Gannat's Journey

2006-08-16T21:18:00.000-07:00

I C 2006 Here I come...

Within the next couple of houres I will be leaving to Poland, to participate in One of the world's biggest educational conferences. Can't wait to be there to learn and absorbe more of @'s Ocean of Knowledge.
I will be representing Qatar with Krirtina and Adriana my 2 other MC team mates and Hassan & Zaid Local Pioneer.

One of my best friends just told me to make the most out of it since I won't get to do this forever, I always know that but it just hits me. I really want to make the most of this IC. Its a one time experience.

I will keep you updated and pictures will come soon.

2006-04-19T11:55:00.000-07:00

For all those people that have been asking me for the last three months, have you got your visa. I have a story to tell…

Last week I finally received a Visa to Qatar but for a girl called Hanan Akef although with my passport number. For those people who doesn't read Arabic, in Arabic the only difference between Hanan & Gannat is 2 dots but it still makes my visa unvalid.

Lucky me….!

After that everyone was making fun of me, ah you can change your name easier than getting a new visa. So much fun!

Anyway, that wasn't the case & FINALLY I have received my visa for Gannat Akef.

YEAYYYYYYYYYYYY, long waited for this piece of paper.

Khalas, I got my ticket confirmed on the 28th, have my visa & heading to Qatar on the 28th Inshaalah. Unless any other nice surprises were waiting for me. Hopefully not.

2006-03-29T23:58:00.000-08:00

How silly I'm!

I can't imagine, how silly I was yesterday. But the amazing people around me did support me even with the strong wave of silliness that I have had.

I 'm happy to have them in my life to support me & I'm sorry that they had to live with my extreme silliness yesterday.

The biggest thanks goes to them & we will talk on Friday inshallah.....

2006-03-06T10:33:00.000-08:00

First Info session for AIESEC Qatar!

Those are the people who attenended the info session, The percentage of students who applied for the interviews from those people who are attending is 90 %.

Those are the Facis team, who made the first info session of AIESEC Qatar come true.

All my respect & apprecation for the great work that have been done in there.

YEAYYYYYY!
Such a good closing for my first visit to Doha, as I'm leaving tom to Cairo Isa but coming back to Doha soon.

2006-02-26T00:41:00.000-08:00

AIESEC Qatar First Students gathering!

YEAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

It feels so good. the students that came are very motiveted & wants to help. they already feel ownership to AIESEC. Isn't that wonerful?

2006-02-20T12:57:00.000-08:00

Doha, here I come!

Tomorrow at 1 pm, my mum will be taking me & Adrianna isa to the airoport to join our teammates ( Kristina & Ahmed ) in Doha. YEAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

will tell you more about Doha when I get there Inshallah!

2006-02-18T12:58:00.000-08:00

I'm lucky because they are my friends! I do adore having them in my life. Life is so busy for each one of us to the extent that it is extremely difficult to find one time that is suitable for evryone to meet & that's between boyfriends & family & work... but when we do, we do have the best time of our life. Every one of my dear friends add something to my life & without them my life definitely won't be the same. I thank God for having them in my life to brighten it & make tomorrow a better day. We are from left to right, Me & than Douda, she is Hilarious, she gained some weight nowadays &I'm so happy ( because she always made fun of me when I was Fat) Hehehe

& than sitting in the middle on the chair is Rana, she has been always the closet to our mum in her interests & everything (cooking, marriage....)

Than up again is Dondon, dondon is the voice of Islam & logic, she is very polit in comparison to the rest of us
Last but definitely not least is Meeha, the one sitting on the floor, she is soooo nice by that i don't mean that the rest aren't but that she is a little bit more, so helpful , there for you when you need her, the best person to talk to on the phone....

That blog is endless if I would describe every amazing personality of them But I have to end it.

I really need to thank them for being the persons they are & being in my Life.

Love you girls,

2006-02-10T14:21:00.001-08:00

What if, Allah couldn't take the time to bless us today because we couldn't take the time to thank Him yesterday?

What if Allah decided to stop leading us tomorrow because we didn't follow Him today?

What if, we never saw another flower bloom because we grumbled when Allah sent the Rain?

What if Allah didn't walk with us today because we failed to recognize it as His day?

What if, Allah took away the Quran tomorrow because we would not read it today?

What if,Allah took away His message because we failed to listen to the messenger?

What if, the door of the Mosque was closed because we did not open the door of our heart?

What if, Allah stopped loving and caring for us because we failed to love and care for others?

What if, Allah would not hear us to! day because we would not listen to Him?

What if, Allah answered our prayers the way we answer His calls .

What if, Allah met our needs the way we give Him our lives???

& that's implies to all religions.

Enjoy!

