Ola, the Egyptian Girl

One afternoon, I met a girl who sits alone in campus. Seen from her face, I guess she is one of the Middle East students. So I walked toward her and greeted her. We were acquainted and luckily she was a welcoming people. Her name is Ola Atef Mahmud. She is 24 years old and she is one of inculs student. She comes from Cairo, Egypt. She just arrived in Yogyakarta at 25 September,
but she was able to speak Indonesian fluently. She said that she learn Bahasa in Cairo. I called her Ola, because that was her nickname. She is happy with her name. She said her parents give that name to her. Which Ola means very high. Maybe the hope is they want their child will have a high position in her life. And then Atef means love, mercy. Which they have hopes that the child will become a loving and merciful girl. And her last name, Mahmud, which her family name means good. They hope their family will be a good family, a good person. She is proud of her name and thankful for her parent.

And we talk about her culture in approaching people in Cairo. When they meet new people who never met and known before, in general they will give advance greetings like Assalamualaikum-Waalaikumsalam. And in Cairo, Christian also says it. No differences between Moslem and Christian. And they usually will ask directly like “what is your name?”, “where are you from?”, or “what I can do for you?”, with no small talk first. As long as the questions we use are still polite, we can ask anything. But in there we are not allowed to use “you” which mean kamu to strangers or older people, we are preferred to use “you” which mean anda which more polite. We are also not allowed to speak loudly and using high note, because it is not polite. Other impolite questions are when a man asked a woman about their age and social status. Like question “why you are not married yet?”, its Impolite. Asking for the address and offered to visit at her house are also impolite question in there. But it is allowed to ask about their job. After asking some question, they usually will buy some foods or drinks for that new people. If they meet in one public transport, usually they would pay for that new people. From Ola story, I would argue that people in Cairo really appreciate with other people, like Ola self who had appreciate me.