This is Josef. During our Egypt trip, he was one of our guides – and I can easily say he’s one of the best guides that I’ve ever met in my life.
You may ask yourself: well, cool that he’s a guide and all, but why is he special? I’ll tell you. I’m sure you’ve met people in your life whose profession it was to explain something to you. May it be in school, at a course, at a fair, whatever. If you think back, which are the ones you remember? Granted, it’s either those that are really terrible, those that make silly jokes – or the ones that have the most amazing passion for what they’re doing.
Josef guided us through Aswan, Luxor, Edfu, Nubian villages and other awesomely interesting places – and whenever he would explain something, he’d do it with such a passion that you would start to get excited over a pile of rubble or an empty lot where something once could have been. He also mastered the art of dramatic pauses (kudos) and filled those with the smile that you see in the picture.
One more note – when you walk through the desert, you get thirsty. Strange, right? So by the time it was 1 PM, I already had breakfast twice and like 3 liters of water. However, it was Ramadan, so Josef and most other people in Egypt did not eat or drink anything from sunrise to sunset. That means, he, just like us, would wake up at ungodly hours like 4 AM, travel all day, walk through the desert at 40 degrees Celcius, speak all the time, and not once complain or take any sustenance. It’s funny, cause other tourists were complaining if the dinner was 5 min delayed or if the breakfast the hotel prepared to take away wasn’t sufficient enough in their eyes.
Cheers to the man who is awesome at what he does – and for the reminder that doing anything with passion can leave a lasting impression on the people you meet. Thanks, Josef!
Phill
