Permanence

As I had mentioned last week, I was heading to the southern part of Egypt for my fall break with a group of friends from my courses here. Customary to Muslims across the world, the end of Ramadan, the Muslim Holy month, is a time of great jubilation and feasting, much like any Christian holiday. My Egyptian friends and roommates all spent their breaks at home with their families throughout the country. With any native Egyptian returning home for the week long celebration, the international students here also spent their vacations in transit, venturing out of the crowded streets of Cairo. Having overheard a friend mention her plans to tour southern Egypt in my art history class, I asked if it would be possible for me to join the group. She seemed elated since the group only had one other guy in it at that point. I was equally excited at the prospect of seeing some of the world's oldest surviving monuments and clearing my lungs of the air pollution.

The group that I traveled with consisted of 6 other students from the university; each brought to the trip unique past life experiences and personal characteristics. For the sake of brevity I will tell just a little bit about each person so you get an idea of the diversity among us. Three girls, Alyssa, Lara, and Nishreen, all are juniors at Yale University, studying Middle Eastern studies at AUC and living together in an apartment in Zamalek. Amanda, a junior history major at Indiana University, was our group's resident tour guide for many of the temples we saw and exuded Mid-Western charm. Yousef, a junior Middle Eastern studies major at Duke University, was my roommate in each of the hotels we stayed in during the trip. We talked extensively about his youth, which was spent in Jordan as part of a Palestinian refugee family. Caitlin, a graduate student at AUC and Mormon missionary, was definitely one of the most interesting people on the trip.

Starting off the trip, we endured a 19 hour train ride to Aswan - if traveling by car, the trip would've taken about a quarter of that. To give you an accurate picture of what it was like, just imagine being stuck in a compartment about the size of 4 office cubicles, add 7 people to it with their luggage, and bam! there you have our trip to Aswan. And this was the first class section of the train, too! After getting back I did some reading about the rail system in Egypt and apparently, much of it is very antiquated and consists of the remnants of the British colonial era. If you have seen pictures from National Geographic depicting people pouring out of train windows in India, it's the same thing here in Egypt for non-1st class riders. Needless to say, it would not be a comfortable ride if you were take anything but 1st class on an Egyptian train haha. Despite the annoyances of our compartment, it sure beat traveling in what essentially is a container car. I tried to grab whatever sleep I could and make the most out of the limited floor space that was left. I actually was able to get about 6 hours of decent rest, awaking to the fierce southern Egypt sun seaping through the blinds. Oh, what a false sense of hope I got when I saw the sun! Little did we know that we would have to endure another 8 hours on the train before arriving in Aswan around 5 PM on Tuesday. We later found out that one of the 3rd class trains in front of us had been losing power each time it stopped at a station and delayed all other trains as a result.

Once we arrived in Aswan we were met by our tour guide, Ahmed and taken by van to our hotel, Orchieda, a few blocks from the train station. Our accomadations were very nice for the cheap price we paid and were close to the main cornish running along the Nile. After showering and laying down on a soft bed for a bit, the group and I had dinner at a nearby riverboat restaurant - it was very lackluster and not worth the praise it got in a guide book. Since we were still hungry and wanted to see the town, we ventured into the souq, or market area, for a bit. It was like navigating through an obstacle course, with merchants jumping over each other for your attention. I have grown accustomed to this practice and largely ignore them, just waving them away or sometimes even saying "Laa shukran" - Arabic for no thank you. I could only imagine what Ocean City would be like if store owners were as persistent as their Egyptian counterparts. I did eventually find a jewelry store that I wanted to investigate and I spent an hour searching for something for my father. I decided to purchase a Nubian-styled silver bracelet, etched with interlocking bands lining its exterior band. The beauty of shopping in stores like this is the fact that you can get a real bargain on items, like this bracelet. Initially starting out at 160 pounds (roughly 30 American dollars) I got the price down to 110 pounds - not bad for my limited Arabic and being American. The key to getting the deal is to be steadfast in getting your desired price on an item; I typically act disinterested until I hear my price. Something tells me that my father would do well shopping here, considering his profession haha.

