A Prince, World Curators and a really cool woman named Mona
2 Chinese, 3 Sudanese, 4 Egyptians, 2 South Africans, 2 Iraqis and 2 (eventual) Ethiopians visit for the BM ITP (pictures to follow)
So today was the first official day of the International Training Programme at the British Museum. 15 curators from institutions throughout Africa, the Middle East and Asia will be participating in a month-long training programme, covering things like exhibitions, conservation, education and so forth. But also, it's just really cool to meet all these new interesting people from very diverse backgrounds who have rather randomly been thrown together for this common purpose.
Especially cool people met today were (proper spellings to be edited) Mona, Ibrahim, el-Sayed and Vuyani. Vuyani is one of my cool African compatriots whom I will be spending a lot of time with. We're going to Norwich, Brighton and Kent, plus I plan on visiting him and Bongeka in Lincoln, and I can tell already that we are going to have a ton of fun. Vuyani is very cool and has some very interesting things about South Africa.
el-Sayed is a really nice, very grateful guy from Egypt who is working on his English but can't stop taking about how glad he is to be in London. I love meeting people like that because their enthusiasm is so valuable and so ethereal...reminds me to be grateful.
Also really cool was Ibrahim with whom I talked about Iraq. This man and his colleague work in the main Iraqi Museum in Baghdad and man, he has stories. It is so amazing to meant this interesting guy who has experienced so much with the war and the looting of his museum, and it is especially important to see what they have done to stem the tide of objects being looted from their site. At the same time, it is brutal to hear about all the other museums around the country that are completely destroyed by the carnage and totally open for looting. But still, he has these stories about day-to-day life in Baghdad that are so cool, like stories about the pen and watch shop he still owns and runs with his brother. People are so resilient: it's really amazing. More on Ibrahim to follow.
Finally, especially awesome was Mona who is this super cool and bubbly young woman from Luxor who graduated from Archaeology training in Cairo and has now been working as an inspector at the Karnak Temple. How cool is that?! But equally interesting to me is her life living in Egypt, most particularity her views on marriage. We had been chatting for a while when she asked the question (which I commonly get from visiting women curators/museum professionals) if I had children and I said hell no. She reciprocated with a laugh, saying that she too had no wish to currently get married and have children. I thought it was cool how she remarked upon the marriage offers she has received, the pressure she gets from her family, but her focus on her career. And, I was really impressed by her focus to follow her interests but treat that aspect of her life much differently, preferring a connection with someone that to follow many of her friends in family and marry for business, procreation and duty. I have a feeling that Mona believes in love at first sight and though I am not sure I do, I love that she has no worries about not finding what she's looking for, namely because she's not really looking for it in the first place. From a young woman coming from an culture that looks at marriage very differently, I am definitely impressed.
Oh ya, and also, Prince Charles was at the Museum. I didn't see the man but there was a definite tripling (or more) of security. But overall, it was kinda cool to see the man's sleeeek Jag parked out front, impeccably polished with personnel scattered around, alert and yet appropriately relaxed. But mostly, I love how cute their sniffer dogs are, running around the forecourt, particularity since instead of the German Sheppard variety they use cute, floppy eared dogs looking more like country Spaniels (apologies for my deficiency in knowing breed names).
Either way, Prince or no, it was a definitely interesting day.
2 Chinese, 3 Sudanese, 4 Egyptians, 2 South Africans, 2 Iraqis and 2 (eventual) Ethiopians visit for the BM ITP (pictures to follow)
So today was the first official day of the International Training Programme at the British Museum. 15 curators from institutions throughout Africa, the Middle East and Asia will be participating in a month-long training programme, covering things like exhibitions, conservation, education and so forth. But also, it's just really cool to meet all these new interesting people from very diverse backgrounds who have rather randomly been thrown together for this common purpose.
Especially cool people met today were (proper spellings to be edited) Mona, Ibrahim, el-Sayed and Vuyani. Vuyani is one of my cool African compatriots whom I will be spending a lot of time with. We're going to Norwich, Brighton and Kent, plus I plan on visiting him and Bongeka in Lincoln, and I can tell already that we are going to have a ton of fun. Vuyani is very cool and has some very interesting things about South Africa.
el-Sayed is a really nice, very grateful guy from Egypt who is working on his English but can't stop taking about how glad he is to be in London. I love meeting people like that because their enthusiasm is so valuable and so ethereal...reminds me to be grateful.
Also really cool was Ibrahim with whom I talked about Iraq. This man and his colleague work in the main Iraqi Museum in Baghdad and man, he has stories. It is so amazing to meant this interesting guy who has experienced so much with the war and the looting of his museum, and it is especially important to see what they have done to stem the tide of objects being looted from their site. At the same time, it is brutal to hear about all the other museums around the country that are completely destroyed by the carnage and totally open for looting. But still, he has these stories about day-to-day life in Baghdad that are so cool, like stories about the pen and watch shop he still owns and runs with his brother. People are so resilient: it's really amazing. More on Ibrahim to follow.
Finally, especially awesome was Mona who is this super cool and bubbly young woman from Luxor who graduated from Archaeology training in Cairo and has now been working as an inspector at the Karnak Temple. How cool is that?! But equally interesting to me is her life living in Egypt, most particularity her views on marriage. We had been chatting for a while when she asked the question (which I commonly get from visiting women curators/museum professionals) if I had children and I said hell no. She reciprocated with a laugh, saying that she too had no wish to currently get married and have children. I thought it was cool how she remarked upon the marriage offers she has received, the pressure she gets from her family, but her focus on her career. And, I was really impressed by her focus to follow her interests but treat that aspect of her life much differently, preferring a connection with someone that to follow many of her friends in family and marry for business, procreation and duty. I have a feeling that Mona believes in love at first sight and though I am not sure I do, I love that she has no worries about not finding what she's looking for, namely because she's not really looking for it in the first place. From a young woman coming from an culture that looks at marriage very differently, I am definitely impressed.
Oh ya, and also, Prince Charles was at the Museum. I didn't see the man but there was a definite tripling (or more) of security. But overall, it was kinda cool to see the man's sleeeek Jag parked out front, impeccably polished with personnel scattered around, alert and yet appropriately relaxed. But mostly, I love how cute their sniffer dogs are, running around the forecourt, particularity since instead of the German Sheppard variety they use cute, floppy eared dogs looking more like country Spaniels (apologies for my deficiency in knowing breed names).
Either way, Prince or no, it was a definitely interesting day.
posted by Laura aka Transglobal Lip at 9:37 p.m.
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