Yes folks, that is right. It seems as though me and 80 of my best friends were just delivered from Egypt across the Red Sea into the deserts of Sinai. Sound familiar? I thought so.
So I think it's fair to say that everyone knows that Egypt is in a full fledged revolt against their government. If you don't know what has been going on, then here's a link. To be completely honest, we were completely protected and didn't face any truly dangerous situations. However, I would just like to point out a few of the cool "coincidences" that occurred before, during and after our extended field trip to Egypt.
Before we began, our first schedule said that our Egypt trip was actually supposed to be 2 or 3 days earlier. I don't know the original reasons for delaying our trip, but whether it was by coincidence or providence it was a great thing for us Jerusalem Center students. The trouble began on Tuesday, and had we gone the two days earlier, then we would have been touring the Cairo Museum which is right downtown where the protests took place when they started. However, with our revised schedule we were out in Giza away from any trouble and were unaware of any unrest until we arrived in Luxor that night (way down South and very far from danger). We spent two days in Luxor seeing the Valley of the Kings, the Karnak and Luxor temples and lots of shopping. Then we took an overnight train back up to Cairo. Once we arrived back in Cairo we were informed that we wouldn't be able to go to the Cairo Museum as it was supposed to be the "Friday of Wrath". Instead we took a trip to see some more pyramids...our professors hadn't even been to some of them before. While we were out there I was with our tour guide Islam and was talking to him a bit and he checked his phone, and unfortunately internet, and phones had been cut by the government. So we were out in the wilderness with no access to anything and had no clue as to what was going on in Cairo. Anyways, our outing was fun but it ended around noon and then we were confined to our hotel for the rest of the day. So we hung out by the pool, played spicy questions, and watched CNN a lot of CNN. It was crazy to think that the images we were seeing were just 20 minutes away. That night while we were all fast asleep one of our tour guides Achmed decided to break the nationwide curfew, and his wife's wishes, and drove as far as he could into downtown Cairo and then walked to the Cairo Museum in attempts to protect it from looters until the army could arrive. Once the army arrived he left and during his walk back he was caught in some crossfire and was hit in the leg by a rubber bullet. When he got back to the hotel, our JC doctors bandaged his wounds. That was probably the closes we came personally to any "action". The next day was again supposed to be filled with touring Cairo, instead we woke up early and made our way to Sinai. On the drive out we had to drive on 6th October Bridge which is a main bridge, we were told to shut the curtains and our driver sped up fast, there was lots of honking, and since I was in the back of the bus I of course peeked. We were passing a shopping mall where cars were pulled over, some burned, and saw looters, lots of looters running into the mall. Then, 30 seconds later we were out, and on our way to Sinai. Sinai was definitely a highlight of the trip, it was peaceful, spiritual and full of awesome friends. Again had the trip gone a day longer, we would have missed out on my favorite part of the trip. We would have gone straight to Israel and skipped out on Sinai. I'm so happy that that didn't happen.
Timing was key during our week in Egypt and things worked out so perfectly to make the whole experience amazing.
Today in our Palestinian class our professor told us that the Egypt we went to is now history. Egypt will never be the same, and we got to be there during the start of something new. Whether that new thing is good, or turns out to be bad...we all feel very fortunate to have experienced Egypt and make it around in complete safety.
So I think it's fair to say that everyone knows that Egypt is in a full fledged revolt against their government. If you don't know what has been going on, then here's a link. To be completely honest, we were completely protected and didn't face any truly dangerous situations. However, I would just like to point out a few of the cool "coincidences" that occurred before, during and after our extended field trip to Egypt.
Before we began, our first schedule said that our Egypt trip was actually supposed to be 2 or 3 days earlier. I don't know the original reasons for delaying our trip, but whether it was by coincidence or providence it was a great thing for us Jerusalem Center students. The trouble began on Tuesday, and had we gone the two days earlier, then we would have been touring the Cairo Museum which is right downtown where the protests took place when they started. However, with our revised schedule we were out in Giza away from any trouble and were unaware of any unrest until we arrived in Luxor that night (way down South and very far from danger). We spent two days in Luxor seeing the Valley of the Kings, the Karnak and Luxor temples and lots of shopping. Then we took an overnight train back up to Cairo. Once we arrived back in Cairo we were informed that we wouldn't be able to go to the Cairo Museum as it was supposed to be the "Friday of Wrath". Instead we took a trip to see some more pyramids...our professors hadn't even been to some of them before. While we were out there I was with our tour guide Islam and was talking to him a bit and he checked his phone, and unfortunately internet, and phones had been cut by the government. So we were out in the wilderness with no access to anything and had no clue as to what was going on in Cairo. Anyways, our outing was fun but it ended around noon and then we were confined to our hotel for the rest of the day. So we hung out by the pool, played spicy questions, and watched CNN a lot of CNN. It was crazy to think that the images we were seeing were just 20 minutes away. That night while we were all fast asleep one of our tour guides Achmed decided to break the nationwide curfew, and his wife's wishes, and drove as far as he could into downtown Cairo and then walked to the Cairo Museum in attempts to protect it from looters until the army could arrive. Once the army arrived he left and during his walk back he was caught in some crossfire and was hit in the leg by a rubber bullet. When he got back to the hotel, our JC doctors bandaged his wounds. That was probably the closes we came personally to any "action". The next day was again supposed to be filled with touring Cairo, instead we woke up early and made our way to Sinai. On the drive out we had to drive on 6th October Bridge which is a main bridge, we were told to shut the curtains and our driver sped up fast, there was lots of honking, and since I was in the back of the bus I of course peeked. We were passing a shopping mall where cars were pulled over, some burned, and saw looters, lots of looters running into the mall. Then, 30 seconds later we were out, and on our way to Sinai. Sinai was definitely a highlight of the trip, it was peaceful, spiritual and full of awesome friends. Again had the trip gone a day longer, we would have missed out on my favorite part of the trip. We would have gone straight to Israel and skipped out on Sinai. I'm so happy that that didn't happen.
Timing was key during our week in Egypt and things worked out so perfectly to make the whole experience amazing.
Today in our Palestinian class our professor told us that the Egypt we went to is now history. Egypt will never be the same, and we got to be there during the start of something new. Whether that new thing is good, or turns out to be bad...we all feel very fortunate to have experienced Egypt and make it around in complete safety.
No comments:
Post a Comment