Pharaonic village

This was a really neat place that someone had told us the girls would like, and they did. It was on the Nile and you took a little boat around and you listened to a recording about how life was during the time of the Pharaohs. They had different people acting out different scenes. Then you got off the boat on this little island in the Nile and they had made a little village you could walk through and see what the houses looked like and in one of the pictures below they showed us how to make fire. The picture of Annielynne below is how they told time, she told us that water clocks like the one here was the oldest way of telling time, even before the sundial. An original one is in the museum and we had seen it the day before. The Egyptians would fill the pitcher with water and it would slowly drip out of a small hole in the bottom. There were marks on the inside to show when one hour had past. In the summer they would put oil on the top so that the water would not all evaporate. very fascinating. Since the museum doesn't allow pictures it was neat to be able to take pics of some of the things we had seen even though they were replicas.

Tahrir Square

It was neat and sad to stand on the outside of Tahrir Square where all the protest just happened a few months ago in Egypt. The museum is right there on the Square, and one of the pictures below is a building right behind the museum that was burned during all the protest. The other pictures or of the riot police that now surround the square. One picture of the men standing around the square, one when they were changing shifts (some leaving and others coming) and then one of all the riot trucks parked along the side street. As I was looking at this I was wondering what was going on in our country and what it would be like to look at so many soldiers everyday protecting certain areas of the city.

museum, metro, and apartment hunting

We did make it to the Cairo Museum, no pictures from inside as the museum does not allow pictures to be taken.
But it was an interesting experience. It is HUGE!!! So much to see, if you are at all interested in Egyptian history it is the place to go. But going in the summer is not a good idea, it is a huge building that does not have air conditioning. Also not the greatest place for kids, because after seeing a couple of statues and mummies, they all start looking very similar. We did all enjoy going into the room with King Tut's belongings, it was a small room that had air conditioning and everything was labeled so you could read about what you were looking at, plus it was just incredible!!! However, other than that room, not many things are labeled, so most of the time you have no idea what or who you are looking at. It was good though for the girls to see and we had lots of talks about what they believed as we looked at statues of their "gods." We talked about how with the mummies they put a mask over their face and painted it to look like that person so that the "gods" would know who it was; Ayden said "their god was pretty small if he couldn't even recognize them, i'm glad we have a God that is a lot more knowing then that." How true, i'm also very thankful that we serve a God that is all knowing and all powerful. So it was a great place to go and have some spiritual talks!


We went to Cairo because we needed to get new visas but we also went to help Mandy find an apartment there. It was Eid when we were there so we actually did most of our apartment looking at night. Here we are waiting in the lobby of this apartment building for the real estate guy to get the key so we could look at the apartment. Addie had had enough and poor Mandy ended up carrying her around the apartment and then down the 9 flights of stairs! (We were there to help her, but I think she really helped me even more!) We took the stairs down, because going up in the elevator was a little scary!



We also rode on the metro, Abram's first metro experience; and not something I would like to do often. The doors open and close so fast, i was afraid we wouldn't all make it on! But thankfully it was not as crowded as it usually is, an we all made it. Thankfully Mandy was with us so I had help, because the men are actually in one car and the women in another so I didn't have Kirk to help me with the kids.

papyrus

We did go to a papyrus store that also taught you how they made papyrus. It was so fascinating how this paper was made so many years ago. It was a great education for the girls and also Kirk and I. From which part of the reed to use and how long to soak it in water to how to lay out the strips in order to make the paper, it was really interesting!

garbage city and church in the cave

Someone had told us while in Cairo we should go see the church in the cave and garbage city. It was interesting. You have to drive though this area of town called "garbage city" and it literally is. These people basically live in a garbage dump. Big trucks bring the garbage in and then these people go through it and recycle all that they can. The thing is though that this is not just where they work but where they live. They have bags of garbage stacked everywhere!!! on roofs, all along the streets, right out the door of stores and restaurants, everywhere, and it stinks!!! We had the windows rolled up and it was still really bad. But when you get though it all you come to this mountain and they have basically built a church in the cave of this mountain and actually there are a couple of churches down there. One is just huge, like a big amphitheater. Also there are incredible carvings in the side of the mountain depicting many of the famous Bible stories. We took lots of pictures of different ones but the two below were my favorites. I read somewhere that 90% of the people living in garbage city are christians, of course this does not mean that they are all believers, they are called coptic christians and it is an orthodox church, but it was pretty amazing to see!

our hotel

In the lobby of the hotel they had these two big chairs and the girls thought they were great. They were king and queen chairs.
So in the second picture Ayden is bowing down to Mandy, they were pretending she was the queen. It was a really nice hotel. Because of all the problems Egypt has had in the last few months, there are no tourist coming, and so all these hotels are really struggling, so we were able to stay there for really cheep and there were hardly any other guest there. Which was really nice for us at the pool, The girls could splash around as much as they wanted!!!

abram's first time in the pool

Abram loved the water!!! I think he will be just like the other three.
They all did great!!! This was the first day in Cairo and they all 3 just jumped right in the water! Annielynne was wearing her flooties, but by the last day (3 days later) she was swimming without them!!!




The visa run was really hard on Kirk, as you can see!