My first impression of Egypt was smelling the sweet fragrance of flowers, jasmine I think. It was a soothing odor as we disembarked the plane. My second impression was of guns, big machine guns carried by men in military fatigues as we entered the terminal. I had never been in a situation where there were so many military men around guarding a location. It made me nervous. I felt like I was entering a war zone.
Egypt was our first major stop on our around-the-world tour of mission work. We arrived there in the evening coming from Frankfurt, Germany. The presence of the military was not the only thing that made me uncomfortable. We soon discovered that no one had come to meet us and take us to our hotel. Fortunately our leader was an experienced traveler, and he arranged for a small bus to transport us to our hotel. However, since we knew this was not planned ahead of time our anxiety level increased. We joked about the fact that the driver was actually taking us out into the desert to shoot us all. We were only half kidding. You could tell our anxiety level was high.
Obviously the driver did take us to our hotel, the Windsor Hotel (which is still in operation today). Being tired from our long day, we were anxious to get to our rooms. The hotel was old but nice. The elevator was really small and old fashioned with see through gates that closed by hand. In the end we piled our luggage onto the elevator and then walked up the stairs to retrieve them and find our rooms.
Ab and I had a nice big room, but my anxiety continued. The hotel rooms all faced a central area, and on each floor a young man was assigned to attend to the needs of those on his floor. However, my anxiety was high enough that the presence of this friendly young man gave me no comfort. I firmly locked our room as I didn’t trust him. It’s sad how our fears can get to us.
The following morning we awoke to a lot of noise outside. From our balcony we had a clear view of the street below, and in the daylight we could see what the area was really like. The daylight had a way of removing the fear which the darkness had brought. Nevertheless we were definitely looking at a very different world. In the streets below we saw men dressed in long robes. We heard the strange calls to prayer from the various nearby minarets. The air was dry and dusty. I was no longer in a familiar world.
Street Performers 
Minaret
After breakfast we walked from our hotel to the mission office. I think I must have been gawking around too much as I found myself behind everyone else. The next thing I knew a young Egyptian woman came and started talking to me. At first I thought she was just being curious and wanted to talk to an American, but then I realized she was propositioning me. That had never happened to me before! Fortunately someone came back to hurry me along and help me get out of that situation.
At the office we found out that on the next day, Sunday, we would be visiting churches. The team was divided into smaller groups and assigned to churches in the area. Ab and I would be visiting a church by ourselves. Fortunately an Egyptian English teacher would be going with us as translator. There would be no other Americans with us, however, so that was a bit scary.
When Sunday arrived our translator came and picked us up, and we were off to church in a cab. The congregation was a decent size, but we noted that the men and women sat separately with a cloth dividing wall between them. Ab and I sat on the platform as honored guests which felt really strange. I believe the pastor asked us to bring greetings to the church. Fortunately that’s all they asked of us. Of course we had no idea what was said throughout the service.
After the church service was over, we went to the pastor’s home for dinner. Now we had to deal with eating an Egyptian meal. We had been warned during our orientation not to drink water or eat raw vegetables so we were pretty nervous about eating in a home. The meal was fine, but we were only served water so we became thirsty. We didn’t eat a lot, but that changed when our hostess brought out slices of watermelon for dessert. We were so thirsty, and this was something we knew we could eat safely so we started eating it. I think we surprised our host by how much watermelon we scarfed down, but it was so good, so familiar, and it quenched our thirst.
Pastor and Family 
Pastor’s Children
After our meal the men retreated to another room for conversation. I remember one young father asked us to take his small child with us back to the United States. He wanted his child to have a better life and thought he would be better off in the US. The request shocked us. The legal and ethical aspects of it were enough to make it unworkable let alone the fact that we were unmarried college students. We tried as gently as we could to let him know that this was really not possible. I felt sad that a young father felt the need to even consider asking such a thing.
We soon faced another dilemma. The hostess brought in rosewater for everyone to drink. It seems that this drink is only served on special occasions, and it was being offered to us. We had no idea what it was exactly nor how safe it was to drink. However, it seemed that to refuse it would be offensive to our hosts. So in my mind I prayed and ask God to make sure there was nothing harmful in the drink, and I drank it down. It tasted quite sweet; I was just hoping I didn’t get sick.
When we finally returned to our hotel that afternoon, we certainly had stories to tell the rest of the team. It had been a most interesting day, and one that has lived in my memory all these years. Dealing with the cultural aspects of the country had really challenged me so early on in our trip.
Of course Egypt is a land of great historical and cultural interest. We did have a chance to visit some of those. One of our first experiences was visiting a Muslim mosque. In the early 1970’s there was not as much awareness of the Muslim culture as there is now. One of the purposes of our trip was to become aware of the other religions around the world.
Our mosque visit was quite interesting. It seemed strange to go into a place of worship and there not be chairs for people to sit on. We did see some prayer mats. Near the center of the mosque was a cleansing area where worshipers would cleanse themselves before their prayer time. It reminded me of the Jewish rules of purification. Overall the mosque felt primitive to me at the time.
Of course the most famous place in Egypt has the pyramids and the Sphinx. We were able to go there, and it was an amazing site to see. The pyramids are really large, and the building blocks are large. Before we arrived I had the idea I could climb up the side of the pyramid. However, that was not as easy as I imagined it would be. We did climb up a ways. I’m sure that today no one is allowed to be on the pyramids in an effort to preserve the integrity of the pyramids, but back then we could do it.
Egyptian Pyramid 
The Pyramids
We also went inside one of the pyramids, but that didn’t prove to be very interesting. It was just a fairly small empty room considering how big the pyramid itself was. Of course we also saw the Sphinx. It was an amazing sight as well.
The Sphinx
And then there was the camel ride. As soon as our van pulled up hawkers surrounded us trying to get us to ride a camel. I figured I might never get another chance, so I did. The camel handler took the photos of me. It was a most unique experience, but not the most comfortable ride.
Riding a Camel in Front of a Pyramid 
On a Camel in Front of the Sphinx
Later we also went to the Egyptian Museum where they had a lot of the artifacts from the pyramids including mummies. I just remember how big the museum was and the amazing array of unique historical objects. There was so much there, I think I felt a little overwhelmed by it all.
So we finished our time in Egypt. While it had been a bit of an unsettling beginning, by the end of our visit we could look back at our few days and realize the unique and powerful experiences we had, but now it was time to move on. Our next stop was India.
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