Egypt

When you look back on your life, you'll regret the things you didn't do

more than the ones you did.                 

 -H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

One of things that I regret the most happened (or, more accurately, didn't happen) in 1998.  I was on a summer mission trip to the Gaza Strip, Israel.  One of my cohorts and I were volunteering at the Ali Arab Hospital in Gaza City-he was working in the Emergency Room and I was helping the office staff do the inventory in English.  [Interesting: now that I think about it-he's doing his MA in Public Health and I'm teaching English as a Second Language.  Maybe that's where we both got our starts???]  One of the nurses there asked us to visit his home in the Rafah refugee camp. 

As you can see, Rafah is right on the border with Egypt.  In fact, you could see the border from his rooftop-slightly further off than this photo:

Our host tried several times to convince us to take a short trip across the border.  Though we had good reasons for refusing (I think we didn't have our passports with us, for one!) it has always been a regret for both of us that we weren't more adventurous (or more prepared!) to go. 

The problem is that Egypt has continued to elude me over the years.  About three years ago, a company I worked for in India opened up a branch in Egypt.  I investigated the possibility of going there, but it didn't work out.  Part of the reason I decided to try Tunisia was to have a foot in the door in North Africa, so that I could move to Egypt when an opportunity arose.  But Tunisia didn't work out nearly long enough for that.  Plus, with the political climate there these days, I think that it may not be the best time to explore the country...

So Egypt still remains on my list of places I want to visit.  Hopefully, someday soon, it will be the right time for me to visit and I'll be prepared to make the trip.  Until then, it will live on as 'the one that got away.'

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One of the things I haven't been keeping up with is visiting other bloggers during the challenge.  But recently I took the time to visit a few.  Here are some that I enjoyed: Kristen Marble-Passionate About Hope, Write Where I Am, The Lumberjack's Wife, Writing from the dark places, The Best of Everything, Purrpause