We're Back Home

I know it's been a long time since I got a chance to blog, and we have done many things. I will try to remember and fill you in. I know it's after the fact, so many of the insights of the day may be lost, but at least it will give you a sense of what we did.

The day on the dive boat was wonderful. The weather and water were glorious. I hope my pictures capture the blues of the water. Ron did go scuba diving, and Dave was able to take some pictures of him underwater. When someone shows me how to upload them, I will post one. You leave on the boat at 9 AM and come back in at 4 P.M. Jen and I did go snorkeling and saw lots of fish and other creatures. On the boats, they do two dives, or snorkels, one in the morning, then you come back on the boat and eat lunch. You have to wait at least two hours between dives. I was amazed at what a great spread they put out for lunch...and we were so hungry! The food tasted divine! In the morning the water was much calmer and the snorkeling seemed easier. Then in the afternoon they moved to another spot, where the current was much stronger. In the afternoon, Jen decided that she was tired and didn't want to go again. It turned out to be very fortunate. A couple of girls and I went off with the guide. The current was so strong, and I consider myself a strong swimmer, but it was really hard navigating around in the water. The waves were quite large, and I felt like I was being bounced around like a ball. After awhile, the guide reached over and took my hand and kept hold of me, and we went together. That made things so much easier for me. He was able to guide me to places to see things. When I got on the boat, I told Ron..."I was never so glad to hold another man's hand!" It was a treat to see Dave go diving and I took lots of pictures. He gets an award for his patience having Mom take all those pictures.

After we got in, at 6 P.M., we caught a bus from his home town back to Cairo, which got us in about 1:30-2:00 A.M. We had time to grab a couple of hours sleep, before we caught a ride by private taxi for the 7 hour ride to Nuweiba. That is where you catch the ferry to Jordan. There is only one ferry a day, and you can't buy your tickets ahead of time, so we wanted to get there early to be sure to get a ticket. We did manage to get tickets, and the 3:00 P.M. ferry finally left at 5:30 for the two hour ride to Jordan. The difference between Egypt and Jordan is like night and day. At a later time when I have had time to process things, I might elaborate. After we got through customs, we caught another taxi for the two hour ride up to Petra. We never had reservations anywhere, what you do is just ask the taxi driver, and he recommends someplace and takes you there. By the time we arrived, we were exhausted and fell into bed. Often, during the trip, I would ask Dave specific questions about when or where something would take place...his standard answer was always..."we'll figure it out". I now have a much better understanding of what that means!!

The next morning we were up early and off to Petra which was just a short walk from our hotel. We arrived just after 7 in the morning. A friend had told us that she thought half a day was enough, so we scheduled our ride back to the ferry at 3 that afternoon. When we started, that seemed like lots of time, but as the day went on, we soon realized that we could have spent several days there. We did manage to see most of it, and Dave and Ron enjoyed climbing all over the place. I think this was the first place on our trip that Dave had not already seen. I took so many pictures, but none of them will do it justice. The different colors in the rock are truly unbelievable! We got back to the hotel just in time to catch our taxi back down to be close to the ferry, so we would be able to get off in the morning. Early the next morning, we went over to the ferry and got tickets for the 11AM ferry back to Egypt. It boarded just about 11:30, which we didn't think was too bad. Then we sat there for a long time, and finally it left about 1:30. We arrived back in Egypt around 4:30. The ferry ride was an adventure in itself, but I'll leave that till I can talk to you personally. Once back in Egypt, we caught another minibus which took us to Saint Katherine's monastary in the Sinai. When we arrived a couple of hours later, we were thrilled to find out that we were in time for dinner. Never did food taste so good to me!

