Sinai Liberation Day Celebration, Part 2

After lunch, we headed over to a different part of the estate for a rally. Most of the village had shown up because there was going to be a raffle- there must have been over 500 people there. Apart from celebrating Sinai Day, we were there to celebrate the launch of a program that the US Embassy and the Sadat Foundation have funded. It's a development program that provides mini-loans for the women of Menifiyah. Women can apply and receive small loans to help improve their lives. For example, they can get a loan to buy a school uniform so their children can go to school or they can get a loan to buy some drinks to sell on the streets to make a profit.

We said goodbye to Baba who headed up to the stage to perform his DCM duties and we took our seats in the front row.

This woman received the first loan. I wish I had the chance to ask her what she was going to do with the money.

We had just settled into a nice nose-picking iPhone playing routine, when we heard Booker's name called out over the microphone. Mr. Sadat wanted Booker to come onstage... in front of lots of big-wigs and hundreds of villagers. So up he went.

Mr. Sadat wanted Booker to pull the raffle tickets out of the bucket. They were giving away flat screen TVs, stereos and even laptops. So all of a sudden, my child went from obliviously playing Bug Squash on an iPhone to choosing the names of villagers who would win a TV, perhaps their first one ever. Surreal.

Booker kept nervously lifting his shirt up, exposing his chest and belly. As his mother, I wanted to crawl under a rock and die.

At first Ike was happy watching Booker from the comfort of his seat...

But everything Booker does, Teichert must do also. So he wandered up to the stage and my embarrassment doubled... tripled even.

Eventually he settled onto Baba's lap, mostly out of sight thankfully.

The village was small enough that when they announced the name of the winner, someone would shout, "He's not here, pick another one!"

Normally you see the women carrying water or bread on their heads, not televisions!

Sinai Liberation Day Celebration, Part 1

Surprise, it's a guest post from Clark! I made him do it...

Have you ever had one of those days where you look around and wonder what exactly happened in your life to get you to that specific place? It's happened to me a couple of times, usually when things get weird or absurd. I remember feeling like that in India a couple of times, usually when I was in some temple with a very old, very wrinkled naked man. It happened maybe once or twice on the mission. It happened again on Sunday.

Sunday was Sinai Liberation Day. Israel took control of the Sinai peninsula after the Six Day War in 1967. After the Camp David Accords in 1978, Egypt and Israel signed a treaty in which peace was finally declared between Egypt and Israel for the first time since the 1948 Arab Israeli war. As part of the peace agreement, Egypt was the first Arab nation to recognize Israel and Israel returned control of the Sinai (and the Suez canal) to Egypt. Anwar Sadat, the Egyptian President to sign the treaty and recognize Israel, is one of only three Egyptian president's since Egypt's independence and is somewhat of a folk hero here still. He also re-entered popular culture when Jason Segel named his dog Anwar Sadat in I Love You Man because "they look exactly alike." (President Sadat's daughter was not amused). Sadat's involvement in the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty led to him receiving the Nobel Peace Prize and to his assassination by Islamic radicals in 1981. On Sinai Liberation Day, the Egyptians celebrate the return of the Sinai peninsula to Egyptian control. It's a pretty major national holiday.

So, it was a lucky accident of fate that brought Margaret, me, and our two extremely white children to Anwar Sadat's country house in Menafia on Sinai Liberation Day. Apparently, Anwar Sadat (President Sadat's nephew) inherited the estate and had a little get-together to celebrate the holiday and do some schmoozing for his NGO. Marg's dad was invited and so we were collaterally invited. So there we were on a beautiful, sunny April day in a smallish village on the nile being given the grand tour by Anwar Sadat. There is the irrigation system, Ariel Sharon put that in. Over there - that date tree - Moammar Qadaffi planted that date tree. I won't show you the one Saddam planted.

Awesome.

The place was beautiful, the food was amazing, and the boys loved the grass and especially the dancing horses. I defy you to find a better way to spend Sinai Liberation Day.

The Spread


Drinking karkady (hibiscus) juice. It's syrupy, sweet and just a little bitter. If you're a Mormon in Egypt and your host offers you tea or coffee, just ask for karkady juice- they'll be so pleased that you "like" it.

There were several wood ovens on the compound cranking out fresh bread.

The pony's name was CiCi. Ike loved him and spend a good amount of time searching for carrots to feed him.

Petting Anwar Sadat's cows.

They used fresh milk from the cows to cook a sweet rice in the oven. It was divine.

Eating a biscuit right out of the oven.

The power stance!

Ike taking in the band.

Booker and Ike got down along with the dancing horses. That's actually a basketball court, but it looked like it got used for horse-dances more frequently.

I am a lucky, lucky man.

This corridor was lined with small fires roasting various nuts and tasty treats. You were really never far from something delicious the entire afternoon.

Anwar Sadat's fat chef. Seeing a chef like that puts your mind at ease about the food to come. You know he likes it.

Anwar Sadat's bread oven.

Those are my kids pretending to be doggies on Anwar Sadat's lawn. Hopefully no one got offended...

Strengthening diplomatic ties between Egypt and America.

Mmmmmmmm, dessert. The food was incredible. Lots of your typical Arab dishes but also some dishes unique to Egypt. Margaret tried pigeon. It tastes like a chicken... only darker and oilier.

The chocolate mousse. Always try the chocolate mousse if you find yourself at one of these things.

