Let my People Go! or . . . My amazing Egyptian Adventure.
So after almost two days of sitting in planes and airport waiting lounges it is with some sense of relief I write this from my very comfortable little Flat in El Gouna.
But everything went according to plan, it was uncomfortable and exhausting, but not unbearable I just needed to exercise bit of patience and my time of stickiness difficulties were soon over, that is until the trip home. . .
The first Leg of the flight was an overnighter to Dubai.
After a rather painful farewell to Jo and Megzi where my resolve to be strong and calm completely disintegrated, I boarded my Arab Emirates flight for the first leg of my journey.
I was very relieved to find I had an aisle seat and I was sitting next to a very friendly and chatty girl from Bosnia who was on her way to Jordan. We spoke at length about the Bosnian Herzegovinian war and the fascinating History of Yugoslavia, which she was impressed I knew quite a bit about (well, she should have been impressed), she did fall asleep at one stage, but that was because it was late! By about 1:30 I was also really tired and tried to sleep with my new neck pillow I had bought just before the flight, it helped a bit but was not actually as great as I had hoped. So I watched a movie “Dead Pool” which was spectacular fun with some really clever ideas but generally a risqué rehash of an old theme.
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| After my overnight leg from Cape Town to Dubai i had a 6 hour wait for my link to Cairo, I was pretty happy with this empty row I had all to myself. |
We arrived at Dubai at about 7am after they had fed us breakfast at about 4:30! A first for me. Which actually, was quite good. . . (I actually like airplane food in general). Then my Bosnian friend helped me to find my way to my linking flight, bless her, and then she had to head off to a terminal in a galaxy far far away, so I was left on my own and basically sat on one of those recliner chairs all day trying to catch up on sleep. Several cappuccinos later finally got on a plane at about 3:30pm and headed off to Cairo.
The flight here was quite a hurdle for me, I was concerned about my baggage being lost and ending up in Turkmenistan or Beijing or something, I was worried getting lost myself and making it on time to catch my linking flights, I was worried about getting lost in the vastness of some foreign airport where I couldn't speak the Lingo and nobody could help me. I was concerned about whether my documents were all in order, having some vision of being thrown into a dungeon as a Western spy or being told I had to get back on a return flight home, which is ever in my mind, having experienced this once before.
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| Goodbye to Dubai |
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| Flying Over Saudi Arabia endless desert mile after mile. . . |
A short digression
I realised from the flight map on the console that we were going to be flying directly over the gulf of Aqaba as well as the gulf of Suez. This was a big bonus for me since I have been studying the the Chronicles of Jim and Penny Caldwell and their experiences in Saudi Arabia.
Let me briefly explain. . .They discovered an area in Saudi that they believe was the “land of Midian" of the Bible where Moses spoke to the burning bush and later brought the Israelites to after they fled Egypt. The Cadwell’s story is not an isolated account as more and more Scholars and archeologists are visiting the area and finding a lot of compelling evidence for these claims and physical evidence for the Biblical Exodus.
Now I have to mention, previous to Jim and Penny’s experiences there was a man called Ron Wyatt who was an American amateur archeologist. He first came to, notoriety after he became convinced that a fossilised boat on the side of a mountain in Turkey was the original Noah’s Ark sometime in the 70’s.
It had been discovered there previously and after some superficial examinations it was more or less forgotten. Directly as a result of Wyatt’s efforts it has now become a famous Turkish Tourist destination advertised as the original Noah’s Ark, I guess cynics might say they enjoy the revenue.
This is obviously a topic of some debate and whatever conclusion people want to reach is entirely up to them, but for me personally I felt very inspired by the intrepid adventurer spirit of Ron Wyatt (he and his two sons have been real danger of losing their lives on several occasions) and his dogged determination finding these landmarks in hostile and difficult terrain and breaking new ground in areas that simply had never been considered previously.
Predictably he was mocked and ridiculed or ignored but persisted nevertheless and for this I love and admire the spirit of the Man.
