Our Last Day

We are about 30 hours away from boarding our plane to return home. We have spent our final days in Alexandria eating some of the best seafood I have ever had and hanging out with some more wonderful people from all over the Middle East. Today's picture was taken in Alexandria as the sun is setting on the Mediterranean Sea.

We have experienced some wonderful adventures while in Egypt. It is only fitting that as we prepare to close out this travel adventure, we play a little game called high/low. I will share with you my overall high for the trip and my overall low. I will start with the low because I have had only two; therefore a very short list to choose from. The low, as you read about the other day, is the traffic in Cairo. Lack of sleep was the other low, but I would gladly go without sleep if it meant the traffic going away with it!

As for highs, unfortunately that list is much longer. None the less, I know I need to choose so I will go with having this shared experience with my son Sam. As I wrote about on his birthday, it was very cool to see Sam fulfill a dream and be exposed to history in a real way. Additionally, I think Sam was exposed to some pretty amazing Christians doing some pretty amazing things. I trust that God will use this in some way at some point in his life.

Sam’s thoughts:
Today is our last day in Egypt. This trip marked a major milestone in my life; an experience I will not forget too soon. I have a major paper due on Monday so today has not been as much about Egypt as it has been about researching French authors. However, I still catch myself daydreaming about the last 10 days and the amazing memories. Beyond the memories, I have met some amazing people. The people have been very helpful and very hospitable. I can confidently say that a major life goal has been accomplished. I hope one day I get to return to this land of Egypt. I am looking forward to continuing my study of Egypt both at home and some day back here in Egypt.

To the 5th grade class of NCCS, I hope you have enjoyed your virtual trip to Egypt. I look forward to sharing with you in person more of my amazing stories. I will also look forward to hearing all of your answers to the questions I have given to you over the past several days. Here are your final questions:
1. On a map, be able to show where Lower and Upper Egypt are located.
2. What are the meanings of the black and red stripes on Egypt’s flag?

Well, here ends another trip. Thank you for joining and I look forward to our next journey together. I pray that wherever your travels take you, they will be filled with fun and adventure!

Barry

Cairo Finale

Today was out last day in Cairo. We spent the morning in some of the poorest areas of Cairo. One of these areas is called garbage city. Garbage city is where much of the garbage from the more affluent areas of Cairo is discarded. Many of the people in this area make their livelihood from sorting through the garbage and separating the recyclables and anything else they can find of value; including produce that was no longer considered fit to consume. For the people of garbage city and other communities like it, this is usually their own source of any fruits or vegetables. And even this is not enough for a healthy diet. Through local humanitarian efforts, we have been able to sponsor children in these areas. Sponsorship will include some fresh produce periodically and supplies they need to be able to attend school. Our hope is that through these efforts, the poorest of poor children will be able to work their way through the school system and attend a local university. The older sister of one of our sponsored kids is actually attending the university and will graduate with an engineering degree. She will be able to get a job and hopefully change the fortunes of her family.

Today’s picture was taken at a pre-school in one of the poor communities. This is an amazing refuge for children from 3 to 7 years old. The children attend from 8am to 4pm six days a week. They watch educational videos similar to ones my own children watched when they were young. They are translated into Arabic. They also learn the alphabet and numbers in both American and Arabic. They get milk and cheese each day which is the only real nourishment they get during the day. They have a toothbrush and a washcloth for washing their faces. This is the only hygiene in their daily lives. Most of these kids will very rarely get a shower. I know Sam has a few words to say, so I will let him finish our thoughts. But I think he was pretty moved (in his own reserved way) by the school and meeting some of the sponsored children, including our own.

I will miss Cairo. I will miss the people, the food and the ancient history. I will NOT miss the traffic! I don’t think Sam or I have mentioned anything about the traffic. Just imagine the worst rush hour traffic in Los Angeles combined with a New York cabbie style of driving and you might be able to get a small glimpse of traffic in Cairo. I have lived and driven in both of those cities. I would fear for my life is I tried to drive in Cairo.

Sam’s thoughts:
Today we visited a preschool which is part of local effort to help children prepare for primary school. It was awesome the way they take care of these kids by keeping them off the streets. They learn about very important values and also very practical things like numbers and letters.

Unfortunately, we did not have the pleasure of meeting Abanoob; a child we sponsor in Egypt due to a death in the family. But we did meet another child that Madison, my new friend from Atlanta, sponsors. She was so excited to meet her child for the first time and share some gifts that she had brought for her.

We finished our day with some shopping at an old bazaar in Cairo. We bought some cool stuff and the prices were very good. I bought something that had 23 on the price tag. I thought it was 23 US dollars but instead it was 23 Egyptian pounds which is about 4 US dollars. We ate dinner at a great Egyptian restaurant in shopping mall that was very modern. And that concluded are last day in Cairo.

For the 5th graders at NCCS:
Answer to the last question:
Senefru built the pyramids and Sila is the pyramid where he is buried.

New question:
What was the name of the war between Egypt, Palestine, and Israel in the 20th century?