Egypt

We are enjoying our second full day on the continent of Africa, country of Egypt, city of Cairo! I must say that Egypt is unlike anywhere I've experienced before!

NOTE: This blog is about 10 times longer than what I wanted it to be. So I highlighted some points of interest for those of you who would rather just scan it! It won't hurt my feelings at all! But, if you want to read a mini-novel, go for it!! And if you would like to check out a slide-show of pictures, go to our Moscow Missions blog (address to the side of my blog)!

BRIEFLY ABOUT CAIRO
The city of Cairo is one of the largest in Africa, boasting 15-20 million inhabitants. The language, of course, is Arabic; 90% of the population are Muslim, with 10% claiming Coptic Christianity (a break-away from the Orthodox church). The city streets are bustling with people at all times; we arrived around midnight on Saturday night and there were people everywhere walking the streets, shopping, and enjoying life. During the day, the temperature reaches almost 100 degrees, though we are fortunate because there is no humidity: we are in a desert! The traffic on the streets is amazing! There are cars packed bumper to bumper in the streets, communicating with a strange manner of horn blaring and some yelling as they attempt to go a few city blocks down mostly narrow, one-way streets. There are cars, motor-cycles, bikes, trucks, buses, etc. The most people we've seen so far on a motorcycle is 5; it was a family with 3 kids, perched precariously, but somehow stably as the dad maneuvered through the busy streets. So far, my worst experience has been in a car. As some of you know, I suffer from a very sensitive stomach when it comes to motion sickness. Today as we were riding back to the hostel from the pyramids, we were stuck in motionless traffic, horns were blaring, the sun and heat were pouring through the open windows along with a mixture of strange smells and exhaust from the large buses right next to us, with every passing minute soaking me just a tad more from sweat and exhaustion. Thankfully, Canaan had fallen asleep so he was not too miserable! Otherwise, we've had a great trip. I decided,though, it will be best if we can stay out of cars as much as possible! The best part so far is how much everyone loves Canaan. When you have kids, it is the best thing in the world when others look at them and treat them with as much love and awe as you do. The people here do! They are constantly waving at him, smiling and pointing, hissing or snapping their fingers at him to get his attention, and some even walk up to him and kiss him as we walk the roads. Also, he gets his picture taken quite often; many people ask (some just snap a pic w/o asking) to take his picture with their camera phone. It is not just the many people who work at our hostel, but several people in restaurants too come up and take his picture. He will soon adorn the wallpaper of half the cell phones in Cairo! Our little cutie!!
Oh, one more thing about the city is that cleanliness is not a-la-mode here in Cairo! The streets are dirty and people throw trash around a lot. Not much gets washed (like tables at restaurants). And we went to one place that sold delicious coconut juice, and after we ordered and drank ours, we realized that the way they washed them for the next person was to dip them in some water and give them a shake to help them dry!

SATURDAY
We arrived in Cairo late Saturday night, around 9:30pm, after a short 4 hour flight from Moscow. A quick bus ride from the plane took us to the terminal where we searched for the correct immigration line to wait in. I've never been so appreciative for the English language being considered the 'international' language of choice. Besides Arabic, which is extremely undiscernible to my mind, the only other language on any signs was English. While waiting in line, Dougle and I took turns walking Canaan up and down the area. This proved to be a very useful exercise when Canaan and I stumbled upon an important sign that we'd previously missed. Although we'd already filled out our visa forms for Egypt, the sign instructed us to buy visa tickets at a bank station before we could pass through immigration. They were just a few dollars each, but the mistake might have cost us our place in line if we hadn't noticed it before going through. Thankfully, everything was fine, and after an hour of waiting we entered Egypt. We quickly found our luggage and then our driver who was meeting us to take us to the hostel. Because of the length of our stay (a week), we have free transport to the airport and back, as well as a free taxi ride to the pyramids- which is very nice! We checked into our hostel, set up camp and were able to crash in bed a bit after midnight Saturday night.