He turned his attention to the Exodus, the part that I am most intrigued about, I can’t remember how he actually got on to this direction after being so focussed on the Ark account but he began to trace the path of the Israelites in the Exodus of the Bible and the topographical evidence for the Exodus in Egypt. It was pretty clear to Wyatt, that the Mt Sinai in the Sinai Peninsular was a very poor candidate for the story described in the Bible, he then started checking the Biblical account and checking to see if there was any archeological evidence for a Biblical Exodus.
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| my first view of the Gulf of Aqaba |
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| http://www.ronwyatt.com/red_sea_crossing.html |
The Biblical account describes the route the Israelites took after they left Egypt. It is clear they were in the north and walking a well used route alongside the Mediterranean heading towards Canaan, I believe this was a well know route named the Kings Highway. In Exodus 13:17 it describes how the Israelites turn inland from a route towards the land of the Philistines (thats the Kings highway) which is clearly the shortest road towards Canaan. So in Ex.13;18 It says “God took them around by the way of the Wilderness towards the red sea”. By Wilderness it agin makes sense that the region to the west of the Gulf of Aqaba is a ‘wilderness’ since it is totally uninhabitable even to this day, the desert in Sinai was not densely populated by any means but there is plenty of evidence that a strong Egyptian presence was there in mining operations and military encampments.
The account describes how Pharaoh is informed the Israelites are “entangled in the land and the Wilderness has shut them in” (Exodus 14:3). Wyatt correctly reasoned that you cannot be “shut in” in a wide open desert, which you can expect in the desert of Sinai, but on the edge of gulf of Aqaba is a very mountainous region of rugged and impassable hills and cliffs. In between these are natural sandy paths directed towards the gulf made by rain. These spillways are called “Wadis” and fit perfectly the conditions described in Exodus. One of these wadis washed out an enormous beach called “Nuweiba Beach”, this is clearly visible on Google earth and could easily contain an enormous group of people.
I have looked at this numerous times, so imagine my excitement at flying over the very place I had been studying. I can tell you that I went through the same exercise Wyatt went through all those years ago when I could see quite clearly from my plane window a very rocky hilly area to the west side of the gulf of Aqaba with various wadis that had washed down towards the sea.
This really ignites my imagination and the intrepid explorer I certainly would love to be. I would really love to be able to witness some of the fascinating discoveries made by Ron Wyatt and the Caldwells. There are other Scholars and interesting people who come into the picture and I hope to reference all this during my stay. But much more of this later. . .
I realise I was a little high to the north of Aqaba to see Nuweiba beach, this is a bit further down. So a bit disapointing but not dampening my spirit too much
A screen shot from Google earth shows the location of Nuweiba beach. I can clearly identify the landmarks that show me exactly where I was in relation to it.
So close!
If I had been sitting on the other side of the plane I would have been able to see it!
Back to my flight.
I think I was quite shocked to see the extent of the desert as I flew towards Cairo across Saudi Arabia, it really does look inhospitable and deserted. I couldn't help but wonder how it is that people can live in this area so forsaken and barren. The Sinai Peninsular too is a vast and empty area of sand and stone.
So about half an hour or 45 minutes later we crossed the Gulf of Suez and I got a great view of the Suez canal, sadly didn't photograph particularly well.
Even as one gets closer to Cairo it doesn't really change and all I noticed was the appearance of a road here and there and then a few brown and yellow buildings that sprouted in the sand which then grew in proliferation as we came closer and lower towards the airport.
Cairo
I arrived at Terminal 1 at about 6:00 pm, it was about as dismal and as third world in appearance as one can imagine.
I again experienced anxiety as I stood in a long queue, hoping my papers were all in order, but I went through without a problem. An Egyptian man approached me and tried to get me to commit to a tour of the Pyramids and Cairo whilst I waited for my next flight which was only at 10:40pm. I admit I was intrigued and thought “Heck why not” but his asking price was $75 which was obviously his attempt to exploit a gullible westerner. He then went down to 400 LE (Egyptian pound) which is roughly R600.
I suppose I could have bargained with him but I felt another onset of anxiety and thought I should rather focus on finding Terminal 3 where my next flight was, which apparently was some distance away.
