Walkin' in Memphis...The Real One (Part I)

Greetings from back in Athens! I took a few days off from writing because I am fighting off respiratory congestion and all the glorious symptoms that come with it. I guess you could call it my parting gift from Egypt. Now it seems that we are all fighting it. The Artemis Hotel used to resound with the joyous echoes of laughter and singing...now you go down the hall and hacking and sneezing is all you hear. There is a trail of tissues leading from the bathroom to our bedroom because Lacey and I were too sick to even dispose of it. Lacey said that last night amidst other talking in my sleep I rolled over and announced, "I want to die." The good news is-- I feel better today. I am still coughing a little bit, but my voice has risen from deep bass to that of a young male whose voice just changed. My head is much clearer, I'm cutting down on the medication-- so I wanted to write. I was very blessed to feel great the whole time we were in Egypt-- it was only on the last day to Alexandria that I began to feel sick. So-- let me, in the best way I know how, try to convey to you how blessed I was by this cultural experience. I have been a lot of places, but I have never been to a place that contrasted the life I am used to in such a vast way. I am going to, in no particular order of importance, tell you ways in which I was touched by my time in Egypt.

1. The relationships-- Our group became very close to our tour guide, Osman-- and our bus driver Magdi-- they love to give tours to Harding students. Osman is perhaps one of the greatest people I've ever met. He prefaced and concluded every statement with "God willing" or "If the Lord wishes.." It made me realize how much I say "good luck" or "this place is so beautiful." I am trying now to replace that with giving credit to God. Osman loved to hear us sing worship songs. Tears would fill his eyes, which usually led to most of us crying. He is still a practicing Muslim, but he is strongly leaning towards Christianity. He knows what he would have to sacrifice if he fully dedicated his life to Christ and that is weighing on his heart very heavily. Osman-I am convinced--has connections everywhere in Egypt. All we had to say was "I know Osmen" and people would let us through. We had ear pieces in at all times where he would help us and give us advice. He helped us shop and get good deals-- and would tell us when people were ripping us off. He was actually quoted as saying, "Jake, if you buy that at that price, I will hit you over the head very hard." Haha.

2. The Temple at Luxor-- We have seen more temples than I can count over the past few weeks, but this one held special importance to me. This is the temple where Moses studied and grew up as a child. Osman showed us the spot where the men studied and we sat on that spot and sang. It was one of the most moving experiences (and led many of us to tears)-- knowing that this hero of faith we have learned about my whole life was at this very location.

3. I love mummies-- Call me weird, but I LOVED the mummy room. You only had to pay a few extra Egyptian pounds to go in, but it was so worth it. I couldn't believe how well preserved they were. You could still make out distinct facial features, some hair-- even eyebrows on a few! Most impressively, I stared into the faces of the two Pharoahs that are the final candidates as to being the "Exodus" pharoahs. King Ramses II or Thutmoses III. If it was Thutmoses III, Queen Hatshepsut (who I also saw) would have been the daughter who picked up Moses as a baby out of the Nile. That just gave me the chills as I stood there over their bodies. Totally unrelated and not as sentimental, there was one mummy who I swear was smiling-- and another who died in battle-- and his skull was crushed by a battle ax-like thing. Guys would love this exhibit.

4. The Nile--Speaking of picking baby Moses out of the Nile, I was blown away at how massive the Nile River is. I guess when I heard all the Bible stories, I pictured Moses being drawn out of a nearby stream-like body of water. Try again. Our cruise boat was joined with several other cruise boats and the look-out was farther than the eyes can see. On Sunday, Mr. Myhan told us to look out the window and imagine all of that being turned into blood. After seeing that, I would have let his people go!

5. I think the world needs to dance-- I wish our problems with the middle east could be solved with a dance. Case in point-- dance nights on the ship. After dinner, this DJ would turn on weird Egyptian music and we would go on the stage and dance around to the best of our ability to a sound very foreign to our American ears. For the first few nights, a group of Muslim women, men and children would sit in the audience, watching us with a mixture of confusion and laughter. The last night, I suppose after seeing us butcher their native music all they could bear, they joined us on stage. Shy at first, they stood at the edge of the stage. We asked them to join us and included them. They soon taught us how to dance to their music and I have to say it was one of the most memorable experiences I will ever have. We laughed together, struggled to find the beat together (haha), and found similarities within our differences. We asked the DJ if he had any American music-- to which he proudly boasted the Macarena and the YMCA. Though not as impressive, we too got to teach them some of our moves!

6. The Pyramids-- Pictures do not do these structures justice. Standing at their base, you feel small and somehow insignificant. I couldn't help but wonder how in the world they built these structures without the construction equipment we have today. I think if you called up Bubba John & Co today (pretend construction company) and asked them to bring out their cranes and tractors and build one of those, they would moan and groan-- imagine doing it without the help of modern equipment. 2.3 million blocks of stone. 120,000 workers. Even the small pyramids, taken apart, would build a wall around France. The sphinx was just as impressive as I thought it would be. I have seen this structure since my days watching Disney's "Aladdin" and it was amazing to see it standing before me in all its glory! I even got a picture kissing it. :-) OH! And it was in Giza that we got to go in one of the pyramids. Despite feeling claustrophobic and having to breathe in years of body odor, this was an amazing experience! We crouched down and walked until we got to Khafre's tomb at the bottom of it. So neat! The Solar Boat museum here was pretty impressive as well. We had to put weird sacks on our feet to keep from dragging in the sand. (That was random, but we all had sliding races and enjoyed this feature!) They found all the pieces to this boat and reconstructed it. We found out these were used for carrying the body of kings to their place of burial. The thing that went through my head was: If I was one of the builders, would I be bitter that my hardwork would only be used once in a short trip across the sea? They probably felt honor and pride-- shame on me.

7. Step Pyramids in Sakkara-- Though to me they weren't as impressive as the Giza pyramids, I was still in awe of these being so OLD. They are the oldest pyramids and are built in step form. I understand their reasoning in not letting us climb them (like maybe because they would eventually decay and fall down..haha) but that's what I really wanted to do. The desert went on forever it seemed and men on camels just added to the stereotypical scene I would expect.

8. The massive Ramses II statue in Memphis-- Let's face it: we've seen a lot of statues. This is the statue above all statues! It is lying down on its back and I go up to its fist! If there is a statue you are unsure of in Egypt, a guess of Ramses II will probably result in praise. Apparently, the guy was pretty fond of himself. I just couldn't take my eyes off of it. I saw it from every angle. I climbed some stairs to get a better look at him. Memphis was the first capital of Egypt and was a cool place to visit. I enjoyed the outdoor museum there.

9. Valley of the Kings-- First of all, the warmth of this day was amazing. When we visited the pyramids, it was FREEZING and non-Egypt-like. It was nice to feel like I was exploring this desert country I've studied my whole life. We visited many different tombs, but I think my favorite was one where we had to climb up the side of this mountain to get to it. (Thutmosis III). It was on this day that Jordan got his camera taken away for snapping photos in a tomb-- he got it back though because our security guard helped him out. Sneaky Noah still manages to get away with taking shots.