Meet Darwich, an Egyptian-American who was born in Egypt, brought up in the United States, then came back to Egypt to work and live. Darwich's story is an interactive web-based tale, where you will be able to navigate through Darwich's adventures in any order you choose by using the links in the text. You can start anywhere and finish anywhere, and join in at any time.

Darwich used to tell people, if they asked, that he was brought up in the States.

He liked it when they asked, and he liked it when they didn't ask. He liked feeling like everybody else, and he liked feeling special sometimes. The best thing about being "from the States" was the immediate sheen it gave you. Darwich suddenly had a background, he had a big house and a garden, he had a place to go whenever he wanted to escape Egypt.

A lot of people were talking about escaping. About getting out, or leaving the backwardness behind.

Darwich detested such talk. He hated the way America was so king.

Some people, like his grandmother Gazbia, thought he was only in Egypt because he couldn't "make it" in the States. Such talk angered Darwich's mother, who had always been vehemently against his move back to Egypt.

Mama was a professor and had her own consultancy firm. His father held the patent for a special lever that helped American dairies s ave millions on freezer doors. They both dressed elegantly, and looked at their son on the day he told them he'd quit his job and bought a one way ticket to Cairo with knowing smiles.

"We know you like it there, but here is where you can make a difference, where you can really work, where all the doors will open up for you, like they did for us."

They had been tag-teaming it that day in the sunny, recently remodeled kitchen, but then his mother had stopped talking, and just stared sadly out the screen door at the well-manicured lawn.

Baba, as always, had to add his own little clincher: "We didn't work this hard and bring you up here for nothing. Now come to your senses, boy, and grow up!"