So braving the gauntlet of (very persistent) taxi drivers I eventually found the shuttle bus and headed off to Terminal 3. This was refreshingly much better than terminal one, a large modern looking airport.
I checked in grabbed the only half hour of free wi-fi available to chat to Jo to let her know I was alive and on-course, I settled down to the long wait and watched TV, one program was featuring David Hasselhof talking Egyptian, another was a national geographic program on UfO’s all in Egyptian but killed a bit of time. After this I drank more coffee and tried to rest until finally the late night flight to Hurghada was announced.
After a very long bus drive we got to our airbus for what must have been the very last flight of the day. After the previous two lengthy flights the Hurghada leg was mercifully only an hour and I found myself at my final destination point picking up my suitcase all safe and sound and walking out into the moonlight. There to my enormous relief, was David Meaker waiting to meet me and whisk me off to El Gouna, it was by now 12:30 and I was exhausted.
El Gouna
El Gouna is a completely separate gate controlled area totally privately owned about half an hour north of Hurghada right on the Red Sea. It is enormous and is far from complete, there are ongoing developments everywhere. I shall have much to say about all this, but firstly my flat. I was dropped off at a complex of flats in a built up area of shops and residences. They are all built in a specific style which is on an African theme (I discovered it is called "Nubian") and are quite lovely. Quite spectacular, spacious and modern and far more than I even expected.
It is very hot here, did I mention that? Air conditioners on at all times or you will be very uncomfortable.
My first look at El Gouna
David fetched me late on Friday Morning after I had a fabulous shower and collapsed into a supine position for the first time in two days. David then gave me a tour of a few areas in El Gouna, I had a view of some hotels from the outside, apparently for a visitor’s fee we can go in an swim in the Pools etc.
There is much development, it looks like the desert is slowly being reclaimed, water is taken from the Red Sea and is desalinated in big purification plants, one cannot drink the tap water and drinking water has to be bought in bottles.
We visited one of the many kite-surfing spots situated all along the coast here the sky is littered with kite surfers, no waves here but plenty of wind.
We had a beer at one of the many clubs and met a couple of locals after which we took a drive back home to my very comfortable and spacious flat.
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| With Debbie Thompson David and Lorraine Meaker and Barry ? |
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| My Flat from street level |
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| my flat from outside |
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| Arabic number plate - quite weird |
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| The playfeilds as I walk in to the School for the first time |
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| David introduces me to my Classroom |
Sunday is Monday
Spoke to Jo this morning, she is sick in bed, I asked her if she was going to take Megzi to School and she reminded me that it was Sunday, I was getting prepared for School, my first day.
The kids all arrived downstairs in the quad area and we did a meet and greet so I met a few parents and their kids, all seem friendly enough. I have a class first thing but they are all at a registration or something and I am sitting here alone in the class. Just getting my computer started with the help of Cariem the computer guy.
IN my first group of the day, I only had 4 kids doing the art class with me! Apparently the art group is split into two and there are only a few of them in each group I am not sure why they cant just put them all into one class. I had to wing it, so heres a drawing exercise I pulled out to keep us going whilst they were there.
Anyway next group is the year 1’s that means the tiny tots which have been farmed into the art department basically to give Debbie a break from all the littlies and I now must figure out a way to entertain them for an hour or so a day. Very fortunately I get some help with this lady who came in to assist, to my relief she was quite helpful I will be grateful for any help I can get. . .
So I got them in the room and told them a story I read in John Elderedge’s book “waking the dead”, in which he recounts an episode from “the Wizard of OZ” when Dorothy meets the Tin Man who lost his heart. So I recounted the story and the Kids had to draw the characters. So I’m a bit hoarse now and working in an hour was just about as much as I could take.
These are the kids playing at break on the astro turf, they are quite besotted with soccer it would seem. I couldn't believe they could run like that in this incredible heat. After my 20 minute duty I was only too happy to duck back into my air-conditioned room.
I had a group of very unruly 10 year olds in the last period of the day and I realised that I needed to establish control very swiftly and firmly so had me bellowing a couple of times to retain control, I have never taught young kids before! So, the learning curve begins. . .
