EGYPT

Day 1:
Beer Sheba—the well
The Wilderness of Zin: Looking out over the Wilderness of Zin it makes you truly all the Children of Israel went through. They traveled through barren, desert land with absolutely nothing to work with—no wonder they murmured. As you look out into the Wilderness of Zin and relate this wilderness to the trials and wildernesses that we go through in our lives there is much I can learn. As I reflect on the trials in my life it makes me truly appreciate the Lord and how he has blessed me through my trials and realizing all that I have learned once I have endured them. Avdat: The Byzantine Ruins were so cool!! From sacrificial alters to dark dusty caves we had a blast!

Day 2:
We drove all day crossed the border into Egypt wohoo…drove through the Suez Canal and then arrived in Cairo at the Oasis Hotel which was very nice btw, especially after being in the bus all day. That night a group of us went through the wonderful experience of hailing a cab in Cairo, bargaining for a price—when they try and rip you off, and surviving the insane drivers! Honestly I don’t know how a 4 lane road can become an 8 lane road and the cars fit and make it without crashing….the cab drive to the pyramids was the highlight of that day not going to lie! This was my first exposure to the poverty and living conditions these people live in. Being in a 3rd world country for the first time is definitely and eye opening experience. And Egypt is even an upper 3rd world country. Driving through Cairo to our hotel truly opened my eyes to how lucky I am.

Day 3:
This day was PYRAMID day. We went to all of the pyramids, took pictures, tried to wrap our minds around the fact that we were at the pyramids…. We actually went inside one of the pyramids. That was definitely an experience as you crawl back hunched down through this hot and humid corridor—people going in both directions. It is pretty amazing to be inside these huge structures that for thousands of years were the largest structures on earth. We also saw the Sphinx as you can see, which is smaller than I thought. At the end of the day we got on a plane and flew to Luxor where the real adventures began…We arrived at the Sheraton Hotel on the Nile at about 10:00 at night and ate dinner in this beautiful dining room overlooking the Nile River.


Day 4:
Our first day in Luxor we visited the Valley of the Kings and went inside the tombs of three Kings. On the walls of these tunnels are amazing hieroglyphics all of which have so much symbolism and meaning behind them. The main focus of the Ancient Egyptian culture is eternal life. The Ankh, the symbol for eternal life is everywhere! We also went inside the tomb of King Tut Ankh Amun which was the coolest part for me. On one side of the tomb is his actual coffin only one of many (the rest are in the Egyptian Museum which we saw later), and the other side is his body. It is unreal to be able to look at the body of this King who ruled thousands of years ago. On our way back we stopped by the place where the actual pages from the Pearl of Great price were found…..???? After the valley of the Kings we went back to the Sheraton and took a sail boat ride across the Nile. On the other side we rode camels through a small village as the sun was going down. The boy who guided my camel’s name was Abraham and he was a sweet kid. Riding through this extremely poor and primitive village again opened my eyes to how lucky and blessed I really am. The Camel ride was definitely one of the highlights…so much fun and so beautiful. Although I must say riding a camel does hurt after a while…more so than a horse! Hahaha…After the camel ride I had my first encounter with shopping in Egypt—Absolutely INSANE! The men are extremely aggressive and pretty rude/offensive. They go as far as to touch you or grab your arm to get you to come into their store. It was definitely pretty scary but I learned to be very aggressive with bargaining because I didn’t care if I offended them—they were so rude and did everything they could to rip us off. They know they can rip off the Americans! I managed to get a few things for pretty good prices but it definitely wasn’t easy☺

Day 5:

The next day we went to the Karnak Temple which was my favorite of all of the temples we went too. It is absolutely unbelievable to me the types of structures these people were able to build. The Karnak Temple is actually a structure that contains parts built from multiple Pharaoh’s over a period of thousands of years. Our guide, Rafat was a small Egyptian man who was extremely sweet and very knowledgeable. He was also very aware of the LDS faith and its implications in the sites we visited. He allowed one of our professors who was with us to comment in these instances. After the Karnak Temple we took a carriage ride where I got to sit with the driver and actually drive the carriage to the Luxor temple. The Luxor temple just like Karnak was extremely grand and had amazing engravings on the wall with much symbolism. We then tried to brave the street vendors again—I managed to buy a bag and ruin it 5 minutes after I bought it but that is unimportant….See…Rachael is learning little by little not to worry so much about the stupid little things haha! Anyways, the real cultural experience began when we left the beautiful Sheraton Hotel and boarded a overnight train that would take us back to Cairo. I was prepared for the worst, and I am glad that I did because it was pretty much what I expected. A tiny little cabin with ripped and dirty velvet seats that fold into beds with rag pillows and sheets that I really couldn’t tell if they were clean or not. Oh and how could I forget the bathrooms. They were down the hall and when you flush it goes straight onto the tracks pretty “basic” as one of the leaders put it. So my roommate and I Kim had a great conversation over the train dinner(dinner wasn’t good that was sarcasm) and then tried to sleep. I must say I think the train experience may have been one of the best things for me on the whole Egypt trip. I just don’t know how I got so lucky. People live in those kind of conditions which aren’t even the worst and they don’t even know any better. I definitely take advantage of the cleanliness I have grown up with and continue to live in. Definitely an eye opening experience and one that I will remember forever!

