The Charms of Egypt

It's been a while.... these past 2 weeks have been super hectic. The first quarter of the year is what I think the best part of the year..... with reviewing of results, re-setting targets for your unit, implementing new projects etc etc. I have also been appointed new responsibilities which are challenging and interesting, thus enabling me to travel between Libya, Ethiopia and Sudan for the next 12months.

I thus headed off to Egypt to attend a Whale Done workshop and our North African HR meeting. The trainer was a cool Belgian Dude who taught us all about employee motivation, empowerment and how to be a one-minute manager, how to give feedback and how to basically manage your employees - can't wait to put them into practice. The workshop was attended by managers all over the Region... Moroccan, Tunisian, Egyptians etc....

The second part of my stay in Egypt was also new and interesting..... we had our HR meeting where we reviewed last year's goals and set new ones for the year 2006..... I've only done planning on an AIESEC level, but it was interesting to see how similar it is, how logic and common sense the planning comes out after the years of planning experience in AIESEC.

Another highlight of the trip was that Nour was also in Egypt for training with his company....and dragged his brother Marwan along with him...... so I got the chance to finally show the Libyans that Egypt and Egyptians are not as bad as they think.......Marwan, after almost beating me up for supporting Egypt during the Africa Cup actually admitted that he wants to move to Egypt!!!!

Nour, Marwan and Motaz (Libyan working with me) joined me in experiencing various restaurants in Egypt - Felfela, Augbergine, Chilli, Fudruckers, Sequoia......... as well as hours of Sheesha and Om Khaltum!!!

We even partied and danced all night at Hard Rock Cafe...... where I also dragged an Algerian girl working in the company Egypt....the rich gulf Arabs parading in their designer clothes were a good laugh!!!! Thea trying to dance to Arabic music with Libyans and Algerians was also a good laugh!!!

Heading off to Libya was sad but satisfying..... I hadn't had enough of Egypt, still more restaurants I need to eat at, shops I need to shop at and people I needed to see before heading off to the tranquillity of Tripoli.... however it was satisfying as I achieved my goal of making Nour and Marwan like Egypt!!! Egypt has once again let lose its charms...

As soon as I got to Tripoli I headed off to a Neasa's (an Irish friend in Tripoli) birthday get-together...... it was a great transition from Egypt into Tripoli as we ate amazingly good Italian food in the company of a mix of cultures and nationalities...... Maltese, Irish, Cameroon, Libyan, Dutch, Sudanese, Belgian and Yugoslavian......

Neasa cutting her cake..

The whole lot of us....

Next trip is Rome where I'll head off to attend another workshop on the subject of Leadership with my Boss...... The coming year will be both exciting and challenging and I can't wait to pass through all of it.......

PS - Eureka!!! I managed to get internet fixed at home!!!!!