Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

I want to thank everyone who has responded to my email regarding my 
friend Mohamed Kharma.  I shared your emails  with him and he was 
amazed at how many people offered to take him out for a ride or meet 
him for dinner or whatever.  I wasn't so amazed because over the years 
I've seen time and time again how generous ridecampers are with their 
time and energy for global wanderers like myself.

You all may not think that you are anything special, but I would like 
to assure you that you are indeed.  Your willingness to share 
information and experiences both online and in person are truly 
appreciate by people who live in areas where information and experience 
are much less easy to come by.  In 2001 when I had the opportunity to 
volunteer to help out at the Pan Ams in Vermont, my friends here 
assumed that I had some special kind of "wasta" or "connection" as they 
call it here.  There was no way that I could just tell them, "No, guys, 
these are simply really wonderful people."  Anyone who has tried to 
deal with our equestrian federation in Egypt will understand.  The fact 
that they do not tell anyone other than a small group that there is a 
trainer or that they don't even tell us when there is going to be a 
ride is basically taken for granted as normal operating procedure.  I'm 
trying to let our riders see that things don't always work that way and 
that they don't have to.

I don't want to steal any of Howard's thunder on getting teary-eyed 
over the terrific endurance community, but I do want you all to hear it 
from another source.  I don't get to meet you all at rides and 
conventions, but I meet you online every day. You all have been 
inspirational to me when my hope for any sane kind of endurance in 
Egypt was at its lowest ebb.  You are indeed a community in the 
broadest sense of the word, people with commonality that overrides 
differences.  Should any of you find yourselves able to come here, you 
should know that we would like to return that sense of community and we 
appreciate all that we've been able to learn from your experience.

Thank you again for just being yourselves.

Maryanne
Cairo


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