Egypt

Warning: I get preachy here. I almost didn't post, but it's my blog, and I'll cry if I want to.

Recently, a friend asked if I’d read Alecia Keys's book because she spoke about going to Egypt and how it was life-changing. This friend also said, “Of course, it’s easy for Keys to go on a grand tour of Egypt, but still its interesting”. I have done this too…” Oh it must be nice”.  I think for me it must be jealousy when I do that. But I don’t think it matters if you glide down the Nile on a private yacht or sleep outside on the falucca.

We judge each other unfairly. Why does it matter how we go or what we spend, but rather what we learn about the world and ourselves? Everyone has their own life experiences. I want to quit judging people for their perspective and more for their willingness to learn and expand that perspective, wherever and however that happens.

Egypt will expand most people’s perspectives.

Egypt, oh my gosh, where do I begin?

There are amazing and beautiful things, from the Library in Alexandria to the Valley of the Kings/Queens, the Sphinx, and the Great Pyramids, and the Nile, but right alongside are buildings falling apart. At first, I thought they had been bombed, but I’ve learned that they’ve been cut in half. An example, as explained to me, is a family may build a house (picture an apartment building), but they do it illegally on land they’ve simply claimed in the middle of a city of 24 million. The government may stop by and tell them they can’t build, so they exchange money, and the government ignores it. The building gets built, but seldom the roof, so it looks unfinished, rebar sticking out, ready for when they need a new floor for a child’s new home or a parent. Also, only finished homes get taxed, so it’s still unfinished.

Now, back to the buildings that are cut in half. Maybe the government wants to expand a road or discover a new dig site under your building (amazingly, they continue to find new treasures everywhere). Your building was built illegally, so you have no rights, but lucky you, the government only needs part of the land you are on. They simply knock down what they need, and now the building is exposed and open on that side, but you and your family just squeeze into the other half.

It’s such an interesting landscape to see. The nicest hotels will be next to a wrecked building and fine restaurants will be next to an abandoned building with broken windows. All of this, while many new government projects are going on, a fast train from Cairo to Aswan, a new boulevard, new neighborhoods for students that are empty because the application is too complicated, a new museum of antiquities, on and on the projects are everywhere, but they have completion dates that come and go and leave people feeling it’s likely it won’t get finished.

I could go on and on. It’s a culture of “tips” to gain access to a monument after you just purchased a ticket. Tips to park in the parking lot next to the restaurant. Tips to security guards to walk into a shopping mall…

I am with a tour guide. Otherwise, I have no idea how this would all work. Maybe they’d just roll their eyes at the American who is rude and doesn’t give the proper tips?

Everyone I meet is kind and eager to meet someone from so far away. They ask how I like Egypt, and I say very truthfully that it’s incredible, and they beam with pride. It is a beautiful and sad place all at once. But then again, I guess so is America.

I’m with Australians who want to know about our guns, and everyone I meet talks about the US like it’s the Wild West. Honestly, when they recount stories they’ve heard, I find myself biting my tongue because far from exaggerating; they don’t know the half of it.

I see racism in my own hometown regularly. My home, which I love, suffers from a segregation that happened years ago but still creates a divide and fear. It’s embarrassing, sad, frustrating.

And just like the Middle East, much of our divide is steeped in our religion. I recently was talking with a friend about people in our church fearing that our pastors are being “too inclusive.” It’s heartbreaking because I have good friends who love our church so much but are genuinely saddened by a congregation that is fearful of changing the status quo. How do religious people become so fearful that they put aside and flat-out deny their religion’s teachings? I’m quite sure Jesus would welcome and work to include everyone. If I’m wrong about that, then I’ve misunderstood it all.

So, when I look through my own perspective, I can understand how hard things are here.

I admire those who remain involved and work to bring people around slowly and gently. It is important to understand everyone’s perspective and where the fear comes from in order to make a change.

My tour guide is from Egypt and would love to see America, but I think he’d be equally scared in my country as I am in his without a friend to guide him. He’s a kind man who has been a tour guide for 20 years, has a wife and two teenage daughters, practices his faith, and has respect for other faiths. He is a good man who meets people from all over the world and would like to see some of these places, but it’s difficult. He won the best tour guide from his company, which gave him a free trip. He wanted to go to Australia and was denied a visa. He tried the US but was denied again.

We live in a beautiful, messed-up world, and poor Ahmed can’t see much of it.

So yes, thank you to all who tirelessly work to make change, especially in religious places. Religion twisted in fear is so dangerous. We are seeing so much of it as we tour these ancient sites. We’ve seen it play out in very recent history, too. Why is it such a difficult lesson?

Egypt is one of the most magical places I’ve ever encountered, but Egypt is heartbreaking in some ways as well. I am grateful to have been able to experience it. I’ll always think a bit differently now.