2006-01-07T04:20:00.000-08:00

I have been so lazy in blogging lately but that's because life has been kind of hectic. Getting ready to the one of the most challenging as well exciting experience that I have had in a while which is moving to Qatar for 9 month to join a team of motivated, experienced people in opening AIESEC and giving Qatari Youth the opportunity to have a unique AIESEC Experience. Having a lot of external pressures from people that just doesn't understand doesn't make my life easier.
Anyway the feast of sacrifice is coming in Few days, the 9 days that comes before the feast are considered as holly days in the Islamic religion as almost everyone is voluntarily fasting and will be cutting their cheap, goat, cows... on the first day of the feast & that's when the whole country smells really bad butt its once a year I guess we can take it. I'm planning on taking a nice quick trip to Sharm El_sheikh for the second and the third day of the feast and i'm excited for that.

Current Status while blogging; Extremely hungry, have tones of work to be done better go get it gone.

2005-12-21T15:31:00.000-08:00

Isn't she pretty...?

One of the great gifts in life is to be blessed with a new member in the Familly. Especially if it's a wonderful baby girl named after my mum.My sister was blessed with a wonderful gift.Thank god for our gift.Although I did have the feeling of having a neice before but still I just had tears in my eyes when i first saw her, '' Sob7ana Allah'' .God's creature is so great but we don't notice that all the time we need something to remind us with it from time to time & baby laila did. I just hope the world would be better place for her.

2005-12-12T13:07:00.000-08:00

Some people Just doesn't understand.....

I don't know whether they doesn't undersatnd or simply they have chosen not to understand & bloked their mind from hearing any opposing opinions. Either way its just so frustrating when those people are close to you & you care about them.

Is it just life ?

2005-12-01T13:56:00.000-08:00

I made it.........

I haven't blogged for a while but I have just heared some news that I had to share it with you. & that is

Drum rolls
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I have been selected for the expansion team, I will be among ten pioneers to set up AIESEC in the Gulf region. It's like the job of my dreams. I'm soooooo excited for it & ready to give all that I can give for @ to succed in the Gulf region.

So wish me all the luck.

2005-09-16T12:30:00.000-07:00

Am I Happy or Sad?

Knowing that I'm going home in less than 2 weeks gives me that feeling that I can't identify, whether it is happiness or sadness. I have conflicting emotions that I can't translate.
For sure I'm Excited about meeting all my friends & family that I really miss but in the meanwhile I'm leaving here the community, the people that have given me & are still giving me a lot until that day. They have given me support when I need it , joy when I was sad, motivation when I was down. I really appreciate everything everyone here or in my home country has done to me especially AIESEC Bay area & AIESEC Egypt & the salaam team.
I have learned a lot from this traineeships & it was really a changing point in my life, I'm not the same person that left Egypt 3 months ago; I believe that I'm now a positive change agent that will impact my community & encourage others to take the step of going to traineeships that they will never regret. As that's one of the core concept of AIESEC; developing individuals that will help others to develop themselves & the cycle goes on & on, reaching every individual in the world.
Honestly those are my feelings about my traineeship, I'm not bluffing & I'm not just saying big words but I really mean those words.
That's one of the reasons that is making me excited about going home is that I will have the chance of giving back at least a part of what this Organization has given & still giving to me & I know for sure that the end of this traineeship is not the end of my journey neither with AIESEC nor with Salaam program .

2005-08-25T15:32:00.000-07:00

I came across Allig's blog & it was one of the most interesting blogs that I have read maybe that's because she is talking about my country & also because I felt a negative power in between her words & I would like to clarify some points;
1. I left Egypt on the 23rd of June but before leaving I got the chance to meet Allig, I also knew that she was a Jewish & I wasn't the only one that knew that, I can say that a big percentage of AIESEC Egypt knew that she was a Jewish & I honestly didn't have any problem with her, she seemed like a nice person.
2. I find it difficult for me to understand why she only focus on the negative points, Did the whole 2 months traineeships were just about torturing her because she is a Jew? Didn't she have any good experiences?
also noticed that she is giving herself a right of sticking to her opinion & the data that she has & criticizing other people for giving themselves the same right, for example about the war of 73 she has the correct information while the assumptions that the Egyptians make are just bullshit . I also have a comment on the 73 war too if we lost at 73 as she says why did they ever give us Sinai back even at 79 why didn't they keep it until now?
3. Also I think we should take care of our language , it's not a nice world to be said that "Israel kicked Egypt's ass" Even if it's true & she is sure about it.
4.She also said that there she has never met an Israelin person that hate Arab people, I don't think that assumption will stand strongly with the fact that the Israelian army is having a war with Palestine, Is it logical to say that an army is having a war with another country while in the meantime they really like each other very much?
5. She is also generalizing a lot of issues, hearing one story from one person doesn't mean that it's true neither that it's common for example that Muslims boys story that they make Christian girls convert by force, I think this is an unrealistic story I lived in Egypt for 20 years & I grew up in a Christian school & I have a lot of close Christian friends & especially in Egypt if a Christian girl converted to be Muslim than her family denies her forever. Do you think that Christian girls are that naive & Muslim boys just keep making tactics on how to convince the Christian girl to give up all her family & friend for him & another point that a lot of Muslims family doesn't like that their boy to get married to a Christian girl, for me I don't think it's even logical goal.
6. For homosexuality rights in Egypt, Egypt is a Muslim country & in the Islam Gays & lesbians are not recognized so it's logical for the gov't to forbid the existence of such an activity, my point is that even in the united states a lot of Christian churches doesn't give the lesbians & gays their full rights until now, they still can't marry in most of the parts in the united states. Each country is different from the other & that's the whole aim of Aiesec experience is to make us accept each others differences without criticizing in a humiliating way.
Finally I want to add that I have a clear distinction between Israel & the Judaism religion. I have no problem with Allig I just had some points that I needed to clarify so that the person that read her blog can also listen to the other side & make the decision for him or herself.

