Saturday, June 12, 2010
Called Home
My mother is dying and I was summoned home by her doctor. She is in frail health but stable at the moment.
A series of health problems that taken separately would not be life threatening, ganged up on a frail 89 year old woman and created a precariously life-threatening situation. She went into a steep decline in late May-early June and the doctor felt I needed to be home with her. So I left a girlfriend who was visiting to tie up loose ends for me and flew home immediately to be with my mother.
She was overjoyed to see me. She cried and said she was afraid she would never see me again.
I am so glad school afforded me the opportunity to be with my mother during this time. My brothers also came in, one from Missouri and the other from Japan. They were able to spend more than a week with Mom. All of us had many good conversations as Mom rallied a bit and was able to participate. We all are ever so thankful for that time together--all of us and Mom.
My brothers have departed now and Mom 's health seems to have stabilized somewhat. She is still in precarious condition and death is imminent. For the time being, though, she is still with us in a beautiful hospice facility. I visit with her, play cards, read the paper and am with her as she completes this circle of life.
I have enjoyed doing this blog, but am no longer in Cairo so will make no further postings. I know your thoughts and prayers are with us now as we deal with these emotional issues.
Thank you all for your dedication to my blog. I wish you all well.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Caravanseri / Tentmaker Alley
At night the gates of Cairo closed to maintain security. As a merchant traveling across the desert with your trade goods, predicting arrival was difficult and you often arrived at night after the gates to the city closed. You went to this caravanseri. It was an inn of sorts. You unloaded your camel, had it fed and stabled in the stall at ground level. Then you climbed the steep narrow stairs at the end of the inn and proceeded to a small sleeping cell located over the stable. In the morning you proceeded into Cairo once the gates opened for the day.
Caravanseris were located all along the old trade routes, about a days journey apart and functioned much as a motel does today. It offered overnight accomodations for both man and beast of burden. Today this alley is know as the area of the tentmakers of Cairo. The old stable areas are now converted into stalls offering all sorts of canvas work, embroidery work , applique work , as well as other textile work like large flags, buntings and banners.......AND tents. The old sleeping areas are now workrooms for the various tentmakers atliers.
It is a fun place to visit, especially if you want a tent.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Egyptian Tourist Police
If you are a tourist and have any problems at all, you can go to one of these policemen and they will get help for you. If they do not speak English, there is another officer close-by who does.
Tourists often have trouble with the taxis overcharging and just the threat of the Tourist Police usually resolves the problem. Some tourists feel terribly hastled while shopping in various souks. The Tourist Police tame the vendors when they see that tourists are being troubled.
This fellow is in his summer whites at the Fort Quimby in Alexandria. This fort is built on the ruins of the old lighthouse at Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and heavily touristed. Many of these fellows also carry sidearms as well.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
House Guests
This is my daughter standing along the Nile on the Corniche in downtown Cairo.
Here is Rick with John McCahan in baseball cap standing behind. No pictures of my cousin and her husband yet. Today they were off to discover the Egyptian museum.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Sadat Memorial
This is the viewing platform where Sadat was standing when assinated. The security would not let me go up onto the stand to have my picture taken. This was as far as I could go.
This gives you a better view of the viewing stand across the street from the memorial. It is a very quiet and solemn place. I had to hand in my passport to be allowed to visit the memorial. The Egyptians are very concerned that someone might desscrate this memorial and by handing in my passport I could be traced.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Dahab
The Gulf of Aqaba and the Gulf of Suez, are the two bodies of water off the Red Sea that frame the Sinai Peninsula. From your beach lounge chair you can look across the gulf and see Saudi Arabia. At this point the Gulf of Aqaba is not very wide.
Back writing
I have not been writing lately. Quite frankly, I have been lazy and just not done this blog as should have. So now I am back at it and will post right away. So sorry to all who follow me for the delay.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Soccer Champs--a celebration extraordinaire
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Ain Soukhna on the Gulf of Suez
But it was not to last.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Shisha Smoking
The tobacco is placed in a clay cup at the top of the pipe, then covered with aluminum foil punched with holes. Hot charcoal is placed on top of this -- just a few very hot pieces. When you draw on the pipe it lowers the pressure in the water chamber and the hot tobacco smoke is then cooled as it passes through the water, then through the long pipe to the mouthpiece. (You purchase a new mouthpiece each time--they are cheap.) The attendant comes around periodically to renew the hot charcoal.
Shisha pipes are for sale. Almost nobody smokes shisha at home when it is so easy and cheap to smoke in a shisha place. These pipes are not very hardy so they need replacing often. They are glass and they break. The tubes and pipes wear out.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Alexandria, Egypt
Jack and I took a three day road trip to Alexandria at the western edge of the delta. We took the train up and back. The trip takes about 2&1/2 hours from Cairo. Alexander-The-Great is credited with being the founder of Alexandria, Egypt.
The city is the second largest city on the African continent, with a population of about 7 million people. It sits along the Mediterranean coastline at the western edge of the Nile Delta, and is the summer playground of Cairenes escaping the heat of the city.
The new library is probably the most prominent landmark along the lengthy Corniche highway that runs next to the Mediterranean.
It was completed in 2000 with a capacity of over 8,000,000 volumes. It is a major research library, housing a super-computer that can handle most any research need. The library is proud of its ability to archive internet work as well digitizing some of the ancient Egyptian scrolls from the original library dating from before 74 BC.,and other major works of Egyptian antiquity, all available to anyone with an internet connection from anywhere in the world. It does all the other library stuff as well, like discussion groups, literary presentations and discussions, as well as movies and planetarium shows in the planetarium, to mention a few of things on the calendar.
The interior space is over 11 stories tall, but deceiving from the outside, as it is built into the side of a hill. There are solar shades that follow the sun and control the amount of sunlight coming into the building. There is exhibit space, a rare book museum, calligraphy exhibits, printing presses used in Egypt from early times, as well as the ordinary stacks for books and periodicals one usually finds in libraries. There are internet connections and headphones at all the study carrols, as well a viewing rooms for micofiches and digitized materials.
Besides being available to students it is quite a tourist attraction, with tours given in various foreign languages throughout the day.
The original library at Alexandria was the respoitory of all known scientific and literary work in the world at the time. It burned down around 74 BC. Only a few or the original scrolls were saved and they are now housed here.
This is an artistic rendering of the original Pharos lighthouse at Alexandria, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It was built in the 800's, destroyed in an earthquake in the early 1300's and never rebuilt. Historians are fairly certain of the looks and dimensions of the building because it was so well known at the time it was built. Drawings of it appeared in many deocuments that have survived.
Today on the site of the old Pharos lighthouse stands this fort, built out of most of the block from the lighthouse and standing in approximately the same location.
We stayed close to the water in a little pension on the 7th floor of an old building. Our room had a sea view, for which we paid extra, but the view was from between other tall buildings. Oh well. Live and learn. The place was what I would describe as cheap and cheerful. AND it came complete with breakfast. It served our needs quite nicely.
We had a great time discovering this city. The fresh air and sea breezes were a pleasant change from Cairo.
More about the Roman ruins in my next post.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Israel -- Golan Heights
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Israel -- Caesarea National Park
The city was a phenomenal find, because it was in remarkable shape after so many years buried in the sands of the Mediterranean, as well yielding immense amounts of information about the Roman occupation, life, and historical documentation of the military presence of the Romans in this part of the world.