I am most definitely in love with Egypt. It was totally amazing. I am trying to decide what to write about since I can't tell it all, and I think you'd be most excited to hear about the camel ride. Yes, the camel ride. I don't have pictures of myself doing it because it's quite hard to take a picture of yourself riding a camel, so I've got to wait for other people to give me their pictures they took of me. (So I guess you'll just have to settle for a picture of the Pyramids. Yawn.) But with pictures or without, it was definitely an awesome time. My camel's name was James Bond. He was large and in charge. All 80 of us were supposed to be going on this same camel ride in one giant psuedo-caravan type thing. I was one of the last ones to get on, so I got one of the last camels. No big deal. My Egyptian guide tells me he's a good camel. So I'm on the camel, ready to head out, when this horse off to the side starts having a fit. My guide leaves to go calm down the horse. Well, James Bond starts going on his own. A little strange, but he's just following the camel in front of him and falling into line, so whatevs. So we get to the line, still guideless, and he stops at the back of the line for a moment, but then decides to start shoving through the rest of the camels. I'm apologizing for kicking these people, because I don't really know what my camel's doing, or how to control him, so we're just pushing our way through. Then he starts running. I'm sitting on a running camel, and we're running by about 75 of my classmates that are standing in line. None of them have any advice to offer, so they just start snapping photos. Thanks guys. Turns out James Bond is the lead camel and always heads the group, so he knew what he was doing. I did not. But it turned out really well and was an amazing experience. We got to go through a lot of neighborhoods and local areas that I wouldn't have seen otherwise. So Bro. Huntington had told us to make sure we brought a full bottle of water for the ride, so on the way there I'd found a vendor who sold 2 liter and a half bottles for 5 Egyptian Pounds, or about one dollar. Pretty good deal. So I got the 2 big things of water, and I had a convenient little water carrier that I could strap over my shoulder and carry one of them, but I wasn't really sure what to do with the 2nd. Camels aren't necessarily known for their storage space. Well, at least not for water. I mean at least not for BOTTLED water. So I decided I'd leave the 2nd bottle on the boat, and risk us coming back on a different boat. If I lost it, it was 50 cents and I'd get over it. It was worth it to not have to worry about it while on the camel. But, the guys here are so thoughtful, and one of them saw that I left it and brought it out for me. Very nice of him, but I now had to do something with this extra awkward mass. So I stuck it between my fanny pack straps and my stomach. Not real fashionable, but it worked. Fast forward now to going through the neighborhoods. All the kids would wave and say hello to us, and one girl came up next to me and started pointing at this eye sore of a water bottle. I realized she was saying that she wanted it. (Although the water in Egypt is awful and it's best to drink bottled water, not everyone can afford it.) So I was able to give her this water bottle that I didn't even want in the first place, and she was so happy! She was jumping up and down and holding her prize, and it was just particularly neat. I really loved Egypt. Even though a lot of the sites we saw were where people worshipped Pharaohs and Pagan gods, I still felt the Spirit there thinking about how gracious the Lord has been in preserving these amazing structures for so long. It's really awesome. Paz y Amor, Cam.
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