Dave arranged a guide for us to climb Mount Sinai the next morning to see the sunrise. You meet your guide at 2 AM to begin your climb. As we started, the guide asked whether we would like to take the steps or the trail. For some reason, I thought the steps sounded easier. He said that it was was shorter. Well, my first clue should have been that there were NO OTHER people on the steps. It wound up being 3,750 steps to the top. I use the terms steps very loosely, it was more like rocks placed here and there or flat places cut out of the rock. They were in no way uniform!!! It was a full moon, which made it nice, but it was still a tough climb. I had to stop often to rest, but we made it to the top! Whether you take the steps or trail (which is much more gradual), you still come to a place where you have to climb the last 750 steps. They are called the steps of Repentence, which were laid by a monk. I think they are aptly named, for one would repent of anything if you were promised that you didn't have to climb those steps again. We got to the top around 5:15 and then you wait for the sunrise. There is a person renting camel blankets at the top of the mountain to ward off the chill and winds, which I felt were cheap at twice the price! We had a great view of the sunrise, then about 7 AM, headed back down the mountain. Needless to say, we took the trail down. As I came to find out almost everyone takes the trail up and down. We got back down the mountain just in time for breakfast. We relaxed in the afternoon and then later walked into town. It was so nice to walk on something LEVEL!! After dinner, we played hearts in our room. The next morning we arranged a tour of the monastary, with one of the tourist police there. He was great, and we really enjoyed our time. We saw the burning bush which they say is a cutting from the original burning bush that Moses saw. The burning bush didn't look anything like I had imagined it. I will try to include a picture next time. He even took us into the beginning part of where the monks live, leading us through a secret passage that the monks would use to escape the monastary in case it was being attacked. That was something the average tourist certainly doesn't see. We finished up around noon, then caught a minibus for the 6 1/2 hour ride back to Cairo. We arrived back, packed up all our things, then went out for a nice dinner. We had a couple of hours to relax before we caught our taxi ride at 1 AM out to the airport. Our flight was at 4 AM, so we had to be at the airport at 2 AM. We slept most of the first leg of our trip to Amsterdam. One of the things that had escaped my attention was that we had a 6 hour layover in Amsterdam, before continuing to Dulles. I must say that was the longest 6 hours of our lives. We arrived in Dulles in late afternoon local time, but the middle of the night our body time. By the time we got through customs, etc, it was a couple of hours later. We were going to stay with friends up in Fairfax, but we were sick and didn't want to expose them, so we called and they graciously brought our car out to the airport and parked it in hourly parking, so we could pick it up and just head on down the road. We will be grateful to them forever!!! We made it about an hour before we had to find a hotel and stop for the night. NEVER has a nights sleep felt so good!

We got home Monday afternoon, and I think I have been sleeping ever since then. I could not have imagined how tough the jet lag would be coming this way! I don't plan on doing anything until next week. Ron came down with the intestinal upset the day before we left, and I came down with the same thing Monday night. We both feel completely exhausted. I am so grateful that we did not get this at the beginning of our trip. We still can't figure out how this happened, because we never drank the water, or anything like that, but at this point it's irrelevant. I cannot tell you how good it is to be home!

Seeing and being with Dave was the highlight of our trip. All the sights were enjoyable, but they palled in comparison with being with him! As I've said before, I am amazed at his language skills and could not be more proud of him!

I haven't had a chance to process things since we've been home. The culture is so entirely different, that it will take me awhile to sort out my thoughts and feelings, if indeed I am ever really able to do so. At the moment, I feel like I am still in sensory overload!

Sorry I wasn't able to blog that last week, but as you can tell from our schedule, there really wasn't much time or opportunity. As I read back over what I wrote, I begin to get tired all over again. It was a busy schedule, but necessary to see everything I wanted to see. I kept telling myself, I can sleep when I get home...and that's all I've done since Monday afternoon.

This is such a long post, that some of you may have fallen asleep in the middle. :) In conclusion, I want to thank all of you again so much for your prayers on our behalf. There is no way that I can tell you what a difference that made in our trip!

Talk to you later...

