TIME OUT Brigitte
…………………even the SPHINX sitting on the Giza Plateau guarding the PYRAMIDS!!!!!!
More from Egypt soon
Brigitte
Egypt has many children – too many children. Every year over one million children are born – and this is an estimated number. It is difficult to get correct records as most children are born in rural areas.
It will be hard for Egypt to sustain this growing population, but to control it is difficult because religious extremists disapprove of contraception, even between a man and wife. It is against Islamic understanding of sex and it is a sin to meddle in how many children God wants you to have – so there are more, and more children — but they are beautiful!
More from Egypt soon
Brigitte
It was a very dark night when we visited a Nubian House on the banks of the Nile near Aswan. Ahmed – the little boy in the picture, brewed coffee for us over a small charcoal stove – and looking at his bright, shiny eyes I felt like they replaced all the darkness around us.
Wishing everybody a HAPPY NEW YEAR and MAY ALL YOUR HOPES BE FULFILLED!
More from Egypt in 2013
Brigitte
As we approach and prepare for Christmas, the most important celebration of the year for Christians all over the world, I remember how fortunate I was during my recent trip to Egypt to share the celebration of Eid al Adha, the most important holiday of the year for Muslims all over the world.
It commemorates Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael, before God provided him with a ram to sacrifice instead. The celebrations last four days, and children get gifts and money.
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I arrived in Luxor, on October 24, the night before. I was curious what would happen the next day, and I asked Sayed, the owner of the hotel. A little hesitant he replied, “Early – very early in the morning everyone goes to the mosque.” and left it at that. It was around 4 am when out of the hills a high-pitched voice started chanting, and gradually the chanting increased until it came from every corner of the countryside. 
For the next two hours, while I was sitting on the small balcony of my hotel room, listening and watching the sun rise over the sugarcane fields, a magical and enlightening day started.
After breakfast, around nine o’clock Sayed asked me to come to his house to meet his family and to see the sheep which would be sacrificed that day. In a small enclosure behind his house four sheep moved around. 
The men of the house, Sayed’s brothers,were looking them over and after a heated discussion (which unfortunately I did no understand) they had decided which two it would be. Turning to me Sayed said, ” Now we are waiting for the man who will kill them. It is a very specialized job, it has to be done quickly, with a very sharp knife, so that the animal does not suffer.”
Sayed had a large family; besides his mother there were four brothers and their wives and cousins, uncles, ants and their many children who were running around the yard and through the house. Since I did not speak Arabic, the only thing I could do is smile, and from time to time Sayed would translate something.
“He is here, come and watch,” Sayed cried when a very young man strode into the yard, carrying several knives wrapped in a bloody cloth. I couldn’t. “No I don’t think so. I will go and sit on the bench over there.”
A few minutes later Sayed came around the corner holding the bleeding head of the sheep 
and when I shrieked everybody laughed and Sayed said: “You can come back now they are dead.”
Walking back into the yard the young man who had killed the animals was hanging them on hooks to be skinned. 
Once that was done, he cut them into a few large pieces and handed them to the women of the house to cut into still smaller pieces.
“We give a third of the meat to the poor, a third to our friends, and a third is for our family” Sayed explained.
Now his mother was sitting down on the floor and with one of her daughter-in-laws took charge of cutting and dividing the pieces.
By now it was about one o’clock and my jet lag, and the events of the morning made me want to lay down. I went back to the hotel and Sayed promised to come and get me when the meat was cooked and ready to eat.
I knew it was an honor to be invited on this special day to share a meal with all the family. Therefore, I was surprised to find out that the host and I were eating alone in the living room where a table had been sat for us and the women of the house were coming and going serving us. The meat had been cooked with lots of onions and some kind of very thin bread – it was tasty and I had seconds.
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While looking at the warm glow of the setting sun that evening – I had the feeling that I had been far away -far away in another place and time.
More from Egypt soon and MERRY CHRISTMAS
Brigitte
What do you think – is it this small broom which is keeping the ancient column so clean?
