Egypt Water and End (4)

 

The evening after Karnak and Luxor temples Eddy crawled into bed really early and fell asleep.  I asked Collin to take Eliza and Davy to the night time light show at the temple and let Eddy sleep.  A few hours later Eddy woke up sick and so began a long night, day, night, day, night, etc.  He got some terrible intestinal infection that lasted over ten days, poor kid.  That first long night I was hopeful that it was some minor food poisoning that he would get out of his system and be weak but better by the daytime.  I thought perhaps we could postpone or eliminate non-essentials from our original itinerary.  Not to be, he was far too violently ill every few minutes to be moved more than two feet from the bathroom.  I will try to not include any more graphic details than that--your imagination has already done plenty I'm sure.  (It was bad.)

Anyway, we had to scrap the rest of the trip and figure out how to cope with the reality.  Collin kept Davy and Eliza busy and entertained--out on a boat on the Nile and lots of swimming.  I think they had a great time--likely a more enjoyable and relaxing time than if we had been out in the hot desert seeing tombs and funerary temples!  Davy did seem disappointed when he realized we wouldn't see king Tut's tomb after all, so we have devised a new itinerary for "the next time we visit Egypt!"  (Sorry, Collin.)

On the Nile boat the kids got to drive the motor boat and enjoy a breeze.

Eliza still remembers the "Horus eye pool" as one of her favorite parts of Egypt.  They would wrap up in towels like mummies and lay on the chairs to dry.

Eddy resting in between episodes.  I had come prepared for some stomach issues and had some electrolyte packets to add to bottled water to keep him hydrated from the beginning.  He also was willing to drink tea.  I think if we hadn't been able to keep him minimally hydrated in the early stages he would have been in much worse shape when the sickness lasted such a long time and he had to cope with some very hard hours of travel to even get home.

Eddy is the absolute sweetest boy.  Even in the middle of his fever and yucky sickness he was patting my back and stroking my face.  I got to enjoy the view of the Nile at sunset for a few minutes from the hotel balcony.

When we couldn't stay at the hotel any longer (we extended one day to give Eddy a little more time to recover enough to travel) we had to move on.  Apparently, according to the tour company who was helping us, no flights were available from Luxor to Cairo last minute.  The fastest way home was to drive four hours through the desert to the Red Sea, take a flight to Cairo, an hour to the hotel, an hour back to the airport to London, then home.  That's a hard day even if you feel great, so Eddy was a real trooper to get through all those things with no complaint (other than wearing a diaper--he was not happy about that).  I carried him and Collin carried all the stuff.  It's incredible what our bodies can handle when they need to and God is strengthening.

One of the travel buses (Eddy laying down on the seats so you can't see him):

We didn't have a full day to hang out by the Red Sea per our original plan, but the tour company did figure a way for us to have an hour to rest before catching our late flight to Cairo.  They checked us into a hotel for that short time (the resorts own all the beachfront property I guess) so the healthy kids could play and Eddy could lay down.  He insisted he could put his feet in the water first and he did with all the energy he could muster.  For literally one minute before he had to be back in a bathroom and then bed.  Eliza was expecting the Red Sea to be red, so she still talks about how it was actually blue.  Davy spotted a crab and got all the way in, using all those swimming lessons.

The kids loved the mango juice and the Fanta and Coke they were allowed to drink.  Also the fries.  We have no idea what caused Eddy's sickness, as the rest of us were fine and all ate and drank the same careful things.  Poor boy was just super unlucky.  He had to take an entire week plus a few days off school, had to go to the doctor three times and the A&E once (he actually loved the ambulance part of the adventure!), and take lots of yucky medicine.  He stayed in bed without me having to tell him so for days on end, finally being able to nibble on some foods and tons of liquids to gain strength back.  He was on the toilet more often than off.  He stayed in one pair of pajamas or another for almost two weeks.  He lost a lot of weight--all the rest of his baby softness, so so sad to this mom!  His mind was still very alert even when his body was tired.  He was listening to books, especially Harry Potter 1 over and over and doing lots of maths problems in his head and in workbooks once we were home.  He felt well enough to play Lego for a few minutes and rode in the stroller for that whole week.  I'm sure I babied him a little tiny bit but he was so sweet and kind during it all--he deserved it!

Collin cheered up Eddy by making an Egyptian flag crepe.  Eddy could get one tiny bite down but mostly just wanted juice, of course.  And we came home with the chips--love the Arabic but had no idea what they were until we opened them!  The picture showed some sort of cheese . . .

(Bonus: while we were homebound for the week + I reorganized everything in between helping Eddy.  I found this old National Geographic map of Egypt and Karnak temple I'd saved for years and apparently moved to London with us in some envelop of papers.  Davy enjoyed studying it.  Even with Eddy's unfortunate sickies I think I'd love to go back to Egypt someday and finish our tour.  Davy and I agree we want to go the Valley of the Kings to see the tombs and the temple of Hatshepsut, then continue on a cruise up the Nile to Aswan, then to Abu Simbel.  Ten years from now, we'll talk about it again!)

