July 18th A Day of Being a Tourist in Cairo!

 Tues. July 18^th My day to be a tourist! This is  really a Travel Diary not much of a Mission Diary!

In the team emails & packets the schedule was a lil confusing. For today it said “free day” on one & “Team Day” on another. I emailed to see if it was a free day & was told it was so Lisa & I booked a “Tours By Locals” to see some of the Cairo sights. Yesterday they said there was a “Team Day” going to both the oldest & largest Mosque & “Coptic” or Christian Church in Cairo. I explained we had already booked & paid so I was grateful Lisa & I were able to keep our plans. Our guide Ranan & a driver picked us up at 8 am & we first went to the pyramids before it was too hot. The drive was about 30 min & OMG driving in Cairo may be the most frightening place of all I have been, no signals, people just honk & are about 3 inches from the car next to them. Every car you see has dented or scratched areas – literally impossible to not get into accidents & so many “close calls” always. I could never drive here! That being said, we were in a van so a bigger car that the small cars would give deference to & our driver was skilled & we got to the pyramids in about 30 min. Ranan gave us all sorts of info about Egypt on the drive. We passed the area where the protests/revolution against the corrupt government took place in January 2011. She said that the average salary is about $130/month for a family of 4 & right now the cost of housing for a very dilapidated apartment is at minimum $100/month so even people with “steady jobs” very little money in general.

There are pyramids in all 10 areas of the country but the Giza pyramids we went to are the most famous & closest to Cairo. Ranan took us to a specific entrance where we would also connect with our Camel “guide” Mohammed. Since we arrived by 8:30 it was still cool & not too busy which was wonderful. We entered near the Sphinx & she explained the human head or intelligence of a man & body or strength of a lion. I am HORRIBLE with my history knowledge in general & this was not different so the information she shared was “new to me”. The pyramids were made with Limestone from Cairo, Granite from Aswan & Alabaster from Luxor. So 3 different types of stone. I understand why the pyramids are one of the 7 wonders of the world – they were utterly amazing to see and it is so perplexing to consider how 4000 years ago they cut & moved these huge pieces of stone into place without using any other materials simply stacking them & creating these magnificent structures. There are temples connecting some of the pyramids, places where the bodies were taken to be mummified & so many areas or “tombs”. We walked thru the area with Ranan then connected w/ Mohammed &he promptly used my scarf for a proper head covering & I got on my camel Rasmus to ride up to the  “grand plateau” where we could see the 3 main pyramids known as the Father, Son & Grandson & then 2 sets of 3 smaller pyramids known as the Mother, Wife & Daughter. Mohammed was wonderful – he stopped us at several places to take the “fun pics” it was like having a private photographer. He even made a video of us with Egyptian music! Our time on the camels was about an hour riding thru the pyramids & even touching & walking thru them. What a bucket list experience! I am so glad we came early by the time we were done it was getting very busy already & warm.

From the pyramids we went to see how papyrus was made - which was fascinating. And they have used papyrus for thousands of years here to write their history and stories in hieroglyphics. They now also have art on papyrus & I bought the “Tree of Life”. We also went to an essential oils place which was interesting, but I feel like those oils are made in so many countries now each with the unique scents from the country.

After that we took a “Sail in the Nile” on a Feluga. I ALWAYS love being on any body of water so that was relaxing & invigorating & our Feluga guide was this very old sweet Egyptian man who loved taking photos with us. The area of the Nile that is in Cairo moves fairly slow & because of that some small “islands” are created. The water is pretty dirty & I am told no one really swims in it in this area.  After the sail Ranan took us to a very famous restaurant for Koshary – Egypt’s National Dish at a place called Abou Tareks. The owner started on the street corner years ago with this one item & still only serves that one item. It is a  dish with 2 types of pasta, rice, dried chickpeas, lentils, crispy onions. It comes with a tomato sauce & you can season it with Garlic olive oil, a seasoning salt & a spicy sauce (which I did not add to mine), The place was packed they serve this one item at one price per person (about $1.50 US)  & was a great lunch! They told me to google it which I will have to do!   

From there we went to the Egyptian Museum (which is actually right across from our hotel) to see all that was found in King Tuts tomb when it was found in 1922. While my kids studied Egypt for maybe an entire month In 6^th grade my knowledge about pharaoh Tutankhamun “ King Tut” was minimal & seeing all these artifacts was pretty incredible. The tomb had 4 rooms & was filled with over 5000 items. Most impressive was the multiple gold elaborately decorated coffins & all the jewelry & items of royalty. I had no idea he became a king at age 9 & then died unexpectedly at age 20. Also at that museum was a statue that was discovered underneath the site of the pyramid we were at today. Plus it housed the mummies of King Tuts grandparents…those were a lil creepy to see how well they were “preserved” – hair, fingernails – WOW!!! That ended our 8 hours together & we had done SOOOOO MUCH!!! Lisa & I were exhausted so we went for a lil rest. This was the most energy I had expended since I got sick & I was feelin’ it! I got up after 90 min to meet Pres. Marcous from the Egyptian branch & I am going to make that a separate post.

We had a team dinner scheduled at 8 pm at a “famous restaurant” We sat on the floor & they brought out things that I wouldn’t eat even it I didn’t have a sensitive stomach…lots of meat that included liver, beef on bones, lamb & more. The presentation was impressive the food not to my taste so I stuck w/ the saffron rice 😊 Our large area had a 10 pm reservation after us…this late night lifestyle is so foreign to me…as we drove back to the hotel at 11 pm the streets were INSANE – so much that we had a police car help get our large bus thru the streets to our hotel. Lisa had to go into the hospital for the 9 pre-op patients & I got all my stuff ready for our first day. Tomorrow will be a slower start day with only 3 tables as some of the physicians are at a training. I am so thankful I was able to have this day in Cairo & for our wonderful guides! Pyramids - DONE-the rest of the week will be all about the palates