Abdu's House

Sunday:

Woke up at 10:30, had a stomach ache…UH OH! Is this me getting sick? I told myself no and went back to sleep. Woke up at 1:30 with a stomach ache still, but decided to keep it cool and wait a little while. Went on the computer, finished my previous blog entry, and edited a few photographs…damn I took some good shots the day before. And then I realized something, I hadn’t gone to the bathroom in a while. Did my business and little did I know, the stomach ache was gone. Hope that isn’t TMI, but I don’t care cause I was PUMPED! Still haven’t gotten sick (knock on wood). 3 o’clock rolls around and we meet in the lobby. Load up the vans, head to Abdu’s house. Abdu is Dr. Sullivan’s good friend. Abdu’s and his wife have planned a massive dinner for the group. We drive through some more slums of Cairo and arrive at Abdu’s. Outside the neighborhood looked very sketchy, but when we got inside his house, it was beautiful. We get settled and all of a sudden they uncover the food…WOW!! 2 gigantic cooked turkeys, a giant platter of potatoes, a plate full of rice wrapped in grape leaves. A feast like none other. It was like thanksgiving back home. We all eat, and afterwards we have a little group pow wow. Professor Sullivan just wanted to know how everyone was feeling and whether or not anything else needed to be taken care of for people. The pow wow ends and Abdu decides he wants to teach us some “manly Egyptian games”. He asks for a volunteer and for some reason the group decides that I am the best candidate. So I stand up, and he says “put your palms together, and touch your fingertips to mine”...He then precedes to slap the outside of my hand…I quickly learned the game…He says dodge my hand and try to hit my hands as well. So for about 5 minutes I tried to smack his hands as he destroyed mine. I held my own, but I was no match for an Egyptian ex-mil. I had fun while the whole group was laughing hysterically…he taught us some more funny games and after about an hour, we headed back to the hotel…chilled for 10 minutes or so, then went to the café to post this blog entry…back to the hotel, watched some entourage in Jamulas room, started packing for the trip to Aswan and Luxor…passed out…more for tomorrow.

Peace

-Al