Free Tour

Alright, are you ready for me to tell you my next adventure? Well, I left my Athens hostel about 9am Saturday morning. I traveled with my three roommates throughout Europe, but I had booked a different flight down to Europe somehow, so this time I was on my own. I’ve never flow by myself before either, but I was kinda excited and I figured I could figure things out. Everything did go well too. I flew from Athens to Cairo, where I arrived at 3:30pm and wouldn’t leave until 1:40am the next morning. Cairo is very disorganized. They really don’t have many signs about what to do when you arrive, so I started to go through the passport line, but that guy told me to get a visa. The visa was like 15 bucks and I didn’t really want to pay, so I asked this guy if I really had to do that if I was just transferring. He said yes and pointed me to the desk where you buy them, but then 30 seconds later another guy directed me towards the transfer area. Then they took me on a bus to the actual terminals. When I got there a man checked my passport and asked if I wanted to go on a free tour of the pyramids or a hotel. I said tour. Duh, it’s free! So then he kept my passport (which I was a little wary of, but I figured it was the airport and they had better be responsible) and told me to go wait in this area. They really didn’t give me any details, so I ended up waiting for like two hours before I finally left, although that time passed so fast. I started talking to this older man who was a non-denominational minister who was born in Holland and lives in Chicago. He comes to train in other ministers in the Middle East and Africa areas. He was actually pretty fun to talk to. Finally, they took me out to catch my tour bus. Turns out, there were only two of us who had decided to take the free tour. The other one was this French lady who had to be back at the airport by ten, so they sent us in separate tour buses, even though we arrived at all the same places at the same time. Weird. They are so disorganized in Cairo. Anyway, back to the story. I got my own mini tour bus with my own driver, who spoke Arabic and very little English. I got to sit in the front passenger seat while we drove around in this empty bus. The drive was really interesting in itself! The city was really cool to look at and there was a ton of mosques everywhere! They also are all crazy drivers there too, yet good ones because even though they drive like crazy and don’t follow the lines on the road, they still never crash into each other. Huh. Really though, they drive all over the road, whether they are the only car on the highway or not, sometimes they drive right over the line, right down the middle. Even though we were on a four lane highway I’m pretty sure we had six cars across at one point. I really didn’t feel unsafe though, maybe it was just me. My driver was able to say a few things. He stopped and let me take a picture of some famous guy’s house; I’m guessing some top guy in their government. I have no idea what type of government they have in Egypt. He also pulled over and let me take pictures of the Nile. Sadly, though, cameras don’t work so hot at night, so none of my pictures really turned out. After about 45 minutes of driving we picked up my tour guide, who kicked me out of the front seat and into the back. He was talking to me about the pyramids, although I really couldn’t tell you what he said to me. He had a pretty thick accent and talked pretty fast. Then he was dropped off on the side of the street and jumped into the other car. I met him again outside the pyramids where he gave almost the same little talk again and once again I caught none of it. I did get to see the three pyramids though and the sphinx! There was a light show going on and they looked so awesome! I was just a little taste to kinda make me want to go back, which I’m sure was their whole plan. From there, they drove me another 45 minutes to eat a free dinner at this restaurant, which was pre-order for me. The French woman met me up there too, but she was kinda crabby and didn’t really talk to me. She kinda lived up to the reputation that the French are crabby cakes. Then they drove me back to the airport. And oh my, I saw the craziest thing ever driving back too. There was this huge hole in the middle of the highway, like the size of an exercise ball and this man had driven over it and was now stuck because if he drove anymore he would drive right in it! When I got back to the airport I had to pick up my passport, so I went to customer service. There wasn’t a guy there, so I waited right in front of the window. If the Egyptians were anything like the Greeks, they would be pushy. I was right. As soon as the guy came, all the other people crowded around me. One even stuck his piece of paper into the window right in front of me while I was talking to the guy. How rude! Then I had to go through security to get in again and those people were also very pushy again. Man. I finally made it into the airport and got on my flight. The wait wasn’t too terribly bad because I just journaled and then made some friends with this couple from New York, who were in the Peace Corps working in Botswana. The flight was okay, but I am incredibly sick of airplane food.

I arrived in Port Elizabeth at 2:40 that afternoon and could not stop smiling. It is so gorgeous here! My director picked me up and brought me to my flat. Our flats are right across the street from the Indian Ocean and the weather is around 70-80 degrees! My director took me grocery shopping and then I went on a run…in shorts and a tank. I’ve been waiting to be able to do that for months. Then I went to bed early since I had a bit of a sore throat. Monday I kinda hung around my flat for the morning. Sadly, we do not have free internet here in our flats, so I have to pay for it. It’s a bit of a struggle, but I try to just type e-mails and blog updates off line and then copy and paste. I’m not sure how I’m gonna work out Skype though. We have a maid, who makes our beds and does our dishes everyday. Yea, I feel pretty spoiled. They’re pretty decent flats. My favorite part is that we have a porch and I love to sit out there and read. The afternoon Monday we went to this dolphin show and saw some dolphins swimming and doing tricks. We also saw penguins and seals. It was a pretty good time. After that, we headed off to the beach. The ocean was absolutely fantastic! I even got to play on this thing called a skim board that two of my peers rented. Basically, you just use it in the shallow water on the shore and throw it in front of you when a wave comes in, run after it, and jump on. My first two times I totally biffed it on my butt, and then I was told it’s more of a step on and not a jump on. I only fell one more time, but I did have a bit of a battle wound on my knee from landing so hard in the sand. Today we had orientation and got to see the campus. It was pretty good, but I had no patience to sit in the class room and listen to my professor talk about stuff. Ekk, I hope I can focus more during class. One interesting thing he said was about the AIDS Haven, House of Resurrection. He was telling us that he had met with the people we will be working with and the students will be able to each have a kid to play with one on one. The woman was telling her that they had 14 kids, but then her assistant corrected her saying, “only 13, Madisa passed during the night.” That is the reality of the situation. We will be working with all HIV positive kids, some more sick than others. I would like to be at the House of Resurrection, but we’re going to look at both sites and then decide. He also gave us the list of planned activities he has for us and they are sooo awesome! I’ll just tell you about them as they come though. So that’s pretty much brings you up to date. Awesome!