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QSo…I leave for Cairo, EGYPT in exactly one month!!! Q
I am both excited and nervous. I think it’s just now really starting to kick in that I am actually going to be spending four months in the Middle East. It’s both exciting and a bit scary at the same time.
I’ve been reading Richard Engel’s “A Fist in the Hornet’s Nest: On Ground in Baghdad Before, During & After the War,” which has really been an eye opening book for what journalism during wartime is like. At times I forget that what I’m reading in non-fiction; a biography. Everything seems so unlikely and unrealistic—untrue. It’s just that some of the images Engel described were so heart-wrenching and saddening and a little too brutally truthful.
I admire Engel for diving right in, and being one of two American foreign correspondents that remained in Iraq, even in the worst of situations. I admire his bravery and genuine character, and most of all, I admire how he started out his career.
After starting the book, I must admit, that for one brief millisecond I doubted myself. Do I really want to be an international correspondent in the Middle East. It’s not that I don’t want to, I’m just not sure I’d succeed.
Also, I think life would be so much easier, especially as a journalist, if I were a guy. I see all these intelligent female journalists on TV plastered in make-up and designer suits, but I just can’t picture myself as one of those journalists.
I think like would be easier as a guy journalist especially in the Middle East (not that I am supporting the decision that women are oppressed, because they aren’t).
After reading Anderson Cooper’s biography (which I can later give a review on: A+ + +) and the beginning of Engel’s I see that they both went on their owns to these dangerous foreign countries looking for hard-hitting news to report, hoping to fulfill their dreams of becoming a foreign correspondent.
I’m not sure that I would be able to grab a visa, wads of cash, a camcorder, and other necessary equipment for a journalist and venture out to unchartered (by me) territory looking for news. Sure I am more than willing to take that risk, but I’ve got two problems. One, I don’t have the money for that. Two, I might could get money from my parents, but once I told them I was just traveling hoping to turn myself into my dream of a correspondent, they would never go for it. Three, the world is fiercely competitive and I on the other hand want everyone to get what they want before I indulge in my dreams.
That’s the difficult thing in life. Though anything is possible, there are limitations. I feel the old cliché of hard work and perseverance doesn’t always pay off the way that it should for the intended person.
Anyways, back to Engel’s book, I’ve been busy working 50+ hours a week so I’m still not done with the book. I never thought I’d find myself reading a book with an index for fun. Ha. Ha.
There was one particular paragraph that I really could relate to from. It was the opening paragraphs of the book after the introduction and reads,
“The journey that brought me to Iraq started in Egypt. I moved to Cairo after graduating from college in 1996 with a Bachelor of Arts in international relations and no real clue what I was getting into. I didn’t speak a word of Arabic or have any contacts in the Middle East. I’d set off with a thousand dollars in cash wallpapering my pockets and tucked into a money belt around my waist […] and a hope that I’d be able to make myself into a foreign correspondent.”
I first read this paragraph and though, “What a coincidence I’m going to Cairo in a few months and I have that same hope of making myself into a foreign correspondent.” Engel and I definitely have that in common J but who knows where this “foreign correspondent” dream will take me.
ANYWAY…I didn’t mean to get sidetracked….I hope to learn a whole lot from this trip for Cairo including culturing myself, learning more Arabic J, traveling around the Middle East (if money permits, and my parents don’t get freaked out by that idea)and I want to just appreciate life for what it is and maybe inspire others. I don’t know how, but hey…I could happen??
Anyways, I still have a lot of stuff to do for my trip; things to buy, papers to mail, and oh yeah, I still need a visa. K
I’m sure my blogs from now on will be talking about my excitement and anticipation for August 21st when I leave for the big city of CAIRO!
