From there, John took Heidi and I to this fairly busy street called Road 9. He dropped us off and told us to explore for an hour and then meet up with him again. It was very interesting walking around that street, especially when you were super tired like we were. Many people were very friendly, but mostly because they wanted us to buy their stuff. From time to time beggars would come up to us and try and get us to give them money. They’re a lot pushier than beggars in Canada. These people, often women and children, will follow you around and keep trying to get money from you. Walking into a shop is the only way to get them off your back, it seems.
After acquainting ourselves with the various goods available for purchase here in Cairo, we went over to the church to check out our offices and meet some of the staff. While we were at the church, some people came running in and grabbed the pastors because there was an accident on the street. We all ran over to the car, which just had a policeman standing in front of it not doing anything. As we looked inside it, there was a man who was having a seizure or something odd like that. It was kind of frightening to watch, especially when you realize that emergency services in Cairo are nothing like those in place in North America. The policeman didn’t seem to do much of anything, he just stood in front of the car watching. The whole time we stood beside the car, people just drove by honking, which meant they had an empty taxi cab for us.
After that excitement, we hurriedly drove over to the Nile River! We parked on the side of a really busy road and had to cross it to get to the Nile. There are no such thing as crosswalks, here in Cairo, so you just have to pretend it’s a game of Frogger. You wait for a bit of a gap in traffic, and walk across. Never run, just walk. It was kind of intimidating to think about at first, but we made it. On the other side of the road, we met up with a bunch of the youth and then got onto a felucca (sail boat type thing) and sailed around the Nile for an hour or so. We had tons of fun on that trip. The students in this youth group are very accepting and easy to get along with.
From the Nile, we took taxis back to John’s place. Just like John told me earlier that day, when you don’t want a taxi, taxis are plentiful (like at the accident earlier that day), but when you do want one, there are no empty ones to be found! It took us at least 10 minutes to hail an empty taxi, but hey, it was a neat experience.
Once we got to John’s apartment, even more students showed up! We just hung out for a bit and then watched Secondhand Lions. Eventually everyone left and I was finally able to get the sleep I had been craving since lunchtime. Now here I am Thursday morning, I woke up at 5am. We shall see what adventures are in store for today!
Our felluca-master
The sail of our felluca
Pastor John Tucker
Sunset on the Nile
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