12/16/2009
Wow. I can’t believe this amazing trip is actually over. The whole trip was like a beautiful dream. Everything about the trip was incredible; the thousands of years of history that we got to witness, cruising down the Nile, riding camels, going up the sand dunes and too many things to list. The students were all very good and mingled together nicely. I think everyone had a great time. Since everyone else is writing about all the great places we’ve been to, I will write about some interesting facts. To start off, we have been on four continents in less than two weeks. We started in the United States (North America), and then we landed in Frankfurt, Germany (Europe). We then went on to Cairo, Egypt (Africa) and later crossed into Asia via the Suez Canal to visit Sinai. We have used every means of transportation possible; planes (nine in all), buses, trams, an overnight sleeper train, a cruise ship, motorboats, feluccas (Egyptian sailboats), camels and horse driven carriages. We have met people from all walks of life. Everywhere we went there were groups from all countries of the world speaking languages we could recognize and many others we could not. Many students were surprised that even climbing Mount Sinai, there were so many other groups, it was amazing. We also interacted with many different people from Egypt itself; people from Cairo, Luxor, Aswan and many cities in between, Nubians in their villages and Bedouins in Sinai. Every group is very different from the other. Even the color of their complexion varied widely, from very pale to very dark. We visited sites from all the three main religions of the world; mosques, churches and a synagogue. We saw Christians and Jews going to Mount Sinai and St. Katherine’s Monastery for their pilgrimage. We saw more than one Mass at different churches and we heard the call to prayer from different mosques. We went through temples ranging from five thousand years old to less than two thousand years old. We shopped from very different types of markets; local markets, tourist markets, specialty stores, street vendors, airport stores and even from the people who were steering the boats. Even though I have been to Egypt many times, this trip to me was very educational and fun and packed with activities. There were many things that I got to do for the first time. Taking a cruise down the Nile was a great experience. As one student said, now I know why people go on cruises. I would definitely do it again. Going to Abu Simble was a dream come true. Going to the Nubian village was fun and entertaining and at the same time very educational. Overall, the trip was great.
Posted at 4:15 PM by Omaima Ebeid