Egypt Luxor and Karnak Temples (3)

This day, this place, with these people, is one I will visit in my day dreams for the rest of my life.  It was as golden as anything gold.

The light coming through the forest of columns at Karnak was even more heavenly than I could have imagined.  We played hide and seek in the hipostyle hall, deeply carved glyphs and remnants of bright paint all around.

Our Luxor guide, Mohamed, gave Eddy a money prize for knowing the right answer to one of his questions about ancient Egypt.  Mohamed taught the boys how the ancients erected the impressively tall obelisks and we were all pretty fascinated by the architects and construction workers without cranes like the one outside our building.  Davy played throw and catch with his hat ad nauseum.  He was successful catching it on his head a couple of times and we heard his triumph echo through the halls.

The line of rams with my little lambs.  

Collin heard Eddy say, "look, I wrote my name!" and turned around to see he'd graffiti-ed his name--in hieroglyphs inside a cartouche--on one of the columns.  It was on the new concrete part, that helps hold the original in place, but still!

We approached Luxor temple as the sun was minutes from setting.  The temperature had cooled and the children were happy to run around--even barefoot, Eliza!--in the evening glow.  The line of sphinxes used to connect the temples of Karnak and Luxor, running about a mile, where ceremonial processions took place.  Only part of the avenue has been uncovered (until a few decades ago people still lived on top of it, not knowing what was under their homes) but you can visualize how impressive those parades must have been.

Egypt Museum and Old Cairo (2)

A grand new museum is being built near Giza to someday soon house all the artifacts of the ancient Egyptians.  I felt lucky to be able to visit the old museum before it ceases to be.  Often I feel like the museum itself is part of the story of a people and place, just as much as the artifacts in the cases.  I  loved the space that was grand yet ramshackle and crowded.  The old school labels and vintage cases with their antique glass and wood frames, so beautiful.

The Old Kingdom things were on the ground floor and it was fun seeing some familiar faces.  Several of the treasures of that era at the MFA in Boston.

King Tut's things are on the second floor.  You come up the stairs and have a similar reaction to Howard Carter seeing inside his tomb for the first time.  So. Much. GOLD! 

Collin snuck this illegal picture of the mask of Tutankhamen.  I'd purchased a photo ticket for the rest of the museum but inside the special gallery of Tut's most precious objects pictures were not allowed.  He reminded me that I used to have a crush on King Tut.  How funny I'd forgotten that, but it's true!  Now I'm an old mom all I was thinking was how young he was and how sweet and small the sandals were from when he was a little child.

Then we were taken to a papyrus shop and had a demonstration of how to make papyrus paper.  It was quite interesting.  We learned that the papyrus reed stem is shaped in triangle--like a pyramid, whadda ya know!  The natural sugar in the strips of papyrus when they are pressed together glues the bits together and makes it as strong and smooth as it is.  Then we dropped a fortune having our names painted in hieroglyphs on a painting we each chose.  Davy chose a scarab, Eddy the eye of Horus, Liza wanted Cleopatra, and Collin and I got a family tree of life.  Who knows if we'll ever live in a place with any wall space for all of that, but it was good to know we contributed to the economy of Egypt.  They really need tourist dollars.  Davy also drank an entire glass of hibiscus tea that they hospitably brought for the children to try.  That sign of manners and willingness to try a new thing was worth it all.  (He did add three heaping scoops of sugar . . .)

Went briefly into one of the oldest Coptic Christian churches.  It was beautiful and I loved seeing the reminder that Jesus was a little child in Egypt.  We also went down into the cave where the Holy Family is reputed to have lived during their exile in Egypt.  I don't know if those stones under the foundation of the church really were walked on by a toddler Jesus, but perhaps.

The kids were hours past their normal lunch time at this point and a melt down sped us along a little.  It took us a while to figure out how to manage a tour guide, since we'd never had one before and are used to doing things our own (hard but own) way.

After we did have some food in us and things were happier again we were taken to old Cairo to enjoy the bazaar.  We found our souvenirs--an ankh ornament for Christmas decorations and three alabaster pyramids, one to represent each child.  Eliza also came away with a handful of scarabs and extra alabaster pyramids as bribes from sellers to take a picture with her.  She liked getting "free" things the first few times and then was done and we protected her when she said "no" to anyone.

The boys went in a mosque and heard Ahmed give the call to prayer through the adhan (horn).  Eliza and I waited outside, I didn't have a head covering with me and just needed a quiet minute anyway.  But I liked asking the boys after what they noticed same and different about a mosque.

The kids loved the street cats and kittens everywhere.  Had to call them off a number of times.

Ahmed treated the kids to fresh squeezed juice, roasted sweet potato, and, the most well received, a huge cotton candy flower.