Hello, friends! What a GREAT school day! No paperwork excluding the LE (Egyptian Pounds) that changed hands.....tee hee! This is a purely cash society....even the electric bill!
We had SUCH a WONDERFUL field trip today!!!! The Pharaonic Village surpassed my expectations...and I hope you enjoy the photos and the notes!! I even have 2 videos :-)
This is our drive there. This is an island in the Nile (we're on a bridge), there are FARMS on the islands - QUITE AMAZING! goats, no electric, no running water, RIGHT in the middle of the city...and as you will see, it's also on the "edge" of the city....riding donkeys bareback, etc. Neat neat NEAT!!
oh we're using Rob's camera - so there will be more of me today - hope you enjoy my pink Egyptian shirt ;) These are actually their dresses, but some places make them into "blouses" for the tourists - I JUST HAPPEN TO LIKE IT! and will likely get a tourquise on my next visit to Khan el Khalili - know what's funny? how many of you, raise your hands please, are tripping over that name? ha! I can whip that stuff out now...Rob said he's so proud of me, made me feel good! I get my point across and typically understand, it goes so well! worked FABULOUS for getting our taxi today.
(there AND back - have his cell!)
So technically where we went today, all these photos are Giza, Cairo like how I live in Maadi, Cairo. This is NOT "old" Cairo or downtown Cairo, and so therefore NOT Cairo ;)
and now.....THE PHARAONIC VILLAGE....first the Pharaonic Hug! (oopsie, Sun night when I started this post, I forgot to give you the Pharaonic hug first! here ya go now!)
A tour around the "living" museum - VERY interesting! He turned on a recording in English and it told us everything VERY VERY interesting!!!!!!!! We saw how they make Flax Linen even!!
along w/ farming the Nile islands...there is lots of "old ways" of fishing - notice the oars? It's not just this guy.....their oars are just thick long pcs of wood - I can't belive how fast they stroke and really go nowhere...anywho - just very interesing!
and our boat captain :-) we were the only English speakers at the time, so we had the boat to ourselves thru here :-) In Egypt, to get attention, people will "psst psst" like I might if I'm being goofy w/ the kids or trying to be quiet and get someone's attention more discreetly or make a sort of kissing noise. He would psst psst and say little words in Arabic to me and I'd have fun trying it, I only remember the taxi driver tellng me how to say Pharaonic Village in Arabic ;) Not much stuck BECAUSE....a pen leaked in my new purse, all over my stuff :-( BUT...when our taxi came back..he bought me a souvenir pen!!!!!!!!!!!!!! with ancient images! MAYA MAYA!! He is sure to stay programmed into my phone, tho his English isn't much bettter than my Arabic, we got 'er done ;)
a view of Giza
It wasn't until 20 years ago that they started farming papyrus again and making the paper! As I stated previously, the lighter stuff that many people find more appealing, has been put thru machines, added chemicals, etc...but originally it was just the dried papyrus. The plant is the bushy one that looks like dillweed to me! The roots were eaten as a vegetable - very useful plant!
PIZZA IS HERE! i will finish the photos on Monday!! :-) YEP.....we ordered pizza hut puzza..gotta go relish my date time! mahsehlehmah!
Mon morning - thanks for your patience in waiting for the rest of our day Sun :-) Thank you for enjoying the pink ;) Next are statues of God's, Pharoah's, etc recreated along our boat ride, included with stories about each one. Like Osiris who was killed by his brother, then cut into 14 pcs and spread across Egypt..his faithful wife Isis (heard of her!) collected his pcs, brought him back to life and then gave birth to their son, Horace. Isis is the statue of the mother child, maybe 3rd or 4th here. There is one who is labeled as his first part of his name being "grotesque" he reminded me of an "odd buddha". You will also see Joshua around a statue of a scarab beetle. The people would walk around it 7 times and have their wishes granted. (of course I mean this is what they believed)
I just liked this willow tree :-)
Oh these birds were EVERYWHERE and darting to and fro - really graceful and hypnotizing ;)
of course we'll see the real thing in Nov at Karnak, but it's in ruins...so here's a replica to enjoy :-) and it's much smaller ;)
Pharaoh's Daughter claiming Moses - I loved how the tape told us this is truth, not just a Christian or Jewish story :-)
Kristen F - what's so "goosebumpy" about the above...is knowing we ARE in the Nile...and Moses DID bathe here and God DID save him and call him to something higher...JUST like He calls all His children....I'm glad you kids are enjoying reading this as much as your parents :-) And by the way, ALL the other people you'll see pretty much ARE Egyptians ;)
Behind this woman's group of sheep, you will see what looks like a smoke house - these are pigeon houses. This is how they raised pigeons for food and of course to carry messages.
