Image vs. Reality
We’ve all seen ads for various exotic locales around the globe—white sandy beaches, great snorkeling, beautiful mountains, etc. And besides the ads, there are the books and magazine articles and travel sections of newspapers complete with color photos and flowery language.
When you see these kinds of things for Egypt, what do you normally see? Pyramids. The Great Sand Sea, with its dunes of gold. Luxor and its ancient temples. The big beaches and diving spots on the Red Sea—Sharm el Sheikh, Dahab, Taba, and Hurghada. When we see these ads, these articles, these books and their glossy photos, we see adventure, history, ancient culture “still alive” (though Pharaonic art and artifacts were recently declared haraam, or forbidden, by local Imams), and a relatively cheap place to vacation. Egypt sells itself as the ideal adventure holiday, with five-star-deluxe cruise boats on the Nile, fancy hotels next door to Pharaonic temples, horse-drawn carriages offering romantic rides along the riverfront and through historic areas, and great markets where you can bargain for “authentic” (made in China) Egyptian crafts. You can visit the most ancient of civilizations, explore coral reefs, snorkel with tropical fish, eat Middle Eastern food, touch the pyramids, sleep in the desert, ride a camel, and stand where Moses stood.
After a year, I’ve done most of these things. Our group of volunteers recently took a “retreat” in Hurghada, one of the resort cities on the Red Sea. We sailed in a glass-bottomed boat, went snorkeling, ate in a nice restaurant, had a view of the Red Sea from our hotel balconies, and enjoyed days on our hotel’s private beach—a full-service beach where orange-clad men showed us to the lounge chairs of our choice, brought us towels, and even brought us menus for food and beverages! At one point, one of these guys brought around cantaloupe to ask if we wanted him to make us some fresh cantaloupe juice. That, my friends, is the high life! In addition to that trip, we’ve made trips to the Mediterranean coast, to the Sinai, and to all the major tourist attractions such as Luxor, Aswan, Abu Simbel, and the Pyramids. I’ve even taken two cruises on the Nile this year (one with my family!).
But the reality of Egypt is much different. Sure, these tourist places are great. It’s fantastic to see the pyramids, to walk around the temples built by Ramses II, to see tropical fish, to walk on the corniche in Alexandria. However, most Egyptians have never done those things, and they aren’t likely to. There are a lot of Egyptians who have never been inside the Giza plateau to see the pyramids and sphinx up close. There are millions of Egyptians who’ve never been to Karnak Temple in Luxor. Most Egyptians barely have the money to feed their families and pay school fees, let alone have time and money to travel away from the city or village. And a majority of Egyptians are not descended from and feel no connection to the ancient Egyptians. The history and ancient culture is so detached from the people and culture today that it seems almost irrelevant, and is often treated that way.
Instead, the average Egyptian, especially in Cairo, works at least 8, probably more like 12-14, hours each day, if they are lucky enough to have a job. The average Cairo neighborhood is full of dirty beige apartment buildings where extended families live on top of themselves, often two generations to a flat. The streets are narrow, there is garbage everywhere, animals roam freely, cats eat trash, someone is selling watermelon from a donkey cart, flies flit about on people’s lunches, children eat French fries for breakfast (because they’re cheap to make and to buy), and there are multitudes of people wandering around—some carrying things on their heads, some standing about aimlessly, some going to low-level, low-paying, low-satisfaction jobs, almost all wondering if they can afford meat or just fuul (beans) this week. The government subsidizes bread—aysh baladi, a pita-bread made with wheat flour—and you can see Egyptians lining up down the street at government bakeries to buy bread for 5 piasters per pita. After 10am, the price goes up to 25 piasters…and if you’re a foreigner, it’s 25 piasters no matter what time it is. That’s approximately USD $0.04. It sounds so cheap to us, but it’s important enough to buy it at the cheaper price (less than one cent US) that people line up around the block to make sure they can buy bread before the price goes up.
