Four years ago I moved to Egypt with high hopes that I was moving to the country of my dreams, to be with the love of my life…
I had always dreamt of the day I could finally call Egypt home… but little did I know what the future held. From the outside Egypt is a beautiful country that has a lot of history, a beautiful culture, amazing food, and kind people…
Only by moving to the country do things start to unravel infront of you and you realize that it’s nothing more than a fasade…
The last years have been spent surviving in a country not fit for humans, or animals to be honest… I wish I had never seen the real Egypt, and that I had been able to keep this beautiful memory of the country in my mind… I say this because my husband is Egyptian, and my son is half Egyptian and I wish they came from the beautiful Egypt I remember from my vacations here…
I wish I hadn’t seen the extreme lack of respect people have for each other here… just by driving through the streets of Cairo it is instantly clear that everyone is thinking about themselves…Nobody respects the rules of traffic, are there even any? If there is a long queue of traffic people will find side roads to sneak to push further ahead of the queue because they are more important than the other people in the same queue. Their time is much more valuable so they have to sneak… The person infront of you could stop or turn right/left EXACTLY when it suits them, because they don’t care about the people behind them… they are better… I want to go left, I’ll go left and people behind will just have to move out of the way.
Nobody respects rules… I’m sure there are rules in this country but after 4 years here, I still don’t know what they are… The rule is that there are no rules, so do exactly as you want. If there is a rule, roll down your window, give some finger movements, some tips and with a firm voice, let them know that you don’t care about this rule and you want to do what you want to do…
The way animals are treated in this country, I mean I can’t even talk about this…. it’s absolutely disgusting what I’ve seen, and wish to unsee and unhear everything related to animals in Egypt… This is not something that can be fixed, because let’s be honest, first humans need to be treated with respect in Egypt, before the animals treatment can be discussed.
The categorizing people in to social class just kills me inside… Everytime someone mentions low-class, I want to spit in their face, but then again, wouldn’t that make me low-class… well no, in Egypt, class is referred to how much cash you have in the bank… Some of the most disgusting human beings I have ever met have had loads of money and would be concidered super low-class in their behavior, but because they have the cash, they are better than everyone else and therefore high-class in Egypt…
Until I had my own child, I always thought of Egypt as a child friendly country. I mean the main objective of most Egyptians is to get married and have a baby asap… the country is crawling with children… But trust me… You have to search far and wide to find an Egyptian that knows the basics of how to get pregnant, childbearing, how to raise a child and keep a child safe… I have seen things that mothers have done to their children that has made me want to cry and hug their child… These are some of the normal behaviors you will find: Smoking infront of the children, children in cafes late at night, children standing/hanging out the windows in cars, children not supervised in malls/cafes, maids on another table caring for the children at a restaurant, screaming at and beating of children in public…. those are some of the things you will see daily… Car seat business in Egypt is a big fail, you won’t sell shit, trust me… I’ve even heard several mothers comment that there is no point in overprotecting your children, or looking after them, because if they will die, then it’s their turn to die, God wants it… I’m sorry, you might believe that but I would kill myself to fight until my last breath to make sure NOTHING bad EVER happened to my children. You are free to believe but don’t think that way, do whatever you can to protect them. You don’t get a beautiful gift and then throw it away…
There is literally no where to go with your children in Cairo…Everything costs… And even the family friendly places are not safe, as in slides with concrete at the end, broken glass in the play areas, broken wood pieces, swings not secure properly… I’ve tried to take my son to some green areas in my compound, but they drown the plants with sewage water so there are small sewage ponds all over for him to splash in, there is old food wrappers all over the place, old rotten fruit, rotten cat food, sometimes dead animals, and I even found human poo once…
The basics for living an okey life don’t exist…
Electricity and water is not something you can take for granted… sometimes it will disappear for a few hours…
Schools in Egypt are overpriced businesses… They make the owners rich and sell a lie called a good education. There have also been so many sexual harassment cases in schools, and many of the schools continue working. There has even been new school accepting students and taking tuition payments without even having a license to open, using a British school name.
Hospitals and doctors are a joke… I don’t think I need to elaborate on that as I have posted a few times about my visits to doctors… any visit results in at least three medications being prescribed and one being an antibiotic…
Hygiene, well what is hygiene… the fruit section in carrefour is a buffet table for Egyptians… pick and taste, if you don’t like it, put it back and someone else can get it… pick it up, it falls on the floor, don’t worry put it back, someone else will eat it… My husband has had to spend his night stops buying groceries… the way meat is stored here, well lets just say it isn’t stored properly… I have diarrhea once a week, when I’m in Egypt, and now I get sick when I eat clean food outside Egypt… I have bought cheese that was rotten, yoghurt with flies, milk with something floating in it, crisps with bugs, and a lot of expired products.. and this is in Carrefour, not some shit local shop.
Before this post becomes too long, and a big Egypt bashing issue I want to mention one last thing… why do all Egyptians have it out for each other… they are always prepared to kill each other… whether in a queue in the bank or in traffic, you will see grown ass men picking fights, shouting at each other, insulting one another’s mothers, which leads to fist fighting, and then random people start joining in…. until I moved to Egypt, I had never seen two grown men shout at each other let alone be ripping each other faces off! What is it with all this anger????
So on that note, my time in Egypt has ended, because in two days we will be moving onwards and upwards to a better life in Qatar…
Just a reminder that dreams do come true, after other dreams fail. My dream of living in beautiful Egypt is long gone unfortunately. Hopefully one day when we return on holidays I can tell people again with pride that my husband and son is Egyptian, and I once called Egypt my home…
Femieshe 
Where to now?
Qatar! ❤️
I used to live there!! You will love it!
And I was thinking to return home and live with my foreign wife! The capability to lead a good standard of living in Egypt doesn’t mean having a “good” life… this is just sad.
Oh im so sorry for such a late reply…. I completely agree with you! its sad, because Egypt is such a beautiful country and has more thing to offer than many countries in this world could dream of having… Than k you for checking out my blog.. Hope you haven’t moved back haha!