Day 6:
Once we arrived back in Cairo, we had a Sacrament meeting in a room of the hotel and then went to the Cairo Museum. (Might I add that we didn’t to shower after that overnight train ride and I am pretty sure that was due to the fact that our schedule is pretty much run by men.) Cairo Museum was great. There is so much stuff in that museum it is hard to take it all in just a couple of hours. However, the big standout for me was the mummy room. In the mummy room were multiple bodies of influential rulers/pharaohs. One of which was the body of Rameses II who is said to have been the Pharaoh during Moses’s time, the time of the Exodus. This means that I was looking at the hand that shook the hand of Moses!!! WOW☺

Day 7:
This was a travel day, we drove all day to a Bedouin village in Morganland where we slept for just a few short hours and woke up at 2 am for the hike up Mount Sinai. It was freezing cold when we got there but the place we stayed was surprisingly nice. They were like winter cabin type places in the middle of nowhere. I thought we would be staying in some cheap motel thing but no; they really do take care of us that is for sure. Sinai was one experience I think I learned more from once I reflected on it when we got back to Jerusalem…It was so cold up there all we were worried about was surviving!

Mt. Sinai:

As we began our climb up Mt. Sinai at 3am I had on layers of clothes and was prepared for the-2 degree weather we were told to expect at the top. As I got further along I found myself getting really hot and feeling somewhat sick and winded because of the altitude change, lack of food, and lack of sleep. Still I was determined to make it to the top of Mt. Sinai and I feel the difficulty of the climb only made me realize how difficult this climb must have been for Moses who made the hike 8 times at the old age of 80. It stuns me that a man of that age could make this trip with no trail. Truly a humbling experience! About half way through the hike my small little flashlight died and I was then relying on the light of a girl named Rachael who was sharing with someone else also. Three people sharing a small light is very difficult, especially when we got to the last ¼ of the hike which is all stone stairs. I managed to make it up only falling once because the lighting was so bad. When I got to the top and saw some of my fellow students I felt this overwhelming sense of achievement. As I reached the top the temperature was much colder! I bundled back up in the clothes I had shed along the way and sat against the rocks facing the mountains which the sun would soon rise over. I bundled up next to Ryan and Emma trying to stay warm and capture the moment of the stars passing behind and the start of a new day. As the sun begins to bring multiple colors and light up from behind the mountains the stars are still behind you and slowly start to disappear. As I sat atop this huge mountain range (holy ground) and the light starts to peek over and allow you to see more clearly the landscape around you and the trail which you braved in the dark; I cannot help but think that God is the only one who could create such a spectacular sight. The hike down was interesting as me and 2 other girls took a wrong turn and ended up taking the more difficult stair route or the road less traveled haha. This route was basically juststeep stairs or rock stairs that you have to take very slowly in order to not fall. We took it slow and encouraged each other along the way in order to lessen our worries and concerns. We actually had a great time and saw some unbelievable views on the way down. Something Cate said on our way down really stuck with me in our applying this experience to the scriptures and the Exodus of the children of Israel. In the Bible it says the Children of Israel were unable to go atop Mount Sinai because they were unworthy to meet God. We are the descendents of the Children of Israel and in a sense as we climb Mt. Sinai we are declaring that we are striving to be worthy and sanctify ourselves so that one day we can be in God’s presence. This really got me thinking and especially reflecting on the Holy Ground, which I had just stood on.
After we returned from Egypt and gathered in our Old Testament Class we had a reflection period in which people shared their experiences on this mountain and the lessons they learned by traveling this difficult road to the top of the mountain. Some interesting points that stuck out to me were these: When your light goes out as mine did on the hike up in the dark and you rely on someone else's light, how hard it is to rely on someone else’s light. In life it is hard to rely on the light of those around you—it is so important to shine that light yourself. Also, as we were traveling through the dark we couldn’t see where we were going—like in our trials we are somewhat blinded as to what we should learn from them until afterwards when we see the big picture. Taking the wrong path as I did on the way down can be related to taking the wrong path in life and trying to learn from those mistakes and stay positive along the way knowing that at some point you will make it back to everyone else or in a broader sense make it back to the arms of our Savior. As we climbed in the dark I could see the lights of others in front of me and the lights of those behind me. I didn’t know exactly where I was going but by following the lights of others I believed I would make it to the top—Holy Ground. The example of others in our lives can be so helpful as they were for me as I climbed the rocks of the trail. Heavenly Father wants us to make it to him in the end. We have to go through some of the darkest times and still remember to stay faithful. Mt. Sinai means so much more to me now as I have not only climbed it, but also seen so much meaning in the journey and the experience as a whole.

THE END...yes we scaled that!