After going to bed late last night, I slept in till around 8, (yeah, I know, not that late to wake up). I ate a good Egyptian breakfast with bread and different finger foods. (Well, I guess everything is finger food because Egyptians eat mostly with their hands and fingers.)
In the morning, we went to a cave where tradition says that Jesus stayed there when they fled to Egypt. There is a big monastery there, with many things to explore. They have a small church inside this cave with a lot of cool lights. They have also added some plastic “rocks” that resemble carved stone. While it is fake, it is hard to notice until you go and knock on the “stone”.
Outside, there are the rooms where people in the monastery live in. The architecture and design has been really well thought of at these places. There are crosses almost everywhere and great arches and mosaics. Overall, a very interesting place.
Next up, food. For lunch we ate Cousherih. It is a very common meal for all Egyptians. It is a mixture of rice, short spaghetti, some fried onions and some sauce. Cousherieh looks a little weird, but it tastes really good.
After lunch, we headed to a very special orphanage for us. Some time ago, during the course of a month, my family read a book about Lillian Thrasher. She was an American missionary to Egypt. She came here to Egypt in 1910 and started an orphanage the next year. After taking more than 7,000 orphans over the course of her life, she died in Egypt in 1961.
The orphanage is still working today. With only about 250 orphans now, it is sadly much smaller than it was 70 years ago at around 2,500 orphans.
In the evening, we went back to the village we went yesterday. At night, the village is very different than during the day. People gather in circles and talk with each other, finishing the day.
A small mosque had particularly interesting lights. They really made the minaret pop out in the night sky. When we left you could still see it clearly in the distance.
Oh, and before leaving, I took a long exposure of the palm trees in the night. Hope you enjoy it!
