Kids Are The Same Everywhere

Our guide took us to lunch at a park, overlooking Cairo.  The park was about 15 years old and had been built on the slag heap from some building work that had been done.  It seems to be a grassy oasis amid the downtown homes and buildings.  The park was full of kids and families sitting in the shade of trees and heaps of teenage kids, just hanging out, trying to impress one another.  We sat and watched a group of young kids playing near, round, then finally IN the fountain- let's face it, it was well over 30 degrees and I was tempted myself!  They had to run away and hide when the security guard came and it was pretty funny sitting up high watching the kis outwit the guard.  The teens were taking selfies and photos of one another and pairing off for little walks together.

We asked our guide about the headscarf as most of the girls were wearing them and he said it is not an Egyptian thing, it has just caught on and the girls feel the peer pressure to wear them.  He said his wife does not, but keeps one in the car when she goes to her sisters houses as they both do.  He said that in a class 20 girls might wear the scarf and five not, but eventually they all start to wear them as that's the go!  the only girls I recall seeing in the park without one, was a bride and her bridesmaid, so the head scarf is a pretty strong fashion statement!

Ian and I went for a walk and I had been teasing him a bit as he was wearing shorts and walk boots and it's not a look I recall seeing on him before ( hehe- enough said) and as we walked round the park, we both had a bit of an audience, which I put down to the walk boots........but maybe not?  At one point I was set upon by about seven ladies, with what appeared to be Mother, leading the charge. They were wearing their black robes and headscarves and came racing at us like a bunch of Nuns late for Sunday Mass.  The mum was making 'photo' signals and I still thought it was Ian they wanted, but NO, it was me!  I opened up my arms, which immediately filled with the whole extended family ( of girls) for the photos.  They laughed and giggled and the mother hugged me and kissed me on both cheeks ( and I rolled with it, being the cuddler that I am!!!) and they took their photos, but I still have absolutely no idea what it was all about!?!?  The only thing I can put it down to, with my newly dyed dark locks, is my striking resemblance to Sandra Bullock!

The Egyptian Museum

This morning we travelled from Gisa, into central Cairo to visit the old Museum. It was built in the late 19th Century and contains artefacts from ancient Egypt.  Entering anything here, including our hotel involves going through security, like metal detectors etc and this Museum is no different, but is more poignant as the building right next door has been completely burnt out in a terrorist attack.  I can't remember the details but our guide pointed out the Government House, the American Embassy and the American University all within a stones throw and said they were on high alert as threats had been made against Museums.

Inside is more like an old, dusty warehouse, than we are use to with our Museums.  The light is very dappled as the windows are not tended to and exhibits, although mostly rocks and pretty hard wearing, are open to the touch.  Some pieces are inside glass cabinets and some have the crystals we have inside pills to suck out moisture.  I also saw ancient papyrus stuck with tape and inside frames, the value of which must be through the roof, as some are over 5000 years old.

The skill of the ancient engineers and the craftspeople is nothing short of astonishing as items fit together so neatly and if made from more than one piece, are pinned or hinged so cleverly that it is hard to comprehend the age and tools they were made with.

One of the prize collections in the museum is the contents of the tomb of King Tutenkhamum, because it remained hidden until the early 20th century and therefore not looted for thousands of years and all its goodies stolen, like most of the others.  Tutenkhamum was only on the throne for five minutes, but is one of the best known due to his remains being found in one piece.  There must have been mighty wealth because must of the contents are guilt gold or gold leaf and he had boxes, inside, boxes, inside boxes for his burial chambers.  His sarcophagus was three pieces inside each other, much like Russian dolls, getting more ornate from the inside out.  He had all sorts of things for the afterlife, including food, perfumes in glass bottles, beds, his throne and a folding throne and bed, I case he needed them???  The glass bottles actually threw me a bit as this was prior to 1324 BC and I had no idea glass had been round that long.

It was an eye opener and I am really glad we went!  Museums are places of great learning and up amongst my most valuable lessons today was that the price of two pieces of toilet paper at the Museum is five Egyptian Pounds AND you pay up in advance. Woe be tied of you need more than two.  I guess you go out and ask?

Memphis, Camels and Pyramids

We have had a very full day and there was too much to take it all in.  We started the day in the Museum in Memphis and got a history lesson about upper and lower Egypt coming together.  We saw statues carved over 5000 years ago and came to understand how they are so definite about there history, due to written records, both on paper and in stone.  The way the early Egyptians built is nothing short of incredible and the accuracy of cuts on stone up to three hundred tonne each is amazing, especially when they are cut with bronze hand tools.  Amazing how such a clever race of people could not figure a way to dispose of their own rubbish other than the street or into the closest waterway!

