Election Day in South Africa

[Image from New York Times - check out the link for the full article]

Today is the day!!!

South Africans are going to the polls to elect their next government.

While I am more than underwhelmed at what will most likely be the outcome, seeing the images of South Africans of every shade of color winding around city blocks to write there ballot is absolutely beautiful.

Sixteen years ago this would have been a nearly impossible sight to imagine.

I, along with most people I know who love South Africa, will be anxiously waiting to hear the results, with hopes that no matter who is voted into office, they will represent their communities, country and continent well.

I will leave you with a cartoon by the ever-sassy Zapiro, a South African political cartoonist I follow nearly every single day. His sentiments echo many that I have heard from some of my South African friends:

Oh, the Pyramids! A day in Giza.

Our first full day in Egypt we spent doing what one should do on their first day in Egypt - we got our picture taken in front of THE PYRAMIDS. Actually, we got our picture taken in front of a lot of things, come to think of it. We decided to do a private tour that our hostel manager set up. It turned out to be a great decision. It was ridiculously cheap - I wish I could remember how much exactly, and it saved us from dealing with the hassle of cabs and navigating a new country and all of that. It included 3 stops and lunch.

First stop - Saqqra. I actually didn't even know this place existed until we went there on the tour. Eek. Bad History major. This is the world's oldest pyramid, and oldest stone structure, for that matter: (and of course me, cheesing it up in front)

Second stop was Memphis, where the highlight was this massive statue of Ramses:

Sphinx at Memphis. Pictured here are the girls I traveled with: K.C., Katie, me and Nura. In front was our trusty tour guide for the day. He was great.

Third stop: lunch. These women bake pita bread for the restaurant, and threw us some right out of the oven as a little pre-lunch snack.

After gorging ourselves on our overpriced lunch, we headed out for Giza and the Great Pyramid...... da da da....!

There are actually 3 large pyramids at Giza. But you can't get them all in one picture unless you are pretty far away. We declined on the option of riding a camel to get a better picture (don't worry, camels come later).

Check out how HUGE the stones are! How in the world they moved those things is still a mystery - it is truly a wonder.

And... here we go... the trashy tourist pic. Gotta have some of these.

So, funny thing about the pyramids... they are not in the middle of the desert.. was I the only one who thought this? Giza is actually just a suburb of Cairo, and HUGE. You can take the bus to the pyramids, or a cab - its only a few minutes drive from downtown Cairo. Don't believe me? Check out this picture, standing in the same place as the picture above, just looking in the opposite direction:

One more for the road:

We walked for a couple of minutes, and ran right into - The Great Sphinx! (this actually was the coolest moment for me - it hit me how surreal it was to be standing in a place I had been seeing pictures of my entire life... wow wow!)

A little closer...

The Sphinx and I got close and personal.

There was actually a little girl standing there showing tourists how to angle their cameras to take this picture. She was precious and made my heart hurt. In general, I have a policy of not handing money to kids on the street, so I didn't give her money.

And I feel bad.

(You can't win when it comes to kids on the street, I'm telling you. You give them money, it is perpetuating poverty by keeping them out of school. You don't give them money and they may not eat that day. Seriously, it tears me up, still. ... and... I'll end the downer rant, but if you have a great solution, let me know. Meanwhile I'll be kissing sphinxes for free AND feeling terrible about it.)

After a long day of being ridiculously touristy, we did the cheesiest tourist thing yet - we went on a dinner cruise on the Nile. Complete with semi-bad belly dancer.

... A whirling dervish.. and, oh it gets worse....

.... and a Little Person whirling dervish.

Oh, to be a tourist in Egypt. It actually was all a lot of fun, of course. A lot of fun. It was incredible to see the sites and be in the places that people from all over the world flock to. But it doesn't compare at all to actually being able to DO something for the place - to get to know the people, contribute, have them get to know you......

The more I travel the more I realize this.

Highlights of Cairo

The last week of our Jerusalem Program was free for travel - so 3 girlfriends and I sprinted for Egypt.

We bought a bus ticket that took us from Tel Aviv to Cairo for about $90. Despite reading in about 4 places that it was impossible, we were able to buy our visas at the border for $15 when we crossed at the Taba border crossing. We went straight, all the way across the Sinai to Cairo. The total trip from Tel Aviv to Cairo took about 14 hours.


When we got to the city, we jumped in the cab and had the driver take us to a hostel that was recommended in Lonely Planet, Lialy Hostel. Despite the creepiness of this picture, the place was clean and the staff incredibly friendly and helpful. I would recommend it.After resting from our travel-marathon, we woke up early and headed to Giza to see the pyramids. (That was fabulous and those pictures will come later.)

The second day we met up with the uncle of one of our friends, who gave us a personal tour of Cairo. We of course requested to go shopping, so he took us to the Khan El Khalili Bazaar. The largest bazaar in - the world? Egypt? The largest something. And it. was. large.

Right in front of the bazaar is where a bomb exploded the week before we were there. I know, I know, you are worried. But I made it back just fine. This is a picture of the area - it amazes me how quickly the normal routine returns. People are resilient.

A picture of the bazaar.

I thought this was great - a man getting a shave in the middle of the street.

Cairo traffic is something to note - it rivals any I've seen in the world. It is completely ordered chaos. But it somehow seems to work - people weave in and out and honk here and there and somehow get to where they need to go. There is really no way to capture it in a photograph, but here is a cool picture I took from the inside of one of the cabs.

All in all, I was impressed with Cairo. I had heard so many negative things about it, I expected to utterly hate it. However, that wasn't the case at all. It is huge, yes. And people are aggressive, yes. But there is a great energy there, and so many places to explore. I would go back (this is something to note because I usually HATE large African cities).

For those traveling to the area: One 'low-light', however, was the Egyptian Museum. It was enormous, and had literally thousands and thousands of - I don't even know what to call them - things from tombs? I mean, every pyramid-y Egyptian-y thing you could imagine was in this museum. However, hardly anything is labeled in English, and it is very difficult to navigate - in essence, it is not user-friendly. If you are travelling there and don't have a lot of time, I would skip it - or if you do go, make sure to hire a guide who can tell some stories to explain what you are seeing. We didn't do that and ended up walking around aimlessly and found it both exhausting and frustrating that we didn't know what we were looking at.

Settling back in..

I am getting nice and settled back in Denver and back into the routine of a 'non-foreign' graduate student.

It is so different - suddenly the urgency of seeing everything I can possibly see each day has diminished, and everything seems so easy.

Everyone understands me, I can go to the bank or grocery store and know how all of the systems work, I can pick up my cell phone and call my family without messing with a phone card or Skype, I know how to ready my own mail and the street signs, and I know what is culturally appropriate and unacceptable.

I have a car again, and don't have to wait for buses or haggle with taxi drivers. I don't find myself lost in streets that I can't read the name, I can cook my own food and don't have to worry about whether I am using kosher-only plates or not.

Its all so easy.

And quiet.

Petra, Jordan