Egypt – Day 6

April 7, 2009

When I was in high school I was at a youth retreat for church and we were talking about sunsets vs. sunrises. I was always a sunset lover because watching the sun set over the Oregon coast with a bonfire is one of my most favorite things to do in life. However, the youth pastor explained why sunrises are more beautiful as the sun comes up to start a new day and the anticipation that can be felt about what the day has to bring. While I have generally always been an optimist, this way of looking at sunrises never occurred to me. So, at that retreat I stayed up all night and watched the sun rise over the lake. Since then, I’ve seen a few sunrises, but always make a habit of doing so when on holidays. I’ve seen the sun rise over Lake Titicaca, in Angkor Wat, and now while on the Nile.
Since the day before had been so rough, I determined to start this day with a bit of hope and inspiration starting with an early rise to watch the sun come up. I loved it. It was beautiful. I also considered the significance a sun rise has in a Muslim country and wondered why people lack the ability to respect each other when we share the ability to appreciate a common sun rise on a day.

After watching the sun rise and feeling a spiritual connection to God and the world, I went back to sleep a little more peacefully before starting the day officially. 😀 We had arrived in Aswan the night before and so I was to do a half-day tour in the area. I met with Peter prepared to check out from the boat as I was to be on the sleeper train back to Cairo that night. I said my good-byes to the Ahseek family from Mauritius and was off to see Aswan.

Peter was very kind and seemed to be Ehab’s partner or something because he was very concerned about my happiness throughout the day. We started at the High Dam. Before the dam was put into place there used to be crocodiles all over in the Nile. Now, they are blocked off in the Upper Nile and Lake Nasser area. The dam was built with the help of the Russians and provides most of the electricity in the country. While the dam wasn’t that impressive when compared to the Hoover Dam or Bonneville, it was still cool to see the lake and get a bit of the history involved in the building of the dam.
From there, we moved to the docks to take a boat out to Philae Temple located on Ejerca island. The temple used to be located in another area, but when they built the dam, it was flooded and covered with water. In fact, many temples and sites were covered at this time, so that they aren’t even sure what is still there under the water. In any case, the stories of Philae temple seem to combine history, mythology and love all in one. I enjoyed the stories, but felt myself starting to really burn out from all the history filling my head….
After the temple visit I asked to use the Internet as all I really wanted to do was to connect to my world for a while. So, I went to a local cafe and spent two hours catching up on Facebook (pathetic, I know!), emails and chatting online. It was a much needed reconnect for me. On the way back to the boat where I was meant to rest before going to the train station, I stopped for another bowl of koshari! YUM!

I spent an hour resting, then went to the train station to board the sleeper train for my 12-hour ride back up to Cairo. The train ride back up was pretty uneventful. I slept on and off. Read a bit. Ate not-so-good train food.
Basqued in the happiness I felt from some news I got via email. So, my day ended with a smile.

Almost there…

-T