Day 1

I stayed up until 3 AM packing, slept some, and skyped Bronwyn and Ansley.  The Schultes, Millers, and Laura Acuff showed up at the house, and we were out the door pretty quick.  It was great to see everyone, and we huddled up to pray before we left.

 Everyone was in a good mood.  On the drive to Houston Weston, Sam, and I got to talk about old memories and catch up on life.  I was really close to Sam from 2003 when I joined boy scouts until 2007 when he left.  I can't believe I haven't really seen him since then.

We ate at Whataburger with some of my parents friends, Scott and Sheryl's family.  They will be missionaries soon in India, and are keeping our car in Houston while we are gone.  Great people. 

  Scott dropped us off at the airport and we met up with two couples going on the trip with us, Dan and Sandra, and Dan's brother Kent and his wife Linda.  Rachel was patted down in security, and dad got in trouble with the TSA officer for taking a picture of it.  Good stuff.  

We are flying in a 747. Pretty excited because I never have before.  Mom, Dad, Sarah, and I were on the 4 middle row seats.  No window.  Advil PM and melatonin and I was out.  

Every time I tried to look out the window, look down the isle, or talk to Ms. Lanette, this lady would turn and stare at me.  Every single time for 9 hours, without fail.  We are calling her Mrs. Concerned.  

The airport in Frankfurt, Germany was nice, everything was easy.  Europeans smell.  There was more English on the signs than German.  

Our next flight to Cairo was about 5 hours long.  When we flew over the Nile delta, you could look out the window and see a line between green and desert.  The two men beside us were fighting about of them putting his seat back.  Right as we were landing I started to notice my left pinky toe was swollen and itchy.  I think its infected and it hurts to walk on. 

We got our bags and met Tim Rampey our guide, and everywhere people were saying "Welcome to Egypt!" and "We love white people!"  We stick out like a sore thumb wherever we go.  People just watch us or whistle.  We got on a small bus and were police escorted to our hotel.  We also made friends with two guys in a car beside us.  They stayed beside us and honked for a long time.

Our hotel has some pretty scary elevators.  There is no door on the inside, so the wall is just going really fast beside you.  And if you don't push the door open quick enough, you start going back down.  When we got to the 12th floor, we were supposed to go down to the hotel on the 11th.  But we were on the roof with a fantastic view of Cairo! Mom, Rachel, and I just hung out there for a few minutes.

We met with Gary Robbins and his daughter Amy at the hotel.  They flew in yesterday.  She is going to be a junior at ACU, but I didn't really know her this year.  Our group had a meeting on the roof, and Tim told us the plans and said that Cairo is the largest city in Africa with over 18 million people in it.

It was so crowded when we were walking through the markets on our way to eat.  You have to stay tight or you will be separated in the crowd.  Crossing the road is crazy because you have to dodge cars, and there are no crosswalks.

People are selling all sorts of things like shoes and trinkets, and there are homeless people everywhere.  Everything is very dirty and smoggy.  A little kid tapped me on the leg and held out his hand so I dug through my backpack and couldn't find any smaller cliff bars.  I gave him a huge peanut butter powerbar.  Most all of the people here are so so poor, and everything is dirt cheap in Egypt.  We ate Kushari in the upstairs of this very small restaurant.  It's pretty good.  Rice, noodles, and some weird crunchies.

We went to the subway after that.  There are homeless people laying on the steps, some of them trying to sell small packets of tissue.  The subway is way crazier than the ones I have been on in New York and Paris.  Before we tried to get on, Tim made the group repeat the names of the stations with him.  Mubarak, Osid, Nasser, Sandida.  Start at Mubarak, then DONT get off at Osid, DONT get off at Nasser, but then get off at Sandida.  This was in case we got separated, which is a high possibility with floods of people getting on and off.  And none of us have phones that work.  He stressed to us that if we got separated there was almost nothing that could be done.  Its a big city that none of us know, and theres no communication.  If something was to happen we were to meet at Mubarak station.

We made it through, and went to the shop of Tim's friend Dr. Muhammed at Tahrir Square, now known as revolution square.  This square is where on January 15th 3 million people entrenched themselves in protest wanting president Mubarak to step down.  The Egyptian people supported them by bringing supplies, and they were able to say because they dug down and tapped into the sewer line to use it.  Mubarak sent his Army in but said not to shoot anyone, and while they were there, the leader of the army persuaded Mubarak to step down.  Now the army is controlling the country until they can set up democracy.  The people are very happy and hopeful for the future.  Dr. Muhammed's brother told us all of these things at the shop.  Mubarak has apparently been stealing government money and using it to live a lavish lifestyle at Sharm El-Sheikh, a resort town where we went scuba diving in 2005.  Its cool to be here during a government switch because all the people are excited, and only the Army and police are in charge.  The police get paid very little and are more likely to accept bribes, so they aren't as trusted as the Army, which is trained in the US.  There were 37 people killed on the 25th at this square, and Dr. Muhammed and his brother witnessed it.  He was interviewed by BBC and CNN.  Apparently there was blood on his shop.

There were "support the revolution" T-shirts being sold at the square.  We waded through more cars after that on our way to ride a Fulaka boat on the Nile.  Tim says that getting hit by a car is his greatest worry for our group, terrorism is his least.  It was a very relaxing ride.  A good way to sort of finish the day.  Tim got a good price because he started to walk away after they said no to what he would pay.  Works every time.

The men here stare at the girls in our group like they have never seen anything like them in their lives.  On our way back we bought pastries for breakfast tomorrow, and ate a bunch right then.  They cost one Egyptian pound each.  Six pounds makes one American dollar.  We also tried sugar cane juice.  Street vendors squeeze sure can into glasses, people drink, give the glass back, they rinse with water, and put them back on the table.  Not only do they not use soap, but they use Egyptian water to rinse. We have been buying bottled water to drink here.  Its just not safe.  But I braved the cane juice germs.  It wasn't even that good.  Weston did it too even though his mom said no.  It's all about the experience, even if you get sick I guess.

After we got back to the hotel we took turns using it brushing teeth.  No shower tonight.  We aren't staying at the hotel, we are sleeping on a private bus that will take us from Cairo to the Israeli border at Eilot.  We will come back to Egypt at the end of the trip.  We need to get a good night sleep on the bus so that we can be ready to go in Israel tomorrow.  What a long and packed first day!  My toe is getting worse btw.  Its spreading into the rest of my foot.  Yikes.