In addition to crippling poverty and 35% unemployment, there are other realities we don’t see when we only look at the images Egypt sells of itself. For one thing, 12.5% of the population here is Christian. It’s not often that we hear about the Christians of Egypt, or the Middle East in general. But Egypt was the first Christian country, with a tradition that goes back to Mark the Evangelist (you know, the one who wrote what is now the second gospel). This is the country that first gave us monasticism and mysticism. The monasteries in Egypt are where the “Desert Fathers and Mothers” lived. We visited the monasteries of Wadi Natroun a few weeks ago. These are the monasteries from which the Coptic Orthodox Pope is chosen. Monks here must have an education and a career before they can become a monk—no easy way out of the difficulties of Egyptian life for these Christians. “Regular” Christians find there’s no easy way out, too. Not only do they contend with the same problems of poverty and unemployment and poor availability of education, but they also contend with both outright and subtle systemic persecution. It takes years to get a permit to build or renovate a church. The government took away church-run schools and never gave them back. People on the street harass women who do not wear the higab (head covering). There are rumors floating around that a Muslim man who marries a Christian woman gets paid a substantial monetary reward by the government. It’s illegal to engage in evangelism, and anyone who converts to Christianity is ostracized by their family and may be eligible for death for apostasy. And yet people are Christians! They really live their faith in a way that is amazing to me. They don’t respond violently when they are harassed. They wait (and work) for God to provide the permits they need. They pray without ceasing. Many have a cross tattoo on their right wrist to identify themselves as Christians to anyone who cares to look. They care about God’s creation and they litter less than most people here I’ve seen. They are friendly, they help people regardless of their religion, they encourage their fellow Egyptians to be the best people they can be. They have so much hope for their country and their lives and this world. None of that is what you see in the travel brochure.
People come to Egypt to see the pyramids. What they don’t expect is out-of-control traffic, severe overcrowding, harassment, pollution, rampant poverty, garbage everywhere, or overflowing churches in a Muslim country. While floating down the Nile in a 5-star “flotel,” you don’t see that. You see quaint villages full of mud-brick houses and farm animals like water buffalo and goats. You see donkeys laden with clover and camels laden with crafts. And that is Egypt, it’s true. But it’s also true that over 1/3 of the country’s population lives in Cairo, and Cairo hides very little of the truth once you leave the downtown area. This is just something to think about as you plan your next exotic vacation—what the country sells and what it actually has may be two different things…and it may be up to you to see it and to really meet the people and the real culture, not just the tourist culture.
As always, you can keep up with my weekly (or sometimes daily) writing on my regular website:
rabbina mayku (the Lord be with y’all)
Teri
When you see these kinds of things for Egypt, what do you normally see? Pyramids. The Great Sand Sea, with its dunes of gold. Luxor and its ancient temples. The big beaches and diving spots on the Red Sea—Sharm el Sheikh, Dahab, Taba, and Hurghada. When we see these ads, these articles, these books and their glossy photos, we see adventure, history, ancient culture “still alive” (though Pharaonic art and artifacts were recently declared haraam, or forbidden, by local Imams), and a relatively cheap place to vacation. Egypt sells itself as the ideal adventure holiday, with five-star-deluxe cruise boats on the Nile, fancy hotels next door to Pharaonic temples, horse-drawn carriages offering romantic rides along the riverfront and through historic areas, and great markets where you can bargain for “authentic” (made in China) Egyptian crafts. You can visit the most ancient of civilizations, explore coral reefs, snorkel with tropical fish, eat Middle Eastern food, touch the pyramids, sleep in the desert, ride a camel, and stand where Moses stood.
After a year, I’ve done most of these things. Our group of volunteers recently took a “retreat” in Hurghada, one of the resort cities on the Red Sea. We sailed in a glass-bottomed boat, went snorkeling, ate in a nice restaurant, had a view of the Red Sea from our hotel balconies, and enjoyed days on our hotel’s private beach—a full-service beach where orange-clad men showed us to the lounge chairs of our choice, brought us towels, and even brought us menus for food and beverages! At one point, one of these guys brought around cantaloupe to ask if we wanted him to make us some fresh cantaloupe juice. That, my friends, is the high life! In addition to that trip, we’ve made trips to the Mediterranean coast, to the Sinai, and to all the major tourist attractions such as Luxor, Aswan, Abu Simbel, and the Pyramids. I’ve even taken two cruises on the Nile this year (one with my family!).
But the reality of Egypt is much different. Sure, these tourist places are great. It’s fantastic to see the pyramids, to walk around the temples built by Ramses II, to see tropical fish, to walk on the corniche in Alexandria. However, most Egyptians have never done those things, and they aren’t likely to. There are a lot of Egyptians who have never been inside the Giza plateau to see the pyramids and sphinx up close. There are millions of Egyptians who’ve never been to Karnak Temple in Luxor. Most Egyptians barely have the money to feed their families and pay school fees, let alone have time and money to travel away from the city or village. And a majority of Egyptians are not descended from and feel no connection to the ancient Egyptians. The history and ancient culture is so detached from the people and culture today that it seems almost irrelevant, and is often treated that way.
