Sometimes you meet people here who smile often, but somehow, you sense they are carrying a very heavy weight in their hearts. Slowly they open up, and little by little the horrors are revealed, like shadows slipping through a door. Cairo is full of broken souls from Cairo, Sudan, Syria and anywhere else in Africa that people have been forced to flee. Often theyll tell you, theyve never told anyone this stuff before; the brother paralysed from torture, the witness of raped sisters and mothers, the bombing of a family home - nothing left, a fiance killed, a life made impossible by political extremes, not knowing what has happened to your son/daughter/grandchildren who sailed off in an illegal boat for Italy....etc. You go home and sit in the twilight, listening to the sound of the city and ask yourself the same old question, Is there anything out there that can make this right? I notice how people in this situation, when they are in a group just generally enjoying itself, will suddenly lapse into silence as if the laughter and chatter are too much. They stare out into the distance, no longer with us, until they are called back, and they smile, shift uneasily and resume their bonhommie.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Mar 2014 07:12:52 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015