Paul Wolfsberg, whose name was changed to (Khaled) after living with the Egyptian family, is currently the acting spokesperson for the US Embassy in Cairo.
And he had lived for a whole year a full life with an Egyptian family in the village of Abu Sir in the Badrashin center in Giza, south of Cairo, and despite the passage of 20 years since that experience, but a few months after he assumed his current position, he decided to restore his memories with this family and visited them suddenly to confirm that he had not forgotten them and had not forgotten their embrace.
The US Embassy in Cairo posted a video clip of Khaled’s visit to this family on its Facebook page, and it sparked a lot of interaction.
Khaled or Paul’s experience benefited him a lot in his professional future, and thanks to it, he became proficient in his work as an American diplomat, producing content aimed at Arabs, especially Egyptians, and even became the one of the most famous foreigners who conduct daily cohabitation experiments with Egyptians on the streets, and he is published on American platforms and has received a warm reception from followers.
Why did he decide to live with an Egyptian family?
Khaled Wolfsberg spoke to “Sky News Arabia” about his story, saying:
My name is Paul Wolfsberg as it appears on my US passport, but I like my Arabic name, Khaled. I chose Khaled as the Arabic name because the letter P in Paul’s name does not exist in Arabic. She holds an MA in Arabic Studies from Georgetown University, USA. I started to learn Arabic language 22 years ago in Jordan, where I was studying Arabic there, but at that time I was not able to communicate in Arabic, so I went to Egypt to deepen the Arabic language and learn Egyptian slang. When I arrived in Egypt in 2003, I took to the streets automatically, without coordination with the US Embassy or any other party, and looked for a family to host me in their house. It took me some time to find a family that accepted the idea because it’s a bit foreign to Egyptian society. I lived in an apartment on the top floor and the family of 6 lived on the ground floor. I had breakfast and dinner with them, and I went to Cairo during the day to work as a journalist for Al-Ahram Weekly, and I spent the whole weekend with this family.
A love affair with Mahshi
And about the best Egyptian dishes that Khaled enjoyed during his life with the Egyptian family, he said: “Stuffed cabbage is the most Egyptian meal that I enjoyed during my stay with this family, because the chef family member, Umm Ahmed, was enthusiastic to prepare this meal on Friday.”
He explained that his wife is Iraqi and she cooks this meal for him now whenever he feels like it.
On the difference between life in America and Egypt, Khaled said, “Unlike my life in the United States, in Egypt I feel the warmth, friendliness and great interaction from Egyptians on the street.”
The path of diplomacy began in Abusir
Regarding the reason for his employment in the diplomatic corps despite his interest mainly in the study and teaching of the Arabic language, Wolfsberg said: “My life in the village of Abu Sir in Giza made me think of to work in the diplomatic corps as a future profession. because I was already representing my country, because I was the only foreigner in the village and the people there asked me questions about American society and Western cultures.
Nevertheless he said:
I didn’t join the US State Department until ten years after that experience, when I returned to the US and earned a master’s degree in Arabic from Georgetown University. I taught Arabic at several American universities, then moved to Alexandria, Egypt for two years, where I managed a program for American students at Alexandria University. My main job at the American Embassy in Cairo is related to creating Arabic media content on social media, and my life with Egyptian family is the reason why I know the nature of the society I am producing this content for. . The beginning of my journey in producing Arabic content was in 2016 when I worked as an Assistant to the US Consul in Jordan, where I was responsible for public communication and produced Arabic content for consular matters. , as well as I worked for a period at the United States Embassy in Iraq. I recently made sure to visit this family when I returned to Cairo in my current job, and found that the children of this family grew into men and women and they had children, and the chief family, Abu Ahmed, passed away, but Umm Ahmed gave me great hospitality and cooked my favorite dish for me, and the rest of the family welcomed me.
And about the lesson learned from this experience, Wolfsberg concluded: “What I can confirm is that learning comes with coexistence, and therefore I advise any foreigner who wants to learn Arabic to coexist and to coexist with an Arab people, because whoever lives with a people for 40 days becomes one of them, and I have become one of the Egyptians.”
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