Goodbye Aqeel

"I woke up today and it was different! I didn’t want to be awake because that mean new day and today is the 24th of August – one day before leaving the United States– God!! Every step I took out of my room felt strange. I walked to the bus stop and it felt like it’s the first time to walk up to there, things looked new! New faces, new streets new trees!! Combination of feelings I can not describe.In the bus ride I realized that these are the feelings of leavingsomething that I love... I was sad!

My phone rang to awake me upand take me to the real world … it was a blessing conversation withone of my best friends ever! I was happy to get her phone call. Few mints later I got to work... short day but guess what was special about the day?! It was the surprise Good bye party!! I didn’t expect that but the staff at my work organized a “Good Bye Party” for me!

That made me happy for sometime then I got sad again. (I am leaving) that’s all what I can think of right now … and God how hard is that.Things are hard to say right now Salaamers and Aiesecers! It’s has been my honor to know you all and share the Salaam experienc ewith you. I am glad that I had the chance to meet you at Colorado. I might be leaving the United States by my body but my soul will stayhere with the desire of the Salaam!

I am overwhelm and don’t know what to say… I will not say Good Bye …I will see “See you around” with the hope to meet every one of you one day somewhere. "With Respect and Admiration my name is Aqeel and I Love you all."

Thoughts from a returned trainee

I intended to blog regularly during my stay in Egypt (6/1/05-8/6/05), but I quickly learned that my reflections were not particularly appropriate for a public blog. Now that I am home in Baltimore, I have decided to publish excerpts from the emails that I sent my friends and family.

Check out this blog : Alli's thoughts on what her experience was like in Egypt.

Thoughts from Salaam Conference in USA

"I wanted to tell u how much i really enjoyed this conference, it added to me through lots of discussion and the diversity of prespectives we had, i really learnt a lot about other arab nations that i never had the proper chance to know, i really thank u becoz of the uniqueness that was within each one of u, showed me a lot of new and different horizons."

- Fady, Egypt : traineeship in Santeon, DC.

"I just wanted to let you know that i've reached saFeLy and haPPiLy..i had SuCh a GreaT time that i'LL neveR 4get !!The ONLY thinG i hated bout the conFerenCe is that you get to meet uPwith SuCh amaZinG peopLe and become good-friendz with them in SuCh ashoRt time...but then you have to leave eaCh other and go in totaLLydiFFerent directions..this makes me sooo sad....i dunno if you noticedme ..but the last day, i was busy writing littLe cards to aLL thosewhom i deveLoped a 'close' frend relationship with durinG those 2 days ..."

- Fadi, UAE : traineeship in WTC, Chicago.

"First I want to say that I miss you all and I really felt home and I had looked into a new window of future young diplomatic, open minded and smart minds of both genders. I had the pleasure to meet you all guys, I'm really so proud about that conference and I wish I had more time to spend with all of you guys. Discussions were really outstanding and beneficial. Personalities, backgrounds, Cultures were all exchanged in a very smooth and organized way, so thnx for the OCs and all who had a hand in making this conference successful.

HAVING DIFFERENT POINT OF VIEWS DOESN'T MEAN WE OPPOSITE, BUT IT MEAN THAT WE SHOULD ADD AND LISTEN MORE TO EACH OTHER."

- Sarah, Egypt : traineeship in AMIDEAST, DC.

Perspectives

Thoughts from Gannat :

Since I came here some of my perceptions about issues in life have been changing & i would like to share one of those with you, i'm an average Egyptian person that was raised seeing Rafet el hagan we Gom3a el Shawal knowing that Israel is a sort of enemy because of the Sinai war & the current problems with Palestian & juish in general was associated with Israel But here i have met a juish person which is my boss & really she have changed my perception of all juish people she is a very nice, understanding, intelligent & proffesional person i even spend a weekend at her house where she took me in a tour in San Fransisco & i really felt the juish hospitality & i have learned never to judge a whole group of people according to movies & stories that aperson can hear as i also don't want any person to judge all muslims people based on the aggresive unmercufull action that some people do & say that they are muslims & we all know that our mercufull religion would never say to kill inoncent people that has nothing to do with war.Now it's the responsibility of each muslim person to give the correct image of our religion & we should all contribute to delivering the correct image & trying to eliminate any stereotypes any foreigner person have about us & that is also one of the goals of the Salaam program.........