Musing Mom

Snorkeling in the Red Sea

Today we went on a glass bottom boat out into the Red Sea. The color is absolutely amazing and crystal clear. Ron, Jen, Dave and I snorkeled. In the afternoon we came back and Dave made reservations for us on a dive boat tomorrow. Unfortunately I am still sick, which relegates me to snorkeling instead of diving. I'm really disappointed because I was really looking forward to doing that. But, I'm learning to be content in all situations. Ron and Dave will go scuba diving. We leave on the dive boat at 8 am, and get back at four. I am so looking forward to a day on the water. Dave is going to rent an underwater camera, so he'll be able to take pictures of Ron under the water and us as we snorkel.

As soon as we get back in, we're taking a bus back to Cairo. We'll arrive there around midnight. Five hours later we'll take a private car to Nuweiba in the Sinai. Hopefully we'll arrive in time to catch the ferry across the Gulf of Aqqaba into Jordan. We'll spend the night there, then early the next morning will go visit Petra. After we come back from Petra we'll try to get a ride straight to Saint Katherine's, where we'll spend two days at the monastary. As I understand, we'll be getting up at 2:30 to climb the mountain for the sunrise. I'm not sure when I'll get to blog again since we're not taking Dave's computer on this leg of the trip, and I'm not expecting internet access while we're in the monastary. We'll leave the monastary on Saturday morning, and hopefully arrive in Cairo in time for our plane back home.

Dave took us by to see his flat today. Now I have a much better sense of where he lives.

That's all I can think of now. Being on the water today was really relaxing and I'm tired and drifting off to bed. It's beautiful during the day here, but when the sun goes down it's much colder than I thought it would be. Thank you again for all of your prayers. Talk to you later.

-Musing Mom

Greetings from Dave's hometown of Hurghada

Since it's been a while since I've written, let me give you an update of what's been going on. I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THE SLEEPER CAR TRAIN FROM CAIRO TO ASWAN! I felt like I was in the Agatha Christie novel, "Murder on the Orient Express . . ." Except without any fatalities. We had adjoining compartments so we could open the door in between. We played hearts for much of our awake time, and the trip went by very quickly. Travelling by train is my favorite form of travel.

We arrived in Aswan about 9 am on Wednesday morning. Dave took us to a hotel where he had stayed before. It overlooks the Nile. It was amazing, especially for $20 a night. The Nile in front of our hotel was filled with sailboats sailing back and forth. It looked like a postcard. We could open our window and enjoy the breeze. Later that morning we hired a driver and went to see the Aswan High Dam and the Philae temple. After that we came back, then went on a boat ride to watch the sunset, then had dinner on a floating restaurant.

The next day was Thanksgiving. Belated Thanksgiving to all. You might be wondering, "how did you spend Your Thanksgiving?" I'm so glad you asked . . .

We got up at 2:30 in the morning to catch a 3:15 tour which was taking us to the temple of Abu Simbel. Abu Simbel is located just 24 miles north of the Sudanese border, and is on the shores of Lake Nasser. I planned to send you some pictures, but we couldn't get the camera to work with Dave's computer. So, you'll have to wait for the pictures. It was an impressive temple built by Ramses II. After getting back from Abu Simbel we took a car to Luxor, and stopped by two temples on the way there.

Once we got there we had dinner at a nice English restaurant, then spent the rest of the night playing hearts. I continue to be the high scorer, much to my chagrin.

The next day we toured the west bank of the Nile and saw the valley of the kings, valley of the queens, valley of the nobles, and some more temples. After a while you get kind of templed out and hit overwhelmed mode. For dinner we enjoyed a nice meal at another English restaurant.

Today we had a guide and did the two main temples on the east bank, Luxor temple and Karnak temple. Pictures don't do it justice. It's on such a grand scale! Early afternoon we took a four and a half hour ride through the desert to Hurghada, arriving here about 5:30. We played hearts in the back of the van, so the trip went by in a flash. Jenny and I are staying in a nice hotel that Dave found. Ron is staying with Dave in his flat.

When we got to town, Dave introduced us to his friends who live right down the street. They seem to have a warm affection for him. As we walked through the town it seemed like an old home week for him as his friends would greet him with a handshake or a hug.

