Upon our arrival in Egypt, a huge throng of our relatives and loved ones from Cairo met us at the airport. They were hugging and kissing and crying and sweeping us into their arms. It was amazing. I didn't even think to take a picture of the event, but their raptuous welcome probably showed up on weather radar. It was amazing. After this greeting we piled groggily into a big minivan as men swarmed over it to tie all our luggage on the roof. Then, as midnight turned to one a.m. local time and the Cairo night shifted into high gear, we headed back to an apartment owned by Reid's grandfather and feasted on feteer, a sort of crepe-like delicious flat phyllo dough concoction devoured with honey. The next day we headed to the Mohammed Ali mosque and Citadel. Built with stones the first Pasha raided from the Pyramid, the mosque and fortress here overlooks all of the sprawling city of Cairo, with its near-30 million inhabitants. Click on the picture below on the right, and in the distance, you can see the Pyramids themselves in the haze over the enormous city.
The number travelling in our group was something like a dozen plus Reid. I never really tabulated it. But the picture above right gives you some idea of what kind of throng we were: From the left, you can see Cherif, who is in front of newlyweds Sean and Alia. Next is Reid's mom Katrena, next to Selma, who are both sitting in front of Ingy. (Ingy, Cherif and Selma are siblings and are all cousins of mine.) Next we have Reid's aunt Stephanie and uncle Craig, then more cousins, Amera, Mike and Amera's boyfriend Scott. I'm behind the camera, where I belong. Reid was off somewhere negotiating a better price on our handmade wool rugs.
Reid made fast friends with uncle Tawfik. He also became somewhat enamored with a large, perfectly round watermelon. One day, we went to the Pyramids. You can drive right up to them. If you click on the picture of the Pyramid below on the left, you can see our van all the way off to the right. Reid and his mom climbed up onto a Pyramid. I've been attempting to prepare him for this trip by building much smaller scale pyramids out of legos, blocks, or whatever else is around, but I don't think he understood the correlation. He had a pretty good time climbing around with us on the big rocks, though.
The Pyramids are huge. If you click on the picture above on the left, you can see K and Reid standing across the road from a Pyramid. On K's right shoulder is a guard standing at the base of the first layer of the Pyramid, which gives you some idea of the scale of the thing. Outside of one Pyramid they found an entire boat buried in the sand, presumably for transporting the Pyramid's mummified occupant into the afterlife. The only way to travel in the afterlife is by boat, you know. They made us wear funny mop-shoes and Reid had a good time running around. You can tell by Cherif and Selma's face that they may have been tiring somewhat of ferrying the Americans around these historic sites, but they did such a wonderful job of it. We went to the Sphinx next, which you also basically stand about twenty feet from. Then we ate at the Pizza Hut/KFC that sits directly opposite the Sphinx and has the best air conditioned view of one of antiquities greatest finds. The pizza wasn't half-bad.
That was the only meal we ate outside of the home. From the midnight feteer mentioned above through the last day of our visit, food was coming at us from all angles. Reid, in addition to his watermelon, was eating handy, kid-sized cucumbers all the time, as well as handy, kid-sized kufta and just about anything else. That's aunt Samaya holding Reid. Reid's great aunts took turns feeding the boy whatever was around, and to his credit, he handled all of his food on the trip with aplomb.
We took a day trip to a massive lake that was incorporated into the Suez Canal to allow barges to pass each other in transit. On the way (more food) we stopped for fast fool: chick peas in two forms (felafel and spread) often served for breakfast. The beach house included a moored veranda out in the water, which was perfect for games of backgammon and cards, and for hanging out with family. And then we had a huge meal (surprise).
All the eating knocked Reid out, who was then gently transported across the beach house like the Pharoah himself. And we're talking some serious food. The spread above, from a dinner at aunt Wedad's house, included two mousakkas, stuffed grape leaves, stuffed eggplants, little stuffed potatoes, two kinds of kufta, rice and rueh (meat pie...mmmm). Then there was dessert.
By the end of our trip, Reid had gone completely native, as you can see below. It seems that I had gone a little native, too (my head-dress was prepared by Selma, and that's Maie behind me and Amera next to me). I guess we were all overwhelmed and quite taken with our short trip to Cairo. It seems we did a little of everything while we were there, from sightseeing to dining on the finest home-cooked meals. In fact, the only thing we didn't get to do a lot of was sleep. Which probably explains Reid and his mom catching a quick nap on our last night in Egypt.
