Arrived!

Thought I’d share a few quick thoughts and impressions now that I’ve been on the ground for a full six and half hours! It’s nearly 10 pm in Cairo as I write this. It’s been dark already for 3 hours. Sunset came an hour earlier than in the past because Egypt has cancelled daylight savings time. That means that it’s dark by 7:30 and I expect it will be full daylight by 5 am!

I arrived in Cairo about 3:30 this afternoon a little later than scheduled. We had some drama on the plane departing from Amsterdam. As we were taxiing to take off a man in the back of the plane stood up and wouldn’t return to his seat when instructed by the flight attendants. After several stern warnings the flight attendant announced that we would be returning to the gate because this passenger would no longer be traveling with us to Cairo. At the gate two armed security men and others came on the plane and escorted the man off. We then waited for quite some time while they removed all the baggage from the plane to ensure that they had gotten this man’s bags and then refueled the plane. We finally left around 11:30 local time (2 hours after scheduled departure) and arrived in Cairo around 3:30. I had a pretty quick time getting through passport control and getting my baggage. Monsour, the seminary’s driver, met me and we were at the seminary by 5:30.

My friend Michael greeted me with the news that while his person had arrived in Cairo on Tuesday evening, his luggage had not. I put down my things (there was some confusion about rooms until after dinner) and we headed out to Greco for a little afternoon coffee. We also made a quick trip down Road 9 to the Mobilnil store so I could get my sim card and it gave me a chance to check out the main drag of our part of Ma’adi.

For the most part things in Ma’adi look pretty much the same as always. What we noticed in our walk were many houses (especially the large, fancy ones!) and businesses flying the Egyptian flag. This is a display of national pride that I’m not sure I’ve ever seen before. Every year I arrive in Ma’adi I notice that things have changed – businesses come and go – but usually things have a looked a little better each year. I’m not sure that’s the case this year. I noticed a little more garbage littering the streets and more yard waste. Who knows if that’s simply the impressions of a day or if that sense will stick over time. For the most part though walking around Ma’adi had the same feel as always: lots of cars on little one-lane streets, lots of honking horns.

My goal was to stay awake until 9:30 and my laptop now says it’s 10:06 so I’m off to brush my teeth, take my nighttime cold medicine and hope for a long, uninterrupted, deep night of sleep.

Thanks for you prayers and well wishes for a safe journey. I’ve grateful!

More to come!

P.S. My nighttime cold medicine worked the trick. I was out until 6 am!