress are encouraging, there were other indicators that little has changed. One event, a news broadcast on local TV, stood out to her. "There was a street lined with protestors all marching peacefully. In front were thousands of men, and at the rear in a roped off section were about 100 women. The fact that women were marching shows that there is some freedom of choice, but it is limited. Sadly, segregation of the sexes even extends to protest rallies."
It is a culture and context that is all too familiar to Pat. She sees similar challenges for women in the culture she works with.
As she returns to her work she continues to look for ways to promote freedom and equity amongst the communities she is part of. "The image of that rope has stayed in my mind," she says.
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