Day 6 Too Much Wind For the Felucca

Friday March 24^th

Woke up this morning, read for awhile and then wrote up yesterday's blog while I waited for everyone else to stir. I went for a short walk around the house just to see what was happening. Breakfast was felafels, flat bread, omelette, french fries, tomato and cucumber. We were to get underway sailing on the felucca by 11:00 but unfortunately, the captain Moustafa deemed it too windy for sailing. It be fair it would have also been quite cool on board. So the girls pulled out a couple of books and settled in to read. Me, I've still got FOMO (fear of missing out) so I went for a walk to take more photos of the village, and I'm really glad I did.

I wandered around taking photos of the village mosque, which was broadcasting prayers from the minaret, the pastel coloured houses and the surrounding desert. I climbed up a sandy slope in order to get some photos above the town. As I was walking a woman further down the hill yelled “hello” to me a couple of times. I responded and kept going. She yelled some and gestured at me. I wasn't sure what she wanted, and remembering the dogs from yesterday I thought that perhaps she was warning not to go further up. So, I started down the hill along a path that was parallel to the one she was on. When she could see I was going to pass her as I descended down to the Nile, she started yelling “hello” again and signalling for me to go there. I didn't know what she wanted and my western suspicious mind was starting to think of different possibilities.

When I got to where she was another woman with a young child in her arms came around the corner. Now there were two women in their twenties, dressed in traditional robes with head scarves. One invited me into the house that was right there for a cup of tea! With my mind still trying to figure out the difference between what seemed to be happening and what might be happening, I decided to see where it led. So, I entered through the door and came into another sandy courtyard, and another number of doors. Inside there was an older woman all dressed in black, obviously their mother. They invited me into a small room with a mat on sand and two beds in it. One told me to sit down and then went out to get me a tea. In the meantime another woman came in with a small daughter. So now there were a total of four women and two children. The mother sat on the floor and cut up some picked plant into small pieces. The two other women sat on the other bed and giggled to each other obviously about me. The children were fascinated and kept staring. They tried to say a couple of things to me but conversation was difficult.

I told them I was from Canada and that I was travelling on a felucca. The tea showed up – one cup! I was served a cup of hibiscus tea. They offered food too, but I declined. My mind was wondering what kind of water was used, would I get sick, but it was very hot, so I assumed it was well boiled. Besides, at this stage how could I refuse to drink it? I tried it and they asked me if I wanted sugar. I declined as there was already enough sugar in it to rot your teeth.

I told them I was a teacher and would love to take a photo of the three of them sitting on the bed and the children. One woman had the total body covering with only the eyes not covered, the other two were totally covered but they weren't wearing their head scarves. They wouldn't let me, but put the children down telling me I could photograph them. The littlest one didn't like that and cried. The other one, prompted by mom, started counting to ten in English. So, I counted with her and then walked her through doing it in reverse, something she'd obviously never done before. Then I asked her if she knew the alphabet, and she could recite about the first ten letters.

I was a bit uncomfortable and aware that Sam the others didn't know where I was. Then I heard a male voice in the courtyard and the two women scrambled to cover their heads. Oh, oh, now what. My western mind was racing again. So I determined to make my exit and stood up. I was the farthest back in the room with the door at the other end. The man came in all dressed in white, looked at me in surprise and then offered his hand, said “hello” followed by “welcome”. Another man came in. Both men had obviously just returned from prayer. Even though everyone was friendly I was outnumbered, cornered and felt somewhat uncomfortable. So, I excused myself and said I had to get back to the felucca. The man seemed to understand, and allowed me to pass, but I had to ask his help in finding the right door out.

Smiling to myself and thinking what an interesting adventure that was, I walked out the front door and saw a beautiful view of the village and the Nile. So I took a photo and then took another of the outside of the house to show my hostess to see if she knew them. I heard another voice call out “hello, welcome”. I turned around and there was another man dressed in white coming along the path from the mosque. He asked where I was from (in very good English), where I was staying and then told me that there was a beautiful house to take photos of down the hill. He tried to point it out, but when I couldn't see it, he said he'd take me there. Again, my mind was going, but at least he was leading me in the direction I needed to go.

When we got there the house was painted a sky blue with a checkered pattern. He pointed out that the wall had a painting of a woman dressed traditionally carrying a tray of welcoming tea. As he was unlocking the door, I asked if this was his house, and of course it was. It was actually his guest house and he hosts tourists there. Inside the courtyard were lots of old Nubian artifacts and more beautiful paintings on the wall. He had set it up as a museum of traditional Nubian life. He also had a cafe in there, cages with two small Nile crocodiles, rabbits, and doves. He showed me the guest rooms, his craft/market room, and the kitchen with old traditional cooking methods. He was really nice, proud of his place, didn't pressure me or try to get me to buy anything. He just wanted to show me around, and then gave me a couple of his cards and told me to give them to tourist friends. I think his business was really slow because of the revolution.

I'd already told him I couldn't stay and why, so I excused myself and he walked me out. I hurried down to the main road and headed back to the homestay. En route I met Moustafa whom Sam had sent out to find me. On my return I told Sam about my experiences and he told me it was part of the Nubian heritage of welcoming people to their villages and homes. There was no hidden or overt agenda. So all in all a very interesting walk!

As a group we headed down to the felucca for lunch that Mohammed had made for us. Food was good and we relaxed on the boat for awhile. I went and visited a group that were travelling with another company, Oasis from the UK, and were also stranded by the wind. They were a group of fifteen twenty somethings who were hanging out, drinking and hoping to sail. We had a good time swapping travel stories for a couple of hours. Then I returned to our felucca and talked with Sara who was alone on the boat and then we walked back to the homestay. Shortly afterwards another Intrepid group arrived on their felucca and were also stranded. Sam knew the guide and invited the group up to stay at our homestay. They walked up and joined us. In the group was Peter the Vancouver teacher I'd met in the airport pickup I had in Cairo. We laughed at meeting each other again. Their group decided to sleep on the felucca, because they want that experience, whereas we are happy to sleep at the homestay again.

All of us went down to the felucca again for dinner and then all the felucca captains lit a bonfire and we had a party. The captains all had bongos and they played them and sang while some of us danced and others stood around chatting. I talked to Peter, who gave me a beer, and a woman named Tarla from California. We swapped stories and she regaled me with her world tour forty years ago!

We headed back to our homestay about 10:30.