People often ask me what motivated me to write a book about Egypt. That is really a very easy question to answer.
I have always been fascinated with Egypt and its ancient antiquities. Even as a child, I dreamed of visiting the Great Pyramids in Giza, gazing into the eyes of the Great Sphinx, and sailing far away in a boat on the majestic Nile River. In 1996 this dream finally came true. My husband Bill and I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Egypt and tour this land of the pharaohs from the aqua blue shores of the Mediterranean city of Alexandria in Lower Egypt to the fascinating Upper Egypt city of Luxor, including Cairo and Aswan, the Valley of the Kings and Queens, and a five night Nile River cruise on a luxurious ship. When I came home after that incredible ten day adventure, I could not forget this amazing experience and the remarkable Egyptian people I encountered there, including Hassan Awad Mahmood who is still one of my best friends.
Years went by and my world travels continued for a total of forty-nine countries now, but the memories of Egypt remained in my heart. When I joined Facebook in the summer of 2009, I started befriended many Egyptians and found myself very attracted to these people once more. I followed the First Egyptian Revolution closely on CNN in January 2011 and shared this experience with my friends online. In May 2011, I felt compelled to travel to Egypt once more but this time to meet those new friends who had become so important to me. I had an absolutely glorious time meeting so many of them and creating some very special memories with them.
While I was there, I visited a new English language center recently opened by a Facebook friend, and to my surprise was offered a teaching position there. After my twenty-one day visit, I returned home with this thought of another adventure in Egypt possible in the future. The seed had been planted in my mind. Over the next few months, I had reoccurring dreams from God encouraging me to accept this offer in order to help young Egyptians to become more fluent in English. After much thought and many prayers, I returned to Cairo in November 2011 as a teacher this time—not as a tourist.
The next three months would change my life forever. My teaching experience would become the greatest experience of my educational career. I not only taught the most motivated and highly intelligent young adults but once again became a student as well and with the generous help and guidance of my students and other friends there learned how to become an Egyptian woman in an unfamiliar but exciting new culture.
When I once again returned to the USA on February 6, 2012, I was not the same Randi. My entire outlook on life had changed. I knew I now had some very unique and important new insights and messages to share and decided to write the book I had always dreamed of doing but never had time to do during my thirty-seven years of teaching in American public schools. This was a story that had to be told so within one week after arriving at my home in Georgia, I began reliving my life changing experiences through my words and with the help of my many personal photos. Two months later BECAUSE I BELIEVED IN ME (MY EGYPTIAN FANTASY CAME TRUE) was born.
Randi D. Ward
FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 2013
