Egypt thus far

Totally just trying to absorb at this point but let's relay as much as possible. Right now I'm sitting on the roof of our hostel, tucked in a corner that has pillows to rest on a shade to hide under. The flies are all over me and the filth of the city is something you just have to look past. The sky is smoggy and clean is a word left sunken at the bottom of the Nile. Having a few moments to look back on the first few hours of Cairo, makes me want to rest my eyes and catch up on the sleep I lost but I won't. Even though I'm super tired, my body has adjusted pretty well the the 24 hour time change. We were so blessed on the plane over there to have some leg room seats. The 10 hour ride to Amsterdam was a little rough but this 4 hours ride from Amsterdam to Egypt was simple. I actually slept and felt semi rested when we got into Egypt. Let's just be honest I was so tired on the plane rides that I'm pretty sure I once said, "man I really like this food". So being well rested is a loose term I will use, probably throughout this trip. Well there we were getting of the plane. I had watched our flight track all the way - passing under and over countries I've dreamed about going and I couldn't fathom that I was so close to them. Once we landed and it was time to step foot in Africa the reality started to set in. I honestly didn't feel like I was in another country when I was in Amsterdam but now that I'm here, I am for sure far from home. We have one bag lost in transit and it just so happens to be one of the donation bags under my name. So with that came a little hold up at the airport but nothing big and we are just praying it will show up before we leave Cairo. Once we finally got our bags loaded and found the hostel. Which was a funny time finding because they took the sign down, but luckily Robert is well - Robert and remembered where it was. The hostel is so epic. It is called the Dahab Hostel and it's seriously epic. I will for sure take some photos and try to upload them (the uploading process is proving to be an issue with the shotty connection we have here). We are on the seventh floor and the elevator that takes you there is for sure the oldest elevator I've ever step foot on, or even seen working. So with the time being around 5:00 a.m., we were all pretty stoked on finding a bed. The shower... ha the "shower" was what we now call -"Egyptian water torture". It was refreshingly freezing cold and humorously dripping, to the point it was a fill your hands and splash sort of shower. We all rested for about three hours and than called it good and headed out for more adventure. We fell asleep as the sun was rising and mask was being called out - what a lullaby :) This morning we went to a corner shop and had some tea and felalfel for breakfast. It was a funny little shop and well waking this morning to what Egypt really looks like was an experience. The smog was so heavy, you felt more as if your eyes were hazy than the sky. The city is packed with tall buildings, cars every where, stray cats, and odd stores. The architecture is mind boggling and the history here is beyond what I can imagine. Just walking around the town you totally get lost in your surroundings. The tea shops are so fun, one the tea is amazing and two the people are just so fun to talk to (mainly because they don't understand you and they look at you like "oh you silly American") After our tea time as a team and finally meeting up with Sam and Viktor it was "Middle East Team" launch! We went back to the hostel, grabbed a few things, dropped off cameras and headed out to the Museum. We went to the Egypt Museum -- yeah that's right... the Egypt Museum. It was amazing. I could do a whole new blog post about how crazy it was to walk around and see the things I've read and studied about in school. The crazy thing about this place was the lack of security, I seriously touched tombs, statues, and other old what nots. I mean think about it. We saw all of king Tuts stuff and had a private tour around the whole place. Our tour guide was amazing and we even got to talk a little "bible" with him. It was interesting to here all he had to say and than he was convinced we were Israeli, which was a funny conversation. After the tour we headed for lunch. But first we stopped by to see the Nile. Yup that's right I went to go see the Nile and yes it's a dirty as you would imagine. After that it was lunch...guess what it was Felafal again :) We had tea (well I chose to drink some coffee) again and sat and chilled out from our super long tour. The best thing about today was the human frogger we played to cross the streets. It was straight up crazy. Cars never stopping, you just had to run and pray that you ran fast enough across the four lanes of honking cars. Well and than that brings us back to now, sitting here with flies covering my body, chatting with Viktor, and soaking in this new experience. This time here is so about relationships with those we meet and I'm stoked to have some shotty tea places to sit at and chat with the owners, which was what we did today. Tonight we are going to go to the Bazaar and see the Egyptian night life as well as meet up with a friend of STN's from prior years. Super stoked.

That's a super quick update on the first few hours in Egypt. I'm excited to have more time to meet those we see, get to know them better and be able to share with you guys their stories and needs. Pray for the hearts of those we get to befriend.

I praise God that our team is so solid. We are having a blast together and I'm crazy stoked to get to know these hearts better. Egypt so far is blowing my mind and I'm simply trying to process it all. I can see already how this experience is going to taint my ability to ever stop traveling, learning, seeing, and being across the nations.