The Road to Cairo
Today we have been traveling through the desert. 84% of Egypt is desert! We're unable to trace the exact route of the Exodus due to political problems, but we have seen much desert, much sand, much rock. It's hard to imagine the children of Israel wandering in this wasteland for 40 years! No wonder they were rather cranky!
Many checkpoints, showing our passports even as we travel within the country. Egypt is different from anywhere else I've been.
The roads in Sinai are bumpy and rather narrow. They remind me of back roads at home, but these are the main traveling routes across Sinai. Since there is a small density of population here, the roads are not maintained. Our bus driver often drove in the middle of the road--when nothing else was coming!
I'm seeing like never before how the children of Israel really did have to learn to depend on God in the wilderness. There's nothing else here to rely on! It took them 40 years to begin to learn that lesson. Why do we expect to be able to learn it overnight?
On the way, our guide shared pieces of Egyptian history and a bit about the development of their language from writing with hieroglyphs to the modern Arabic. Coptic, he said, is still spoken in churches along with Arabic.
When we arrived in Cairo, the news had just been announced about the newly elected president. People were everywhere, clogging the streets, honking their horns, waving posters. The loop around the city was like any major city in the United States, only worse. I don't think I'll ever complain about crazy drivers since I've been here! The lines mean nothing to the drivers here, and there seem to be no real rules on the road. Our driver, Magdi, did a fantastic job delivering us safely to our resort hotel, even when a car/truck accident happened just in front of us. We were glad to arrive, swim, get settled in, share dinner and rest. There are only eight of us in the group...who knows what adventures await?
Many checkpoints, showing our passports even as we travel within the country. Egypt is different from anywhere else I've been.
The roads in Sinai are bumpy and rather narrow. They remind me of back roads at home, but these are the main traveling routes across Sinai. Since there is a small density of population here, the roads are not maintained. Our bus driver often drove in the middle of the road--when nothing else was coming!
I'm seeing like never before how the children of Israel really did have to learn to depend on God in the wilderness. There's nothing else here to rely on! It took them 40 years to begin to learn that lesson. Why do we expect to be able to learn it overnight?
On the way, our guide shared pieces of Egyptian history and a bit about the development of their language from writing with hieroglyphs to the modern Arabic. Coptic, he said, is still spoken in churches along with Arabic.
When we arrived in Cairo, the news had just been announced about the newly elected president. People were everywhere, clogging the streets, honking their horns, waving posters. The loop around the city was like any major city in the United States, only worse. I don't think I'll ever complain about crazy drivers since I've been here! The lines mean nothing to the drivers here, and there seem to be no real rules on the road. Our driver, Magdi, did a fantastic job delivering us safely to our resort hotel, even when a car/truck accident happened just in front of us. We were glad to arrive, swim, get settled in, share dinner and rest. There are only eight of us in the group...who knows what adventures await?
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