Egypt: Enough said!

Once upon a time I became a world traveler and added five- hundred stories a day to my inventory of unbelievable things that have happened to me in my life; let me indulge if you will. My way to Egypt we went to a few tels (archeological sites) then we ended up spending the night at a kibbutz called Ketura. What a Kibbutz is, it’s a little oasis in the middle of the desert and a socialist group lives on it. They share everything and they always remind you that they’re happy even though they have nothing (I was hoping for a little more self evidence: personally). They fed us dinner (their version of a hamburger) and we swam in there pool. I almost found myself staying when they introduced me to their massive dairy; my cow whispering scenes kick in and I found myself communicating with those animals they begged for a Kansas man to be their king; very tempting.


We made it into Egypt with a few small directions 1) Don’t drink the water 2) Don’t drink the Juice and 3) don’t ride the Camels. After getting to the Hotel I found myself being offered juice, it was really good! I then ate fish for dinner after I finished the doctor came up to us and said, it’s probably not best to eat the fish. I felt bad so I rushed home and brushed my teeth with the tap water. Egypt wasn’t my A game.

We went to the light and sound show at the pyramids and the next day we returned for a tour of a few tombs. As I was walking by myself some man came up to me and said, WOW are you Egyptian? I said no, He said are you sure because that’s an amazing mustache. (The man knew how to get into my heart). After a good conversation he told me he wanted to give me a gift, I refused for a moment and then took the gift; explaining to him I wasn’t going to pay him. (The gift was a head dress). Long story short next thing I knew this man had me on a camel in a head dress walking around by the pyramids. I knew I wasn’t in the best situation in the world however I knew I could get out of it. Just then uncomfort began to dwell within me as I saw my professor coming over screaming. He yelled at the driver to put me down, the driver (of the camel said no, I was in control of the ride not him) so my professor got up in his face and said if you don’t, I’ll call the police, the driver started to arguing and in a moments glance I remembered that I wasn’t supposed to be on that camel. As my professor ran away screaming I miraculously remembered the reason I was on the camel; I wanted a picture, so I told the man to take the picture and put me down, the man told me to hold on, I told him NO and I reminded him that this professor would send me back to the states if I didn’t get down. What did I do next? I got ready to dismount a camel Kansas style, I rocked back and as I was ready to jump the man knew I meant business so he took the picture (one is nice the other is me getting ready to jump). And he put me down. After I was down, that slime ball had the audacity to ask me for money. Let me digress a moment to fill you in on the Egyptian culture, everything at those sites are gifts from the people but they demand money as a thank you. Okay so back to the story after I was down and the guy wanted my money, I gave him an old scotch blessing, handed him a dollar, took my hat from his hand and walked off. The man again asked for more so Stepped back and demanded my money dollar back, he said no and shut his mouth. My professor was waiting for me arms folded and face angry. After being yelled at for 5 minutes (I don’t remember anything he said besides this is not funny, and they would take you to the wilderness and steal your money). Anyway He told me the whole bus was waiting for me so I ran to the bus to find nobody on the bus. Smartly, I didn’t go find them, I waited all by myself like a little child. The professor eventually came over and invited me to go back with the class as I walked away he said, oh by the way how much did they get you for? (In some ways I think he said that hoping I would have lost tons of money so I could learn a lesson. To inform you on how prevalent this is, one girl paid 30 dollars for a 3 dollar head dress, some paid 20 for post cards and 30 for camel rides.) When I told my professor that I got postcards, the ride, and a picture for a dollar he didn’t believe me, when he found out that was really the truth he said, Oh those guys must hate you, oh man you must have really pissed them off.

Because I wrote more than anyone is willing to read the rest of my trip (remember that was day one) will be quick. We road on a train, a plane, boats a few times across the Nile, carriage rides, we did a camel ride in which I found myself opening the eyes of the drives to a new world of farming and cattle. We went to Tomb of tut ankh Amun, Min-Rahina, the second Pyramid the Valley of the Kings, Giza Pyramids, Al-Deir Al-Bahari Temple, the Luxor Temple, Karnak temple, Imhotep and Saqqara Pyamid, Hard Rock Café, KFC, an amazing museum, and we hiked Mt. Sinai. (We did tons of other stuff but that’s the main things that I can remember). Oh and I took a group of 13 girls into town, wow they were scared out of their mind when they realized we were in a dark alley in the middle of Egypt, (I don’t think any man can keep 13 girls calm).

Now for my last story, there is a song called the Walka Walka (spelling isn’t even close I’m sure). It was played for the world Cup. A kid in the group taught us the dance and I wired the song into everyone’s headphones, long story short we have 40 people at a time doing this dance in different places we go. (All the professors and tour guides love it, all but one (the one who yelled at me because of the camels). Anyway long story short we’re not supposed to do it anymore because we did it at one of the Egyptian sites and our teacher didn’t like it. Now let me tell you the story from our point of view. As we were doing this amazing (silent dance) people from all countries were filming us and taking pictures of us, as we were doing it once, a few officers came over and told out tour guide that we needed to stop because that wasn’t allowed, the tour guide (a local Egyptologist named Islam) was amazing and told the guards to let us finish and then he would go to the head officer and speak with him. As the tour guide went to the head officer he showed him what we were doing and the head officer said, “That’s awesome, how do they all know how to do that. They loved our dance that proves that music can heal the world.

Well I must conclude because I have a small feeling that nobody will make it through this blog besides mom. I have a large feeling that mom is very disappointed and scared for me. I hope you enjoy it. Mom I enjoyed my trip it was very spiritual and I learned a lot, don’t take what I write to heart, all the teachers Love me save it be one, however I do respect him and I’m doing everything he asks so I think we will be okay. I hope you enjoyed my trip I sure did, but I am glad to be back at Jerusalem which now feels like Home.

-Shalom