Mr. Sadat and his lovely Wife Jehan (I think that's spelled right) President Sadat's wife was also named Jehan. That must have led to some confusion.

The Saddam tree. Irrigated by Ariel Sharon's irrigation system. That's a metaphor for something or other.

I'm kind of a homebody. Most days I take a lot of pleasure in my routine. Go to work, come home to my family, watch some of my favorite shows, and go to bed. But it's nice to mix in an afternoon at Anwar Sadat's house every once in a while.

I'm having trouble with Photobucket, in the meantime, here's a slideshow with more photos.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Dahshur Pyramids

After Saqqara, we headed even farther south to Dahshur. We saw two pyramids at the Dahshur necropolis, the Red Pyramid and the Bent Pyramid.

The Red Pyramid is named because of the reddish hue of it's stones. It's the third largest pyramid in Egypt. And we got to go inside!

Noticeably less people here, it was nice.

Dad taking a call at the Red Pyramid.


The Pyramid Bowab.

It's a miracle I've never lost my lens cap.

Here's the inside of the chamber. The smell. Oh, the smell. It was horrendous. It smelt like someone had peed in a Windex bottle and sprayed the entire room with it. Apparently, there's a pretty big build up of ammonia in there. You can't stay longer than a couple of minutes... or you'll want to die.


A view of the corbelled ceiling.

Here's a video of us climbing out of the Red Pyramid. If you're even mildly claustrophobic, climbing into pyramids is not for you. Also, if you're super out of shape, then climbing into pyramids is not for you. I was pretty winded when I got out.

After the Red Pyramid, we headed over to the nearby Bent Pyramid. There are a couple of theories as to why this pyramid is "bent." Some say it began to show signs of weakness during construction, so they changed the angle. Another theory is that they had to speed up production because Sneferu's death was nearing and it needed to be done in time for his burial. So the Bent Pyramid is either a monument to poor planning or unexpected mortality.

Unlike the other pyramids we saw, the Bent Pyramid still has it's casing intact (the rocks that make it smooth-sided instead of step-sided). Under the Islamic rulers, the casing stones from many of the pyramids were ransacked and used to build Islamic monuments... like Al-Azhar mosque.

Off in the distance, you can see the Black Pyramid. A Middle Kingdom Pharaoh tried to built a pyramid but he lacked the resources and technology. He also built it too close to the Nile (he was trying to save money). FAIL. It's interesting that this pyramid was built centuries after the pyramids at Giza.

Camel Cops.

The Red Pyramid as seen from the Bent Pyramid.

For more Dahshur pyramid pics, click here.

Saqqara Pyramids

After the fiasco at Giza, we decided to ditch the boys and continue on down to Saqqara (about a 30 minute drive from Giza). It was the best decision I made all day. As soon as you leave Cairo, all you see is GREEN GREEN GREEN. It's beautiful. People are out working in their fields and water buffalo laze about in the shade. It's so scenic.

Here's the Step Pyramid of Djoser. It's the oldest pyramid in Egypt.

I absolutely loved Saqqara. There were less people around and we got to tour some tombs that aren't open to the public. We saw the tomb of the Musician, tomb of the Butcher and the tomb of the Brothers/Manicurists (more on that later). Anyone who worked for the King got to be buried in a tomb along the causeway that leads to the King's tomb. So even the King's manicurist got a pretty sweet tomb. I guess the King's fingernails still needed tending to in the afterlife.

Two happy kid-less parents. Thanks, Mama De!

Here's a tomb that's been uncovered.

Our guide explaining how the hieroglyphics indicate that this tomb contains two men who worked as manicurists for the king. It's quite unusual for a single tomb to contain two bodies. He explained that the men were likely "brothers, twins or homosexuals." It's unknown.

And here's Clark using an iPhone app to translate the hieroglyphics. What a nerd. I love it.

Words can not describe how cool these tombs are. It's incredible that they still exist, the fact that the PAINT is still intact... blows my mind.

The women are shown in a lighter yellow shade because they stayed mostly indoors. The men are a darker shade of red because they worked outdoors.

The walls of the tombs are covered floor to ceiling with scenes of everyday life. Above, a cow gives birth. The man on the left is playing music to soothe the cow.

The scene above shows some men transporting gold. The dwarf in the middle was the only one trusted to carry the gold because his short legs prevented him from running off with it!

This one's for Clark, a court scene. The old man on the top left is being hauled into the judge for not paying taxes. He probably infringed on someone's patent too.

In the Musician's tomb you can see images of him as a child, a young man, an adult and eventually an old man. Scenes from all aspects of his life adorn the walls. You kind of feel like you know him a little bit.

And then you get to meet him! It's incredible. His mummy looked like a big block of stone. His legs were swollen from elephantiasis and he was short (he died when he was only 18).

It's a little hard to tell, but in the center you can see a sketch of a scene that was never finished. The butcher died before his tomb was completed and they had to rush his body in and seal it up. They didn't want his soul wandering around looking for his body.

Beautiful.

This is the causeway, it led to the King's tomb and had the tombs of his servants on either side.

The roof of the causeway was lined with stars! So pretty.

And thousands of years ago the night sky was PAINTED blue. Can you see the traces of paint? Incredible.

I really fell in love with the stars and night sky. So creative.

I heart Saqqara.

I do not heart graffiti on ancient monuments. Grrrrrrrr.

More photos of Saqqara here.