Plans for tomorrow are, we'll go in a glass-bottom boat in the morning. My plans to go scuba diving are in severe jeopardy as I've come down with a cold. My nose is running like a faucet and my chest is congested. Dave has informed me that they won't let you go scuba diving if you're sick, so I may have to settle for snorkeling. Ron I think is going to try to go scuba diving with Dave. Jenny's camel ride may be in jeopardy because Dave's friend who was going to take her is waiting on a letter from the government giving him permission to transport foreigners.

Today is Saturday night, so we have one more week of our adventure left. It's been great to be with Dave and have our family intact once again. Thank you again for your many prayers for us. Please pray that my cold is miraculously healed in the next day so I can go scuba diving. I apologize for the delay in writing. There was an internet cafe across from our hotel in Luxor. But because of the festival that's going on right now, it was closed.

Dave tells me that people have been slaughtering animals in every place that we've been in the last few days, but I've graciously not seen it. I look forward to being able to see Dave's flat tomorrow in the daylight. That's all the news for now. Talk to you later . . .

-Musing Mom

Finally we're on the go!

Good news...Dave was able to get his multi-entry visa today, so we are finally ready to go. We are taking the sleeper train to Aswan tomorrow night. We leave at 9 P.M. from Cairo and arrive in Aswan at 9 A.M. the next morning. We were able to get our reservations tonight to stay at Saint Katherine''s monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai. They were booked through the 29th, so we had to rearrange our schedule but I am thrilled that we will be able to stay there for two nights. We will plan to climb to the top to see the sunrise. We also have a couple of days to stay at the town Dave lives in, and he said he would take me scuba diving. I'm really excited at the thought of that! Jenny is excited because that is when she will lget her camel ride. Because of the delay in getting some of the visa's, the rest of our days are packed pretty full. I'll have to rest up when we get home.

I have heard Dave say that living here is hard, and being here for a week, I begin to see what he means...nothing is easy!! He has said it before, but I really didn't understand it until I experienced it.

He has a saying...Plan A will always fail...PlanB will probably fail and Plan C has a 50/50 chance of failing. Those words ring more true each day I am using someone's laptop, and somehow I have turned the underline on, and don't know how to turn it off. No one is around to help me, so sorry, but it's the best I can do for now.

Don't know when I will get a chance to blog again, but will update you whenI can.

Thanks so much for your prayers...crossing traffic continues to be a challenge, and I am sure I am still alive because of your prayers. You cannot imagine what the traffic is like here!!!

I cannot tell you in words how good it is to be here with Dave. Even the most frustrating day is a good day because we are together. I am amazed how well he speaks the language. He keeps telling me that his language isn't so good but everytime we get in a taxi he carries on a non- stop conversation with the driver. Without him, we would be completely lost. I could not be more proud of him!

We continue to stay healthy, which is definately an answer to prayer. I have walked more this past week than I have in the last 6months.

I'll sign off for now, but I thank each of you who is praying for us. There have been several times lately that I have literally felt the prayers.

Unti lnext time...

Musing Mom

Delay

Saturday we took the train up to Alexandria and spent the day. It was wonderful just wandering around the corniche, enjoying the fresh breeze off of the Mediterranean. We toured the Citadel, which is a magnificent old fort. Then we went to Pompei's Pillar and wandered around the ruins. Then we stopped by the new library, which is amazing. The outside has letters written in about a hundred different languages. Then we took the train back to Cairo. We played 20 questions for the whole ride back, so the time sped by.

This morning we were up early to go to the Jordanian Embassy in Cairo to try and get our visas to go see Petra. While we waited for them to be ready, we went to a place Dave recommended called the Cave church. We couldn't get a picture to do it justice. It's an amazing place that defies description. And that's saying a lot from a talker like me. Then we went back and got our visas. After that we rushed back to try and get Dave's Egyptian visa renewed, but didn't make it to the office in time. So he has to to back early tomorrow morning. We can't go to Petra until Dave get's his multi-entry visa. Nothing here seems to happen really fast.

