The Kindness of Strangers: Egyptians Offer Refuge to Those Stranded During Worst Storm in Decades
If you’ve lived in Egypt or know an Egyptian, you must’ve heard the phrase “Only in Egypt” because there’s a number of actions we group under that category. In Egypt, strangers are never really strangers. If we hear that there’s a couple who can’t afford a wedding, we’ll invite the whole neighborhood and make their wedding happen. If we see someone stranded on the road with a flat tire, we’ll stop to help, and if the weather is bad and you have nowhere to stay, there will be people to offer their homes or shops for you to stay in until the weather gets better!
This was what Mostafa Darwish and Bishoy Ayoub did!
Mostafa Darwish, the owner of Beit Roqa restaurant in Mohandessin, Cairo, opened his restaurant to anyone who has nowhere to stay this weekend, with free food and drink, and transportation to the restaurant as well.
Bishoy Ayoub, another Egyptian, offered a place that can take two people, for free, from Thursday to Saturday, and also offered to pick up whoever needs it from anywhere.
Following these individual efforts, churches in Helwan, Downtown Cairo, as well as a few other places, also started opening their doors for homeless people to take refuge during this weekend’s storm.
On another level, B.TECH creatively used their name, which sounds like the word meaning “your home” in Arabic, to welcome anyone who gets stuck on the street or can’t go home due to the bad weather to stay in any of its branches; a great way to work humanitarianism into your marketing!
The caption on their Facebook post translates: “If the weather is bad today, B.TECH welcomes you and your family in more than 90 branches”.
With everybody’s testimony, Egyptian people are unique in the way they deal with everything in life, especially a crisis. And anyone who has ever visited or lived in this beautiful country would agree that the friendliness and welcoming spirit of its people is incomparable.
Now here’s a popular Egyptian song that talks about Egypt and Egyptians. Enjoy it and stay safe!
