Hello,
sorry about this but I am no expat, I am a french lady who married an egyptian man 16 years ago. I had a child with this man, she is now 15! I left him when she was a baby since I could not bear being left alone to care for everything without any help, not even financial! I went back to France ( we used to be expats in the UK when we met) . Since he never sent any money,, he had mentioned having a brother in Brussels and upper class parents in Cairo but we never had any news from them. Not a card, nor a mail even less a birthday present , NOTHING which to a french person is very shocking! Suddenly about 1.5 years ago the brother contacted us out of the blue! We welcomed him at our place, he was very pleasant and promised t o help from then on, promised he would pay for my daughter's studies. He went away, sent some money twice but not a kind word, not a phone call after his visit! He broke his promise to my daughter to take her on holiday to Brussels or Paris with him! Then nothing!! I tried contacting the gran parents, found a friend of the granny through facebook and discovered both my daughter's father and her uncle had lied to me about her. They pretended she could not speak english!!! I called her, one of the first thing she said is come over to Egypt!!! How could I even think about this when I don't know them !!! Then she said she wanted to call her sons and then she would call me back!!! Time passed no one called me back! I called back and I try to get an adress to write, impossible to understand over the phone an egyptian adress!!! She did not call back after the second time either! Today I call again , manage to talk a bit, saying among things that my daughter needs help as I Ihave financial problems and I have to pay for dental care, medical care, plus internship at school ... she tells me to come to Egypt, I could buy what I want!!! I was so upset, I don't want to go shopping in Cairo, I want family help to support my daughter's health and education!!! Then she tells me she does not know how to help that it's too complicated to send money over to France from Egypt!!! I can't believe this, with the web I can buy a present to a friend in Australia in less than 5 minutes if I want!!! I don't understand these people! Could anyone Egyptian help me understand what is going on! Why are we getting close to no support from this family? I know the father is a liar, the uncle does not seem to have pride in keeping a word , but I don't know what to think of the parents in Egypt! If I was a rich gran mother at the other end of the world I would surely send a present at least for every birthday. I would find ways to help my gran daughter so that she ca,n have anything she needs. I am not talking about toys or so but if her parents cannot pay for private tuitons, boarding school, transports, medical care... I would help! Please help me it's been 15 yeasrs and I don't understand!