2005-08-02T12:53:00.000-07:00

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.........

2005-07-24T20:04:00.000-07:00

Hye evryone,
sorry for not not writing for a while but life was kind of busy which means that i have a lot to share it with all of you, i guess i will start with the stupidest statement that i have heared since i camed here which is " that the juish slaves are the one who built the pyramids " i responded to that that the pyramids of giza were built hundred of years before judaism religion was founded but anyway that was surprising.
As for the most exciting thing that i have done in the previous 2 weeks i actually can't tell because there was a lot of really cool activity starting with flying an airoplane ( small one of course) , going river rafting which is not the a typicall river rafting it includes a water war betwen teams & that was really fun , going to see the golden gate, china town in San fransico & least but not least going to an american Baseball game for the giants of SanFransisco all those activities was really fun but i also wanted to share with you one of the scariest nights which is after work last week i went shooping & i left the mall at 8:30 pm to take the bus home & i waited for 45 min until the bus came & when it finally came i founded that i was waiting in the wrong direction )-:& went off the bus & waited for the other for another 45 min & a homeless men was waiting with me & trying to open conversation & the street was very dark & there was very few peple in that street & i was ready to defend myself in case he decided to attack me but thanks god he was a peacefull person & i went home safe at 11 pm .
i know that's a long blog & i'm sorry for that but i still have one more small thing to share it with you that i had my 1st presentation about Egypt yesterday & i actuallybeleive it was nice & the audience was interested in the subject & they kept asking a lot of questions & i was glad that i was able to deliver some information about my country, i guess that 's it for now & you will be hearing from me soon

2005-07-06T08:39:00.000-07:00

San Diego & Hollywood
For the 4th of July weekend we went to San Diego & it was my first field trip & it was an unforgettable weekend, we went on the first day to the beach which is very nice but if you compare it with the red sea or north coast beaches in Egypt you will find out that the Egyptian beaches are more beautiful & the water is more pure, than we went to the old town which is a small village & has all the Mexican aspects & i really liked this one & at night we went to San Diego Downtown which was very busy & we had to park for 15 $ which is 15 by 6 is 90 L.E i can't tell my mam that i parked for 90 LE she would say that i'm crazy or something :-)
On the second day we went to sea world which is a big park with all kind of fishes & animals that swims & they had dolphins,wails....Shows that shows that those animals are very flexible even more than me & there was plenty of 3 dimensions shows that was very good, also there was roller coaster & a lot of those games in the water & finally we had to leave after we saw the fire works & after spending 12 hours in the sea world
On the third day we had to be on the road but on our way home we stopped by Los Angles & especifically Hollywood to take some pictures with the Hollywood sign & with the stars in the Blvd Hollywood street& finally i arrived home at san Jose full with pictures & stories to tell you.
love you
gannat

2005-06-30T09:13:00.000-07:00

Dear all,
first i would like to introduce myself i'm gannat from Egypt-Cairo university & this is my first week in America specifically San Jose & i'm really enjoying my time except for the chocking incident that start with the gay pride parry that was last weekend & it was a little bit chocking for me however it was not my first culture chock because Aisecer's here prepared me well for it but my first culture chock was that i have to keep defending that i don't hug boy's & especially to a Muslim guy that is of course after getting one or two hugs .
you know what i also like in here that everything is automatic lights, water, doors.... & they have something very nice in the buses that automatically the stairs become plat for a wheel chair to come up to the buses & the seats of the bus are putt aside for the wheel chair to be placed instead it's very nice when you see how this facility can make the life of the people on the wheelchair's much easier, that's all for now & you will be hearing from me soon
byeeeeeeeeee