Sonoma drew closer to Egypt last week, as outgoing Consul General Ambasador Abderahman Salaheldin announced the Sonoma-Aswan Sister Cities relationship at a reception in his honor on Egypt’s National Day, July 23, at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. In his address, the consul general told the crowd that the formation of the Sonoma-Aswan Committee has been among the proudest accomplishments of his four-year tenure in San Francisco. Recognizing his partner in the project, he asked Mayor Joanne Sanders to join him at the podium to speak.
“She got up and spoke very eloquently and from the heart,” said Sonoma Sister Cities president Bill Boerum. “There were hundreds of people and she was the only one after the ambassador to speak. It was impressive.”
Sanders said in a later interview that this particular sister city relationship has a chance to be far-reaching. “There’s no doubt there’s going to be economic and cultural and educational exchange,” she said. “A lot of people seem interested in this.” She credited Salaheldin himself for the expansiveness of the idea, noting the wide respect he enjoys among the diplomatic corps. “People had traveled a long way to be at that event,” she said.
Among those gathered to honor the consul general and express support for the sister cities project was Mounir Fahmy, owner of the Bayleaf Restaurant in Napa. Fahmy, who emigrated to the United States from Egypt in 1974, said the cultural exchange such a relationship can create will not only benefit the economies of Egypt and America, but also will bring the Egyptian people and the American people closer together. “There’s always a wall between two new people,” he said. “As soon as you go to a theater where you have music and dance, the ‘Wall of China’ comes down.”
“[The project] is very big,” said Boerum. “We just got a message from the governor of Aswan, so that’s the first direct reply we’ve had. So it’s really good, and I think it’s what we’re able to make of it. It’s a big opportunity.”
