In Moses’ footsteps

Posted by: sarahcferg | July 19, 2009

In Moses’ footsteps

Ahlan!

Another fabulous week in Cairo has gone by!

Monday after class, we were invited to the American Embassy, where we met the ambassador from the United States to Egypt, and were given the opportunity to ask her questions. we also got to talk with a few foreign service agents- including a cultural affairs officer. Did you know you can spend your life in exciting places, bringing American cultural events and bridging cultural gaps? I might have to rethink my career plan…

Tuesday was the first day that advanced students were sent out on our own to organizations in Cairo. The organization that I will be visiting this week wasn’t ready for me, so Aileen and I went to a magazine that looks at design in its various forms. We were actually asked to translate an article about an exhibit at the Tate in Liverpool that focuses on the transformation of artists’ perception and use of color from 1950 to today. I’m not even sure I understood it in English, but we somehow managed to translate it into Arabic. It was difficult, but also extremely rewarding when the woman we were doing it for told me that some of the sentences I constructed would be used word for word.

The most exciting part of the week, however, was our trip the Sinai peninsula, where we visited the monastery of St. Catherine, home of the burning bush, and climbed Mt. Sinai! After a 7 hour bus ride, we arrived at the hostel in the monastery and napped so that we would have energy to hike the next day. We woke up at 2 AM and congregated at the base of the trail so that we could make it to the top of the mountain before sunrise. The hike was surprisingly strenuous- though that may have had something to do with the fact that I was sick, it was 2 AM, and I haven’t so much as speed-walked in over a month. It’s only a 2 hour hike, but it’s on gravelly, rocky, steep terrain, and the last leg of the hike is 750 uneven steps.

As you can imagine, hiking in a group of 40 people, especially while being constantly asked if you want to ride a camel up the path, is not exactly a pleasant experience, so 5 of my friends and I powered ahead and reached the top ahead of the rest of the group. we got there by 4:30 or so, and had an hour of a perfectly starry night sky before the first light appeared. One of my friends had been up before, and knew of a special spot away from the crowds (yes, there are crowds on top- a solitary experience, it is not) where we had a completely unobstructed, quiet view of the Eastern horizon. I can’t really put into words how beautiful the view was as we watched the first rays of light hit the expanse of mountains around Mt Sinai, so I will let my pictures speak for themselves. Suffice to say, despite my tumble on the top which left my jeans torn and my leg sadly scraped, and despite my sickness, the cold at the top, and the difficult hike, it was a beautiful experience that I will never forget.

Once we descended, we visited the church of St Catherine, which you still enter via 6th century carved wooden doors, saw the burning bush, and were even granted special access to visit the library, which houses manuscripts dating from the 4th century on.

Wednesday, we fly to Luxor. The weather promises to be brutal (50 C=123F) but the monuments promise to be jaw dropping.