The Mosque, the Museum, the Man-Shopper

November 3, 2010

Cairo.  Today we visited a mosque, hit the Cairo Museum, visited the Coptic section of Cairo and did a little shopping. 

I have never been in a mosque.  There were no prayers going on.  It would be pretty neat to be there when prayers are going on, if they allow that sort of thing.  You cannot wear shoes in a mosque. Who knew?  If you take your shoes off and carry them in, then you place them sole to sole and place them on the floor on their sides, so that their soles don't touch the floor.  We put these little baggies on our feet over our shoes that vendors sold at the door for $1.00.  Everything is $1.00 here from relentless vendors at every stop.  There was a comical toothless character outside of the mosque who tried to get everyone’s attention by calling out famous names.  His knowledge of famous people was rather limitedhowever.  “Hey, Madame Obama!”  “Hey, Mr. Obama.”  “Hey, Sophia Loren.”  “Hey, Yankee Doodle.”  “Aloha”.  For some reason, when you are American, the Egyptians say “Aloha” or “Yankee Doodle”to you.  Really?  Of all the American phrases in circulation in the world they choose these two?  Hawaii hasn’t even been a state that long.  It would be easy to become irritated at the vendors.  I have had any problem with them though.  I simply ignore them.  No eye contact.  No verbal communication.  If they sense even the smallest crack, they are relentless.  I have enjoyed watching people negotiating with them.  I thought it would be neat to bring some trinkets along and try to sell them something when they are trying to sell me something.  Maybe we would wind up with a simple barter trade.  Don't worry, honey.  I didn't.  Oh well, I digress.

So, the mosque.  The neatest thing was the very succinct and passionate explanation of Islam that our guide, himself a Muslim, gave us in the mosque.  Incredible.  It is amazing the similarities between Christianity and Islam.  And to hear it from a practitioner was fascinating.  The Muslim population here is tremendous – a huge majority.  The Egyptians are by and large very traditional and religious people.  A number of men, I noticed, have dark marks on their heads.  This is from praying five times a day and putting their forehead to the ground.  Perhaps they are proud that their righteousness is visible to all.

The children that we have seen are very friendly.  I met a young man and his sister on the way home from school.  I assumed that he spoke English when he said, “Hello, what is your name?”  I told him and then asked him what his name was.  He had no idea what I was talking about.  He had probably just learned this phrase.  His sister giggled.  A few charades later and I learned his name.  No, I cannot spell it and it was quite difficult to pronounce.

The Cairo museum was fascinating.  30,000 pieces of antiquity, most of which were not behind display cases.  They were just sitting around, leaning up against the wall or sitting on a shelf.  Part of the beard and part of the nose missing from the Sphinx, just lying around.  There wasn’t a single piece that was created any more recently than 3,000 years ago.  Three thousand years.  Think about it.  Think of the great strides to which we go to preserve things in our country that are less one-tenth that old.  Displays included the items recovered from King Tut’s tomb.  That stuff was under glass.  Lots of gold and jewels.  To see this craftsmanship up close was truly remarkable.

We also went to the church where tradition has it that Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus hid out for a few weeks when they were on the run in Egypt.  The church was built in the 7^th Century.  The artwork that was on display there depicting that plight was equally ancient.  I think I have seen pictures of some before.  Pretty interesting.

Of course, we also did a little shopping.  I experienced the universal shopping condition experienced by most men – the energy was sucked right out of the sole of my feet when I entered the bazar.  Some things are international.