Hey, I made it! After stopping shortly in London to switch planes, I was finally on my way to Cairo, Egypt. Once I made it through customs I grabbed my bags and waited for about 2 hours for the Wiebe family to arrive from Athens. I was SO excited and relieved to see them! That moment was pretty epic...I dropped by bags, Erin dropped hers and we ran up to each other almost wiping out in the middle of the baggage claim, attracting quite the audience of airport staff!
On our first day here we spent most of the day trying to find a hotel after there had been a slight confusion with bookings at our original hotel. They had overbooked and with the ‘high season’ of tourists at this time of year we were left with nowhere to go. But thanks to our amazing tour guide, Mohammed, he was able to make some calls and book two rooms at a different hotel.
Friday was probably the best day ever! We spent about 3 hours riding camels through the desert sand and around the pyramids! Oh my goodness – what an amazing opportunity this was! AH – you should have seen my reaction seeing the pyramids for the first time! They are absolutely incredible, and WAY bigger than I expected. It was so much fun – my camel’s name was “Ricky Martin”
We also visited a few places such as a papyrus museum, an Egyptian cotton store, an essence perfume store, and a special jeweller. Later that evening we went to a “Sound and Lights” Pyramid show, where the pyramids light up and they tell the story about the pyramids while playing music. It was pretty sweet to hear the story of how the pyramids came to be...while sitting right in front of them!
Saturday we spent a few hours in the famous Egyptian museum, filled with historic artefacts found from the pyramids and tombs. It was so interesting! It included treasures, gold, jewellery, mummies, and even the remains of Cleopatra; all found inside the pyramids or tombs. We also visited a little restaurant to try “Koshary”, a very popular dish in Egypt. We’ve had it numerous times over the week – it was very good!
That evening we attended a dinner/dance cruise ship that floated down the Nile. We had a blast! We enjoyed delicious food while watching some unique types of dance. Megan and I were called up to belly dance with one of the dancers – it was pretty fun!
Sunday we visited the Pharonic Village, which is a tour demonstrating the different periods and history of Egypt involving real life actors. My favourite ‘scene’ was where they acted out finding Baby Moses in the Nile. Their costumes and props are so cool, and of course we know that story so it makes it even better! That night we went to the market, which was an adventure in itself! Erin, Megan and I tried to manoeuvre our way through the 2,000 or so stalls without getting lost. But, we were successful and made many friends along the way!
On Monday we drove to Alexandria, where Alexander the Great ruled and built his fortress. We visited the underground tombs as well as the library which is so incredibly huge. If it’s not the biggest in the world, it must be up in the top 5! It is, however, classified as the world’s largest “reading center”. Alexandria is beautiful as it is right on the Mediterranean Sea. We were able to sit down and enjoy lunch right on the water.
Tuesday was our last day. In the morning we went to “Dream Land” which is one of Egypt’s amusement parks. Again, we had so much fun and didn’t want to leave! Later we took a boat ride on a traditional Egyptian “Faluka” (the ones they used thousands of years ago) down the Nile.
The last few days have been so incredible and surreal. Egypt is an amazing place and the people make it even better! I don’t know if I have ever come across such friendlier people. Although, this was more of a fun vacation week, we were able to get to know some people quite closely, including our tour guide who arranged everything, Mohammed. On the night we arrived at the Cairo airport, we were a little flustered about getting to our hotel, but Mohammed stepped in and offered to help. He was so happy we trusted him that first night and ended up spending the entire week with us, introducing us to his wife (who had a dream about Ayana and Moses!), getting us great deals, buying us gifts, spending entire days with us (when he didn’t have to ), taking us to his favourite places, and even taking over the bargaining in the market to help us get better deals! He is such a generous and genuine man, so if you ever visit Egypt let me know and I’ll give you his business card!
As sad as I am that our time in Egypt has come to an end, I can hardly sit still knowing that we will be in Uganda so soon and I’ll be able to visit everyone at the Kibaale Community Center, including my two sponsor babies Joan and Ivan!
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