Missing Carnival

Today is the one before the last day of Carnival..... tomorrow all the floats and this year's costumes will be burnt down to signify the end of carnival and the beginning of Lent.

Carnival, although not comparable to the one in Rio, Rjieka, Venice or Cologne.... is a big part of Maltese culture...

When I was young, dressed up as either a witch, a princess, a fairy or a clown, I'd go to many parties, eat loads of sweets, play loads of games, and show off our costumes.....

As I grew older, my friends and I used to go to eachothers' houses to dress up as punks, school girls and I don't know what else and spend hours dressing ourselve up and putting on make up..... we used to walk around Valletta with our water pistols challenging any other random group to a water fight! :)

Then, as I grew older, I once again used to enjoy dressing up for the Carnival party we used to organise for the scouts, play with the kids and have fun....

The highlight of carnival was seeing the defile, usually held in the main street in Valletta on a Sunday afternoon where all the Carnival enthusiasts would parade their floats, school groups, scout groups, council groups, dance groups would parade their costumes, dances and music. Everyone is in high spirits - loads of music and colours.......

.... ahh and I must not forgot to mention my grandma's prinjolata!!! - a maltese traditional carnival sweet!!!!!

.... I miss carnival........

Sandstorm Ahoy..

I've experienced a couple of what in Malta we call Sandstorm.... though others would call rain with some sand in, which would make my mother swear cause of the extra cleaning she'd have to do,...... but this is the first time I've experienced a real Sahara Sandstorm...

The light rain with sand we usually get in Malta is mild and usually comes from the Sahara in Libya but now I got to experience first hand a REAL sandstorm....

The day started off nice and sunny, all of a sudden the sky became cloudy, and as the day progressed the sky turned orangy brown.... the wind blew harder..... and going outside for a cigarette between the meetings I had throughout the day, also meant chewing sand and eyes stinging with sand....

the sky at 1pm....

I am not a sand person.... and infact I hate sandy beaches, so a day like this was not at all my ideal... especially once the week was so hot and sunny and I was planning a weekend lazying by the pool getting some sun and colour....

However it was amazing to see the total transformation of the sky!!!! I came back from a long tiring meeting with the lawyer sat in my office stretched my legs and looked out of the window to see outside bright red!!! I couldn't beleive my eyes!!! It was amazing!!! I ran out of my office down the corridor and outside into the open to see a sky covered in red and orange... everything was covered in sand.... the ground had piles of sand, the cars were totally covered in layers of sand, the bushes had layers of sand on the leaves....... it was weird and amazing.....

the sky at 4pm..... and promise.... no camera effects......

While driving back home from Tripoli after a girl's night at Michelle's house I had to take a long detour cause they were shoving the piles of sand out of the highway... the highway was a desert - ahh only in Libya!!!!

my car.... although under a roof.... still covered in sand...

My first real sandstorm!!!

Coincidence?

I'm now adding on to my list the number of AIESEC Alumni I meet in non-AIESEC countries..... today's meeting was exceptionally coincidental...

After months of searching..... I finally find an HR specialist company in Libya...... I call the General Manager and set up a meeting with him... the guy had exceptially good English.... not strange for well educated Libyans..... but the first I've seen in a Libyan Company....

So I meet with the guy today, sit with him.... he explains what his company does.... basically recruitment and performance management and business organisation...... I'm interested in the recruitment part... so I ask more about that... the guy, very technically explains their recruitment process..... how they make the company fill forms and the job seeker fill forms and they MATCH them on their database..... MATCH - very familiar word!!!! No recruitment agency has every explained it that way..... so I probe further and ask: - 'Where are you from?'.... and the guy goes 'Tunisia....' so I think....hmm possible AIESEC Alumni..... this is put a side and the work chat goes on....

After all the work chat.... as is the custom in Libya, you sit with the person, have a coffee and possibly a cigarette and chat about everyday life..... a bit about yourself etc etc.....

