In the past two weeks, it would have been hard to avoid hearing of the unrest that is currently occurring in Egypt. The protests calling for President Hosni Mubarak’s resignation began on January 25. Cairo’s poverty was one of the main instigators for the protests, along with complaints about rising food prices, social exclusion, anger over corruption within the President’s National Democratic Party, and difficulty in finding jobs for many young people.

REI’s President and CEO, Roderick Beidler, just returned last week from a round-the-world trip to visit REI staff. He was joined by REI’s Regional President for East Africa and the Middle East, Rick Heupel, and together they visited REI’s staff in Djibouti, Egypt, and Jordan—and boy, were they excited about what they saw.In Roderick’s words, “Nothing substitutes for being there!”