Takoma Park Presbyterian Church

I was blessed in the morning to worship with the folks at the Takoma Park Presbyterian Church, where my former colleague Rev. Mark Greiner is now the pastor. It was a wonderful morning of worship and song and a delight to be a congregant and not a worship leader. (Much as I enjoy being in the pulpit, simply participating as part of the community of faith is a welcome change every once in a while.)

I'm pleased to report that Mark (and his wife, Kolya and daughter, Sophia) seem to have found a home both at the church and in the community. After worship (which had a marvelous "coffee hour" sponsored by an Asian-American member of the church who had made Indian flat bread and chick pea salad with mint chutney), we went to the local farmers' market for fresh veggies and cheeses and fruit. Our lunch was delicious and the time together afterwards even better. Kolya (and Sophia) treated me to a mini-concert on the, oh, gee, what's it called, all I can think of is Zither and I know that's not right. Anyway, it was delightful and wondrous to see them all settled so beautifully in a place that seems just right for them.

On the Road Again

The next morning after having breakfast with Carie, I was off again. Here we are right before I get in the car. As you can see, Carie's ready to have this baby! (Although her due date is August 22nd, so she's still got a ways to go.)

The road was pretty easy until I got to Jersey Shore traffic; then it slowed down considerably. I still managed to get to Bethesda in pretty good time and had a wonderful evening with Nina, Christophe and their two boys. Christophe cooked which is always a delight - and I requested ratatouille, that wonderful French specialty for Sunday night, which he had (coincidentally?! :) just bought all the ingredients for.

Carie and Co.

My first stop was to see Rev. Carie and her husband, Jeff, and their two cats. Carie is about to have their first child and Jeff took some pictures of the two of us together which I've been waiting for him to email me, so that I could attach them to this post, but they've not arrived, so I decided to move ahead and write anyway.

The trip to NJ was long - I was fine across the Island and fine in NJ, but getting across Manhattan was a horror show. That's the tough thing about driving anywhere off the Island: you just never can tell about the traffic. When, where, or how it might be bad. I took my tried and true faster pathway along the Harlem River Drive and it took me an hour to go five miles. Ah, well...

Once I arrived, it was really good to see Carie. She's suffered a really difficult pregnancy, so prayers are most definitely in order to get her through the rest of it with a safe and healthy delivery. I was, however, pleased to see her happy in her home life and ready to be a mom. If/when I get the photos, I'll post even though it may not work with what's going on writing-wise :)...

Next Stop - Washington, D.C.

Well, I'm on the road again, this time locally. I'm actually stopping first in New Jersey this evening to visit a clergy colleague (who's pregnant, yippee!), spending the night with her and her husband, then heading to the D.C. area on Saturday morning. There I'll visit friends, former colleagues and former parishioners as well as get in a little sightseeing, perhaps, and maybe a movie. (I confess the guilty pleasure of "Hellboy 2" is calling me. I'll let you know what I think. :)

Church & Synagogue - Not

We were then taken to see the church built over where Joseph, Mary and Jesus supposedly lived while in Egypt followed by a local synagogue as well, but neither house of worship would let us take pictures. What I found far more interesting on this our last day was the plethora of satellite dishes atop even the poorest looking homes. You might also note the metal rods poking out of the top of all the buildings. We were told that if you are doing renovations or new building on your property, you are exempt from property taxes, so many, many, many homes, houses, buildings are intentionally left unfinished. Also these dishes that beam hundreds of channels from around the world cost only ~$80 U.S. A one time fee with no continuing cost like we have in America. The upside is that a broader worldview is entering Egyptian (and indeed Middle Eastern) homes on a daily basis, even those who are poorer and do not have access to quality education have t.v. The downside, I was told, is that over 300 of these channels are pornographic, thus giving the impression that Western society is decadent and corrupt. There is no understanding that we in the West do not have these channels on our television sets, nor do we watch them or allow our children to watch them. Their system is "pay once and get it all - good and bad". Ours is "pay monthly and only get what you pay for". But they don't know that...

The Mosque at the Citadel

The Mosque at the Citadel was commissioned by Muhammad Ali in the mid 18oos. It was built in memory of his son and as a sort of de facto declaration of separation from the Ottoman empire. The architect was a Christian who had also designed the Yeni Mosque in Istanbul. Interestingly enough, this means that there are some Christian-like facets to the building: note the landscape scenes in the third picture. The clock was donated by King Louis Philippe of France in 1845. It was reciprocated by an obelisk from Luxor that now stands in the Place de la Concorde in Paris - unfortunately, despite repeated attempts from experts in numerous countries, the clock has never worked. I've added also a photo of what appears to be an anomaly to me - a woman in full black chador using a video camera. I assume she is a tourist like us, but from a country with a far different culture. An interesting site to my Western eyes.

