Saturday...We visited a market in Cairo in the morning to buy some"junk" to to take home. Bob and Sarah took honors for best bargain makers. From the market we went to the Citadel where we spent time in the Mosque with our tour quide who was Muslim. He was very informative in their culture and religion. Had a buffet lunch (more cucumbers and tomatoes). Then on to a perfume factory. Wow! We all needed to get fresh air after that! On to the Egyptian Museum. It is hard to comprehend artifacts that are 4000-5000 years old. So very much history, so many artifacts and so little time. King Tuts tomb was a highlight. Our tour then took us through the "real Cairo" with VERY narrow streets, donkey carts, camels actually being used as a means of transit, markets, BMWs, motorcycles with dozens of eggs stacked on the back, and a glimpse of life in the outlying areas. Then a short stop at the Egyptian Cotton store. The prices of bed sheets are comparable to the USA for this fine long-staple cotton. Our tour guide treated us to a cup of tea in a local tea house (men were served first!) Our day continued with a neat "sound and light" show at the Giza pyramids. This was an informative historical narrative of the early Pharaohs of Egypt. Seeing the pyramids lit up at night seemed to impress on us the true size of these ancient, amazingly straight-line structures. We ended our day with dinner at our hotel, devotions and good discussion of our day!

What do Mickey Mouse, Michael Jackson, Magic and Banana have in common?

We are back in Cairo--arrived last night. We finished yesterday at a couple of homes, mudding walls. We had interesting last day--not only did Bob get mud sprayed all over him by our Habitat for Humanity Coordinator, he received a marriage proposal from a local Egyptian woman in the village. He insisted she meet Stephanie---the end. Needless to say, we were filthy for our long ride back to Cairo. We ditched our security entourage because their car broke down. So, we gave them 3 bottles of water for their radiator and waved goodbye and good riddance. Then our bus driver made double time and made it back ahead of schedule to Cairo. We had our "thanksgiving dinner" at the hotel.

Today (Friday), we visited the Giza pyramids and went down an extremely narrow and tight shaft (11 meters) into the Queens pyramid. We then met Minnie Mouse, Michael Jackson, Magic and Banana, who were our stinky, gurgling, farting camels that we rode through a portion of the desert, behind the pyramids. We then visited Memphis (not Tennessee) where a significant statue of Ramses is located. This is where a kookie Egyptian insisted on a photo with Bob, and then wanted a tip. We lost Ron for a moment, then found him wearing a Egyptian headdress....does this sound like a tourist or what? We couldn't find him because he blended in like camouflage!

We spent the remainder of the day in downtown Heliopolis, with the masses of Egyptian youth, hanging out like normal teens. We had a great meal, then went back for our daily team devotions over dessert and wine.

We're looking forward to some bazaar shopping tomorrow.

Tastes like Chicken

After a couple days without internet access, we're back, alive and doing well. We've had two busy days of working on a couple different homes about 1 hour from El Minya. We've been loading, sorting and moving limestone blocks (about 1600 yesterday), sifting sand, sanding walls, plastering walls and nailing roofs onto homes. The work has been very rewarding the people of the village are so very thrilled to see us, especially the children. They love to get their photo taken and tell us "he-lo", which is the only English that they know. The ladies of the village have graciously served us tea every afternoon, which we've enjoyed, and they've also lowered the sugar content to our liking.

We still have our entourage of security and today we had to wait for the lead officer to finish praying (he's Muslim) before we could leave. We have gotten used to the calls for prayer that happen 5 times a day in the village as well as the animals freely roaming and the never ending dust.

For dinner Monday night, several in the group ordered stuffed piegon, which we were told is a delicacy in Egypt. The overall impression is it "tastes like chicken".

Dinner Tuesday night was on the Nile River on a boat tied to the shore. Massive amounts of food there were wonderful! A fun night that included our own security boat watching out over us on the Nile. The security guards are now warming up to us...smiling more and saying hello.

Poverty is still overwhelming to us. These families are so incredibly poor and we want to do is give all the small children a good bath! They are so pleasant and we'll be sad to say goodbye to them, as I'm sure they'll miss us. At dinner tonight, we discussed how thankful we all are of our houses, families, good health and how being here does make a difference in their lives.

Tomorrow (Thursday) is our last day of the build. We'll be heading back to Cairo tomorrow night.

Monday, November 24

The drive down to El Minya was about 5 hours on a small bus. To our surprise, we were even more popular than we ever imagined! We had our own personal security detail. The first guy looked like he could work for the president! Half way down we picked up a total of 3...count them 3 trucks of soldiers to escort us to Upper Egypt. (lights and sirens were a bonus) As anticipated, we made it without incident...other than the crazy driving and the sirens.

We had dinner last night at the hotel and then got up this a.m. and headed to the community which is about 1 hour from our hotel. The scenery changed dramatically from big city to desert to small village. And I mean small.

We were most definitely on display! Our mode of transport, load of security, dress and overall coloring/hair type made us super stars! The men were all wearing the traditional galabeya and the women were in dresses. Kids wore pretty much whatever they could get their hands on. Our blond hair, especially the women, made our team a huge hit!

We started out by visiting with the local partner of HFH. They gave us the history and work that they are currently doing. They talked about how HFH has made a difference in the community offering new homes as well as work for many of the local men. We then went down to visit a nursery school and greeted 100 little kids. They sang 3 songs for us. One was Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes. We only know this because they did the motions. We handed out little gifts to them afterward and they were thrilled!

We then gathered up our gear and headed to our houses. We were split into two groups. One group worked on wood roofing 2 different homes and the others moved limestone blocks (yes, they are as heavy as you think they are) and sifted sand. It was dusty work, but very rewarding to see the amount that was moved in such a short time.

Just before we left we were served hot tea by the owner of one of the houses. It was super strong and super sweet. Got a nice little buzz from that.

We're here!

Just a short message to let everyone know we arrived in Cairo very early this morning (2:30am). We had an 8 hour layover in Amsterdam, so we took the train into central Amsterdam. We were shocked to walk out of the train station into snow!!! The temp's were in the upper 30s with a sharp wind. We did a walking tour along the canals and stopped for lunch to warm up (several times...). All our flights were on time and the best news of all---everyones luggage is here! Our team consists of 4 Californians and 3 Arizonans---we're a small team, but strong! We're leaving shortly today for El Minya and are anxious to see Egypt in the daylight! We have a 5 hour ride ahead of us. More later!