Instead, the average Egyptian, especially in Cairo, works at least 8, probably more like 12-14, hours each day, if they are lucky enough to have a job. The average Cairo neighborhood is full of dirty beige apartment buildings where extended families live on top of themselves, often two generations to a flat. The streets are narrow, there is garbage everywhere, animals roam freely, cats eat trash, someone is selling watermelon from a donkey cart, flies flit about on people’s lunches, children eat French fries for breakfast (because they’re cheap to make and to buy), and there are multitudes of people wandering around—some carrying things on their heads, some standing about aimlessly, some going to low-level, low-paying, low-satisfaction jobs, almost all wondering if they can afford meat or just fuul (beans) this week. The government subsidizes bread—aysh baladi, a pita-bread made with wheat flour—and you can see Egyptians lining up down the street at government bakeries to buy bread for 5 piasters per pita. After 10am, the price goes up to 25 piasters…and if you’re a foreigner, it’s 25 piasters no matter what time it is. That’s approximately USD $0.04. It sounds so cheap to us, but it’s important enough to buy it at the cheaper price (less than one cent US) that people line up around the block to make sure they can buy bread before the price goes up.
In addition to crippling poverty and 35% unemployment, there are other realities we don’t see when we only look at the images Egypt sells of itself. For one thing, 12.5% of the population here is Christian. It’s not often that we hear about the Christians of Egypt, or the Middle East in general. But Egypt was the first Christian country, with a tradition that goes back to Mark the Evangelist (you know, the one who wrote what is now the second gospel). This is the country that first gave us monasticism and mysticism. The monasteries in Egypt are where the “Desert Fathers and Mothers” lived. We visited the monasteries of Wadi Natroun a few weeks ago. These are the monasteries from which the Coptic Orthodox Pope is chosen. Monks here must have an education and a career before they can become a monk—no easy way out of the difficulties of Egyptian life for these Christians. “Regular” Christians find there’s no easy way out, too. Not only do they contend with the same problems of poverty and unemployment and poor availability of education, but they also contend with both outright and subtle systemic persecution. It takes years to get a permit to build or renovate a church. The government took away church-run schools and never gave them back. People on the street harass women who do not wear the higab (head covering). There are rumors floating around that a Muslim man who marries a Christian woman gets paid a substantial monetary reward by the government. It’s illegal to engage in evangelism, and anyone who converts to Christianity is ostracized by their family and may be eligible for death for apostasy. And yet people are Christians! They really live their faith in a way that is amazing to me. They don’t respond violently when they are harassed. They wait (and work) for God to provide the permits they need. They pray without ceasing. Many have a cross tattoo on their right wrist to identify themselves as Christians to anyone who cares to look. They care about God’s creation and they litter less than most people here I’ve seen. They are friendly, they help people regardless of their religion, they encourage their fellow Egyptians to be the best people they can be. They have so much hope for their country and their lives and this world. None of that is what you see in the travel brochure.
People come to Egypt to see the pyramids. What they don’t expect is out-of-control traffic, severe overcrowding, harassment, pollution, rampant poverty, garbage everywhere, or overflowing churches in a Muslim country. While floating down the Nile in a 5-star “flotel,” you don’t see that. You see quaint villages full of mud-brick houses and farm animals like water buffalo and goats. You see donkeys laden with clover and camels laden with crafts. And that is Egypt, it’s true. But it’s also true that over 1/3 of the country’s population lives in Cairo, and Cairo hides very little of the truth once you leave the downtown area. This is just something to think about as you plan your next exotic vacation—what the country sells and what it actually has may be two different things…and it may be up to you to see it and to really meet the people and the real culture, not just the tourist culture.
As always, you can keep up with my weekly (or sometimes daily) writing on my regular website:
rabbina mayku (the Lord be with y’all)
Teri
posted by Teri | 9:55 PM
2 Comments:
This is reallly a great summary of life there. I feel the same way about Palestinian Christians that you feel about Egyptian Christians. They are the "best" Christians in that they are still sticking with Jesus in spite of the problems that come with being an often persecuted minority.
When is your term finished there?
Wonderful description of life in Egypt!! I have a good friend who just came from 3 years of teaching English in an immersion school in Cairo and this sounds very much like her experience as well. I like your comparison of what is being sold vs. the real culture. Nicely done.
Post a Comment
<< Home