April 28, 2011 Cairo

April 28, 2011 Cairo

The best thing to be said for the flight into Cairo was that it was mercifully brief, just about two and half hours. It was shortly before midnight before we finally took off from Istanbul and the seven hour lay-over in the airport had been a bit mind-numbing. A friend had given me a book to read, Lightforce, by Brother Andrew, which deals with the church in the Middle East over the past twenty years. I had made a good start on it, reading about Brother Andrews trips to bolster believers in Beirut as that country spiraled into sectarian violence, with Christian militias being just as indiscriminate in their violence as any of the others. By now we had been traveling almost 24 hours and fatigue was setting in. That made the cramped seats in the older Boeing even more uncomfortable.

We touched down in Cairo about 1:30 a.m., which of course is just thirty minutes before the military curfew goes into effect. We processed through customs relatively quickly; the only hitch came when we were buying our visas, which is fairly nominal at $15. We initially tried paying with $100 US bill but they would not accept the older currency; they only wanted the newer, more yellowish bills. Fortunately they did take smaller older bills and soon we met a driver from the airport hotel, the Novatel who had been asked to pick us up. After checking in we were perplexed by the lack of electricity in our rooms until the porter showed us the key slot into which you slipped your room key to activate the power, a common feature in Egypt and Jordan we were to discover and a nice energy saving feature which was new to me.

By 3 a.m. I had showered and was in bed but was surprised at the length of time if finally took me to fall asleep. Since I had only unpacked my overnight bag and had showered I was able to sleep to almost 8 a.m., but we had instructions to have our bags down in the lobby by 8:30 to be transported to the conference sight. So 8:30 a.m. we found ourselves meeting Magad, a familiar face from Syria who works for Wahid’s organization. An observation I began to make about Middle Eastern culture seemed to play out with Magad, a most energetic and diligent man. While the Middle East takes a rap on punctuality, it seems that early morning appointments are usually on schedule; it is just as the day progresses and life and relationships happen that, by evening, there is no telling when things will transpire.

Magad quickly disappeared with our bags. Wahid and Laila were to pick us up in an hour which gave us time for breakfast and a devotional. In eating we all were careful to avoid any fresh fruit or vegetables that may have been washed but not subsequently cooked. All of us had learned valuable lessons last August in Syria about embracing everything in the local diet. Wahid was timely as well and soon we were whisking through freeway traffic in Cairo, where traffic lanes are half-hearted suggestions and it is nothing to be able to reach out and shake hands with the driver next to you, even at 50 mph. We broke up our drive with a pit stop at an Egyptian version of a convenience store (which is quite like our own except they fix the coffee for you) for a much needed cup of coffee. The area where we were headed is called Beit Elwadi, which is roughly half way between Cairo and Alexandria. Long an area of Christian influence, prior to the Muslim conquests the number of monasteries in the area numbered in the hundreds. Even today four still remain. The conference center is of fairly recent construction, just about five years old, and really caters to Christian sports camps during the summer. The complex has a pool with lap lanes, a covered soccer field and a robes course and climbing wall. Adjacent to their property is a drug rehab center, reputedly the best on in the Middle East.

The highway to Beit Elwadi had several areas of construction and congestion. We saw several vehicles with Libyan car tags, a reminder of the problems in that neighboring country. Several times we saw cars abandoned where there had been accidents and vehicles rolled and totaled. In fact, where we left the highway to exit to Beit Elwadi, which is but a few km off the highway, there was no real exit so we just followed others who have cut across the sand median and across opposing freeway traffic to get to our road. Right there we saw the aftermath of an accident and later learned that some of Wahid’s people had witnessed a car go airborne right at that exit and roll three times. Miraculous the two men in the vehicle walked away but the car was toast.

Settling in we met some familiar people and met many new ones. Don and I roomed together and the first night we had an extra roommate, a musician/videographer from Tulsa who had been there a week shooting film for a organization he is involved with called Serving Copts. http://www.servingcopts.com/index.html He shared how they had mounted a small HD camera on a front of their vehicle and went driving through Cairo’s narrow streets. Sounded awesome; I still can’t wait to see that footage, because Egyptian traffic is something you have to experience to believe.

Unlike Syria where we had a six days to present the material to conferees, the time schedule at Beit Elwadi was tight, with eight sessions scheduled over three days. We were blown away by the attendance. They had closed registration at 240 and had a waiting list. Through Laila’s TV connections the entire conference was being recorded and after editing will be used on the Christian satellite channel in the Middle East. We were warmly greeted and jumped in with both feet that afternoon. I was so glad Rodney was teaching because I was unsure I could string together two coherent thoughts after all the travel and lack of sleep. Rodney taught on the first choice, the Reality Choice, where we admit we are not God and that areas of our lives are unmanageable. We broke into small groups and I facilitated an interesting mix of businessmen, young professionals and even the unemployed. Many understand quite a bit of English, several spoke quite fluently so translation was never an issue. I enjoyed when the men would share directly with each other, forgetting I was even there. There seemed to be an eagerness to open up to each other.

The day ended with dinner about 8:30 p.m. By then Don and I were done and after very little visiting we slipped away to our room and called it a day,