Our Last Night on the Ship

I take a moment to grant kudos to our group: our last night on the ship, we took this photo in remembrance of what was a lovely gathering of people from around the world, different in so many ways, but fun to meet and get to know. Back row (left to right): Peter, Bob, Maggie, Michael and Robert. Middle row (left to right): Rebecca, Gail, Carol, Ruby and Jean. Front row (left to right): Grace, Dale, Jane and Rose. And of course, seated: our tour guide, Mohammed.

Luxor Temple

Next was the Temple at Luxor. This temple, like the one on Philae Island has been appropriated by others over the years. The first picture is of (who else) Ramses II keeping watch over his temple some 3400 years later. The arch you see in the middle picture was built by Alexander the Great and incorporates him into the friezes along with the Egyptian gods. The third picture is of the mosque that is still worshipping today - a wedding was occurring there the day we arrived and you see some of the children in attendance peering through the grates at us.

The Temple at Karnak

This temple is actually not one alone, but the largest temple complex in all of Egypt encompassing 55 acres. You see here one of the entranceways flanked by an avenue of ram-headed sphinxes and the bathing pool of Hatshepsut, which was filled and emptied daily with fresh water from the Nile. There was a also a statue of a scarab beetle next to it that she used to circumnabulate 10 times after bathing to cleanse her heart as her body had just been cleansed. Grace and I didn't bathe, but we did walk around the statue 10 times in hopes that our hearts might be purer.

The Singing Statues

These two reconstructed statues of Pharoah Amenhotep II - they were destroyed in an earthquake - are known as the Colossi of Memnon or the Singing Statues because in the morning, they make a whistling or singing noise, probably because of the rising temperatures and the evaporation of the dew within the rock.

Queen Hatshepsut's Temple

This was a stunning temple built by Queen Hatshepsut - the one who had a Sphinx of herself at the Memphis site. She made herself Pharoah by killing off her husband and enlisting the aid of the High Priest and the Commander of the Military and one other person that I'm not remembering right now. Anyway, this is the Mortuary Temple she had built to prepare her body for interment in the Valley of the KINGS. Hmmm. She actually ruled for 33 years, too, so she was successful in her bid for power...

The Valley of the Kings

There's not much for the outside observer to see here. Just a bunch of stone entrances to tunnels. They won't let you take pictures inside because they don't want the colors to be ruined by flash photography. Suffice it to say that the colors are gorgeous and it's hot, hot, hot deep under the ground in unventilated tombs. But also "cool" nonetheless.

Cruising on the Nile

The Nile River looks just like you'd expect it to: gorgeous palm trees and green close to the river and sand dunes in the background. We were treated to all sorts of sights. Note here a man net fishing in a small boat, goats and other animals living in the greener areas, what looked like fog, but upon closer observation turned out to be farmers separating wheat from chaff.

Edfu Temple

The next morning we visited the Edfu Temple. We got there via horse and buggy. It was an interesting trip: Grace and I got in the second the last carriage and arrived at the temple second. Our driver kept driving the horse into a canter and shouting, "Ferrari! Ferrari!" (Interestingly enough, Robert and Jean were the last couple to alight a carriage and the first to arrive!)

The temple at Edfu is the most complete temple still standing. It is dedicated to the falcon god Horus and there is also a complete statue of that god at the front (you see Mother and Grace standing before it). Even as crowded as it was, I managed to find long, narrow passages with no one in them. Mohammed told us some country (I forget who: the U.K.?) offered an exhorbitant amount of money for it last year, but the Egyptian government declined. I walked along for awhile imagining I was a servant girl in ancient Egyptian times. (My mother tells me that is the difference between us - she rode in her carriage imagining that she was Queen Cleopatra! :)

Kom Ombo

Even though it was in far from the best shape, this was my favorite temple. Our guide, Mohammed, told us that this temple was dedicated to the crocodile-headed god, Sobek, because each year, five days before the Nile flooded, the crocodiles would gather here. After years of this, the people began noticing and built a temple in Sobek's honor. Each year they would capture a crocodile and basically starve it to death and then mummify it to worship.

He also showed us heiroglyphics that described the Egyptian calendar: 3 seasons each 4 months long, each month was 3 weeks long, each week was 10 days long, which adds up to 360 days with 5 left over - those were the 5 that the crocodiles gathered before the flooding.

There is also a well which served as a Nil-O-Meter: the leaders would note how full it was each year, and taxes would be assessed accordingly. In other words, it served as a gauge for how well the crops would be irrigated and how wealthy the community would be for the year. I've certainly heard worse methods!