The following day we woke up at 3 AM to catch our van to Abu Simbel, which is the site of the Great Temple of Rameses II. The site is about 290 km from Aswan, laying next to the man-made Lake Nasser and largely removed from civilization. Thanks to the ingenious thinking of the Egyptian government, all tourists visiting the area have to congregate into a convoy that leaves Aswan each day at the same time - it'd make for an easy target for any robbers or terrorists. Without any problems, we arrived in Abu Simbel around 8 AM and toured the monuments there, shown partially in my 2nd photo. What are depicted here are the 4 colossi of Rameses II guarding the entrance to his temple. Each one depicts the pharaoh at a different age, ranging from age 20 to 50, representing his enduring reign over Egypt. The temple is absolutely amazing and epic in size - its interior is decorated with reliefs showing the pharaoh on campaign and among the gods. I would say if you had to pick the top places to see in Egypt, Abu Simbel is definitely among the top.

Piling back into our van to return to Aswan, we left Abu Simbel and headed for the Philae Temple complex, shown in the first picture. Situated on an island in the Nile, the temple is only accessible by water taxi. Most of its decoration dates from the Ptolemic period (320 - 87 BCE). Most of the reliefs found inside and outside of the temple depict the pharaoh smiting his enemies and enagaging in religious ceremonies, both of which are salient themes found on most ancient Egyptian monuments.

After completing our tour of the Aswan sites, we hopped on a felucca sailboat for a 2 day cruise north towards Luxor. Roughly 30 feet long, this single sail boat is well-suited for the Nile: shallow draft, large sail, which allow it to navigate the river with great ease. Our boat was captained by two Bedouin gentlemen; the one around 60 years old and the other in his early 20s. Although they spoke very little English, the group was blessed to have two individuals near fluent in Arabic, so we were able to convey our needs and joke around (Egyptians love a good joke and playing pranks). Their hospitality was unrivaled; they cooked meals for us over the 2 days aboard the boat and took us ashore to see the rural villages lining the river. It was great to see some green again and sail - it reminded me of sailing in Ocean City with my grandfather. Taken at sunrise on my 2nd day aboard, the picture above clearly shows the beauty of the Nile River outside of industrialized northern Egypt. During the two evenings we were on the felucca, the group engaged in a series of lengthy discussions of religion, philosophy, sing-a-longs, and collective therapy. Since each of us came from different religious backgrounds we had a plethora of topics to debate, including the difference in Muslim and Christian versions of holy stories. In many ways it showed me that despite coming from diverse backgrounds, we were all striving for the same thing: peace of mind and some sign that our good deeds aren't going unnoticed.

This last point brings me to something I've been doing a lot of thinking about, even before studying in Egypt. Over the course of the past year I have been doing considerable amounts of research on various religious traditions, both Christian and non-Christian. As many of you are already aware, I have taken a particular interest in studying Islam and am pursuing a religious studies minor at Ursinus somewhat as a result of taking courses examining this religion. In addition to looking at Islam from an academic perspective, I also had become interested in for more personal reasons. At the same time that I began studying Islam at Ursinus, I was also experiencing some of the most trying periods in my young adult life. Although not apparent to loved ones, friends, or significant other, I had been trying to cope with what you might call an existential crisis of sorts. I cannot explain how this came to be, but it did and it left me questioning the stuff that I had perceived as my foundations in life: God, family, a long-term relationship. Additionally, there was the constant pressure of my academics weighing down on me and my own internal A-type personality to battle. Amidst this chaos I was searching for something that would allow me to live life without having all these things on my mind, and so I began investigating Islam in private. It was rather easy to do since I was reading numerous texts for my courses and had friends to ask about any questions I had. I do not know how to explain it but during this period of research I was growing much happier and felt reconnected with God. And so with deciding to study in Egypt for the fall, I was even happier to experience life in a Muslim country and further investigate the religion. However, my dreams of being welcomed warmly as someone interested in converting were quickly crushed upon arriving here. Instead of finding Muslims living according to the tenants outlined by the Qur'an and the Prophet's advice, I witnessed individuals oppressing each other and not overly friendly towards non-Egyptians. How does this all relate to the debates aboard the felucca? Well, those conversations between the group and what I stated above, made me realize that I honestly do not see myself as observing one particular religion at this point in my life and have no interest in converting from Christianity. Rather I see myself becoming more spiritual during the course of my stay in Egypt and focusing on trying to develop a closer connection with God through living a good life. In a lot of ways I have been borrowing from various religious traditions over the years in striving to accomplish this goal, just now I feel confident enough to let loved ones know this.

Ma'salaama for now and with love,
Andrew

One last thing, the last picture was taken during my exploration of the Hatsheput Temple complex outside of Luxor with a man who had tied my scarf in traditional Bedouin style.

Currently listening to: Pelican "March to the Sea"