When we first moved from Florida to Washington, D.C. to start a new career, we had no idea what adventures awaited us. We didn't know which corner of the globe we would shipped off to. I don't think I'll ever forget the morning my classmates and I crowded into the campus auditorium that hot morning in early summer. Family members from around the country had converged upon that small space to see where their love ones would be sent. My mom came up for the occasion. She sat somewhere in the back of the room with Elise, Sam, and Peter, the later two not much more than babes. Peter literally was a baby, not even a year old.
I sat in the front of the room, in rows of folding chairs with my classmates. Flags from all over the world decorated a podium, and the instructor handed them out one by one to each of us until there were none left. Some of my classmates were sent to countries they had never heard of before. Some were visibly upset when they received their assignments. Some cried. I think both Elise and my mom were shell-shocked. Elise told me later my mom asked her where that was on our list, and Elise confessed to not remembering. I don't remember knowing what to think. We were sent to Brazil. Then India. Then Jordan. Then and then and then?
Before reaching that day, Elise and I spent hours -- weeks, really -- pouring over a list of 100 posts around the world. We had to rate each one high, medium, or low. Based on what? Places we knew nothing about, places we had never been, some we hadn't even heard of before. Is Paramaribo in Africa? Asia? Where is Guyana? Is it the same is Guinea? Papua New Guinea? Guinea-Bissau?
When it was all said and done and we turned in our list, we had tagged about 10 posts high, many in Western Europe, about another 20 to 30 medium, and the rest of the 100 low. Places like Guyana and Papua New Guinea.
Cairo was one of the cities we had listed as high.
The rest is history. We went to Brazil. We knew the couple who ended up being assigned to Cairo. They had a small boy about the same age as Peter and Sam. Shortly after they arrived in Egypt, a revolution erupted. Arab Spring. The first of many years of social unrest. They were eventually evacuated and left the job entirely shortly thereafter.
Sometimes, I wonder if we would still be in this line of work, travelling the world, had we originally been assigned to Cairo. There's no way of knowing, of course. I don't believe we were more resilient than that family was. Just lucky, I guess.
All of this to say, our trip to Cairo was a long time coming and our expectations were high. To Elise and I it was about more than seeing pyramids and mummies, though those were important, too. It may have also been about seeing what might have been and -- who knows? -- what might yet be some day.
I sat in the front of the room, in rows of folding chairs with my classmates. Flags from all over the world decorated a podium, and the instructor handed them out one by one to each of us until there were none left. Some of my classmates were sent to countries they had never heard of before. Some were visibly upset when they received their assignments. Some cried. I think both Elise and my mom were shell-shocked. Elise told me later my mom asked her where that was on our list, and Elise confessed to not remembering. I don't remember knowing what to think. We were sent to Brazil. Then India. Then Jordan. Then and then and then?
Before reaching that day, Elise and I spent hours -- weeks, really -- pouring over a list of 100 posts around the world. We had to rate each one high, medium, or low. Based on what? Places we knew nothing about, places we had never been, some we hadn't even heard of before. Is Paramaribo in Africa? Asia? Where is Guyana? Is it the same is Guinea? Papua New Guinea? Guinea-Bissau?
When it was all said and done and we turned in our list, we had tagged about 10 posts high, many in Western Europe, about another 20 to 30 medium, and the rest of the 100 low. Places like Guyana and Papua New Guinea.
Cairo was one of the cities we had listed as high.
The rest is history. We went to Brazil. We knew the couple who ended up being assigned to Cairo. They had a small boy about the same age as Peter and Sam. Shortly after they arrived in Egypt, a revolution erupted. Arab Spring. The first of many years of social unrest. They were eventually evacuated and left the job entirely shortly thereafter.
Sometimes, I wonder if we would still be in this line of work, travelling the world, had we originally been assigned to Cairo. There's no way of knowing, of course. I don't believe we were more resilient than that family was. Just lucky, I guess.
All of this to say, our trip to Cairo was a long time coming and our expectations were high. To Elise and I it was about more than seeing pyramids and mummies, though those were important, too. It may have also been about seeing what might have been and -- who knows? -- what might yet be some day.
After the camel ride, we stopped at the boat museum. Inside is the Khufu solar boat, an intact full-size vessel from Ancient Egypt that was sealed into a pit in the Giza pyramid complex at the foot of the Great Pyramid of Giza around 2500 BC. The ship was almost certainly built for Khufu (King Cheops), the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom of Egypt and was reassembled from 1,224 pieces placed in a logical arrangement at the bottom of a limestone pit.
Egyptian mythos holds that Ra, the sun god, sailed across the sky from east to west. So, after death, Khufu would need his own boat in order to accompany Ra on his journey. Hence, the solar boat was placed next to the pyramid where his body was laid, so he could use the boat in the after life.
After a long day spent first at the pyramids, then boat museum, and finally the sphinx, we headed back to the hotel for some downtime poolside where Clementine had made huge strides in swimming.
We were originally scheduled to dine at Mena House, built on the site of an 1869 hunting lodge, and in 1890 opened Egypt's first swimming pool. Alas, the restaurant was closed for renovations, and we were forced to suffer through (yet another) dinner buffet at the neighboring Marriott.
All was not lost, however. We crashed Hakim's wedding. Hakim is an Egyptian folk-singer and -- as our camel guide later informed us -- "#1 in Egypt!" The kids snatched cake pops from the desert table.
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