I just spent 36 hours in a village called Almansha which is just outside the town of Sohag, Egypt in upper Egypt, beautiful country and regarded as the birthplace of Egypt. It is a town of 300,000 according to the General in charge of the police here whom I met yesterday at their police headquarters. It’s wise to check in with the local police as a foreigner, even if its a short visit. The General and two of his captains became my newest Ambassadors during the meeting.
Today I visited the big city of Sohag, it has 9 million residents and I will assure you NO tourists and certainly no Americans. The Nile river separates the north and south of the city and its crowded. I understand the horse drawn carts in the village but even in the big city their are many donkey and horse drawn wagons. The people in Upper Egypt still live in their old ways. Its a bit like going back in time, No McDonald’s or fast food chains in this city. Up here in the country I am a walking spectacle, I’m on a train right now heading south to Cairo and the Egyptians can’t stop staring, they’ve never seen such a man, and when they hear about my be Fantastic philosophy even more amazed. I attended a Mosque prayer yesterday and the hundreds of Egyptians departing couldn’t stop staring at the old bald American. I visited the Sohag National Museum today and made a video which if you are interested in Egyptian history you will love.
I also visited the office of the Egyptian CIA as suggested by the General and tried to meet the Governor. The Governor like other government officials were on holiday today but as my luck would have it I was able to meet with the Deputy Governor and he became our 1040th Ambassador of Positivity in the Be Fantastic Philosophy.
What I take away from this visit not only the kindness of the people but my amazement on what a young person is capable of, children of 5 and 6 years of age are working for their families, they ride their donkeys delivering goods, a bit older ones work selling goods on the trains, even younger ones can be found walking around the village by themselves. Americans can learn from this, children should be given more freedom to learn, be independent and not be as sheltered as they are, of course life in big cities can be very dangerous, we are products of our environment.
I love the country lifestyle, always have. The villagers and people here as I’ve found throughout Egypt are extremely kind and generous, everyone offers me tea or their food and hospitality, Kindness is king here. As a recent example I lost my phone on a mini bus this morning in Amansha and somehow I felt I would find it, we jumped into a tok tok (3 wheeled motorcycle driven taxi’s) to try chase down and find the mini bus. A few miles down the road at a cross road we exited the tok tok and ran into a man with my phone, the driver gave him it to try to return it. Amazing kindness. What’s even more amazing at the end of the day we went to catch another mini bus home, a 30 minute ride and in the bus lot of over 100 mini busses a driver shouted to us to catch our attention as we walked past his bus, it was the mini bus driver from this morning! The odds of running into this man I believe are astronomical, he insisted on giving us some tea that somehow appeared from I have no clue where. As I enjoyed the tea I started explaining the Be Fantastic Philosophy to him another crowd formed, the Egyptians relished in the information I deliver. As I departed the children followed chanting “I am Fantastic”, I felt like the messiah as they followed, it is thrilling to bring such happiness and excitement to these Egyptians.
I don’t like to schedule appointments, bus or train rides or even keep time anymore as I believe everything will happen as it should so let me set up the days final act, while we were in the tok tok to the train station, 2 drivers and Mohamed in the front, my bodyguard and myself in the back, its night and we approach a lit up ferris wheel, as you might know I always buy a ticket and film them on my travels, turns out it was the one I filmed yesterday across from the station.
As we arrive the train is leaving, Mohamed and I jump from the tok tok and make a 100 yard dash for the departing train, he gets their first and throws my bag to his cousin (the one from the duck lunch today) who just happens to be on the train. Three passenger cars pass before I can run and jump onto the speeding train, it was Fantastic, took many trains but never boarded one like this. It was a fitting end to another Fantastic day as Dr. Fantastic on my world tour.
If you can adhere to four commitments I would love you to join the over 1040 Ambassadors of Positivity in this Be Fantastic Philosophy.:
1. Be kind to yourself
2. Be kind to others
3. Be kind to our environment
4. Delete the word good from your vocabulary and replace it with Fantastic.
Watch your world change.
