Egypt

"I'll buy you for 12,000 Camels!"
This is the line that a woman will hear from a male merchant when she goes to Egypt. I heard this line being used a couple of times towards women tourists while touring the pyramids. Oddly enough, the guys would increase/decrease the number of camels according to the particular woman they were looking at. My magic number was 12,000. I didn’t know if I should have said thanks or that’s it!?! Instead my answer was, "That’s nice but I’m married…to that big guy over there with the tattoos. He just got out of jail and he’s so excited to be here. Would you like to meet him?"

Ooh, Egypt. This is the country that developed the first paper (papyrus) and holds one of the great wonders of the world, the Great Pyramid in Giza. With such a rich history that started around 3000 BC, it’s almost forgivable that male merchants harass women. I say that because I did go "Ugly American" on a few merchants who harassed and cheated my grandparents onto riding a camel. This story gives me high blood pressure so I will try to make it quick and short.

First off, if you don’t know what "Ugly American" means I’ll define it for you…Straight from wikipedia. Ugly American is a stereotypical offensive American: a loud, boorish, nationalistic American, especially one traveling abroad, who is regarded as conforming to a stereotype that gives Americans a bad reputation.

I only really went "Ugly American" once in my whole life before Egypt. It was in Australia when a Taxi cab driver cheated my roommate and me and told us to pay 5x as much because he thought we were stupid tourists that didn’t know our way around Sydney. Boy, was he wrong…But anyways, that’s another story for another blog.

Back to Egypt…My grandpa was basically coerced to sit on a camel and then they wouldn’t let him down unless we paid them some outrageous price in American dollars. My grandma was so scared; she panicked and took out her traveling passport/wallet that she hid underneath her clothes (Oh, grandma. Let me remind you that my grandma has post traumatic stress from the Vietnam War). They spotted her wads of $20 bills and had a group huddled around her and they started pointing at the money. I ran over there with my Big ugly American mouth and started saying random things about "being an American tourist harassed and taken advantaged by Egyptian merchants….yada yada…This is outrageous…blah, blah, blah…I’ll break your camel’s neck." I honestly don’t remember what I said. I just know that I was pissed and my BP was sky rocketing. Needless to say, things were settled for $5 and he was let down. My poor granny stayed on the tour bus for the rest of the day and missed out on many stops following that. She was paranoid that someone was going to kidnap her. As for my grandpa, he was oblivious that people were taking advantage of him. It was hilarious, actually. After the whole episode, he came up to me and said "did you get a chance to take any pictures of me on the camel?"

The answer was YES.

Three pyramid pictures

The sphinx and pyramid at Giza

(Granny on the right looks all nervous and she's tugging on her passport holder)

Other than that experience, I enjoyed the pyramids and the sphinx. In our visit, we were also able to visit the first pyramid ever built, the step pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara. We then visited the tomb exhibition of the Pharaoh Ramsey II and ended with a quick glance at the Nile River. We finally finished and made a few stops in the cities of Cairo and Alexandria (named after Alexandria the Great).

Step Pyramid

A tomb statue from Ramsey II

Cairo view of the Great Pyramid

Final thoughts:

To me, Egypt has pyramids, the sphinx, and the Nile River. Once you’ve seen them, you stand in awe, snap a picture, and then you move on.

So, would I go back to Egypt? Maybe…I'd only go back if I am married to a big man with tattoos who just got out of jail. :)

Alabama , ya'll

After taking several trips throughout the summer of 2007, one specific trip that truly enlightened me was the trip to Bayou La Batre, Alabama. I came back to Delaware with a slight southern flair and for some reason, I can't help but say "ya'll" all the time. I was a camp counselor for a free summer camp known as "Camp Noah." I'm sure you're wondering if I treated the kiddies the same way Major Payne would (great movie) since I'm prone to making sarcastic but endearing remarks. Well, I didn't have to because there was a smart, witty, six year-old who made them for me. She was one of my favorite campers, by the way.

I'm sure everyone is aware of the damage that Hurricane Katrina caused in 2005. The aftermath of the hurricane left many homes damaged and many families homeless. I previously went down south in the winter of 2005 to help clean/build homes with my church. It was more of a laborious trip and I only interacted with the families briefly. But this year, I volunteered with my church to go back down to help operate a free summer camp for the disadvantaged post-Katrina children.

A majority of the families were very poor before the hurricane (specifically the Vietnamese population), thus, Katrina financially crippled them even more afterwards. To my surprise, a diverse set of problems existed within the families. Some were battling extreme poverty, broken and abusive family relationships, educational disadvantages, or a mix of everything. Many families still lived in FEMA trailers and encouraged their children to work as soon as possible in order to support the family instead of pursuing more education. In some desperate cases, mothers would go into prostitution for the sake of their families.

Despite their backgrounds, each child was extremely gracious, sweet, and enthusiastic about the smallest things. I came there with the intention of teaching but I left learning from them. Words cannot express how humbling and eye-opening this experience was.



A typical house


This is Chad. A few seconds after this picture, he was trying to pluck out the gray hairs from his dog.


The little boy, Timmy, on the left was the sweetest camper. He loved eating double and triple lunches. From now on, if I ever eat a hotdog, I'll think of him…He ate four for lunch one time


This is Jerry and his little turtle tail a.k.a. rat tail


These are girls that I worked with. As you can see, Timmy practiced writing his name on the front of my shirt.


Thaoie's grill is better than a rapper's




The older boys

Aivi's little kiddie class


The smart and witty Cindy. I love her


Lunch time


I know some of ya'll are involved in clubs or volunteering activities. If you're ever interested in doing some sort of fundraising or work down south, message me. Nevertheless, I ask that you keep the children and their families in your prayers.