Origin Story

To say it all started with a mango is an over simplification, sure, but it didn’t *not* start with a mango.

Ahmed and I met on a beach in a hippie town on the Red Sea coast of Egypt. For those of you who don’t know Dahab, you should. It’s a diving Mecca for free divers and scuba divers alike. There’s even a Netflix movie out about it (The Deepest Breath).

What’s great about this story though, is that Dahab has been a special place for each of us, separately, before it brought us to each other. We met at a time when each of us needed a break – break from covid, break from stress – and a chance to reconnect with nature and ourselves. In different ways, we felt called back to Dahab.

It’s a small desert town, the kind you walk around barefoot and forget what day of the week it is. There’s approximately one bar (false, but it feels like it): Coral Coast. Waterfront, tables in the sand, a dance floor when needed, and a very simple bar set the scene. A few nights in a row, we had caught each other’s eye, but later admittedly were both too shy to say hello.

Enter Zaki. The night of Zaki’s birthday, I had organized a party. Because Zaki has big main-character energy and his wifey was out of town, I stepped up to the task. Mido ended up at Coral Coast, and when he realized the reason for the party, he found the birthday boy. Seeing this was my in, I jumped over for a “Zaki, who’s your friend?!”

Minutes after meeting, Mido asked me on a proper date set for the next evening. I accepted, but from that first minute, we talked until the bar closed, sat in the sand, munched a mango and watched the sunrise.

And it’s been Mido and Tolo ever since.