Flooding. Tornadoes. Volcanoes. The Rapture and Judgement Day. And apparently the end of the world is in October.  It's a crazy world we live in.

Four years ago I went to Egypt for a day as a stop on a cruise. It was the most amazing day of my life. Egypt has been my passion since I was in 3rd grade, and going there was everything I had hoped it would be. But I was nervous too. I stick out like a sore thumb, with my light skin, blond hair, and blue eyes. I'm as obviously European or American as you can get. I'd never been to an African or Islamic country. But it was gorgeous. Amazing. The Pyramids, the Sphinx, and the Cairo museum; I was in heaven. 

But there was one thing that happened that day that I will remember and treasure for the rest of my life. It wasn't anything at the Giza plateau. It wasn't anything in the museum. It was on the bus, stuck in traffic on the way through Cairo. I was just sitting there, bored, staring out of the bus window and watching the city go by.  Right next to the bus, below my window, was a white car, and staring up at the bus were two muslim girls, teenagers, watching the bus full of oddly dressed foreigners. I smiled at them; they both smiled hesitantly back. I raised my hand in a wave and laughed, and they did the same. Before I realized it, all three of us were laughing like we were old friends who were seeing each other after a long time. Like, stitch in my side laughing. Then the traffic starting moving, and the white car disappeared into the thick Cairo traffic. My mom asked what I was laughing about, but I couldn't explain what had just happened to me. 

I'll never see those girls again. We couldn't hear each other. I don't even know if they remember that day. For all I know, they could've been laughing at my bandana. Or my shirt. Or the way I looked through the window. But the thing is, we were from two completely different worlds, different continents. Even if we could have talked to each other, it would have been impossible because we didn't speak the same language. But still, there was that moment, when all three of us were laughing, that cultural and lingual barriers crumbled. We were just three girls, three humans, adrift in a wide world full of hatred and prejudice, they with no voice at all, me with a voice that was too quiet to be heard. 

But still, we laughed.