US citizen seeks Egyptian friend believed to have settled on Mahe |03 March 2012

Recently Mrs Mitchell’s son, Jonathan Westring, contacted Nation all the way from New York asking for help to find her mother’s friend. The information he sent has been compiled into the following story which is believed if Amir himself or anyone who knows him read, will afterwards hopefully get in touch with Mrs Mitchell through her email address which is patricia950@optonline.net

Mrs Mitchell said she has lost Amir’s contact information but she knows he moved to Seychelles around 2009-2010.
“My friend’s name has changed since we knew each other years ago, but it is an Egyptian name of which I am unsure of the new spelling,” she said.

“Amir and I met at an international boarding school in Cairo when at the age of three I was placed temporarily in the school’s care by my uncle, who had travelled to Egypt to assess the Egyptian market for his firm, American Molasses, which at that time was headquartered on Wall Street in New York,” added Mrs Mitchell.

“Amir was one of the first children I met at the school, and at the age of five was a full-time student. Seeing how sad I was after my uncle let me, he came up to me and comforted me and we fast became friends.  We became inseparable and would wake each other up in the middle of the night to tell each other secrets,” she recalled.

Mrs Mitchell said after her uncle and Amir’s dad met, they realised they had business interests in common and a relationship was formed between her uncle’s company and the Egyptian government.  “This relationship ensured that Amir and I would continue to see one another,” she said.

A year or two later, there was a lunch for all the parties involved in the deal at a famous restaurant in downtown Manhattan near Wall Street called Delmonico’s. 

“Amir and I were invited and we were feted for having bringing the parties together. It was great fun and everyone was very nice to us,” said Mrs Mitchell.

“The contract that was signed brought Amir’s father to New York and my uncle to Cairo on a regular basis allowing Amir and I to see each other often. Our families became very close, and Amir and I started taking trips around the world with our families.

“When I was about six, I travelled with Amir’s family to Seychelles on vacation. Amir and I had a great time playing on the beach on Mahé; it was a lot of fun. I also took trips with Amir’s family through Africa, including to Tripoli and Cape Town.

“As a child I also visited my extended family in Europe often. It included a cousin I had in Amsterdam, a cousin in Germany and another cousin in Switzerland. Amir would visit my cousins and I when I was staying with them.

“A close friend of mine in New York would also join us on our trips. We all became great friends and with our families, we travelled around the world together visiting one another and taking trips. It was a very lovely childhood for all of us.         
“When we were in high school, Amir and I wrote to each other constantly and continued to visit each other whenever we could.  He went to college in the US and so we saw each other more frequently. “During this time we also became engaged, and attempted to marry a number of times, but neither of our families wanted the marriage due to the American-Egyptian differences.

“We ended up marrying different people and Amir moved back to Egypt and then later moved to Europe where he had his work, although we continued to see each other whenever he was in New York on business.

“When I last heard from Amir, he may have said his home in Seychelles was on the beach. I believe in the southern part of Mahé, more precisely at Anse Baleine, but I am not sure. Amir also mentioned there was a large Egyptian community in the area of Mahé where he lived. I believe Amir is in contact with this community and therefore any information from the Egyptian community in Seychelles may also help me locate Amir,” said Mrs Mitchell.  

Therefore anyone who reads this article and who may either know Amir or has information on the Egyptian community in Seychelles, Mrs Mitchell would very much appreciate if they could contact her on her email address given above.