Special to the Daily Star Egypt
When a young village boy took him by the hand and invited him into his home, Beeaje Quick did not realize that he would turn his back on Hollywood, become Dr Farouk and that his life would never be the same again.
Quick had come to Egypt, like most tourists, to see the pyramids. Fate, however, came into play, and Ahmed crossed his path. Then a day before his ticket home expired, he decided to make Egypt his home.
Certainly, the idea that anyone would give up the American dream, leave a mansion in Hollywood to live in a village with no water, would seem bizarre to many. But perhaps when you know that behind his solid stare lies a history of a life on a bus in California that he built and destroyed himself; and a life on the streets of Romania where he did not speak a word of the language, actually make his desire to leap into the unknown seem in step with his character.
Or maybe the fact that Quick was himself once homeless, unemployed, and illiterate before climbing the ladders of Hollywood to become a producer, director, actor and writer, instilled in him an instinct to help the poor.
Nazlet El Seman is a village at the foot of the pyramids where many Egyptians would fear to go and foreigners have never before set foot in, but Quick was able to break all cultural barriers and taboos; it made him “feel again.
Spending years “with the garbaneen, he naturally has many stories to tell, and even more he has shared.
But if there could be a day where Quick would be awarded a “Nazlet El Seman passport, it would have to have been the day his name was changed to Dr Farouk.
It was by pure luck, despite a lot of resistance, that he managed to save the life of a village man with basic first aid skills.
On that day he became one of them. In spite of his “khawaga hat the locals changed his name to Dr Farouk. He was no longer accused of being a spy, no longer the object of stares and whispers, it was the day Quick walked down the red carpet and earned his Egyptian identity.
Ever since, it was normal to find Quick working on men suffering from burns, buying shoes for the welder, educating people about hygiene, and sharing meals with his neighbors.
Quick became friends with Mr Lahma, found the “Julia Roberts of Egypt and mediated fights between fathers and daughters.
He had become so intertwined in this society, that he felt left out and jealous that he could not join the men in Friday prayers.
Where many Egyptians may use the adage ‘el gou’ kafer’ loosely, Quick says it is like he invented it.
He understood the meaning of poverty and learnt why it was good etiquette, even in extreme heat when you can hardly breathe, to close your door when you did not have enough food to go round.
When his money ran out, when he could no longer afford to buy children toothpaste and shoes, he used to steal toothpicks, split them in two and give them to children.
Eventually, he lost himself to the poverty that surrounded him.
Yet it is precisely this experience that made him find himself again. When he no longer had food on his plate and was “kafran, he still found that his neighbor would half his slice with him and his family.
When he lost his flat and found that his poor village friend took him under his wings, offered to let him sleep at his internet cafe until he was able to come to his feet again, Quick found himself again. It awoke feelings in him he never knew he had, and he then decided to make Egypt his permanent forwarding address.
In his two year experience, what stunned him the most was that even in Egypt where one cannot find running water, escaping the American machine of advertising proved a near impossible ordeal.
From Mcfalafel to Cleopatra American tobacco, the American influence proved to be strong.
Why the village dweller he had given money for installing water pipes for his family instead chose to buy a mobile phone puzzles Quick.
So he has decided to share his experience with the Americans, to show what Egyptian modern culture has to offer.
His book “Khawaga documents his story as it is. He is also working closely with prominent American producer Brad Wyner of Monster, and script writer Mohamed Hefzy to turn his book into a movie.
While Quick can be many things, and he prefers to be known as a maker of art, I found his gift of communication to be the most striking. Constantly finding sarcastic irony in something that is also painfully true enables him to connect equally as easy with a homeless man in LA as with a street child in Cairo.
Quick wrote of god to children, even developed his own language, but still, how he was able to find refuge in people so different, that he learnt to make family will always remain inspiring.
So whether it takes a real Egyptian to understand the culture, or a true anthropologist with a map of theories to analyze it, Quick has righteously earned this experience and chooses to document it to the world.
For now, Egypt will remain his home. Quick moves when he needs new towels and since towels are of good quality and quantity in Egypt, I think it may be a very long while till he leaves.
