Because I'm Also Just That Cool

Cairo, Egypt

My brother's not the only one who made an appearance on national television recently! One of our teachers stopped me in the hallway today to say that she'd seen me on Egypt's Channel One. Funny story, that, actually....

We CASA students were all sitting in the "press room," translating a couple press releases but mostly on hand to translate for journalists as needed. Only one journalist actually requested the assistance of two of us, so Kirsten and I volunteered. The TV journalist took us out into the lobby and took our names. Kirsten asked who we would be translating for, and he said, "Maryah first, then Kirsten." Thinking he hadn't heard us clearly, she asked again, and he said, "Maryah first, then Kirsten." We looked at each other. "Who are we translating for?" we asked, and he said, "Maryah first, then Kirsten." We were starting to get the picture, so I asked him in Arabic who he wanted us to translate for, and he said, "Oh, you speak Arabic? Can we do this in Arabic?" And then we were pretty sure we knew what was going on, and I asked him in Arabic if we were translating, or what? He looked confused and said, "Translating? No. I want to interview you. Can I interview you in Arabic?" And so he did ... me first, then Kirsten!

Sadly, her interview did not air on Channel 1. I'm still trying to get a copy of mine.

We also made it onto CNN, apparently, but typically enough, even this hopeful event got linked to terrorism. I'm told the story said something to the effect that, despite recent threats on Egyptian Coptic Christians by Al Qaeda, the big interfaith Cairo Meeting took place anyway. I looked for it on cnn.com, but came up empty.