My husband and I and our two younger kids went to Egypt years ago, and I still think of it as my favorite trip. It was right before the Gulf War and I was anxious about flying from Athens to Cairo, so my husband called the embassy there and a woman reassured us she had just played tennis and all was well. While we were there, many Egyptians told us how much they loved Bush (the elder) and we were surprised (we certainly didn't), but there were two million Egyptians working in Kuwait, and they wanted their family members to get safely home. Everyone we met had a brother in San Jose, or an uncle in Chicago. They were friendly, laughed a lot, and adored our kids. The Egyptian Museum in Cairo was a highlight of my life, and the week long trip down the Nile from Luxor to Aswan was magical. The artifacts make Rome and Athens look like rubble. From the water and the narrow strip of green Oasis on either side, one could see the nomadic tribes crossing the Sahara, and the sand seemed to have not one living thing on it. We took every form of transportation, from felukas (a kind of sailboat), horse driven carriages, buses and walking. In Cairo we went to the grand mosque and the largest bazaar in the world, a giant maze where several times we ended up in someone's house, and every time they beckoned us to stay for tea. I've never been so charmed by a place.
So I hope this transition to more democratic governmental structure is peaceful and no one is harmed. I also hope the precious artifacts in the museums are protected. It is all of mankind's history; we all came from Africa, and we need to see who we were and compare it with who we've become.
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