Neighbors !!!

I remember how dad always used to say foreigners are cold just like their climate. I have no idea where did he get this from specially while he never lived among them or had direct contact with any. And sure by foreigners he was referring to Westerns. I used to nod to the idea without giving it a thought as my contact with westerns was also either through a co-worker or a friend and that’s all, so how am I suppose to know. But I did live, witness and also contacted Egyptians for a long time and when it comes to Egyptians I guess I will need 100 of pages and still I wont be saying enough. Also due to my dad’s work we did experience living among Sudanese, Palestinians, and Arabs yet may I say the worst of all Arabs as we lived for 14 years in KSA.

Just the other day I was watching Desperate Housewives as I certainly became addicted to it, but for the first time and lets say after 4 seasons of it, I just realized something, I started focusing on how this neighborhood is depicted in the series, how away from being main 4 or 5 female friends yet they all started their friendship as neighbors and one more important thing is that away from what we may think of Americans yet in this series I can see one major important matter, they are always their for each other no matter what, birthdays, weddings, funerals, and no matter how they might sometimes judge or fight with each other they end up being with there for one another and more important all do know their limits and respect one another privacy even when caring much. Also when someone new join the neighborhood we see them rushing to welcome them and sure out of curiosity do ask few questions but never too much, so incase this neighbor turns to be a serial killer or something they will just be cautious.

I am a loner yet I do know my neighbors faces, sure I don’t know everybody’s name but I know we all live in the same building. However, I remember never attending a birthday party, neither a wedding and it was always my parents who attended funerals, as we simply are not required to. My parents used to say we are lucky having good neighbors but I never got to know what does that mean till a friend of mine who was newly married started telling me how her neighbors are fighting over stupid matters and dragging each other to the police station every now and then, yet what stroke me is them being of a good social standard and living in a class A neighborhood. Another co-worker who was married for 4 or 5 years told me that she never knew her neighbors and that one day she left her kids home sleeping to run errands and got this call from someone saying that she live with her in the same building and that her flat is on fire. She told me that after the whole mess was over she tried to know who this neighbor was but she never answered her phone back and her number was the only thing my co-worker got to know about her.

And sure since you as a female isn’t allowed to leave your parents home in this country unless you are married, even many when getting divorced or becoming widows just return back and are forced to live with their parents. I knew am stuck with them and wont have neighbors of my own, so I started questioning how my parents neighbors are like especially in time of need as when else would I care. And I didn’t find them. I discovered something that for them to be there they require really being there and by that I mean getting into your life and asking every single private question you can ever imagine though we never even cared to ask the same questions in return or even know anything about them cause there is something that apparently they don’t know and that would be respecting privacy. And sure since I refused such rules they treated me coldly and rarely when even bothered to talk or say hullo to me in the elevator. When we lost mum few months ago they gathered to offer their help of which I never saw, and they were there for just one week, after that I was wondering how come our phone never rang just for checking on us as according to them my mum was a dear friend. Feasts and holidays yet no one even cared to just call saying merry eid or happy new year, and sure I wont be calling, am I supposed to ?!

I don’t know how on earth dad built this conclusion of westerns being cold and not so good neighbors and yeah it could be a series that I am getting my information from but sometimes they do reflect real life, so if we are to have a series about neighbors in Egypt and not of a lower class or something as I can imagine that would be nasty, yet about upper middle class I think there wont be much to say but we are for sure the colder no matter how our climate is like.