Egypt Day 4: Garbage Mountain

During the course of two days filled with touring, we spent a lot of time visiting with our guide. She is a Coptic Christian and is devout. Both our family and our friends who traveled with us are Mormons. We had a few religious discussions. Because of those discussions, our guide wanted to take us to a very different part of Cairo, Garbage Mountain. I don't know if that is really the name of the place, but as a descriptor, it is accurate.

There is a section of Cairo where the poorest Christians live. All the garbage collected in the city is taken to this place, and, in order to survive, the residents of Garbage Mountain sort through mountains of garbage and recycle usable items. For a long time, the residents also raised pigs, until fears of the swine flu a few years ago. The swine flu gave the government (mostly Muslim) the excuse to order the slaughter of all the pigs. This  area of Cairo was notorious not only for its filth and garbage, but also for drugs and prostitution. The people were without hope, until a very charismatic preacher came to the area and began preaching the gospel to the people in the area. Under his direction, the area changed. The drugs and prostitution were abandoned and the people, while still living with the garbage, have a different sort of hope in their lives. On top of the mountain, these people have built a monastery inside the cliff. This is where they worship.

We had to first drive through the narrow, steep streets where we saw hundreds of locker storage style sheds filled with bags of garbage. Inside people sorted through the garbage. This was poverty such as I have never seen before. The stench was awful. Animals, garbage, and people are seemed to compete for the very air we breathed.

As we came to the top of the mountain, we discovered that a large festival was taking place. Loud Christian music blared from speakers. People mobbed the street. Children, men, and women were shining and clean, wearing their best clothes. As we stepped out of the van, we attracted quite a bit of notice. We walked to the monastery and sat for a few moments in a pew reflecting on what we had seen.

After resting for a bit, we walked back up the hill to the festival. Loud American Christian Rock music played from a platform. Apparently, a Christian Rock band from the U.S. had come to Egypt to play at this festival. Honestly, it was kind of bizarre to run into an American Christian Rock Band in Egypt of all places.

While we were looking around the festival, a few beautiful little girls came to us and tried to speak to us in English. They were darling. Each of the girls was carefully dressed and carrying little purses. Soon they took out cell phones and asked to take pictures of our kids. Before we knew it, we were surrounded by a crowd of Egyptian children, eager to take pictures of my children.

Bubba J, with his blue eyes and blonde hair attracted a lot of attention, which he found overwhelming. Eventually, my husband put Bubba J on his shoulders out of reach. After talking to the kids for awhile, we finally broke free of the crowd and went to our van. It was kind of an overwhelming experience to see such poverty, but yet to see how happy, kind, and sweet the people were. It is a place I don't think I'll ever forget. 

Images of Cairo

In lieu of words, here are some pictures I took in Cairo.

Egypt Day 4: 3 Churches

Currently, Christians comprise about 10% of the Egyptian population. Most are members of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, a church which is believed to be founded by St. Mark (of Biblical fame). Our guide is a member of this church and took us to the Hanging Church, one of the oldest churches in Egypt.

 
The church is beautiful with mosaic art outside in the courtyard, and lovely art inside.























A short walk away is another Coptic Church, this one purporting to be built over a site where Mary, Joseph, and Jesus stayed while living in Egypt.

As nice as the little church was, color me a teeny bit skeptical.

The final church we visited was a Jewish synagogue, which was also close to the Coptic Churches. Egypt does have a history of three religions living together with some peace. While Christians and Jews are definitely in the minority, they are still allowed to practice freely.

The Expat Community: What People Don't Tell You About Moving Abroad

One of the biggest cocerns people have when they move is making friends and settling in. It can be hard moving to a place and finding your place in your neighborhood and making new friends. I have to say that my experience moving within the United States is pretty different from my international moves.

When we moved to Sweden ten years ago, I had no idea how we were going to settle in socially. I assumed and hoped we would have friends. What no one told me is that the expat community is very special. You see, when you live abroad, you tend to reach out to others easier. And it is amazing how quickly you can form a connection with another person when you are both struggling with language and foreign craziness. It seems that expats tend to often be in transition and rather than holding back in forming friendships, expats often are more forward and direct.

The same has been very true in Saudi Arabia. I'm amazed and grateful for the friendships I've formed so quickly. Women on my compound have been so friendly and welcoming. I went to a coffee morning today. I met several of my friends outside by the pool. As we chatted, I thought, I haven't known these women very long and yet we've made connections that often take much longer to form elsewhere. It really is a beautiful thing.

