Day 39 Nile River
Sunday January 13, 2008
Some of this morning is in the previous entry. The girls are still asleep and I am getting ready to head downstairs to check on them. My fingers are cold from typing on the deck.
This morning we are cruising and it seems a good opportunity for the girls to do some school work and for me to catch up on some work.
We are going to pass through a lock later and then stop at a village of Edfu.
The cruise on the Nile is very peaceful – I am reminded of the Agatha Christie novel as I walk the decks and meet the 40 other people on the cruise – each with their own story. A couple from L.A – teachers, another teaching couple from Missouri, people from Florida, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, a Professor and wife from NY – they actually give us an unpublished book to read. An Egyptian man married to an America on vacation from Cairo.
The girls order cartouches – charms for a necklace with names spelled in hieroglyphics – they are pretty cool. Aria purchases and Ankh from the onboard store.
As we approach the lock a number of rowboats tie off to the ship and start to hawk their wares – they throw them onto the sundeck wrapped in plastic and you negotiate a price by yelling over the side while dodging plastic bags full of scarves, dresses, towels – eventually either returning the merchandise (Allysha's favorite part) or throwing down the negotiated amount also in a plastic bag. It is quite fun to watch this activity.
It turns out the stop in Edfu is to visit a shopping bazaar. I stay onboard and talk to an Indian dentist from the states while the girls go shop for souvenirs.
When they return Aria has purchased several replicas of coptic jars – the jars that were used to hold the internal organs from the bodies that were being mummified. She plans on collecting sand from Giza to put into the jars – what a cool souvenir. I turns out that she is a very good negotiator and many of the passengers sought her assistance in negotiating their purchases.
They seemed to have fun. We have dinner and retired for the evening as tomorrow we have a very early start to the day.
It is funny how time seems to change the pace in which it passes -some days seem to pass in mere moments while others seem to last for several days. I have to continually try to remind myself how much time has elapsed – what day it is etc.
I sometimes fell like I am very far behind on communications and work only to realize that it has only been a day or 2 since my last milestone. Even as I write this I have to look at the calendar to remember what day it is (BTW it is very Early Tuesday Morning or Monday evening in the states).