Egypt v2

      “Weary, why haven't you updated?” You ask feverishly, wondering if our ship sank sometime between Egypt or Morocco. Or perhaps we were over taken by pirates? Or Cthulu finally rose and our boat was his first snack? No, the internet just really, really sucks. You see, glitches see to be as much a part of the blog as my writings. I did send a snippet about Egypt to the blog, but it seems to have disappeared before it cold be published. And in my infinite knowledge, I forgot to save it onto this computer. Thankfully, I have a lot of time right now, so I’ll write something new.

        The most interesting thing about Egypt is the split between Ancient and Modern Egypt. Duh, you may say. Hieroglyphs vs Arabic. Pharaohs vs Imams. But it’s more than that, really. Egypt is a third world country. This is the thing that struck most of us in SAS – seeing beautiful structures years old telling stories about a wonderful society ahead of its time. But on the trips back to our 5 star hotels, we saw people living in houses that probably would have been condemned in America. Other houses were left unfinished to skip out on taxes. Many carts were drawn by mules that were whipped by 10 year old boys missing teeth. Almost every woman we saw was covered from head to toe – unlike Istanbul and Morocco, were women dressed like westerners were strikingly common.  That isn’t to say that growing Islamic practice is the issue. It’s the perversion of the book that’s the issue - something we’ve seen in America as well regarding other religions.

       So yes, it was nice to see the Pyramids (I have some spectacular pictures of them at sunrise) and the Sphinx, and I enjoy talking to the vendors in Arabic, more than a few SASers have told me Egypt was their least favorite port. I enjoyed it – I had already prepared myself for what I was going to see, and I occupied myself with learning Arabic. I used it often when talking tp guides or vendors. On occasion I would have to say ‘La Shukran’ (no thanks) or ‘Andi le Foloss’ (badly pronounced – I have no money) to vendors eager to sell me plastic pyramids. However, if you go to the SAS website blog and scroll a bit to Egypt, you’ll discover more mixed feelings.

        I’m counting the days until I return. Right now, I’m only one or two hours ahead of EST, and will be back Saturday. Make no mistake- I loved the experience. I’m just ready to be home. I’ll try to update about Morocco before I get back

-Ta’aben  (Tired)