Egypt!

Wow! A stark contrast. Egypt is a whole other continent, and it’s quite obvious! We were only in Cairo for 3 days, and while there’s more that I would love to do in Egypt, I do feel happy to be moving on to my next country.

Cairo reflects a classic ‘two sides of the river’ dynamic: on one side is the relatively developed downtown of Cairo, and on the other, the much poorer Giza. I’m sure there are pockets of development or relative wealth that exist in Giza, and I know for sure that Egypt, as a whole, does not mirror Giza’s living conditions but Giza is where I stayed and this is a recount of my experience.

First and foremost, it’s the desert! Everything and everywhere is so dry and dusty. We were staying on the edge of Giza, with Cairo to the north and the desert to the west. Don’t quote me on the north and west, I’m really just trying to say “above” and “to the left”. It was a very eye-opening experience for me, because I’ve never been around that level of poverty of before. It’s not just a homeless man you walk by holding a cardboard sign, it’s families sleeping on garage floors, or kids being sent out to beg instead of sent to school. Our hotel, unbeknownst to us, was on the dead-end street where locals keep the animals that they use for tours at the pyramids. Lines of camels, horses, and mules leashed unrelenting short to the fences beside us, it was quite upsetting. These animals are so malnourished and poorly treated. At night, horses roam the dumpsters and garbage on the streets to scavenge for food. You see these animals all decorated up at the pyramids, with flashy pom-poms and bejewelled saddles, but beneath the facade is a very inhumane fortune. This was another moment of contention for me, to see that this exists because of and for people like me.

One sliver of a silver lining is that the locals ride these animals unironically as their method of transportation around town. At least they’re benefitted. I understand the steep expense of a car. The roads are just a frenzy of scooters, cars, and desert animals. What I didn’t like about this, second to the animal abuse, was that it meant Egyptian men now walked around carrying whips.. I fear my fair skin and blue eyes did not exactly help me blend in.

I was actually surprised at the lack of tourists here. I understand why, and I understand the risks, but I still thought surely we aren’t the only stupid ones to make the leap? Indeed, we are.

I must say though, Egyptian people are among the friendliest I’ve met. They are so curious! So willing to help you explore their country. Apparently Egyptians are known for being friendly? This is what I was told, and it rang true for my 3 days there. There’s still a ton of begging, but nobody was rude or tried to hurt us like I was warned about. Their days are also 23 hours long! People who think Vegas is the city that never sleeps have clearly never been to Cairo, Egypt. They’re not even partying they just like.. keep living normally well into the night? I don’t know what an Egyptian person’s daily to-do list consists of but it must be humongous, because these people just don’t go to bed. Our flight arrived at 2am, and we got to our hotel by 3am, where we were abruptly greeted by a bird in our room and the seemingly unphased owner of the hotel putting cardboard over the bird’s hole in the wall as a remedy. He then stood in our door to explain pigeon fights in Egypt, and offered us a tour at 4am. GO TO BED! Or, at least, let us go to bed.

Egyptian food was not what I expected at all! I had one dish called koshari, which is supposedly “the food of the people” because it’s packed with inexpensive protein and grains. It seems like a struggle meal I’d have made myself in 5th grade. All glopped in a bowl: spaghetti, macaroni noodles, lentils, chickpeas, rice, fried onions, tomato sauce, and vinegar. Every bite had a different texture. It tasted like so much and also nothing at all. Everything in Egypt is SO SWEET. It’s a fact they boast! Egyptians love their sugar. Ironically, many ancient queens were found to have died from diabetes! A black coffee is brewed with sugar. A smoothie is sugared fruit juice and a koolaid packet. Sauces, breads, drinks, everything was loaded up with sugar.

Alright I’ve rambled on, here’s the grand reveal: the pyramids! We hired a guide to take us around the Pyramids of Giza, The Sphinx, Memphis, and Saqqara. Saqqara is the oldest pyramid in the whole world! I learned so much about Egyptian history. Their praise and divine personification of the sun, their reliance on the Nile, their sacrificial rituals. I got to see a bunch of hieroglyphs. They’re very detailed, recounting specific names of villagers who brought a certain number of gifts to give to the princess on a documented date. It was so interesting to see their daily lives carved onto walls 5,000 years old. The Pyramids of Giza are a whole other beast. The math that goes into that mystery is astonishing. With all of our modern technology and knowledge, we haven’t even come NEAR the accuracy of the pyramids and true north. They’re also GINORMOUS. To put into perspective, one block was the size of my whole body. The smallest block is 1.5 TONNES, the biggest is 80 tonnes and there are around 2.5 MILLION BLOCKS for one pyramid alone. The base of Khufu’s pyramid, the largest, is 13 acres. It’s grandfather, father, and son! There’s so many more spiritual and divine explanations for the pyramids, but that’s more of a wikipedia page spiel than a unique thought from my brain, and I’ve committed to sharing the latter. I can confirm, this is a phenomenal wonder of the world.

Now, what did I actually think of this brand new experience? Whenever I have overwhelming emotions, I always picture the little characters from the movie Inside Out operating my switchboard, and it’s childishly comforting. This experience was so unique because I constantly felt overwhelmed with emotions, but somehow all of them all at once. I can imagine them all fighting over eachother. “She’s sad”, “No silly, she’s happy!”, “Are you all f*ckin nuts!!? She’s pissed!!”. What tugged at my heart strings here was that I just can’t imagine a life under these circumstances. I can’t imagine my streets not being clean of garbage, I can’t imagine being a mother unable to provide sufficiently for my children, I can’t imagine not breathing clean AIR in the mornings, not having a choice in what I study, my school day being interrupted by the scary-looking planes flying maliciously next door. Cruel. It makes me sad to think that outside of my Canadian bubble is a world I can’t help. It makes me sadder to think that somebody else’s hardship is endured for my benefit. It puts into perspective all the things that have stressed me out this year, or my complaints about school, or distressing values I’ve placed on material items. And I was getting far too whiny. This was a refreshing slap in the face, albeit an unfortunate one.

Please don’t mistake any of my reflections as complaints. I am so grateful for this experience, and truly am having the time of my life. I simply want to make it clear that, while instagram photos are beautiful, and what I write often makes me laugh, I’m taking away a lot more from this trip than an album or a joke.

Yours truly,

Aledabeda