Choosing People Over Places

I've gotten spoiled with free WiFi access, so in Luxor for the last 3 days, I was too lazy to go to an internet cafe. Now I have to catch up. I'll start with our time with Sondos and Ahmed the day before we left for Luxor.

Monday, 29 June:
In Spring 08 semester, Sondos and I were project partners in our online class with Soliya. She is newly engaged, and she and her fiance, Ahmed picked us up at the hotel this morning to go sightseeing. Our first stop was the Mosque of Ibn Talun. Neither Sondos nor Ahmed had ever been there -- just like I hadn't been to the Statue of Liberty until I had visitors to New York City. Two of the art history flash cards in my pile were of Ibn Talun. Ahmed worked some magic, maybe it was speaking Arabic, maybe his Egyptian Navy ID, or maybe some baksheesh, but the guard opened up the door to a minaret and Jim and I climbed all the way up, like the muezzin of old used to do. Ibn Talun was originally built in 879, with the intention of accommodating the entire army of Ahmad Ibn Talun for Friday prayers. An Abbasid, he brought the Samarran (near Baghdad, Iraq) design to the minaret, with spiraling stairs on the outside. This old minaret isn't the one we climbed. The hypostyle mosque's columns are really thick, and the design of the building never worked very well. We arrived at the mosque just before 1pm prayers, and as we were walking away, my video captured the muezzin calling the prayer into the microphone. Sondos and Ahmed both spent their prayer time in the mosque while Jim and I sat in the shade and waited. It was a lovely moment, and as I've said, I love the call to prayer -- which echoes all over the city.

Next we went to the Citadel, and the very Ottoman Mohammad Ali Mosque. The courtyard with its expansive city view resembled the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. It was very hot, and Sondos and Ahmed sought out a restaurant to have Koshari, an Egyptian rice, pasta, and lentil staple. It is good, and I'll get her mother's recipe. It will be a good pasta course or vegetarian entree for future entertaining.

We talked about what was different between meeting in person vs. meeting online. Sondos thought I would be a bigger person, and I was surprised at her calm serenity because on both the phone and online she communicates more raw energy.

Jim and I had an ice cream cone for dinner and hung out at the hotel that evening -- the heat and traffic sent us diving for AC and torpidity.

Tuesday 30 June:
We flew early to Luxor and to be met by Jacq-leen's driver Mamdouth. We were seeking our name on a paper in Mamdouth's hand, and he wasn't there with the rest of the passenger-greeting drivers, so we walked outside thinking we had to get to the Amon Hotel on our own. There was AbdulMawgoud! He said he wanted us to see him first, upon our arrival in Luxor, so he had Mamdouth pick him up on the way to the airport. A wonderful moment!