Why Marsa Alam?
September 2022 - How everything started
"We don't have time for him. If you don't take him, we'll put him back on the street, and he'll just die."
I saw a tiny bit of cat in her hand, a pitiful little bundle of misery. Not even a handful, more dead than alive. I never would have dreamed back then that I would one day look back on that moment as the instant our lives would change completely.
Who is "I"? I'm Lydia Ackermann, a cat lover, diver, and a graduate in business administration and law. Aside from my childhood dream of becoming an animal researcher (or a pastry chef), I never imagined I would one day launch an animal welfare project in southern Egypt.
It had all started so peacefully: Viktor (my husband) and I were on vacation in Marsa Alam in December 2020 when Europe imposed a widespread lockdown. Instead of flying back into lockdown, we simply relocated our home office to Egypt and stayed in Marsa Alam. At first, we lived, worked, and dived in a hotel. In the spring of 2022, we rented an apartment in Marsa Alam and commuted between Switzerland and Egypt.
Since my consulting contract ended at the end of 2022, I had planned September 2022 for diving in Egypt to consider what I wanted to do with my life from 2023 onward. I went diving, set up a cat feeding station in the stairwell, and took care of the dogs in front of the building. I also began volunteering two days a month for spay and neuter campaigns in Marsa Alam, trapping dogs and cats for surgery and releasing them after successful operations. And it was during my very first shift that this fateful moment occurred, ending with a small, sick kitten in my hand.
The pitiful little thing weighed less than 300 grams. Viktor and I named him Beamy and postponed our flight back to Switzerland to haggle with the little kitten over every drop of (expired) kitten milk, get crushed antibiotic tablets into his tiny mouth, and rejoice over every little bowel movement. We didn't know if he would make it, but we gave him our full attention and carried him around constantly.
Alone, without any professional support in Marsa Alam, we bombarded our veterinarian in Switzerland with questions.
When we couldn't postpone our flight back any longer, our friends Kurt & Silvia took over: "We'll pull him through!"