Nile Cruise Companions

Brian and Becca got married last September and were on the Nile cruise as part of their honeymoon trip through Egypt. He’s a twenty-six year old military brat who majored in computer engineering and is now in the army, stationed on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula at an international base. He liked to tell stories about the Italians (whom he said nobody liked) and the Hungarians (who reportedly drink a lot but make excellent food). He had broken his pinky finger two weeks earlier when he fell while climbing Mt. Sinai, and enjoyed explaining how it would have to be re-broken so that it would heal properly. She’s a twenty-two year-old who recently transferred to Kansas State on a softball scholarship, where she’s majoring in English Education so that she’ll be able to find a job wherever he happens to be stationed. They’re avid fans of several video games and TV series which I’ve never seen and of which I can’t remember the names, love Egyptian history, spent nearly $700 on a hand-woven tapestry with a scene of the Egyptian landscape, thoroughly enjoyed our “gallabea” party (complete with “traditional” Egyptian costumes and food) onboard the cruise ship, and are staunch conservatives who think that Obama’s health care plan is communism.

Eleven years ago, Brett left his home in Sydney, Australia to spend a year in British Columbia, Canada. He enjoyed the experience so much that he decided to travel 6-8 weeks (half in July and half in January) every year since then. And considering that he owns a scaffolding company, several surfing schools, and at least three retail clothing stores, he can afford to do so. I was a bit surprised when he referred to our four-day/three-night Nile Cruise as a cheap way to travel, and a bit more so when I learned that he had paid $800 for it (whereas thanks to the Rohlands’ travel agent friend, I paid $300). Nevertheless, he was the most unassuming thirty-two year old Australian multi-millionaire who I’ve met. Before traveling to Egypt he had spent a few weeks with friends in the U.S. and Dubai, and on his way home he planned to stop by Beirut, Lebanon (since he does a lot of business with the Lebanese and has a friend who lives there). Of everywhere he’s traveled, he said that his favorite countries are Cuba, the Czech Republic, and “Asia” (which doesn’t exactly count as a country, but perhaps because he couldn’t pick one country in particular). He was quite an amiable jokester, had a bit of a foul mouth, complained extensively about the illegal immigration to Australia from Indonesia, and likes Australia’s socialist health care and housing programs in spite of the tax rate at 30% for who earn up to $90,000—and 50% for those who earn more—and the fact that he has neighbors who live for free on Sydney harbor while he pays $800/week for his apartment with the same view. He said that he preferred to talk to interesting people rather than rich ones, loves to cook, and was most commonly dressed in surfing shorts and t-shirts (during the Egyptian winter) from his retail clothing line stores with his canon camera hanging from the strap around his neck.

Richard and Connie have lived in Seattle for the last thirty-five or so years since they graduated from college in Minnesota. Two of their sons have since moved to Los Angeles, but the other still lives in Seattle (which Connie loves because she gets to see her one-year old grandson every week). They have done a fair amount of international traveling, but had never been to Egypt before. Since Connie’s a travel agent some of those were sponsored (such as her trip to China in the 1980s), but most have been independent. Connie said that my note taking during tours and eagerness to absorb all of the experience reminded her of herself on her first trip to Europe, during which she took notes during tours of art museums (which were especially interesting to her since she went on to earn a master’s in Art History). They were one of those couples with whom conversation comes naturally and pleasantly because they balanced talking about themselves with asking me about my experiences. Shortly after we met, Connie told me that I should go to Indonesia, because I’m the kind of person who would like it there. Perhaps next summer when I’m in South Korea I should travel there to see if she’s right. The Monday after our cruise—which ended on Saturday in Aswan—I walked around a corner in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and discovered them leaning over a glass case examining some artifacts from King Tutankhamen’s tomb as they listened to the narration of their tour guide, Khalid. They invited me to join them for the rest of their tour, which took us through the exhibits of intricate jewelry, richly carved wooden furniture, life-like statues, dazzlingly beautiful sarcophagi, and to the nested burial boxes which were all retrieved from King Tut’s tomb in 1922. We spent an hour together after the official tour, wandering through the hall lined with 4,000 year-old ornately decorated caskets of once-important but now-forgotten people, and talking about how difficult it was to grasp what we were seeing, much less communicate it to those back home. As inadequate as it was, I had to agree with Richard’s conclusion that it was difficult to say more than that Egypt is really old, had a really powerful civilization, was really rich and left behind a lot of amazing stuff.

Bowan is an Egyptian in his thirties who grew up in Riyadh, where his dad still works as an Egyptian diplomat to the Saudi Arabian government. He returned to Egypt to complete his degree in aeronautical engineering at the University of Alexandria and moved to Los Angeles two years ago, where he works in an aeronautics testing facility. While there he met Holly, the Chinese-American woman to whom he is now married. This was her first time to Egypt, to visit his family and see the country. He was very amiable and almost always chuckling, most commonly at her antics or questions about something (very obvious) which she misunderstood during the tour. She liked to call him “habibi” (“my dear one” in Arabic) and enjoyed posing for pictures with ancient monuments. He is a Muslim, and she is “becoming” one (although she doesn’t believe in life after death). Bowan—or Mino, as everyone called him—told me that he would like to move back to Egypt someday if there are ever jobs available in aeronautical engineering, but I would be surprised if Holly fared well in the conservative Arab culture. They left our tour early on Saturday morning so that she could catch her flight to China for the week (where she planned to do some business and then visit her family) and he could fly to Saudi Arabia to visit his father for a while before returning to Alexandria, which he told me was the best city in Egypt.

Safa grew up as one of six children of a Presbyterian pastor in a small town in central Egypt. He graduated second in his class from the engineering school which he attended in Cairo, but didn’t receive the post-graduate scholarship which that achievement merited, because he was a Christian. When Safa was twenty-two, his brother learned of a threat on his life because of his faith and fled to the United States (via Lebanon, since it was easier to get political asylum from there). Safa and his new wife Hoda (who is from Alexandria), and the rest of their family—except for one sister who is married to a Coptic Christian—followed them to Los Angeles shortly thereafter. He was visiting Egypt with his son Peter, a junior studying Psychology at Biola, a Christian university in southern California. Within minutes of meeting them I found out that Peter attends the church at which Erik Thoennes—renowned at Taylor for his excellent preaching in chapel during the Fall 2008 semester—is an elder and periodically preaches.
Since Safa and Peter were the first of the Christians who I met while traveling on my own, I didn’t anticipate how refreshing it would be to spend time with them. The family of God is a remarkable thing: within minutes of meeting them I knew that I could trust them, because even though I knew next to nothing about them, I knew that we had the most important thing in common. Plus, it was great to travel with Egyptians who could speak Arabic. We spent an afternoon in Aswan together, and then reunited in Cairo the following Tuesday to visit Coptic Cairo´s “Hanging Church” (from the fourth century), the 65-story tall Cairo Tower, and the markets of Khan al-Khalili. Safa introduced me to the manager of the Shepheard Hotel in Cairo, so that the next time my parents visit Cairo, they´ll have a good place to stay.