Last Two Days on the Ground in Egypt

Our trip is winding down and we are all ready to get home, though with heavy hearts. We all made many great new friends and are sad at the thought of not seeing them again for a very long time if at all. Brad would like for all of us to see them again next summer, but it’s a bit early for commitments. :)

We awoke at camp for our final breakfast, which many of us attended at partook. The crepes with jam were actually very good, and the eggs weren’t too bad. We left breakfast, packed up our bags, brought them to the lobby, Zack shared his M&M’s with me (I don’t recall them tasting so good), then went over the main hall where said our final good byes. It was a pretty emotional experience, as I recall it being last year as well. There were many hugs and plenty of tears. Not me, I didn’t cry. Okay, maybe I did a little but don’t tell anyone. Barry wept.

We got on the bus and rode out of camp, past the donkeys and shanties, back to the highway, and off to Cairo. Road trips are always entertaining in Egypt. Never know what you might see. Several small pickup trucks with tomatoes, peppers, grapes, limes, and a few others. Looked like they were racing each other to market.

Arrived in Cairo and spotted a hint of western civilization in a mega mall called City Stars Centre. Had a Virgin Records and Rain Forest Café. We broke into smaller groups and went to find normal food. Many of us ended up at Chili’s, but other choices included Chico’s and Ruby Tuesdays. We at Chili’s had chips and salsa, some burgers, chicken fingers, a salad or two, quesadillas, all the comfort foods of home. It was a great meal. The waiter found joy in teaching us table tricks with straw papers. Ask your family member to show you one or two of those… I recall the one where he sets up two pyramids with straw papers, says move one of the papers so that it makes four pyramids. We were stumped but now know the answer.

After lunch we all parted ways for some power shopping. Had about 45 minutes to get souvenirs and snacks for the next two days. I squeezed in a stop at the Baskin Robbins for a cookies and cream ice cream cone. Devine! Who knew B&R could taste so good.

Left the mall and got back on the bus and headed straight for Sohkna at the Red Sea, where our resort awaited us two hours southeast of Cairo through nothing but white desert. We arrived about 6:30 p.m. Got checked in. Some of us went straight out to the beach to see the sun set over the water. Some of us others with laptops and other digital devices got on the internet, which is here but very slow and very frustrating! Imagine a dozen worn out American coaches huddled in the lobby around a couch or two all yelling at the stupid stupid slow internet. Yes, that was us. Well, maybe not yelling. But there was definitely some grunting.

Dinner was a pretty good buffet here at the resort. Pasta, chicken, seafood, beef, peas and carrots. Until we ate the peas and carrots it didn’t occur to us that we hadn’t had any vegetables since arriving in Egypt. They also were very good. No dessert worth mentioned. I had two HoHo’s. I bought a box 24 count at the mall back in Cairo. Planning to eat all of them before our plane lands in Dallas!

What do we do at this resort? Nothing at all! Sleeping in, breakfast, hunting for sand dollars and sea shells, chillin’ by the beach, doing a whole lot of nothing. No special events, no parties, no meetings, no baptisms. (Ah, for those of you new to this trip blog, not reading last year’s, yours truly was baptized in the Red Sea here on our last day of the 2009 mission trip.) Just time to decompress and rest a bit before heading back. Brad builds that into our schedule, wisely, because he knows we don’t have time for that when we get home. Families need our attention, as well as our jobs and our lives. Smart man!

Some of us spent some time catching up on Facebook and connecting with our new Egyptian friends. We grabbed a group photo by the Red Sea in our T-shirt gifts from Maged and Kaska. See below. Then we had another buffet dinner, carbon copy of last night’s dinner.

After dinner we have four or five hours for resting and showers and packing. We are departing the resort at 1:00 a.m., arriving at airport at 3:00 a.m. for 5:30 a.m. flight departure to Frankfurt. Two hour layover then 11 hour flight back to DFW airport. We are scheduled to land at 2:30 p.m., then we’ll go through customs, get our bags, and head back to see you all in the church parking lot. We should arrive back at the church at roughly 4:30 p.m. Wednesday. We’ll call and give you a more exact time when we’re loaded up and heading that way. And that’s about it for the Egypt Summer 2010 blog! I may post one more after we're home to feature our travel stories.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for tuning in, and thanks for your comments.

Good night and good luck.

Can’t wait to see all of you!