SUNDAY
Dougle left for the Russian consulate/embassy early Sunday morning. He arrived an hour and a half before they opened and was the 5th person in line. He was able to practice both his Russian and some Spanish that he has picked up over the years as he waited in line, helping others and being helped by others. You can read more about his adventure on his blog. He did manage to get us all 3 month visas, which made us VERY happy! Meanwhile, Canaan and I hung around at the hostel. We played, read books and finally took a nap as we waited for Dougle. After awaking from our nap, we ventured out onto the street near our hostel. I felt a bit uncomfortable, walking without my hubby and sticking out since I wasn't wearing a scarf of some kind. The dress here is very intriguing for me. I think about 95% of the woman wear some type of scarf. Very few wear the black robes with the black head pieces that show just their eyes, but a few are still dressed like this. In fact, we saw 2 woman today dressed like this, but even their eye slits were covered with a black material that must have been see-through in order for them to see the roads! But, many of these women, I've noticed, wear heavy eye make-up. The majority of the woman wear various colored scarves that cover their head and neck. The scarves are very much a part of the fashion here for woman. Some are the same material of their robes or shirts, while others just match their outfit by color. There are various ways to wear the scarves, in various styles. Many of the woman wear them quite elegantly or in a very 'cute' manner. Half of the woman wear pants or normal American looking clothes. The other half wear either robes or fashionable skirts (jean, cargo, khaki, etc). Oh, and most of them cover their arms, so they are wearing long-sleeves in this heat! So, armed only with Canaan's cuteness, we headed out from the hostel in search of some food. I must say, I have always been in countries knowing some of the language, or with someone who did know some/all of the language. So for Dougle and I neither one to know any of the local lingo-it is quite a vulnerable and awkward feeling. However, many of the people speak a little English, even if just the numbers, which is nice, since they are written totally different from ours! Canaan and I strolled around a bit, hung out in an eatery, hoping someone would speak some English and help us, and then walked back to the restaurant under our hostel. The only thing we managed to get were lots of looks, though Canaan scored a chip and a piece of candy for himself. They love babies here! The hole-in-the-wall place under our hostel, we found out, serves pizza and the guys working there speak some English, so we ordered, sat outside on the patio area and ate as we waited for Daddy!
Later Sunday afternoon, Dougle, Canaan and I ventured out around our hostel. We tried our best (and thought we were doing a great job) to keep our sense of direction. But after a few too many turns, we were lost. We didn't realize it until we tried to start heading back and realized our hostel wasn't where we thought it should be. Instead, we found a big highway and the Egyptian museum. That would have been helpful to know where it was at, if we knew where we were at! However, after a few more wrong turns and a few right ones, we ended up in an area on the opposite side of the hostel than we thought we were at, but at least knew where we were at! It was fun and we found some delicious coconut juice- a glassful being just 10 cents! Yummy! Since then we've been able to have some more coconut, mango (with delicious chunks of fruit in it), and banana-mango juices. That night we went to a famous restaurant that is supposed to be a must-eat place from what the tour books say. It was nice, the Egyptian food was great, and it was only $25 total (including tip and tax)! Needless to say, we all collapsed, happy but tired and slept well that night!
MONDAY
Monday was uneventful from my point of view. I stayed inside the hostel, sick, all day. I ventured out for about 30 minutes, but was a bit worse for wear after it. Daddy and Canaan had some good Father-Son wanderings and I got some rest and read a book all day!

TUESDAY
Thankfully on Tuesday I woke up feeling better! We'd planned to go to the pyramids. A driver met us at 9am to take us. He drove us the 30 minute ride there, and we ended up in a small room being talked into taking a horse carriage around the pyramids. We were planning just to walk around and push Canaan in a stroller, but once we arrived, we realized we had no idea just how everything was laid out. So, after the price for our trip dropped to 1/3 of what they originally wanted, we set out. I think the horse carriage thing was our saving grace with Canaan! He loved it, and whenever we left to walk around he was always asking to go back to the horse. He would say "Bhrrr (horse sound), Back!" At one point, a man brought his camel over and sat him down for a picture. We put Canaan on the camel's back, but he just screamed. So, we are happy we didn't choose the camel ride around the pyramids. The other means around were on a big tour bus, that dropped you off in front of each thing, or walking. But we were really pleased with our horse buggy, since we were out in open air and under the shade of the little canopy, getting to see everything without having to walk in the heat or push a stroller on very uneven pavement and sand!
The pyramids were not like I expected and we elected to not go inside any, not knowing how Canaan would react to it all. We had a great time just viewing from the outside, though. The only pyramids I really had seen were those in Mexico. The stones made on the Egyptian pyramids were definitely MUCH bigger, especially at the base. Unlike those in Mexico, which were made to climb up to sacrifice people, these were not made for climbing...something I hadn't thought too much about before coming. They also were not in as good of condition. There were stones scattered around the base of one of the big ones, laying haphazardly around. I later read that some of the explorers in the 18th century used dynamite to help excavate them and find more passageways in them. They even drilled holes through some of them for this reason! So, that might have attributed to some of the worn out look of them. Also, the Sphinx is much smaller than the bigger three pyramids behind it. Though it is still big, it is much smaller than what I imagined and looked a bit dwarfed in front of the towering 3 behind it!

Well, this post is already about 10 times longer than something you wanted to read, but I thought I'd share with you everything. Hope you enjoyed. We will try to post more pictures and info as the week progresses! God bless!