mud bricks from the Nile
we saw MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANY more things than shown photographed here on our boat ride. Next was our wonderful rest of the day with Nesma (whose name I wrote in my little yellow book next to the phonetic spelling of the village and will request again!! She spent like the next 4.5 hrs with us - WONDERFUL!! We did NOT finish the village, by the way, but we spent over 6 hrs there!!!)
the priest guarding the temple, lest a commoner try to enter ;)
whew! the priest let us in ;)
The columns are lotus flowers at thetop and leavs at the bottom. Nesma says this is for life and fertility. We had opportunity to smell (and purchase, but we did not *yet*) lotus flower (HANDMADE) perfume - it was delicate and pleasing!
The world's first clock (on record at least). and Nesma! :-) Love her!!!!
An alabaster bowl with a small hole in the bottom. There are "dots" indentations to tell the hour and then they would rub the bowl first with oil so that the sun couldn't evaporate it...and it would slowly drain so they knew what time it was. BEAUTIFUL! quite amazing they figured out how big the hole should be to drain for any type of even guestimated timing (is that a word, Sara S? Betty? lol)
Interesting Historical Facts - English and Egyptian Arabic
My warriors!!
Papyrus - a better view
Bed for a rich man
Water Closet for a rich man
BOY THIS IS MORE APPEALING TO ME THAN CURRENT ONES!! lol
A rich man's shower...he stands behind the wooden "screen" and the servant pours from the pottery - ah..if the servant washed my hair too, I'd be all for this! ha!
the pots for wine and water are called "Hola" you know "hello in Spanish" Hola!
The kids in "the rich man's store" HA HA! ;) Rob bought me an alabaster camel and a handmade pc of pottery that is also a magic trick. The kids each got handmade pottery of the watery bird call - I've seen them in plasic off and on thru my life. Joshua got a pad of paper made out of papyrus along with stencil of heiroglyphics (how's my spelling, Bruce?) and Jasmine and I both got HAND BLOWN glass PERFUME bottles. Mine is a genie lamp, hers is a camel. We bought a hand-made copper plate and had our name carved into it (DeLanoy) but in Arabic :-).
on statues, drawings, etc...the king is noted by the gotee (spell?) if it's straight, it's when he's alive, if it's curved up (like King Tut's burial mask) it's when he's dead...when he's a god.
Making Fire with flax linen and rock - takes approx 45 min..good thing the guy put the head of a matchstick on the bottom so Joshua's only took nanoseconds ;)
just showing us the old tools and limestone - plumb bobs too :-) copper saws for cutting limestone, copper on the tip of a post to "drill" holes, etc. the saws were just long strips of copper approx 5' long, 2.5" wide, and thickness was maybe 1/4".
how it felt to be Howard Carter walking down into the tomb!!
I am going to make a photobucket film strip of a lot more things :-) Between the slow internet and Rob's chip, I'm about to pull my hair out waiting for technology to catch up to me ;) ha ha ha ha ha!
in Tuts chamber! :-)
our cruise North down the Nile
our taxi and driver - I kept his phone number :-) I will use him again :-) He was patient, polite and a good driverd...well....all these taxi's could compete in an Indy 500 ;)
but he wasn't quite as aggressive w/ pedestrians! Also below is pictures of our drive thru Giza - right alongside the freeway! :-)
3 pcs of good news!! First...I finally got y'al a pic of McDonald's delivery guy weaving thru traffic...second...I finally saw pyramids in real life....third.....DID YOU READ THAT? I SAW PYRAMIDS IN REAL LIFE!!! THE TOP...FROM THE BRIDGE ON THE WAY BACK!! I SAW PYRAMIDS!!! WOO HOO! Friday is sandboarding :-)
