Day 18

We made it! 24.5 straight hours of traveling! We left our hotel in Amman at 8:00 AM Tuesday (midnight Sioux Falls time) and arrived in Sioux Falls at 12:06 AM Wednesday morning. It was the longest day of traveling yet. The fight to Amman only took 11 hours in the air, but the flight back to New York took 13 hours because of the head winds. Those extra 2 hours are tough. Your body aches and you wish you could get off the plane but it’s a long, wet, way down! The only sleeping we did was on the New York to Minneapolis leg of the trip, a 2.5-hour flight.

Lee is feeling much better and we are all glad to be home. We have made new friends both here and abroad. The experience has truly been a once in a lifetime thing. It wasn’t so much of what we saw, but the journey along the way. God is active in the world and he loves people of all race and color and religion. There is so much to be done in the world to bring God’s love and his Kingdom near. We are thankful for our family and friends and we felt close to you as you journeyed with us through this blog.
It’s time for sleep and reacclimatize to the wonderful schedule we call “our life”. We look forward to sharing our stories and catching up with you all. Until we meet again, goodnight!

Day 17

Well, we made it to Amman! We are very tired and know that there is 24 hours of travel ahead of us. Today we rode on a sailing boat for about an hour on the Nile. It was a beautiful day. All our bags are packed, Lee is still very sick and taking local remedies for his illness, like eating dry tea by the spoonfuls and eating Arabian Chicken Soup. He also visited a pharmacy and bought some stuff we have never seen before…Vicki is reading all his labels for him. I hope he is feeling better tomorrow.

Well, this is it…we are on our way home. We can’t wait to see you all!

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!

Day 15

Our day of touring didn’t start until 12:00 PM. We had the morning free to sleep in, have a leisurely breakfast and lay out by the pool. It must have been about 80 degrees today in Luxor. The agenda was to see two temples today; the best Luxor has to offer.

The first temple was the Karnak Temple. It sits on 60 acres! Much of it is still standing and it is under constant restoration, digs and discovery. There are still houses over some of the temple sites and the government is not allowing the homes to be fixed or rebuilt so as people move out, they tear them down and start to dig. It really is amazing how youing the work of archeology is…there is so much to discover.

There at these temples, and other Egyptian sites, there are mud bricks that are found in the excavation of the remains. These are the exact kind of bricks that the Israelite slaves were making in the days of Moses. These temples were made in the days of Moses. It is very probable that these are the bricks God’s people made. Here is a brick that I’m holding made of mud and straw.

As we were getting off the bus to visit Karnak, I could not find my video camera. I knew I brought it and we only made one stop for lunch. I didn’t remember bringing the camra to lunch but it is the only place I could think that it would br. I asked the guide to call the restaurant. They said they didn’t have it. I started to sweat. When we got back on the bus, there it was, under a bag that I was sure I had looked under. I felt stupid but at least my camera was safe. Incidentally, I did not get any video from our two hours inside Karnak, so I took some video of my stupidity from the parking lot. If you’d like to see the video and some video of Luxor Temple, click on the video below.

The Luxor Temple was next. Again it was a great example of Egyptian art and spiritual belief and practice. The statues and structures are massive and words and photos hardly do it justice. When you think of the millions and millions of huge statues, blocks, hieroglyphics, and art that was created, it is mind boggling as to how they did it.

Everywhere we go Meriah Tigner is a celebrity. All the Egyptian boys love Meriah and want their picture with her. She graciously obliges them and smiles her beautiful smile to their enjoyment. I decided it was my turn to get a photo with Meriah. She promptly called me her favorite name, “jerk face”. That’s the kind of pastor/parishioner relationships I like!

Tonight we took a flight back to Cairo instead of the bumpy, dirty, stinky, smoking, bad food, no sleep, belly dancing train ride. Only six of us took the plane, the other 13 rode the train and will arrive in the early morning hours. We will sleep in and enjoy a great dinner and breakfast in the dinning room. The flight was very uneventful but the ride from the airport to the hotel was filled with Cairo traffic excitement as we watch people do things in cars on the street that only professional stunt drivers can do back in the states.

Back at the hotel, Jenny and I have the “I Love Lucy” bed arrangement that we have gotten used to here in the Middle East. It will be nice to get home to our one bed…this isn’t something you want to get used to. We are not sure if we will be doing what was scheduled for tomorrow or if there are other plans. Egyptian time is very different from American time…here you just go with the flow. We do need to do laundry and I need to do some blogging but one thing is for sure, we will enjoy the warmth of the sun as we look out to the pyramids on the horizon. Life is ruff here in Cairo.

Day 14

Today was a lot of fun. It was a more relaxed day that the hurry tour we have had on other days. We started at the Valley of the Kings but again we were not allowed to take any photos. We had to buy postcards to bring back the images. Some of the painting in these 4000 year-old tombs looked as good as if they were painted yesterday. It was stunning.

Next was the Valley of the Queens. Here is Jenny and I doing a little posing in the valley.

We ended up with a lot of free time at our hotel and our hotel was the nicest one yet. The food is first class and so is the service. At night, there was a dancing show that included men, women and belly dancers. It was great fun! Lee enjoyed a shesha, an Egyptian smoking pot. He was hilarious with his turban and glasses. We got some video of it and some video of Vicki dancing if you’re interested. Lee tells us that Vicki used to belly dance as a workout routine…I don’t know if it’s true, but you can judge for yourself.

Tomorrow we tour some more in Luxor and fly back to Cairo. I’ll talk to you then!