We rode a camel, went inside a pyramid, had a traditional lunch, probably got ripped off a few times, but generally have had an amazing day.  We finished this evening with a light show where the story of the pyramids is reflected off them in colored lights and projected images.

We have been back in our room less than ten minutes and Ian is sound asleep behind me!  They have said it will be about 32 degrees tomorrow, but.... Wait for it...... probably about 38 the next day!!!  I didn't bring clothes for this!

Sorry, I have just read this back and I have used about six too many 'amazing's but I am too tired to go back and change it, so it will have to stand as is.

Cairo Tonight

Getting from the airport was an adventure, as you can imagine.  The main highway is used by cars, trucks, donkey drawn carts and pedestrians, but also at one point stalls, tyre shops and just places to stop and tend to your derelict vehicle.  The horn must be used as some sort of 'I have travelled ten meters' celebration as, from where I am sitting on the deck of our hotel, they are a harmony of beeps, toots and honks.  This afternoon we were able to hear the call to prayer which echoed out across the old stone buildings and things seemed to go quiet for a time.

From our hotel room it looks like we could reach out and touch the Pyramids and tomorrow we are going there to start our day of touring Cairo.  The two Pyramids we can see are very smooth looking, either by design or by age and wear.  Doug said they were smaller then he imagined but they look pretty impressive from here.  To get here we followed a main highway on which housing runs down either side of the highway and one one side from the airport is rather new-ish looking, but it's hard to tell because it's all made from the same brick type material, but on the other side is a demolition site, that is mostly still occupied!  Parts of dwellings are lived in, while the other side of the same place is roofless and falling down.  We passed big areas that looked like demolition had occurred, but when I asked our guide he said it was natural 'it is desert'  (imagine this said in Egyptian heavily accented English) and politely he did not add 'dumbass"'

The sides of the highway (and I am talking side of highway! not grass verge ) that are not occupied by previously mentioned tyre outlets, stalls etc, are built up with paper and rubbish and quite frankly, the whole place looks like it needs a darn good inorganic collection.

It's amazing!  It's totally not what we live with and that is what makes it so interesting......

Cairo- Home to Twenty Million People

Our flight arrived about 11 am, local time and we were met inside customs by our tour guide.  He helped us get Visas and change money and finally after going through immigration without so much as a serious good look at us, we arrived at the baggage claim.  Not too dissimilar to home, except there was a total disregard for a) your ankles- as people just moved straight through you to get their bags and b) personal space (heard of it?????). The baggage handlers could be seen through the St Bedes curtain, ( my personal name for those plastic things at airports)throwing bags on, near or just in the general direction of the carousel.  I am guessing Egyptian people not send their chrysal via air???  At one stage a folded up pushchair got stuck by the St Bedes curtain and bags were either jammed up behind it or leaping out overtop of it, so some passenger had to climb onto the conveyer belt and free it while the workers looked on from behind the wall.  Our bags took an uncomfortably loooonnnnggg time to arrive and there were the beginning of a trickle of fear that I may have had to spend the next month wearing this same outfit! But...no! Through they came, right near the end and we were off, through customs, where once again no one looked at us and off out of the airport and on our adventure 

It's A Long Way To The Other Side of the World

We have arrived in Cairo after about 28 hours and three flights.  It is now just a distance memory how loooonnnnggg the flight from Melbourne to Dubai was.  We were sitting two seats from the back of the plane right beside the hostie station and the toilets for the back half of the plane.  Every time someone needed something the hosties  would clang and bang right next to us or the toilet would do the shooouT!! Noise as it flushed.  We also were in no mans territory when the hosties  had a Mexican standoff right by us, then forgot to bring our food.

But we're here now and to be perfectly honest the flights were pretty good and let's face it, I wasn't the only person having to sit there!

More Relocatable Classroom Adventures....

Late Sunday night, another relocatable classroom arrived on site and was placed in a tiny back corner of the school.  The driver of that house moving truck managed to negotiate rather successfully, considering we were in the throws of Cyclone Pam.

The truck that brought in the footings, however, was not so successful and managed to bog to the axles in our previously swampy adventure playground.  The house moving company then proceeded to pull their truck out, using a tractor and I walked away as the truck slid tenuously close to the retaining wall.  The house moving company obviously succeeded in getting the truck out and fences were placed in anticipation for the arrival last night of two more classrooms.

Imagine my surprise, when the same house moving company who had bogged a smaller, lighter truck, bought in a MUCH larger truck carrying a MUCH larger load and tried to drive it across the SAME place they had bogged yesterday. 

These people obviously did not get their education at The Gardens School!