We're hoping to be able to head off to Petra early on Tuesday morning. Talk to you later . . .

-Musing Mom

Gretings From Egypt

Hello everyone...we arrived in Egypt at 4:30 A.M. on Monday and went straight to bed. That day, we wandered around the market, and did some shopping, making it a kind of relaxed day, which we needed. Tuesday was a full day, as we hired a driver and visited the pyramids at Giza, the sphinx, the step pyramid, bent pyramid, the black pyramid, the red pyramid, as well as, climbed down into a couple of pyramids...what an experience! On Wednesday, we went to the Antiguities museum and spent most of the day there. That evening we met up with a group of Dave's friends and watched the soccer game between Egypt and Algiera for a place in the world cup. What an experience. On Thursday, we went to the Citadel and visited a couple of mosques; spent the afternoon visiting several Coptic Churches; and took a sunset felucca ride on the Nile. Today, we visited the large market, where one is overwhelmed by the sheer size and volume of people and vendors trying their best to entice you into their shop. A couple of hours of that is enough to overwhelm your senses. That is an experience one would not want to repeat!!

Tomorrow we were planning to go to Petra, but found out that they no longer issue the visas on the ferry to Jordan, so we have to wait around until Sunday to get a visa here in Egypt. We will go off to Alexandria tomorrow. We no longer have access to Dave's computer, so internet cafe access is my only way to communicate. That is where I am now.

I have taken more pictures than you may believe, although knowing me, maybe you can imagine. I am grateful for digital cameras. Dave has taken us to several places for local Egyptian food, and I have fallen in love with two of the dishes, although I cannot promounce them.

We all continue to be healthy and safe...thanks for your prayers. You CANNOT imagine what it is like crossing the street. There are VERY FEW stoplights, or signals (which the drivers seem to ignore), so everyone goes at one time. Yesterday, we were crossing a six lane road, and Dave said, just follow me and go when I go. I put my head down, closed my eyes, and waited for the crunch. My heart has been in my throat more times than you can imagine! Crossing the street is definitely not the place for the timid of heart!!

No picture with this post, as Dave has just left to buy train tickets, and I don't know how to put the picture in, but trust me, you will see LOTS of them when we get back. Talk to you later, but don't know exactly when that will be.

Jen and I are staying with two of Dave's female friends, and Dave and Ron are staying with guys about a 20 minute walk away. We have walked and walked...the standard joke is...how long a walk is it...oh, it's just a 15 minute walk!

Talk to you later,

Musing Mom

Bicycles everywhere

I learned two things yesterday. First thing is you are more likely to be hit by a bicycle here than a car while crossing the street. My goodness, I've never seen so many bicycles...and they ride with determination... they are not just out for a leisurely ride! Second thing, is not to be surprised by unisex bathrooms. I was in a meeting yesterday, and when it ended, I headed for the bathroom... two men followed me down the hall and entered the same room.

Today we took the train to Haarlem to visit Corrie en Boom's hiding place. I had seen pictures, but was amazed at how small it actually was. Our guide was very good and we learned many things we did not know. It was raining all day and we wandered around town in the rain. Once we got back to Amsterdam, just after this picture was taken, Ron hooked up with some of Dave's friends and went off to an art museum and the rest of us went back and took a nap. Today, jet lag really hit hard, so the nap was wonderful.

Tomorrow morning early we' re taking the train to Delft. A friend of ours who was just there said it is a lovely city, so I am looking forward to seeing, and perhaps getting a chance to visit the porcelain factory. We have to be back at 3 P.M. to leave for the airport. We just found out tonight that Dave's flight gets into a different terminal than ours in Cairo, so we'll be on our own going through customs, etc. He will hire a driver and come find us. Please pray we make our connections with each other easily.

One note...while walking down the street this afternoon, I spelled a strong smell, and when I asked if it was marijuana, I was told, of course. The sights and smells of Amsterdam!

Talk to you later,

Musing Mom