More from Egypt soon
Brigitte
The definition of a Globetrotter is someone who travels widely and often. So after I travelled for three weeks from Aswan in Upper Egypt, via Luxor, via Cairo to Alexandria in Lower Egypt I thought I qualified
Map of Egypt
– but there was a problem. My luggage – a real globetrotter knows better – and I didn’t. I had loaded myself down with a large suitcase and two other bags , which did not have wheels. But there were situations when wheels did not help either, like in a sandy, uneven street.
My friend Sue and I stood helpless in front of my luggage trying to decide who will pull the large suitcase through the dirt, and who will carry the two bags. Fortunately, John her husband came and dragged the suitcase and we each took a bag.
Or when getting on and off a water taxi which brought me from the West Bank of the Nile to Luxor. There was only a narrow, little plank with nothing to hold on to, and once off the boat there was a steep stone staircase to go up.
Looking at it I wondered, how we, my big suitcase and the two other bags would make it over and up. Fortunately Bawady, 
the owner and driver of the boat took them and like an experienced dancer, he stepped onto the narrow wooden plank to shore and up the stairs.
You must wonder what I had in those bags – well, while packing I kept on thinking that 3 weeks is a long time and I added more t-shirts, more pants, and more, and more……….. what I did not know is that in every hotel, even the smallest one, you can give your laundry to wash in the morning, and you will find it in your room in the afternoon – clean and very well pressed. Had I known this I would have reduces my t-shirts to 6 instead of —- no, I don’t want to tell you how many I took!
This, of course, is not only true for Egypt, travelling anywhere – travelling light – you will not be frustrated, bugged down, or paralyzed by too many t-shirts….!
More from Egypt soon
Desert in Aswan seen from the Nile
Brigitte
What do you think – is the hat too small or the column too big?
Left behind at the Temple of Luxor
More from Egypt soon
Brigitte
Returning from my third trip to Egypt I have many photos and stories to share. But I want to start by introducing you to an interesting man I met on two of my visits. He lives on the West Bank in Luxor, and earns his livelihood by making flyswatters – a very useful tool at times.
Oct0ber 2010
October 2010
The first time we met was in October of 2010, before the January 2011 revolution. Our tour bus stopped and he was standing on the corner of the street offering flyswatters for sale. Several people from our group, including me, bought one to take home. He looked happy and content with life, selling what he had made.
October 2012
This time, two years after the revolution he stood forlorn in the street, still offering his flyswatters. But besides our car with just one passenger, myself, there were no tourists or other cars in sight. We stopped, I walked over to him and while shaking his hand I tried to explain that we had met two years ago. But neither my Arabic or his English helped him to understand. He allowed me to take a photo again and we left.
Now back home, looking at his picture, I feel very sad, because I can see a hopelessness and anger in his face that was not there two years ago. He is a simple man, and I am wondering if he is able to understand what has happened to his country? – and why there is hardly anybody coming to buy a flyswatter anymore!
More from Egypt soon
Brigitte
…………….yes another visit, my third visit! …. and this time I am not going through a travel agent, but, with the help of some friends, have made my own travel arrangements and reservations.
I will spend 9 days in Luxor in Upper Egypt, where the Valley of the Kings is,
Mud brick building near the Valley of the Kings
and then go to Cairo for 11 days,
Cairo – view of the city
with a side trip to Alexandria. No, I will not be writing my Blog while I am in Egypt – I can’t waste time writing when there is so much to look at and learn, and PHOTOGRAPH – but I will share all of it when I come back – you will see new Blogs at the end of November.
When I made my reservations I was not aware that I am lucky to be there at the time of Eid-al Adha, the most important celebration of the year for Muslims all over the world. It commemorates Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael, before God provided him with a ram to sacrifice instead.
The celebrations last four days, closing down even the Government. I am very excited to be there and to share this event.
To all my Muslim friends, and Muslims all over the world
EID MUBARAK?
MUCH more from Egypt when I come back
Brigitte
Other titles - Dress for Success, The Sensual Dresser, What Turns Men On.
Visit My Other Blog – Getting Over Growing Older
Egypt My Love 