Egyptian reflections, part 1

I am definitely still processing my time in Egypt. I had intended to keep a detailed travel journal, and did really well with it for the first five or six days of my two week trip, but our over-packed schedule combined with my increased need for sleep when I travel (or when I am stressed, or it is cold, or I find a particularly comfortable corner, or the planets align to dictate it) slowed me down after that.

I was frustrated from the beginning that while I went on this trip for a class, most of what we involved the standard tourist run-around. But, a tourist trip to Egypt is still totally worth it, right? Absolutely. And I'm not entirely sure what should have been changed. I am very glad to be able to say that I visited both Karnak, the largest surviving temple in Egypt, and Edfu, the best preserved. Standing in these millennia-old structures was humbling and incredible and if anyone who knows anything about Egypt asks me where I've been after this trip, I'd feel foolish telling them we'd skipped those because we were worn out.

At the same time, putting this experience into perspective with my super-genius eventual life-plan to become a professor/teacher and take kids abroad, I am pretty sure I am going to be a jerk about it. I would take students to a couple of important tourist-ish sites, and then probably offer to help them set up an extended visit after the class if they need more tourism. I have also decided that the lab which sponsored the trip should pay me to coordinate international research projects and supervise studies abroad when I get back to the US in a couple of years (I am composing an email to my advisor about that super-genius plan as I write this).

I spent at least a couple of days downright disgusted, though thankfully I was able to keep the nastiness of my criticisms to my self. The first Sunday I was there, our class had not officially started but our tour group offered to arrange to show us around Coptic Cairo and the largest Mosque in Egypt, and all of us who were there agreed happily. We walked through ancient houses of worship and Roman-fortress-turned-churches, and on the way from the Mosque of Ibn Tulun to a Medieval market building, we were walking along the sidewalk of a busy street in Cairo. I was overwhelmed and trying to process all of the traffic, noise, pollution, vibrant colors, and fascinating people we were walking through. A child caught my eye. He or she was about a year old, probably, and sitting on the curb of a racing street (as much as traffic that congested can race) playing with the broken shards of a headlight cover.
I reeled as our guide continued pushing through the crowd. I am sure that living in a country with massive poverty and a 30% unemployment rate make it necessary to be able to just walk passed people in all kinds of misery, but I could not believe that our group of intelligent, progressive, and sustainability-minded scientists and engineers could come to a country with these problems and spend two weeks touring.

Of course, that is not all we did. And I have yet to get a good feel for what is possible considering the oppressive political situation, and even beyond that the corruption that is said to be rampant among officials. Basically: If I am able to make it back to Egypt, it will be with different goals in mind. I am very grateful for all I did learn on this trip, which I am finding was much more than I had believed while it was happening.