I was thinking about one of the people I met during my 1998 trip to Cairo, Haifa, and Jerusalem. I was only in Cairo for 5 days, and I met surprisingly few people. There was so much to see that we were almost constantly in transit. Recently, though, I was looking at news coverage of the political unrest there and wondering what happened to this guy. He was the desk attendant at our hotel, The Golden Tulip Flamenco, in Zamalek, an affluent community on Gezira, an island in the Nile River. This gentleman was friendly and welcoming, even though we arrived on the day that the U.S. military had bombed the Sudan. He gave us a comfortable room and answered all of our stupid questions about room service, laundry service, and transportation. I hope he’s okay, and I hope that peace and stability come to his country sooner than later.

Ajuan Mance