The Cairo Trilogy

1. Go AUC! Make Us Proud!

Crew season came to a dramatic end, like hitting a brick wall, the first day of Spring Break when the men’s 8 sweep lost to basically every other college in Egypt. Go AUC!

Both days of our Nile Regatta were perfect in the manner of GM Hopkins’ poetry: clear skies, low smog, and a gorgeous 85 with a slight breeze. Being on the water was the perfect icing on the cake – if only parasites a plenty weren’t constantly trying to kill any potential swimmers.

To ensure that we knew we were in Egypt, the races began with fishermen holding the boats steady. At the start of my first, I noticed that the husband of our makeshift anchor was holding our boat with one hand, cigarette in the other while his wife was washing dishes in the Nile.

The race itself was the seven circles of Hell: we had been rowing for about 11 kilometers every day for 2 weeks, but never 2K at full racing speed. We were soaked, exhausted and dead last. Moreover, due to a mishap in steering and skill just as we got to the finish line, an oar made a swift connection with #5 sending him directly to the hospital. Go AUC!

After only a momentary nap in the boathouse mosque (yes, of course we have one) we raced again. We lost: but as a team, we couldn’t have been more pleased with our performance. We nearly placed second before a renegade ski boat crossed into the course and nearly capsized us all – we pulled through but never recovered our speed or direction…..and came in last.

Shout out to the girls 4 Skull – 2^nd place!!!

2. Jacques Cousteau

We saw Jimmy Carter (love that man!), we rowed up and down the Nile, we had Papa John’s Pizza, we watched Pan’s Labyrinth. But we were only one day into a 2 week spring break: What to do?

How about an impromptu trip to the Red Sea and a license in scuba diving? Andy, Jessica, Nate and I decided a week of sea breeze would set us up quite nicely.

Emad, hotelier of Dahab Plaza answered Jessica’s inquiries with “Where are you? Are you in Cairo? I am in Cairo! I’ll drive you to Dahab!”

Finding that he did have room for 4, the next evening we sped down the mountain highways of the desolate Sinai Peninsula at 180KPH and got to the beach in less than 6 hours – our former plans of busing it would have taken at least 10 hours. At one point, Jessica whispered in my ear, “Do you think it’s better to see when you’re going to die, or just be surprised?”

We passed out in the pre dawn darkness and awoke in the most relaxing and beautiful place in Egypt. The tall, barren mountains of Sinai sweep down to a mirror-surfaced sea overflowing with coral reefs. At the moment we couldn’t’ve been farther from Cairo. We got PADI certified over the course of the next few days and spent our evenings lounging on pillows on the beaches, eating luscious dinners and gazing at the full moon as it rose over Saudi Arabia.

Even the hippie animals in Dahab were chilled out, clean, and friendly: there was a German Shepherd that hung out at the beach playing fetch with whomever passed by and one lucky dog surfing in the water.

Scuba diving rocked my world: 7 dives over 5 days. Lionfish, eels, squids, coral snakes, anemones and tons of other sea creatures were all around us. Dude, and I FOUND NEMO!

Next step is advanced certification and exploring shipwrecks in the Red Sea and Cleopatra’s Palace in the Mediterranean.

3. Moses on the Mount

We casually mentioned to our new friend, Emad, that we were interested in climbing Mt. Sinai before traveling back to Cairo. He called a few minutes later to inform us that a car would pick us up the next evening, take us to the monastery for the climb and then on to Cairo.

Emad #2 picked us up around midnight and we began our journey. More terrifying moonlight mountain driving at 180KPH.

Emad #2 ended up being our new best friend. He was supposed to wait in the car with our things overnight while we climbed – but after we found out that he had never climbed and really wanted to go, we insisted this was his opportunity to see where “Musa talked with Allah.”

After more than two hours of pitch black climbing with Bedouins incessantly hawking their camels to us, we made it to the summit, had some coffee, rented some pads and blankets, and tried to get an hour or two of sleep. That was fruitless as Russian carolers kept us up to enjoy the near zero temperatures.

But then the sun started rising above the bleak mountains – it was indescribably beautiful.

Yet we had to go. As exhaustion began to alter our perceptions we climbed down for another 2 hours. We went from being frigid and tired to roasting and tired in less than 15 minutes. The rest of the way was just grueling, and exhilarating.

It’s been an amazing experience: I’ve visited the place where Moses was found in the reeds in Cairo, and now I’ve been to the spot of his revelation from God. At the bottom of the mountain was the 6^th Century monastery of St. Catherine where the burning bush was said to have grown.

When are you guys coming to visit? Seriously!