Snapshots of Life in Cairo

Unfortunately most of the good pictures taken have not been on my camera, so I don't have many. Here's a little taste though.

A mosque:


View of the Nile from right by my apartment:


Another mosque:


Today's adventures involved traveling around Cairo on our own in small groups, learning how to navigate the metro system. My group decided to explore Coptic Cairo, which was very interesting looking at some ancient churches. One claims to be the place Mary and Joseph fled to when the angel told them to go to Egypt.

The adventure came though when we got on our first metro. There is a car specifically for the women, which although would be a strange concept in the West, makes life so much easier when the men are not surrounding you, staring you up and down. Anyways, since I was the only female in the group, I headed towards the front of the subway. It sounded the alarm that it was about to leave, so I had to jump into the nearest car, separate from the guys in my group and definitely not in the women's area. Unfortunately, when one is in between the closing doors on a Cairo metro, they do not stop closing. So, I was being smashed between these doors trying to wedge myself in, which I did manage to do. Unfortunately, the purse I was carrying was still stuck outside the doors and the subway started moving. So until the next stop I clung on to the handle and prayed that as it was flying along beside the subway, nothing would fall out. It ended up being fine, but for the rest of the day, I made sure I stuck closer to the guys!

Tomorrow is our visit to garbage city and then Tuesday we begin our service projects.