Egypt!!!

Craziness reigns in Egypt. As soon as we met people working at the border control we could tell the major challenge which lay before us would be avoiding manipulation and bribery from almost everyone from the taxi drivers to our tour guide. Of course, not all Egyptians we met were like this. In fact, our tour guide at the Hanging Church, in the Coptic Quarter of old Cairo, was a young lady who is learning Spanish so she can go to Spain to preach the Gospel because she’s realized, as she’s shared her faith with tourists at the church, that the Spaniards she’s met do not know much about Christianity. So, besides the multiple instances of corruption we encountered, our time there will go down as one of my most prized memories.

We left to drive south towards Elat in Israel with George, Nash’s brother, late Thursday morning. He dropped us off at the border crossing around 4 or 5 where we encountered our first “adventure” – acquiring a visa and getting a taxi to drive us to Cairo. We ended up having to pay a high fee for a visa because, not knowing that we needed one beforehand, we had to get the visa on the spot. A “friend” of one of the guys who made us fill out border crossing forms performed the deed for us. I sensed an incredible shadiness about the deal, especially as they tried to get us to purchase a taxi ride as part of the deal that we HADN’T agreed to. We were exhausted.

Once we finally got through that ordeal, we met a couple of men standing around taxis in the dark, dressed in robes I’d seen Muslim men wear in South Africa. After negotiating a price, we began our night trek to Cairo. Upon entering the city, I felt like I was in New York City – all of the bustling, traffic, and people living on top of one another – minus the skyline and some of the flashiness. We could see the outlines of many of the beautiful mosques. People walked through the street between the cars like they were weaving through a crowd of people – barely grazing the fast, honking vehicles.

After meeting George, our guide at the Canadian Hostel who helped us plan our time there (thank you Chris for the Canadian “in”), we passed out. Morning came soon for us. The rest of the day, a pre-arranged taxi drove us around the city to see the pyramids, a papyrus museum, and a Nile dinner cruise at night. I about flipped out when I saw the pyramids rising above the city skyline – what a contrast!!

The highlight was getting to ride camels around the pyramids. Now I can say I’ve fulfilled the stereotypical “thing-to-do” in Cairo. It was still out of this world. And yes, the pyramids are huge.

The dinner cruise gave us much laughter because of the entertainment on board. We could not help laughing at the Egyptian man on the boat who sang “Hero,” by Enrique Iglesias. Later that night, Geir, Elias, and I made our way to the Hard Rock Café – YES!!!

The next day, we wasted time sleeping in and trying to find a bus schedule from a bus station – however in the afternoon, we visited the area of Cairo where Mary, Joseph, and Jesus fled. The Hanging Church was a highlight, as I mentioned earlier, not only because of our guide, but also because of the magnificent Orthodox artwork that was there. I wished my dad could have seen it (in his retirement, my father paints Orthodox icons). There are tremendous amounts of symbolism in Orthodox art and architecture. For instance, the roof of the church is constructed like a boat, after Noah’s ark. Noah and his family represent passing from death to life, since they were the only humans that survived the flood.

After rushing around the Coptic quarter, we began the next phase of our journey – traveling to St. Catherine’s to hike the mountain in time to watch the sunrise. Little did I realize how arduous this journey would be. However, after riding at least 4hrs in a taxi and climbing four more hours to the top of the mountain – there is nothing in the world that can compare with watching the sunrise at the supposed spot where Moses received the Ten Commandments. It was Sunday morning, so as soon as the sun peeked out over the horizon, the atmosphere split with the sound of church bells. Oh, the final resurrection cannot come soon enough!!!

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Egypt and am grateful for the opportunity to have gone!