Siwa and homestays

So as usual there is much to say. This last Wednesday night we left for Siwa on a 10 hour bus ride northwest toward the Libyan border. We traveled at the night and got to our hotel on the edge of the dessert in the middle of the night. This hotel has no electricity so we used kerosene lamps and candles and a fire pit at night sleeping in stucco bungalows with mosquito nets over the beds. After a few hours of sleep we got up and went into Siwa. All 36 rented bikes from a local shop (I had to have my seat lowered) and headed through the street traffic and donkey carts to a local Siwan’s home whom our program was friends with. We parked our many bikes outside of his home and discussed Siwan culture and current tourism and outside influences to this very traditional and conservative culture which has its own language. The Siwans are people who came from Morocco and Algeria during one of the Haji’s to Mecca hundreds of years ago whom found the oasis of Siwa in Egypt and decided to stay and live there instead of returning to their original home. We were offered siwan tea which is strongly brewed with mint and dates which are from their own garden. Dates and olives are their main source of income and has been for centuries. The women then were able to meet with the female family and discuss the differences in their very traditional culture in which women are fully covered in public if married and who are engaged and at a very young age and do not leave the house without permission of the husband, brother, or father. They made henna for us out of natural tea and henna plant and we put on different flower designs on our hands or feet. After this we explored down town Siwa on our bikes myself and several other girls went to get lunch at an outdoor restaurant under palm trees where I had a local Siwan dish of cousous and chicken. We traveled up into the old city Shali from which we could see the tombs in the mountain where the Siwans used to bury the dead and the area near Cleopatra’s bath and the mountain with the Oracle that Alexander the Great went to. We then all met up and headed on bikes to the nearby salt lake. The route was pretty rough in places and were not riding the newest and nicest bikes-all this to say I was impressed with myself and how I did (if any of you know my luck with bikes). We swam out in the salt lake (more like floated) then headed to a fresh water spring to rinse off. By the time we got to the fresh water spring the sun had gone down and many of us were being attacked by mosquitoes. We did the rest of the trip in the dark-with a few flash lights to guide the way walking the bikes when it was too bumpy to ride in the dark (again impressed with myself). We went back to the hotel and changed while dinner was being cooked over the fire pit. We had dinner late and had a siwan bad come and play for us. We stayed up late listening and dancing to the native music around the fire (very tribal).





The next day needless to say I was sore from the bike ride and dancing. We drove out to Siwa in the morning and walked around and relaxed. We meet up in the afternoon in the main square to head to the Sahara in Safari Jeeps. We drove out to the sand where the drivers took out the air in their tires and then onto the sand we went. It was so amazing riding out and over the dunes of sand with only the blue sky, sun, and wind. We stopped at one dune so we could sandboard (which is much like snowboarding but slower and in the desert) many of us just jumped down the dune or sledded on the sandboarding board. We then headed to a freshwater lake which was very cold then to sulfur based hot spring. Both places were very busy with both Egyptian and foreign tourist more than other years according to our leaders. We then stopped on a hill to watch the sunset over the sand dunes and had siwan tea and snacks around a fire while the sun went down. Then in the dusk we drove to the dessert camp where we to stay for the night. We got out of the jeeps and headed to our dessert tent where we changed and headed to the hot spring out past the camp. We came back and were served dinner on a low table in the tent and tea and talked until we all went to sleep. Some people slept out in the desert I chose to sleep in the tent with a few other people to keep warm. Other groups staying there for the night stayed up late and played local music and danced around the fire.








We took jeeps back to our hotel early in the morning and then go on the bus for Cairo after a brief breakfast. We got home late and got things unpacked and ready for class the next day.


That next night after classes we were introduced to our host families for the next week’s homestays. One other student and myself took a few clothes with us and traveled for an hour out to where our host families lived by taxi, metro, then micro bus. We were offered a full meal when we got there and were asked to eat more and more. This last week has been a lesson in Arabic and how to be a good guest. Often when I was with the family we would just sit and watch TV or I would be listening or struggling in my limited Arabic with the family members who spoke a little English. They helped me a lot with my Arabic homework and were great hosts always asking if I was tired or had homework or was hungry. They would never let us help them with meals or run errands with them and we always had a bed to sleep in even when some of the family members slept on the floor. The week was exhausting because even after going to bed the family would be up and talking with TV on until 3 or 4 in the morning-most do not go to work or get up until may hours after I had to be back downtown for classes. Today all of us are coming back from our experiences and weeks ready to communicate in English and sharing our stories and encounters. I hope to have more to say about this past week’s experience when I have more time to reflect on it.
I will post pictures for this blog soon also. Later tonight-Sufi dancing at the Kahna Khalili then a new week of classes and next weekend Mt. Siani and Dahab! (the adventure never slows down)