Cairo... A Moving Title

When I was younger, history seemed like an ocean of meaning whose
waves had already reached the shore. I would read about Lewis and
Clarke charting a new world, the Wrights taking flight for the first
time at Kitty Hawk, or Martin Luther King standing standing on the
steps of the Lincoln Memorial singing truth, and I'd wonder if maybe I
had been born into a time that had already been settled. The apparent
stillness made me restless, so I put my own small self in motion,
hoping to one day feel another wave of history swell with meaning, and
move me beyond the shores of my limited imagination. I feel that
motion today.


Two weeks ago, Heidi and I, along with our friend Zak, were invited to
the home of Belayneh Shewaye, the wise and esteemed director of the
charity for which I have been working, 'Link Ethiopia'. Belayneh is in
his sixties, and has dedicated his entire professional life to
education in Ethiopia. Hallie Selassie himself, the famed emperor of
the country, handed Belayneh his teaching certificate personally when
he became a teacher in the early sixties. He served for five years as
an educator in Eritrea before returning to teach in his home town of
Gondar, and rising to become the head administrator of the region's
school system before his retirement. A buoyant man with a strong keel
and a steady rudder, he has known many waves in history, and always
charted a course towards the noble progress of educating the next
generation.

The meal was intimate and satisfiying, the kind of thing you hope for
when traveling. We began with glasses of tej, a traditional Ethiopian
wine made from honey. Conversation was stirred early by the many
beautiful photographs, almost exclusively of a proud family, that
adorned the living room in which we gathered. We shared a large common
plate of injera, the thin Ethiopian bread that serves as the palate
for most meals. Belayneh's two daughters graciously served us one
rich and colorful dish after another, and Belayneh affectionately
hand-fed them with delicate fingers as they moved in and out of the
room, another cultural nuance, because they wouldn't dream of sitting
before the guests were satisfied. The meal was finished with more
tej, some tele, a local dark and malty beer, and a traditional coffee
ceremony, whereupon fresh beans are roasted over hot coals in the
room, steeping guests in a delicious olfactory patina before three
rounds of the hot and fresh beverage are served.


After dinner, Belayneh turned on the TV to watch the evening news.
When I asked how we were able to catch the BBC, he grinned with
satisfaction and bragged about the satellite dish that they had
recently purchased. My impression is that information architecture in
Africa is spreading faster than clean water and electricity. Perhaps
this is part of the alchemy that has lead to the dismantling of the
old guard in Tunisia, and now Egypt.


The BBC anchor glowed on the screen with familiar cordiality, but
noticable excitment. There was gravity in his voice when he handed
off to a correspondent in Tahrir Square. It was the first time we had
seen that the streets of Cairo had become saturated with people who
felt the motion of history lifting them up to be heard. The three of
us Americans, half a world removed from our own relatively still
waters at home, huddled closely together around the pulsing news, and
shared a fascination with events that felt very close. There was an
exciting uncertainty for us held in a bold and hopeful progress. We
wondered what our president would say about it, and earnestly
exchanged our own nacent, and rather under-educated opinions.
Belayneh watched soberly, almost with apathy, as another African
neighbor was stirred by a familiar wave of change.


This morning, the people of Egypt woke into a new world. A wave of
democracy, of history, has again reached its destination, carrying
with it the lives of so many individuals who, like me, have yearned to
be moved by history. Heidi and I woke with them as neighbors and
allies, today finding ourselves serendipitously in a similar time and
place... such a gentle joy to feel their motion!