Well, Egypt was great once again, and I was still happy to come back to Jordan, to be back “home.” This time I went north of Cairo and stayed with a friend’s family; so didn’t go to upper Egypt this time. But then we went into Cairo for a day before we flew back. That night I went looking for some food because everyone else was a party pooper and stayed in the hotel . As I was walking, one guy looked at me like I didn’t fit in; so I asked him in Arabic, “Is there a place to eat around here?” He said, “Yeah just go straight. I will take you.” We walked for about 5 min. down the street and came to a place. I said thank you and he just looked at me (mind you the whole time we talked in Arabic) but at this point in time he looks at me and says “dollar.” Well heck no I’m thinking, so I looked at him and said, “No, I wont pay you; but you can come eat with me.” So of course he ate with me. After he scarfed down the food he said he had to go smoke outside that it was not allowed in the restaurant. No matter that there were ash trays on the table and after I got done, other people smoking and no one seem to care. When I got out side he was gone. So, okay. Then I had to find my way back and decided to go walk another way and found another main street. Some street kids found me. One started to follow me and asked for money. I said no but then asked him if he wanted bread. “No,” he said, ” just money.” I asked, “Do you want juice?” No, just money. He had shoes. He had dirty clothes, but still he was happy. Maybe some chocolate. No, just money. I told him no. Then one by one they started to accumulate around me and they were all happy. They didn’t want food or drink, but one girl didn’t have shoes. So I asked, “Where can we buy shoes?” Well they all knew of a different place and argued amongst themselves until I just started walking in a direction, and they just followed. We found a shoe store and for 50 cents bought her some shoes. The kids all loved it. After that we bought some bread and started to eat it, and that is how I left most of them. A few more followed and then realized I was going to my hotel so they left. But one was very insistent and wanted to shine my shoes. I had tennis shoes on; so I asked him if he needed anything. He said money. “No,” I said, “money is evil.” We talked for a while and realizing I would never give him anything, he said, “I need a hat.” “Okay,” I said, “let’s get a hat.” So that is what we did. We found him a hat for 2 dollars and to bed I went.
The next day we were to meet at the pyramids at 12, the hot part of the day. Our hotel was basicly beside it, so we got there 30 min early and then the other people were an hour and a half late. We sat outside the pyramids me wanting to go in. But no, we had to wait. More complaining , more waiting. We actually saw people going in and coming out because we were there so long. There is no shade; so we sat out there and thinking it would be an hour long excursion I just brought a liter of water and no sunbloc. We got sun burned and drank all my water until the rest finally showed up. To make it go faster we got a taxi to take us to all of the pyramids. We went inside one and took many pictures. I got some sand and then forgot it in the taxi. Sorry, Dad. That pretty much wraps up the Egypt trip.