As the military helicopters fly over Cairo and the Nile  with waving Egyptian flags in solidarity with the Egyptian people, the  military leadership has given President Morsi forty-eight hours to do something…..either resign or accept the will of the people. Emotions are high.   One report I heard was that there were 22 million people estimated in the streets of Cairo yesterday and not the 100,000 I posted. Who knows, but there are  a huge amount of very energized Egyptians out exercising their democratic rights and thank God, the military seems to be on the side of the people, at the present. There have been some deaths, but I am not sure how many.  Since so many people read and responded to my post on  Egypt, I thought I would  share a happier time for my family when we visited there in the 80’s with our children.  There are some pretty strong comparisons to India which have crossed my mind quite often lately. Someone told me once that only India can compare to the throngs of people, poverty, slums and beggars of Egypt. Well, having seen both now, I would agree, at least from the places we have gone. But the huge contrast for me, is the  Egyptians seemed much different in temperament, much more high strung than the Indians. The Indian  attitude, to me is  “this is just the way it is”.

We visited Egypt after a semester in Rome and travel around the Mediterranean Sea. We were a young family with two children, Katie who was 12 and Chris , who was 6,  We had traveled very little  before our huge adventure in Rome.  After the semester was over, we traveled with the two children for 2 months .  It is hard to believe we did that , but we were young and foolish, I guess. We often slept in one or two beds trying to save as much money as we could.  Egypt, for an architect, is a life-long dream, so of course we had to visit the land of the pyramids!

First landing at the airport in the middle of the desert with men in dresses was like landing on another planet. We were not used to people being so crowded on the streets and so vocal in asking us for “bakshish.” We weren’t even sure what it meant but soon figured out it was money.\

Due to the overcrowded non-stopping  buses,  we had to walk most everywhere we went in Cairo or take an occasional cab. Once my husband gave a cab driver a tip and he replied, “That is not enough!” David said, “It is a tip…extra. What do you mean it is not enough?”  He was plagued with constant haggling which we were not used to at all and he greatly disliked.

We walked through the streets and would see no one who looked like us. People would come up and touch our light hair and children would ask, “What time is it? And “What is your name?”  These were questions  they were learning in English at school.  People would ask us why we weren’t in air conditioned buses like all the other Americans. They would say, oh rich American family. At first we said, no, we aren’t , but how silly we were. We were traveling with our two children  and the Egyptian people were demonstrating against  the rise of a loaf of bread from half a cent to a cent!  We were invited in to people’s apartments for tea and had lovely visits.  That would never happen in the US. First , people are too busy to reach out to strangers and too afraid.  We were treated very well as “strangers”.  We felt quite welcome.

One more place that stands out in my memory is the Valley of the Dead or huge garbage dump where the poorest of the poor tried to eke out a few cents from the things others had thrown away as garbage. They lived nearby in boxes or broken shacks.  Children were often the pickers, working instead of going to school. A too familiar sight in India as well. 

There are more Egyptian tales to tell , but that is enough for today.  Pictures of  poverty, hope for freedom, and people just doing what they can to get by, this is today’s post.   My husband had said that he had wanted to go to Egypt for his whole life but when he got there , after 20 minutes he couldn’t wait to leave. I felt completely opposite though I was  very emotional about the poverty during much of the time.  Egypt was too  much for him.  We did stay the allotted 10 days and maybe I will tell those tales another day.  Today though, I want to  end with an Arabic blessing . . . inshalla…which translates to”If it is God’s will”.  May there be  peace, freedom and prosperity for all the  citizens of  this ancient country of Egypt….Inshalla!

Nameste. . . .  .This is Egypt through my eyes.  . . . Anne