Egypt: Jim & Donna's Excellent Adventures, Pt. 1

         We arrived in Cairo mid-afternoon on Thursday, May 12, about 36 hours from leaving Houghton, having had brief periods of dozing. At the Cairo airport we bought a tourist visa on site, met Nagi, our man on the ground. Nagi "took care" of things that clueless travelers from North American needed help with. That is to say, Nagi, a Christian brother who is a friend to everyone and who has friends everywhere, took care of every thing big and small.   

    As it is my custom to take photographs as a source of information and as an aid to memory, I tried taking pictures out the van window. Digital photography allows one the luxury to take many and then choose. On this trip into the city most of my photographs are unsalvageable blurs.

    But tellingly for me from the few that remain are the crosses on domes, crosses that I had not expected. In this way the first cracks in my American preconceptions of Egypt appeared.

    At street level, once off the super-highway, our view reminded me a great deal of cities we had seen in China.

    Initial impressions can change, of course, but it is pretty typical from my observations for wares to be displayed out front as well as in the stores. The buildings, too, are often tan or grey, wires and electrical units visible.

    This photo has no traffic and few people and relatively few wires strung about, perhaps because we had just exited the highway and were only beginning our way into the city.

    By the time we reached the hotel, checked into our rooms, and brushed our teeth, it was pushing 8 p.m., getting dark, and time to reboard the van for a ride to the restaurant for our first authentic Egyptian meal, Koshari.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   A bit of research on Google will reveal that Koshari is the Egyptian national dish. It is also a popular "street food" apparently, although how one would manage on the street is a bit beyond my powers of imagination.

    We were told ahead of time that it was vegetarian and delicious.

    We were seriously tired from travel and might have voted to go straight to bed if that had been an option. But for the record, missing this meal would have been a serious mistake. It was beyond good. A great way to be introduced to Egyptian foods, and a great welcome to Egypt!

    Our waiter performed some theatrics in pouring the sauces and sprinkling the toppings over the rice, pasta, and lentil base, which added to the fun.

    We returned to the hotel close to midnight and slept like babies.

Egypt -- Going? Going? Gone!

   Although we were given several pages of Arabic conversational phrases to ease us through the language and culture barriers a North American traveler to Egypt might encounter, what we discovered --  invested with newer, profound meaning -- were terms we already knew: The Lord will provide. God is Good. Thanks be to God!

    On this our third attempt in the last 18 months to make the journey to Egypt, we were able to satisfy all the Covid-19 requirements and protocols and to board the plane for Cairo. Since we were flying out of Toronto, that meant, satisfying Canadian rules, Egyptian rules, and U.S. government rules. No small task.

    Our original commission had been to represent Houghton Wesleyan Church at the Centennial Celebration of the Wesleyan-Standard of Egypt. The original anniversary date passed without any delegation from North America. The first alternative date, early December 2021, passed without the Houghton delegation, Donna and me, although a few veteran travelers from the Atlantic District (Canada) of the Wesleyan Church did go. When we were eventually invited to join a small group of those had also found the door closed in December, led by Dr. Matthew Friedman of Kingswood University, we began repacking our bags. Here, I believe, the phrase "God's timing" is appropriate. For a number of reasons this was a better trip for us to join, in our view, than the one that went in December.

 

 

    During our nine days in Egypt, book-ended by two very long travel periods,we brought greetings from Houghton Wesleyan to Wesleyan churches in Cairo and Badhr City (lower Egypt), Asyut (middle Egypt), and Luxor (upper Egypt). And we returned with specific greeting from those churches.

    We met with pastors in all three places to hear their particular stories and to broaden our understanding of what God is doing in and through the Wesleyan Church in Egypt. In addition we worshiped with the congregations of numerous church. In and around these church visits, we were able to "do" the tourist things one would hope to do on a trip to Egypt, notably visit the pyramids and Sphynx in Giza and visit sites in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor.

    There is much to tell and report and show about all of these things, both in church and in conversation as well as further posts on this blog. But for now this brief report will need to be sufficient.

    As has often happened, our experience is that the best part of the trip was the people we met. We have brought them with us in our hearts and memories, along with a few tangible reminders and a deeper understanding of those little things we say. The Lord did provide. God is Good.

    Thanks be to God.