Millennias of Shadow and Light

It was a trip of a lifetime to a place where the cradle of civilization once flourished

. The Nile was the giver of life and the Delta grew green with vegetation, fueling and feeding a great nation. A nation led by kings who were believed to be living gods. Legions of soldiers and slaves marched before the Great Pyramids, which to this day mysteriously challenge the manner in which they were built. What is puzzling is that we, with our present day technology, cannot replicate that effort; yet humanity was there. We stood by them by touching millennia of shadow and light as we ran our fingers across etched blocks of limestone and granite.

We were moved by how the Egyptians struggle to gain opportunities for better education as sojourners to a better way of life, as craftsmen, professionals, and historians, and as mothers and fathers encouraging their children to make carpets, blankets, and papyrus sheets of art to promote the business of tourism as well as their legacy.

In Cairo the air was flavored by what seemed like a continuous campfire; this was because, like the suburbs of Los Angeles in the 1950's, many incinerate their trash. There were apartments built to be left unfinished so that their inhabitants would not be taxed. Often one would see laundry drying from unframed windows, among the blankets and sheets would be a teddy bear or two.

When we arrived to our hotel, The Cairo Marriott, we were first overwhelmed by its palatial grandeur juxtaposed with machine gun-toting guards. Later we learned that our hotel was initially built as a palace to provide lodging for Europeans visiting Cairo to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.

There were the impoverished; who as they toiled, wore nothing but loin cloths to fight the day's heat while splashing buckets of water upon the soil from nearby canals, in the belief that this would cool the earth.

There were children learning to make carpets which were sold to tourists, children who were amazed when a foreigner would offer a candy bar or a piece of gum just for the sake of giving, and felt they needed to give of themselves as a kindness returned.

The people of Egypt seem different from us because of their apparent poverty, but in reality their wealth is greater than ours as they share with us their ancient past. They dream as we dream (only more intensely) of a better future for peace and the sovereignty for each of us to love God in our own way. To assure that all of our children and grandchildren flourish in a world of better understandings of whom we are and from whence we came, as their contribution to peace and happiness through out the world.

It was a trip of a lifetime to a place where legions of soldiers and slaves marched before the Great Pyramids, building Solar Boats for their kings while speaking an ancient language that had no word for death; this, which after millennia, still humble us.

Millennias of Shadow and Light

By: Ray Duarte

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