Pam in the Sand: Days 5 and 6: Friends, Caravans, Police, Abu Simbel and Carrot Sticks

"You can only have two nationalities in your van to Abu Simbel."

John looked at the Tourist Policeman and said, "What?"

"That is right. You have 3 nationalities for your van and you can only have two."

John asking the most obvious of questions, "Why?"

"Because if your van is bom-bed (you have to say it that way), then Egypt will only have to deal with two countries instead of three."

"You're serious?" John asked.

"Yes. You cannot go together."

John took a deep breath and smiled at the man. 45 minutes later after much negotiations we were cleared to take our friends to Abu Simbel. Success!

The Great Temple of Ramses II

This was Sunday night. The day had gone pretty well up until then. We attended the small international church with our visiting friends and then were invited to go with them to McDonald's (yes, there is one here…). For a split moment visions of McFlurrys danced in my head, I grabbed hold of a nearby rail and with resolve said, "No, I'm sorry. We have to go to the Fruit and Vegetable Guy now." I was telling the truth. I was very sorry not to be joining them, but my thighs reminded me that they still had a few McFlurrys that they could live off of for a while.

We arrived home fixing a very nutritious lunch of tuna, raw veggies and an orange. And water. So much water. My kingdom for something other than water. Tea? you say. Let me rephrase. My kingdom for something other than water and tea (without sugar) that tastes like anything besides ground up twigs. Seriously, if it says "strawberry tea" shouldn't it somehow have a hint of strawberry in it? (I am now climbing off my soapbox.)

The evening arrived and we had made all the necessary snackage for the trip so that we would not be tempted by Cracker Barrel or Krispy Kremes along the way. (Insert GIANT laughter here as there is nothing…NADA…Nunca….between our place and Abu Simbel. Sand. Only sand.)

The entrance...

That's when John got the call about the "nationality problem." It all worked out however and we gathered at 11 am on Monday for the caravan that would commence to the location 3 hours south. That day there were 3 other vans and a large tour bus. It seems they also had nationality issues. The tourism police had to once again hold discussions about this and also check all the vehicles for anything suspicious…like say a bomb.

Around 11:20 we were cleared to go. It is required that all foreigners traveling to this location be escorted by police to and from the location for safety. We were the first van which meant 1) the van driver could pretend he's an Indy driver and 2) we had an actual police officer in the van with us complete with his machine gun.

The trip itself was fairly uneventful since it was as I had mentioned nothing but sand. We stopped after about an hour and a half for a bathroom break. I say "bathroom" in the most abstract of terms. My friend and I needed to make a trip so the police officer escorted us from the van to the bathroom stall keeping his gun by his side at all times.

We went inside and it was everything I thought it would be. You don't like roadside bathrooms where you live? Take that times a 100 and you've probably got an idea of what this one looked like. The busload of people behind us were Asians who were all very fashionably dressed and walking our way. The women in their stiletto heels took one look at the bathroom and gasped in chorus. They began speaking to each other in sharp, accented tones and wondered what to do next.

These people depict the Southern Kingdom.

These people depict the Northern Kingdom.

Frankly, there are no options. No bushes. Nothing. So it's this or wait…for what I don't know.

We returned to the van and soon the caravan was off and running again. We arrived 30 minutes behind schedule, but it still allowed us enough time to show our friends around and make it back at the agreed upon time. The other tourists had a harder time saying no to the very persuasive vendors so the tourism police began yelling, "Yallah! Yallah! Yallah!" (Let's go!)

All of our friends were happy to have seen such an amazing site. We broke out our lunch of turkey slices, raw veggies, nuts and dates. We discussed all we had seen and experienced about this land so full of wonders from the past and so full of challenges in the future. The Egyptians and the Nubians (in our village) are such amazing, wonderful people. We're privileged to live here in this season of our lives.

So that's how Day 5 and 6 went. It sounds eventful, but it's actually very typical of the conversations, procedures and rules that we deal with every day here. That's my life: watching my weight, keeping my head down and loving the people.