One of the children at the carpet school.

The end of an exhausting day!!! We shopped a fair while this afternoon. I bought a table and Madeline bought a hooka, so we have some things of significant size to deal with. Oh well!!!

Tara met with Ibrahim's parents this evening. They seemed very pleasant and pleased to meet her. The father had some paperwork regarding his health that I looked at. He will be in the hospital tomorrow evening and we may go see him. I would be interested to visit another hospital. We walked over to a park to visit, and it was dark by that time. A man was closing down his roasted corn stand, so brought all of us an ear. After the visit, the four of us went out for dinner.

We head out for the pyramids tomorrow, with the cab picking us up at 730am. We are looking forward to the day; I am looking forward to the air-conditioned taxi!!!

Cheers!!!!

Tara meeting Mr. and Mrs. El Omari

Madeline and I are sitting on a deck of our hotel having a cup of hot tea.  We are already quite hot, but it is the thing to do.  We just had a full day of going to the Citadel which was very impressive, then on to the oldest market.  Both were completely interesting.  While at the Citadel, we could see two sets of pyramids.  It was also time for prayer, and we could hear from the city below the sounds of the prayers being called.  It was quite surreal for me.  At the market trinkets were bought by all.  I may be kicking myself, but I bought a brass table with a wooden stand.    We had lunch at an adventurous cafe, of which I will eventually include a picture.  

              I am going up to the room in a moment to prepare for a very special evening in Tara's life, as she is going to be meeting Ibrahim's parents for the first time.  It is such a privilege for me to participate in this time.  I am very thankful to be here with her.  She is such a beautiful young woman, so thoughtful and intelligent  Until later..........

Greetings!! Today we are going to do more sights of Cairo, Old Cairo, an old Mosque, the University among other things I am sure it will be an interesting day. Tomorrow we are planning on going to the pyramids. We will be making that trip with many warnings that we have received around the breakfast tables. One coupe felt so hassled by the tricks of the taxi drivers, tourist handlers, games and tricks, that they felt their day was quite negatively impacted. Nothing better than some good tips!!
We talked to a woman who went into Gaza in March with the Codepink group. She has arranged a group of her own that is connected with Codepink that is leaving a day after us. Her description of Gaza is quite bleak.


Yesterday I spent the morning with my niece, Tara, while she shopped for a cell phone. In the pursuit of doing so, we found ourselves in a market and on various side streets. The atmosphere was chaotic and an assault to the senses. Tara was impressively successful purchasing a phone, and later, finding a card to add minutes. After the phone, we hooked back up with Madeline and Joel, and went back to the market with shopping interests. Madeline and I each bought a pair of shoes from a skilled 10 year old shop tender who drove a hard bargain. Joel bought a pair of men capris. Then we ate some Egyptian sandwiches from a street vendor and finished it up going to a tea shop. It was all quite fun.
Then we were off to the British Museum. We decided to be self reliant and chose to take the Metro. After crossing streets (which can be incredibly harrowing, best technique is to find another person crossing, and then tail gate them, but a better tip that we learned at breakfast is to tail a woman carrying a child, or someone with a cane!!!) taking staircases that did not lead to the Metro, and spinning our wheels, we asked some girls where it was, and they took us to the station and bought our tickets for us!!! Well, at least our self sufficiency will be improved for our next journey! We were off to the Egyptian Museum.
Then we walked to the Nile river which was another completely different environment. There are a lot of very decorated boats that take tourists out for an hour boat trip. It looked like they all had very loud music and some people were dancing. We had a nice dinner based on a recommendation, then called it a day!!!