So this guy tells me that he worked with Fedex before in Egypt and Libya..... so a bell rings.... hmm who do I know that also did that!!! - ATEF!!!! - Atef was on training in Fedex Egypt and then went off to Fedex Libya.... Atef is also Tunisian.... so I subtly say...
Thea: 'Ahh I know a guy who was in training in Egypt last year and worked in Libya too'
Pause to see reaction
Thea: 'Also Tunisian...'
Manager: 'Atef'
Thea: 'YES!!! I met him while I was living in Egypt he was on training then'
Manager: 'Ah yes... I worked with Atef'
Thea: 'I've known Atef for many years.....'
Manager: 'AIESEC?'
Thea: 'Yes..... I met him at a conference many year ago... in Tunisia'
Manager: 'MMS 99!'
Thea: (totally surprised!) 'YES!!! You're and AIESECer too...'
Manager: 'Yeap... was LCP and in the MC went to IC South Africa, Eurolds Turkey, Medoc Tunisia etc etc'
Thea: 'WOW..... no wonder all the matching AIESEC jargon'
So the talk went on on SN and TN etc etc.....

This does not end here...... so the private discussion went further:
Manager: 'My wife is Egyptian an ex-AIESECer too'
Thea: 'What's your wife's name?' (suddenly recalling that Tamer had given me the e-mail address of an AUC ex-AIESECer who is married to a Tunisian working in Libya)
Manager: 'Mai'
Thea: 'Mai? Ex-AUC AIESECer..... ahh I've been given her e-mail address from Tamer.... who was recruited by Mai many years ago..... he told me to get in touch with her...'
Manager: 'Great..... we'll meet up for coffee the 3 of us one of these days'

So that is where the story ends - and I've made myself another two friends in Libya....... the world is such a small place, and the more I travel around and understand the smaller it becomes.......... only 7years ago, still trapped in my little island, I thought the world was unreachable something impossible to discover......now I know you can hold the effervescent ball called world in the palm of your hands ......

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!!!!!

All the way to the EAST...

Having had enough of the west and in need of some air, last weekend I decided to head off to the East..... Initially the plan was to explore Benghazi... however, a Libyan/Greek friend of mine...Nour who was working in Sirt at that time decided to whisk me off to Jebel Akhdar in English meaning Green Mountains (another Green thing added to the Green list in Libya).

On Thursday night I caught the dodgy Libyan plane 1000km east from Tripoli.... all the way to Benghazi where Nour took me to Bajda (200km) out of Benghazi.... a little village in the middle of the Green Mountains. We
crashed at his friends villa, where we 'enjoyed' a freezing night as well as amazingly good chicken and lamb kebabs.

Friday was amazing...... we went out to explore the east. We headed off to explore the old city and green ruins of Cyrene in Shahat...... the scenery was amazing.... a nice mix of Greek ruins, mountains and sea...... what more could you wish for.....

Amazing Greek Ruins.......

So we spent the day driving around; from Shahat to Sousa... where apparently Cleopatra used to enjoy her luxury swims..... to Ras Hillal where we climbed the mountains to discover an amazing waterfall and spring.... and finally Derna....

Breath taking views.... which also somehow reminded me of Malta..... ahh how I love the Mediterranean.... I don't think I could ever live far from it!!!

The day was relaxing, the scenery was breathtaking and Libya has definitely more to offer than one can imagine.....

While exploring the Green Mountains we found nice friendly Libyans having a picnic.... unlike our picnics where we usually take ready cooked food, they take the live Goat, kill it and BBQ it!!! They invited us for lunch but we had to rush off to see more!!!

My men!!!! I made friends with the guys around........ the guys in the baker turned out to be Egyptians from Alexandria so we had a nice conversation with memories of Alex.......

The evening was spent enjoying a coffee in a cafe built into a cave and a cosy evening laughter and movies.....

Cafe in a Cave!!! Awsome!!! I want one of these in Tripoli.....

Saturday, the plan was explore Benghazi then head off with a late flight home. However Nour, unexpectedly, had to be back into Tripoli, so we hit the road and drove 1290Km to the West past Sirt and into Tripoli....... Although a long drive, we still had a good laugh..... we stopped at cafe's, drove through the desert, avoided camels and cows who would all of a sudden decide they want to cross the street...... and dance and sing to Arabic and English pop music......

Zebra Crossing or not, traffic lights or not....Give way to the Cows.... or you've had it!!!.

Another awsome Cafe, Nour is sitting in the King's place.... apparently....

The trip was very much needed, as it gave me the opportunity to clear my mind, to discover the undiscovered and to learn more about Libyan history, culture and people......

Enjoying the view all the way from East to West

The next plan is a trip down south to the amazing to the jewel of the Sahara....