مصر

The best way I can possibly convey the craziness of Egypt is through a listing of unrelated, completely separate instances, so here I go:

On the plane to Cairo: The safety video featured a Jimmy-Neutron-like animated character with a unibrow.  He announced that electronic devices were to be switched off during take-off and landing, with the unusual exceptions of handheld electric shavers and small handheld calculators, which apparently are normal items to use during take-off and landing and do not interfere with the navigational equipment on the plane.

In the Al Azhar Gardens: A boy ran up to his family with two flowers.  I assumed one was for his mother and one was for his sister.  Instead, he gave one to his brother and ran away with the other one for himself.

On the street: A man approached, and got closer and closer very slowly and deliberately, and when he was breathing down my neck, said in the creepiest voice possible: "Welcome to Egypt".

Outside Amr ibn al-As Mosque after Friday prayer: A man selling watermelon on a cart.  He has opened up several watermelons and is holding a piece in each hand.  He is holding them above his head, and screaming at the top of his lungs as the juices run down his arms.  He sticks one of the pieces into a woman's mouth, forcing her to take a bite.  I have never seen someone so excited about watermelon in my entire life.


At the airport in Cairo: The guard decides that Justin cannot bring glass of any kind onto the plane, even without liquid inside.  I try to ask him why glass is not allowed on the plane, but instead of responding to the question, he then takes all of Justin's Egyptian pounds as baksheesh and says there is no problem.

Every man on the street: "You're a lucky man." (to Justin)  "Are you Egyptian?" (in English)


Marriage proposals: "200 camels."  "Five million thousand camel."  "You.  You and me.  Right here.  Right now.  Do you want babies?"


In Luxor: A man tried to sell a normal size bottle of Gatorade to me for 35 LE, which is the equivalent of over six dollars.  He tried to tell me it cost more than American Gatorade because it comes from Italy, which doesn't make sense since that is less than half the distance to America.

فلسطين

I got the stamp of death.  That is how my trip started, but it only improved from there.  Also, apparently things are not Middle East-priced in the land of the occupier, so that was not the greatest, but we found some good prices in Khalil.  There were many soldiers, which was definitely the first thing I noticed.  Two soldiers, each with an extremely large gun, entered our minibus to check passports on the way from the border to Jerusalem.  There were soldiers stationed at every corner, so I guess in some ways, it is a little bit safe to be surrounded by machine guns at all times.  The vast majority of the soldiers looked my age, or maybe even younger, which was kind of sad.  Jerusalem was amazing, and we saw a good deal of exciting things.  The Dome of the Rock was gorgeous, and visible from almost everywhere in the city, its gold dome shining in the sun.  St. James Cathedral was also beautiful, and we accidentally slipped inside with an Armenian group, guided in Armenian.  I didn't understand much, and by much I mean anything, but it was gorgeous nonetheless.  We took a bus up to the Mount of Olives, and saw a few churches, but unfortunately the Mary Magdalene church is only open 4 hours a week, and we missed it by about an hour.  The following day, we embarked for Bethlehem, where we had to enter a checkpoint.  There were a lot of Palestinians coming through from the other side to enter Jerusalem, and it seemed as though many of them were interrogated before they were let through.  A lot of women came through, and waited almost 20 minutes for their husbands.  Once we got through, we took a service taxi to Khalil.  Khalil definitely had a different feel than Jerusalem, and because it was Friday, there were even more Israeli soldiers standing around.  It seems to me at least, that this type of situation is not very sustainable, just based on the amount of soldiers needed.  It was very clear which parts were Muslim and which parts were Jewish, as marked by guards, metal detectors, fences, barbed wire, and tall walls.  Some Israeli settlements were actually built above Palestinian homes and shops, and fences had to be placed above the Palestinian level so that Israelis couldn't throw trash and other things at the Palestinians below.  It was humbling to walk through, and to realize the amount of privilege I have as an American.  Usually, a few words in English or a wave of my American passport got me fast-tracked through checkpoints.  Back in Bethlehem, we saw the Church of the Nativity, and went back through the checkpoint to Jerusalem, which closes before dark.  We did some shopping in the Old City, from the multitude of vendors selling things from every end of the spectrum.  There were "Free Palestine" shirts next to "Israeli Defense Force" shirts.  There were "Peace: It's a beautiful thing to see" shirts next to shirts depicting laughing characters next to the words "Peace in the Middle East".  I guess that is just an example of the contradictions existing everywhere in the country.