Perfume and Oils Palace

Next we were offered the opportunity to help the Egyptian economy at a Perfume and Oils Palace, where we were treated to a sampling of a wide variety of oils and extracts from which some of the world's best-known perfumes are made. One of the most interesting aspects of this was watching the glassblower make perfume bottles - he wasn't blowing glass, but plexiglas - an unbreakable alternative!

Philae Island

The original sacred island of Philae is actually now under Lake Nasser. It was dismantled and reassembled on another island (now renamed Philae) to preserve the architectural treasures. Originally a temple dedicated to Isis, when the Christians came, they made it into a church of their own. Note the cross that has been carved into the column among the heiroglyphics and the altar.

Aswan's High Dam

Next we headed to the High Dam completed in 1971 with the aid of the Soviets after the U.S. and Britain backed out in 1958 in an effort to marginalize the then-President Nasser. The monument is to the friendship between the Egyptian and Russian peoples. The inside is absolutely stunning with with elevators that used to go to the top, but are now forbidden since a Belgian tourist fell several years ago. The other shot is of me with the high water dammed behind me.

The Unfinished Obelisk

Wednesday, we arose early - 5:30 a.m. - and headed to the Unfinished Obelisk. This was an obelisk that was to be made, as they all were, out of a single piece of granite. It would have been the largest obelisk at over 41 meters (the largest is just over 39) and was commissioned by queen Hatshepsut, but it unfortunately cracked during the removal process, so it was never finished. The first thing we noticed upon arriving at the site, however, was not the quarry itself, but the numerous stray dogs living there. The other two photos are of 1) our new friends, Robert and Jean, standing above the obelisk to give you a sense of scale, and 2) a view of the obelisk still lying in its quarry bed.

Computer Problems -- AAACCCKKKK!!!

Hello, friends. It's been a tough couple of days as far as trying to blog is concerned. (Or should I say a tough 10 days?) Yesterday we were so busy seeing sites and finishing our tour arrangements that I was too tired to head out into Luxor to the Internet Cafe to blog at 10:30 p.m. Then today we arrive back in Cairo and my laptop's monitor is not working -- so I can blog here in the hotel business center, but all my photos have been downloaded into my non-functioning computer, so I cannot engage you with any shots of my adventures. I will arrive home in the States tomorrow and backtrack my blog then, I promise. Meanwhile, dear reader, hold fast in anticipation...

The Botanical Gardens

After Abu Simbel, we headed to our cruise ship, the lovely Lotus, where we had lunch. Then we headed out to "sea" again on a felucca boat ride to the Botanical Gardens. It was sweltering hot and there was no breeze, so our felucca was actually pulled along by a motor boat. The Botanical Gardens are on Kitchener Island, one of the 11 islands plus the mainland that make up Aswan. From the Botanical Gardens, you can look directly across the river to the hotel in which we had stayed the night before (note the tall structure behind Muzz). On the way, a couple of Nubian boys paddled up to our felucca using pieces of cardboard, hung onto the sides of the boat and sang us songs like "Frere Jacques" and "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" until we rustled up a little baksheesh and sent them happily on their way. The gardens were beautiful, but the signs were all in Arabic, so we didn't really know what we were looking at. I do, however, share a sign with you that you can figure out even without any Arabic in your lectionary :).

Abu Simbel

We crossed the river again to get on the bus, go across the small dam built by the British and head back to the airport where we caught a puddle-jumper to Abu Simbel. I got this shot of Grace coming down the steps off the plane, which she was very enamored of, because she looks like a famous movie star :). In reality, all flights end this way - even at Cairo International Airport, you leave the plane on the steps and take a bus to the terminal.

We then took another bus up to the dual temples built by Ramses II in the 13th century B.C.E., one for himself and the other for his wife, Neferteri. You see the famous statues here which face Sudan intentially to intimidate his Nubian neighbors from any thought of invading. It was excrutiatingly hot and a very long walk from the bus to the temples and back again, but oh, so worth it.

Flying to Aswan

After I left the seminary, I headed for the airport where I met up with my tour group. We set out on a plane that was supposed to leave at 5:45 p.m., but was on "Egyptian time" :), so it was later than that. Then we landed in Luxor - an unexpected and to the best of our knowledge unscheduled stop, which added another hour to the trip. So it was quite late before we arrived in Aswan. Then we had to take a bus from the airport to a boat across the Nile to the hotel, which you see well lit behind Grace in the picture. The good news is that when we got there, we had the best meal we've had since we've been in Egypt. It really was quite marvelous. Then we all too quickly went to bed, to sleep, to awake at 6:00 a.m. and load out by 6:30 to head to another plane to Abu Simbel.

Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo

The rest of my group went to the Egyptian Museum - I went to ETSC. (When I planned this excursion, we had a free 1/2 day in Cairo; when I got to Egypt that had changed, but I didn't want to miss the opportunity to meet my Presbyterian brothers and sisters here.) I was greeted warmly by the entire staff and got an amazing tour of the Seminary, which has 200 students from several countries as well as Egypt. I met a students from Sudan and Iraq and was told there is one from Korea.

It was such a pleasure to meet these folks. Here's a shot of me with the President, Rev. Dr. Atef Gendy, who was simply delightful. I was blessed to meet such faithful people striving to provide an authentic Christian witness in a predominantly Muslim country. This is not without challenges, but I have found Egyptians - Christians and Muslims - to be willing and able to share their views openly, which is a plus.

I spent quite a while with Wageeh Mikhail who is the Missional Theologian working on developing a center to promote Interfaith Relations. He is an Egyptian national who spent five years in the States before returning to work in Egypt. An articulate and interesting man, Wageeh was very clear about the challenges and blessings that exist in his society.

I'm sorry that I missed the Egyptian Museum, but I had a wonderful time and want to thank Dr. Atef and Wageeh and Rev. Dusty and Mariam and Rami (he's in the photo in the chapel and gave me the tour of the facility) for their hospitality!

Computer Up and Running Again

Well, it's been tough the last couple of days getting computer accessibility - but here we are, yippee! This has been a wonderful adventure and I'll show you more of it in a minute, but first of all, you need to know, IT IS HOT HERE! Today it was 46 degrees Celsius - I just went and looked up the conversion and it's 115 degrees Fahrenheit! This has been very tough on Muzz and Grace, both of whom spent most of today in bed - Muzz made it to the first stop this morning, but was toast by the afternoon. Grace got a sty (sp?) in her eye and was not up to heading out at 6:30 a.m. to beat the heat. She got up and had dinner with us, which I was happy about. Mohammed, our tour guide, told us that Egypt has just skipped spring this year and gone straight into summer. I was told the same thing by Mariam on Monday - speaking of Miriam, check out the next post.

Our Final Stop for the Day: Memphis

...and no, I don't mean Tennessee. This was where a 15 meter tall statue of Ramses is displayed, but it is lying on its side with the bottom of its legs missing. There were originally two, so the one that has survived intact has very recently been moved to Alexandria to stand at the front of the new museum. Also onsite were another statue of Ramses and a smaller Sphinx with Pharoah Hatshepsut's head - this one is really interesting because Hatshepsut was a woman who insisted on being known as Pharoah and led as a man, including wearing the ceremonial headdress and beard in religious ceremonies and being buried in the Valley of Kings, not the Valley of Queens - a way early feminist!

The Step Pyramid

Next we went to Sakkara where we saw the first pyramid ever built. It was built for Pharoah Zoser in the 12th century B.C.E. and designed by the architect Imhotep (who was badly maligned as an evil priest in The Mummy, a movie starring Brendan Fraser). He also planned a whole complex which included a pyramid for Zoser's wife, the queen, an embalming temple and a beautiful entry hall open to the sky and the Sun God Ra. An interesting aside: we've seen numerous dogs in the various archeological sites, that don't seem to have owners, although this puppy was being fed saltines and given water by a local boy in the temple.

Lunch

...which may not sound like a fascinating topic, but I had to share the bread baked in an outdoor oven. We walked over to watch the women baking the pita bread, which came out of the oven puffy and warm. They gave us a couple of hot, fresh pieces, one of which I was happy to see Grace gobble up as she had not been feeling too well this morning and it was the first thing that she ate all day. (And she had a couple more at lunch - or should I say in lieu of lunch. :)

Papyrus Factory

We went to a papyrus factory - a place where papyrus is made. We were shown the basics: the papyrus water lily stem is stripped of its outer skin, then cut into thin strips. The strips are pressed with a rolling pin to squeeze out all the water. They are laid alongside one another slightly overlapping, then a second layer is laid atop the first one at a 90 degree angle. The two layers are pressed together with a vise (or in ancient times between two heavy stones) until the pressure makes them bind into being an incredibly strong paper. Even after the papyrus gets wet, it does not fall apart. After that the pages can be written on, painted on, decorated in a variety of ways.

After the demonstration of the making of papyrus, we were offered an opportunity to purchase paintings on them. I must confess, I bought a gorgeous painting on papyrus that I look forward to having hang over my living room couch - a long-lasting memory of an already wonderful trip!