Day 16

Today was not exactly what we expected. The schedule got turned around and what was to happen on day 17 (nothing but rest happened on day 16). The events for day 16 will now happen on day 17…clear as mud? Good.

The train group arrived to the hotel at about 6:00 AM and they told of their magnificent stories on the train. The train driver drove at Mach 1 and slammed on the breaks at each station. It as reported that people fell over, food flew right off the trays, fire extinguishers came off the wall and cabinet doors flung wide open. The train moved at such a high rate of speed and the tracks being poorly aligned and leveled made for a bumpy :off the rails” feeling. The train steward woke them up at 4:14 AM (an hour and fifteen minutes earlier than scheduled). What was I doing? Sleeping with a full belly of good food and dreaming of the omelet station I would be visiting in the morning. I know, I’m naughty.

People started laying out at the pool and relaxing for this whole day of rest. Jenny did our laundry and turned the heat up in the room to create a rain forest atmosphere (so the wet clothes hanging all over the room would dry), and I did some blogging. At about noon we decided to go se if lunch was included in our relaxation day…it was not. This started an hour discussion with the group on trying to decide what to do, eat the $10 hotel sandwich with a $3 coke, order delivery and get ripped off because we are Americans, or go find food with pre posted prices. I wanted to go eat in Cairo, Jenny wanted me to bring her food on a silver platter and feed her, so that’s what we decided to do…I would go eat and bring her back some lunch.

Just as we left, Gordon Harris (our leader) said we were going to have a church service at 5:00 PM. I thought that was cool because it was Sunday and at 5:00 our time is 9:00 AM Sioux Falls time when Hillcrest was starting church…cool! Then Gordon asked if I would give the message…sure, I guess I have a little bit of work to do this afternoon.

Lee Tigner, Adam and I went to the front of the hotel to hail a cab. We decided we wanted to go to Pizza Hut. The hotel attendants desperately want to help you get a cab, not just because they are helpful but also because they get a cut of the fare. We found a lady who worked there who told us she would get us a cab for much less…30 minutes later we had to go find her, she said it would be another hour…now remember that Jenny thinks I’ve already left. We decided to walk out to the street to hail our own cab.

Six hotel employees followed us out there and again tried to hail cabs for us. They would walk towards oncoming traffic and hail a cab, talk to them and then send the cab to us. The price…100 Egyptian pounds or $20 Us Dollars! We were stuck. I started to get upset and tried to hail my own cab, I finally got one and worked at my own rip-off deal of 50 pounds there and back.

As we got in the cab, Lee started talking to him about his intestinal issues (Lee got the Egypt bug) and the man offered Lee some unmarked pills, Lee wisely declined. The cabdriver spoke rather good English and he asked why I had no smile. I decided to tell him that I felt that because I was an American, everyone was trying to rip me off. He confirmed that because I was an American, people will raise their prices by 1000%, yes a 1000%! But he stated their economic situation and that they are good people. It helped me get my head back into the right place. It is true that I am rich compared to these people and I can’t blame them for trying to get as much as they can for their products. I need to keep my sense of humor and realize that part of the game means I will lose a few times. It’s amazing how God can show up in a cabdriver for me.

We had pizza and KFC in full view of the Sphinx and Pyramids. Lee ordered his KFC extra spicy to try and kill the “Egyptian bug” but I think he tried to kill himself…poor Lee. At 5:00 PM we had our church service and we had a guest, a young Egyptian man named Jacob. He is a Christian and heard of our service from Joyce Harris, so he decided to join us. After the service he told us about his faith and what it is like to be a Christian in Egypt…we all needed to her his story.

8:30 and Jenny and I are going to bed. Tomorrow is out last day. At night we will fly to Amman, Jordan and sleep only 4 hours before we need to get up and start the 24-hour trip back over the pond. I’ll try to blog in Amman if possible, if I am able, that will be the last blog until I awake from my travel coma in Sioux Falls! See you soon!