Egypt -- Jim & Donna's Excellent Adventures, Pt.6

     

     Our day of tourism had several more elements that made a long day even longer, namely, a visit in the late afternoon to a cafe for Turkish coffee to keep us going and food that no one was hungry for-- but which we ate anyway -- before rushing off to see a light show involving the Sphinx and the Pyramids. 

 

     After a long day under hot sun and steady wind, the cool of evening, carried by that same steady wind, felt chilly. 

    At one point, the wind carried sand as well so we had to mask up. We had expected to use our masks a lot, but discovered there was little need except for occasions such as this when we needed protection from sand.

 

    The programmed commentary accompanying the light show essentially covered information we had heard from our tour guide earlier in the day.

    But photographs I tried to take that might have made the light show of some interest to readers of this blog did not come out well.

    At the end of the light show we reboarded the van for a trip from Giza to our last destination of the day, Nagy's home in Cairo. We consider it great good fortune to have been afforded the opportunity to visit a number of homes in Egypt -- pastors' homes mostly and, on this occasion, Nagy's home. 

Here we met his wife, three daughters, and 14 year old son, the youngest.

Danil, pictured here, felt particularly at home with Nagy's family since two of his daughters and his son had learned French at school. Danil, born and raised in Haiti, carried on long conversations with them in his first language, French, and reported that their French skills were very good.

 

Nagy, standing, is a brother from Dr. Atef's Wesleyan Church in Cairo. He now lives, works, and worships in Cairo; but he grew up in Asyut, where his parents and grandparents attended the first Wesleyan-Standard Church established in Egypt.

    Our team leader, Matt, carried on a conversation with Nagy and Nagy's younger daughters, exercising his Arabic. They in turn used their English, at which they were quite proficient, with us. It is quite impressive for those of us who are, sadly, mono-lingual to hear these young people shift effortlessly among several languages.

    When we learned we would be going to Nagy's home after the light show, we suggested that we were quite full from our late lunch; and that it would be "OK by us" as guests to have something less filling instead. Customary hospitality would have dictated that we be served dinner, but  Nagy accommodated us. He said he would make sahlab for us, shown here as the white drink. It has golden raisins and crushed pistachios sprinkled on the top. Matt, who had tried it on previous trips to Egypt, had already given glowing recommendations. 

Sahlab proved to be outstanding. Just what we needed after a long day of touring.

    Before we left, I went out onto the balcony to view what I could of the neighborhood. There is no way for me to tell from the outside of the neighboring buildings what the apartments were like given the darkness, the narrow streets, the uniformly unrevealing exteriors of the high rise apartment buildings.

    Even in daylight I am not sure these building exteriors would give much away -- despite my curiosity about such things.

    What I do know from our visit to Nagy's home is the warmth of welcome we received from his family. The opportunity to see where and how they live and experience the fellowship of conversation were exactly what we needed to highlight our long day.

    We got back into the van for an hour's ride back to the hotel sometime after midnight where we fell straight into dreamless sleep.