Love and Kindness

(Warning: emotional post that has absolutely nothing to do with Saudi Arabia)

When I saw the news a couple weeks ago about the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut which took the lives of 26 people, most of whom were 6 and 7-year old children, I was horrified and so saddened. I always feel bad when I hear of tragedy, but this event felt more personal to me. Newtown is not far away from our home in New York and the town is in our stake*. And in fact, one of the young victims was a member of our stake. My daughter is six years old and in first grade. My friend works as an ER nurse at the very hospital where victims of the shooting were taken. She has started to write about her experiences here. I have shed a lot of tears over this event.

When we are confronted with tragedies on this scale we rightly ponder how we can prevent future tragedies. Much has been said on a national level about what we can do with laws to change the future. But what can we do on a small scale or on a personal level? I think most of us feel helpless in this light.

I've been pondering this question for some time now. Today I have some ideas I wanted to share. While listening a podcast by Dave Ramsey, he talked about the shooting and shared his thoughts. He said that he believes in the power of displacement--that filling our lives with good and filling the world with good is probably the only way to overcome evil like this in the world.

I liked what he said and I think he is right. I couldn't have prevented this tragedy from occuring, but I do have the power to be better in my own life and to spread goodness and light in my corner of the world. I can and should respond to my children with more love and kindness. I can be kinder in internet discussions. I can be more patient and thoughtful with strangers. So that's my plan--to be better in my life and to consciously spread goodness.

What about you? How has this tragedy affected your life? What do you think you can do in your life to be better and to help spread more goodness and love?






* I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We have wards which is our word for congregation, consisting of about 150 to 400 people. In a stake, there are 10 wards. Our stake in New York comprises wards in one area of New York and then many wards in Connecticut. We meet in wards every Sunday and typically have Stake meetings where everyone congregates at least twice a year with less formal events happening around the year.

 

Egypt Day 4: Shopping

I'm sure our guide had some kind of commission thing set up with a few shops because she took us to several shops during our tours. Our first day of touring, we went to a cotton shop where I bought t-shirts for the kids, a nice pink shirt for myself and a nice shirt for my husband.

We also bought Egyptian papyrus paintings.

On the second day of our tour, our guide took us a to perfume/essential oil shop and a jewelry shop. At the jewelry shop, we bought some car-touche necklaces for three of the kids with their names engraved in hieroglyphs. I bought a beautiful earring and necklace set made with lovely red stones.

 At the perfume shop, the manager demonstrated several different essential oil and perfumes they make. They don't put any alcohol in the perfumes and oils so I was actually able to smell and try them without becoming sick or nauseous. We tried some ancient perfumes that were amazing. I ended up buying a few essential oils that smell wonderful. My kids were each given a bottle of orange blossom essential oil which smells divine.

Rockhounding: Treasures in the Desert

The delights of the desert are endless. While some may define a beautiful landscape with words like lush, green, and colorful, I find the vastness and grand scale of the desert inspiring and beautiful. I'm glad to live in a world with a variety of interesting environments.

Driving away from the urban desert of Riyadh into long stretches of highway flanked by wide flat, rocky beige desert can either bore a person to tears or invoke a sense of isolation into an introspective person. Along the highway tent stands selling stacks of firewood, fuel, and water dot the way. This is the season for camping and it is a perfect time to explore the desert free from the scorching heat of the sun. Right now the sun is mercilessly bright, but the heat isn't intense and is lessened by a brisk wind which whips across my face.

We park our car off the road, on a hard desert track. The sand here isn't soft and red, but rather beige. A closer examination reveals the sand to be similar to a beach, with thousands and thousand of tiny grains of multi-colored sand. The sand is best viewed at eye-level, with your head close to the ground rather than at a standing view. Up close, you can see the individual grains of sand, the variety of colors, the smooth texture of the tiny balls, and the small fossils.

My two youngest children scoop up sand and rocks to make a desert in a bottle.

My boys discover that sadly the desert offers up more than just rocks and stones, but also yields a fair amount of garbage and tires. 

We found quite a few small fossils. Some of the fossils looked like they could be brain coral. I found a nice fossil with a shell on it, but lost it.

It was a lovely day and proved to us that the desert rockhounding is a fascinating exercise.