Today was our last full day in Cairo, and we actually spent it outside of the city visiting some of the ancient sites. Our morning started very early with a friendly wake-up call from the front desk. I forgot my watch and alarm clock, so the wake-up calls have been essential to being on time. We had another breakfast full of sandwiches and hard-boiled eggs. This time around, Gretchen and I made sandwiches for lunch. I felt like such a rebel sneaking sandwiches out of the breakfast room. Our guardians greeted us just outside the door for the day. In Egypt, groups are encouraged and often required to have tourism police accompany the tours. Each day, we’ve had two policemen on the coach with us and touring the sites. Our guard today, Ammal, introduced himself to Gretchen and me before we got on the bus. Throughout the rest of the day, he followed us and ensured our safety. It felt a bit like having a babysitter, but I know that it was for my own good. We did notice that Ammal was packing heat under his suit coat. I’m no good with gun names, but I do know that the concealed weapon was big and had a sight on it. I was a little nervous about the gun, but it was all good.
The first stop for the day was Sakkara. It is about 30 minutes south of Cairo and home to a number of pyramids. The ride was spent listening to our guide, Ahmet, tell us about Egyptian culture. He began by telling us about ancient culture and the Western misconceptions of Egyptian society today. He told us about Muslim men being allowed to have up to 4 wives and how the West harbored misconceptions about the practice. Muslim men are only allowed to have more than 1 wife, if they can treat and provide for each of them equally. It was fine, until he decided to tell us why women are not allowed to have more than 1 husband. I understand and accept that there are always cultural differences, but the extreme sexism was too much for this little feminist. He gave us three reasons for women only being allowed 1 husband. Each was more outrageous than the next. According to Ahmet, women cannot enter into more than 1 marriage contract for the following reasons:
1. If women were allowed to have multiple husbands, then the paternity of the children would always be up in the air. I can maybe agree with us, however, this seems to only support subordination and inequality.
2. Women cause the problems in a marriage, because of their mood swings, especially while menstruating. What drives me nuts about this is it puts all the blame on women and dismisses anything the husband might do as a reaction to the “crazy” wife. It sounds very similar to the myth that a woman can’t lead because she might make a rash decision while PMSing. It’s BS!
3. Women are not allowed to have multiple husbands, because women spread venereal diseases. This is just plain false. It boils my blood that women are blamed for spreading diseases, when there is not one STI that is transmitted by women. Plus, a man with multiple wives is just as likely to spread disease as a woman.
All of the women of the group were stunned into silence as we arrived at the Step Pyramid of Sakkara. We were the first group of the day and entered the site in the midst of a dense, heavy fog. From the courtyard of the compound, I couldn’t see the pyramid. The fog prevented much sightseeing, but as the morning wore on, the fog burned off. The Step Pyramid was a bit anti-climatic and not nearly as nearly as neat as the other pyramids. At the entrance, there was a neat structure with columns on both sides of the walkway. There were 20 on each side, representing the 20 districts of North Egypt and the 20 districts of the South. There was a giant hole in one corner, which was the excavated site of an alternative burial shaft. The neatest part of the time at the Step Pyramid was the conversation with other people on the trip. One Wisconsin UMC pastor, Mary, knew my parents. She told me that it was a blessing to have known Mom and Dad and how they always encouraged her to try different things and get out of her comfort zone. It was comforting to hear stories about my parents from another friend. She went on to describe her work with the Civil Rights Movement and meeting Rosa Parks, Coretta Scott King, and the Kennedy widows. Mary was the first woman of color ordained in the Wisconsin UMC and spent time in Washington DC. She talked with Gretchen and me about community. I had mentioned that she was always talking to new people when we went places. Her reason for doing so is to find community wherever she goes. It was a lovely thought and explained so much about human interaction.
We went to smaller pyramids in the Sakkara area next. I had the opportunity to climb down into one of them. Everyone in the group went down, even though the only way in was a steep ramp in a passageway 3 feet high. The passageway opened into a hall with a room on each side. One room once held statues of the Pharaohs daughter and son, but the statues are now in the Egyptian museum. The other room held the sarcophagus, but no coffin or mummy. The sarcophagus was black and about 5 ½ feet tall with a very small space for the coffin. The size of the sarcophagus seemed a bit excessive for the size of the coffin, but the hieroglyphics were absolutely amazing. We could stand in the tomb and look at the hieroglyphics that were carved by hand thousands of years before. It was an awesome experience.
We had a late picnic lunch at our next stop. During the drive to the Bent and Red Pyramids, we passed a number of farms. Gretchen was super excited to see how they were farming and the harvesting that was being done. We also noticed the garbage everywhere. The rivers are the dumps and there was more garbage in the river than I ever thought possible. It made me sad to think about the pollution and the lack of proper garbage disposal.
Before we could get off the bus, Ahmet gave a bit of a lecture and I stared out the window. I saw a girl get out of the van next to us wearing a Gustavus Aldophus t-shirt. Turns out that Gretchen knew her. It was a perfect example of how crazy small this world is! We ate our picnic lunches in the sun at the base of the Bent Pyramid. It was incredible to eat and think about the location. We were at a holy place that was millennia old. I kept having a difficult time wrapping my head around the age of the pyramids we were seeing. After the Bent Pyramid, we headed towards the Red Pyramid. We had the opportunity to crawl down into another pyramid, so of course Gretchen and I volunteered. The trek began with a hike halfway up the outside of the pyramid. We then entered a very snug crawl space and began the descent into the pyramid. The crawl down was triple in length to the pyramid we had climbed earlier in the day. We eventually entered a room smelling faintly of cleaning supplies. This room led to another that contained a rickety, wooden staircase leading to the tomb chamber. The deeper we went into the pyramid, the stronger the smell of old cleaning supplies. The air was not fresh, but it was pretty sweet to be walking around in a pyramid.
The drive back to Cairo took about a half an hour. Gretchen and I opted to eat out with a couple of other people from the group. We went to a seafood restaurant called the Sea Gull. As the diner, you picked your fish and then they prepared it for you. It was quite the experience and the food was excellent. While dinner was awesome, the journey to and from the restaurant was not so enjoyable. There were no crosswalks and cars don’t believe in slowing for pedestrians. It was a busy causeway, so the best approach was to wait for a “lull” in traffic and then cross. It is a talent unto itself to find the “lulls”, but we managed to make it across twice without dying. I’m in no hurry to repeat that adventure. My tummy is full and my bed is calling. Tomorrow brings the Egyptian Museum and the drive to St. Katherine’s.
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