Cairo

Getting out of Ghana proved harder than expected, and two trips to the airport were necessary to get off the ground. I will never fly Roal Air Maroc again. On the positive, the extra day convinced Matt and Heather to come along to Egypt (it was cheaper for them to fly to Egypt and then Europe - but they've hung around in Cairo and we've all had a fantastic time). We are staying with two Americans who are studying at the American University in Cairo. They live in the best location possible, right by the Egyptian Museum, the Nile, and the main Metro station. We are in the heart of Cairo...
Thanks to our Couch Surfing hosts, Dave and Wes, we found out about a place in Cairo appropriately named "Garbage City". It is an area of Cairo consisting of 30 000 Christians who collect Cairo's garbage, sort it out, melt it down and sell it back to the city. We went there on our second day in Cairo and it was, for lack of a better word, a cool experience. The people were incredibly friendly and we were not allowed to pay for anything. We went with a guy named Kieran - a Canadian and a friend Dave and Wes - who had been to Garbage City in December and was remembered by a local man he had spent time with one his first trip. We were sat down for tea and sheisha by the man, Ahmed, after which he brought us up into his home to meet his family. Before I describe the house I must explain that the streets are dirty, but the smell is not as bad as you would think, and below all the houses is where the garbage is sorted and melted down. The houses have electricity and as we found out, some even have computers. The house of Ahmed was immaculate and one of the nicer houses we have entered on this trip, if not the nicest. Although the people make a living off garbage we realized that the community is an immensely proud one. Economically the people are middle class, but socially they are an underclass (their Christian faith does not help). After having fresh juice in the home of Ahmed, and meeting his gentle and hospitable family, we went up to the churches. The first one is said to be the largest in the Middle East, and it is an open air church with the altar and much of the seating carved out of the rock (the whole town is situated on a mountain over-looking Cairo). All around it is carving in the rock depicting anything from shepherds to Jesus to the Ten Commandments written in Arabic. There was also a second church that was completely carved out of the mountain that was more peaceful and enjoyable for me. It was amazing to see what the people of this town were able to do with the garbage of Cairo.
After Garbage City we walked to Al Hazar Park, a park that overlooks downtown Cairo. It is perfectly kept and incredibly lush, creating a stark contrast with the barren rock and sand that surrounds Cairo. It was swarming with people because it was Thursday evening (Friday is the holy day for Muslims, and lots of shops are closed, so Thursday night is the big night). From here we watched the sun escape into the desert, leaving Cairo lit up by the green lights that adorn many of the mosques around the city (green is the colour of Islam). At sundown the call to mosque begins, and as Cairo is known as "the city of a thousand minarets", the call was overwhelming from the park, with the chanting waving back and forth across the city for a several minutes. The call is intimidating to me for many reasons - the Arabic language, the holiness of the sound, and the fervor with which it is obeyed.
Late that night Heather, Matt and I took a felucca (basically a sailboat) out on the Nile so that we could look back on the city from the tranquility of the water. The ride was a beautiful way to spend time on a boat - far removed from the horrors of the pinasse in Mali. It was an incredible day that may only be surpassed by our trip to the pyramids, but we shall see.