Not From Here: Egypt From a Foreigner’s Perspective

With everything that is happening in our country, Egypt is still full of love and life, but most importantly, it’s full of culture. And we’re not just talking about ours. Sadly, sometimes we are so oblivious to what is happening in our own country, and when we aren’t, we refuse to see it. Did you know that there is a Chinatown in Abbaseya with over 10,000 Chinese people living in it? Exactly. Which is why our day was brightened when we stumbled upon this new Facebook page called “Not From Here,”  a project aiming to document stories of foreigners living in Egypt through photography.

“We seek to establish and deliver a genuine concept about how it is to be a foreigner living in Egypt. To exhibit the culture, persona, circumstances, obstacles, feelings, dreams, viewpoints, positivity and negativity as being part of the Egyptian society,” Mirale Mokhtar, one of the founders of Not From Here, told us. Mokhtar also stresses that “some Egyptians have the wrong idea of foreigners, we want to show them a real image of them, and that deep down, with all our different cultures, we are all human. We are all the same.”

Take a look at a few of the images and quotes below:

Nour, Sudanese — 6 years in Egypt

When the revolution happened, I felt like every Egyptian citizen living here, affected by everything that has happened to the country. I participated and I felt like I am one of them. The friends I’ve met here may be different to me, but we’ve grown so close. If I ever left Egypt, I will always keep in touch with them.

Carlos, Spanish — 1 year in Egypt

Downtown Cairo is exactly like Downtown anywhere in Europe, except the government doesn’t preserve or look after it.

Amir, Belgian — 12 years in Egypt

I wish the Governor in Alexandria focused on more important matters rather than having coffee shops in trams. If this tram was in Belgium, it would have been closed immediately.

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