Careening Through Cairo

Hello from Morocco!

Once again we are in a new country, but once again I am writing about the country we just left. We spent 6 amazing days in Egypt, with most of our time being spent in Cairo.

I need to start with the driving theme that has been following us around the world. Cairo is a very large city with traffic like nothing we had ever experienced before. I have another left turn story to tell. For one thing, if you need to turn left, you have to drive past the place you need to turn, make a u-turn at the next available opening and go back. This process can be a quite challenging one since there are more cars, people, and donkey carts on the road than you can begin to imagine. Yes, you read that right… donkey carts. On the way in from the airport as we were on a major three-lane road filled with four lanes of vehicles, up comes a donkey cart in the midst of it all, changing lanes no less! We really tried hard to get that picture but just didn’t move from surprise to action quickly enough. These pictures don’t begin to capture the reality of Cairo traffic, but it is the best we can offer you.

Our first morning in Cairo we hired a driver to take us to Maadi Community Church for Friday service. Friday is to Egypt what Sunday is to us in America. It was an outdoor church under a tent connected to space owned by an Anglican Church. We sat in plastic lawn chairs and had a great experience. After church we went to Jared’s Bagel shop, owned by Troy and Sarita Stringfield. It was really a pleasure to meet them and their three kids. They treated us to bagel sandwiches from their shop and we sat outside eating and getting to know one another. They started this one little shop several years ago and now their business has grown to include providing food services to three international schools as well as the Cairo Proctor and Gamble building. From what we could tell, business was growing quite nicely. In addition, they told us about some really neat projects they have been engaged in involving orphans, both those who are still in the orphanage as well as those who have “graduated”.

Then we were off to be tourist! We had the best guide we could have hoped for. Her name is Dalia and she has spent her whole life in Cairo. She had such sparkle and paid attention to our every need and desire. Most of the trip we had her to ourselves, which of course made for a nice experience too. She took us to see several pyramids, the Sphinx, the Antiquities Museum, the Mohammed Ali Citadel and Alabaster Mosque, and the Khan El Khalili market. In between these attractions she took us to an Egyptian rug school (where we bought a small rug), a papyrus school (where we bought a papyrus painting), and a perfumery (where we bought perfume). Do you think there is a plan there on the part of the tour guides?!?! Yes, there was probably some sort of commission going on, but we enjoyed every experience and were very pleased to go and buy.

I think our two most significant memories are tied to the pyramids and the market. While touring the pyramids it suddenly hit Maynard that we were probably looking at the same setting Moses looked at when he was dealing with Pharaoh. Wow! Talk about surreal! He was also significantly moved by how much effort the kings went to in hopes of preserving their legacy, power, and wealth. The phrase “you can’t take it with you” was apparently unacceptable to them. These massive pyramids were built by thousands of servants/slaves over periods of sometimes 20-30 years per pyramid in order to prepare a place for their dead bodies to be housed along with wealth, food, and perfumes. Sometimes their servants and pets were even killed and embalmed at their death so they could serve the king in the afterlife. And the huge and intricate pyramid tombs were constructed to protect all of this from thieves because if the tomb was robbed of the treasures or bodies, their afterlife was robbed along with it. And even with all of this effort, all of the tombs we saw had been rediscovered empty. Seems to underscore the phrase and reminded us that we had better secure a very different kind of “it” if we want to take “it” with us.

The market dates back to 1400 and is a maze of small shops, sort of like the shops in NYC’s Little China on steroids. Dalia took us deep into the shops far past the area a tourist usually goes to. There was every thing an Egyptian household could possible need right there in the market. Every purchase was made with haggling. And the deeper we went into the market, the denser the throng of people was. Maynard loved the part deep in. I was glad in this case to get back to the tourist section! With Dalia’s help we haggled for a few gifts before we left. The picture below shows how very crowded the market was.

We also took an overnight excursion to Alexandria which was just OK. I think perhaps Dalia had spoiled us for any other guide. We felt a little bit like we were being herded, but we did get to see the Catacombs, Pompeii’s Pillar, a Roman Coliseum, Montazah Garden, and the Alex Citadel. Our hotel for the evening overlooked the Mediterranean Sea. It was nice to sit and watch all the throngs of people, cars, donkey carts, etc move through the streets in the evening. We noticed that everyone walks along either holding hands or with their arms hooked together…. girls, women, young men and occasionally even the grown men. When we returned to Cairo and were on tour with Dalia again, I really enjoyed walking along this way with her. It seems to connect the conversation even more.

We ended our time in Cairo with Troy and Sarita’s family. We took a felucca ride on the Nile River. Sarita brought food from a traditional Egyptian restaurant and we set up a picnic on a table on the boat. It was a wonderful end to our trip, cruising along in the cool evening breeze with just the 7 of us. The noise of the city seemed to drift off into the distance and we had a great time sorting out all our Cairo adventures with them. By the way, to all of you who contributed to their gift pack, they send a hearty thank you for everything.

We set out for our flight to Morocco very early on Tuesday morning with only one unexpected blip…. an extremely large excess weight baggage charge of $500! We grasped as we whipped out a large chunk of change we had not planned for. If things are the same when we leave Morocco on the same airlines, we will be faced with the same dilemma. We have a few ideas on how to minimize this some, but don’t see how to get past it all together. UGH! But we have decided we aren’t willing to allow this to darken the view of what is truly continuing to be a trip of a life time.

Until the next publication of the Belson Big Adventure Times…..

Love,

Maynard and Sheryl

PS - I just had to include this picture of our first laundry night. Let me just say I have expressed much gratitude to the Lord for the washer and dryer back at home that I have taken so much for granted up to now!