Flight to Egypt: A Recap Part 2

I am already in the middle of the second week of school, and it’s hard to know how all that time has flown by!  Since Egypt’s people are culturally Islamic, the work week revolves around the religion’s traditional weekly day of prayer.  That day is Friday instead of Sunday; as a result, the Egyptian weekend starts with Friday and ends with Saturday, and the work week begins on Sunday.  Our school follows the same schedule: our first day was Sunday, August 31, and we are now halfway through the week, even though it’s Tuesday.  It’s been a crazy whirlwind so far!

I left off last time with me touching down in Amman, Jordan.  I had about a 90-minute layover at the airport, from 4:30pm local time to around 6pm.  It was just enough time to walk to the proper terminal for the flight to Cairo, get settled, and observe the surrounding area: all flat desert, with a small number of buildings in the distance across the runway.  The airport seemed to be on the outside of Amman, but I could not see the city itself from the airport.  All announcements over the airport were given in Arabic, and I could definitely tell I was in a foreign culture.  On the way to Jordan, the announcements were given in Arabic and English.  I suppose having the English still made it feel like home in some way.  While waiting for the next flight, and until I met with school staff in Cairo, all communication around me was Arabic.  While about half of the women veiled their heads in the traditional Muslim fashion on the way to Amman, the flight to Cairo had most women wearing the hijab.  Few of the men dressed in a traditionally Arab manner as well, wearing the ghutrah and agal head dress with a robe called a thawb.

I boarded the plane and was able to get a text out saying I was leaving Amman.  Again, all the flight attendants and the captain exclusively spoke Arabic, so I had to follow the actions of others and the lights indicating seat belts had to be worn.  I was given some paperwork for Egyptian Customs, making the required legal declarations.  Happily, it was finished before we backed out of the terminal.  I was put on edge as the plane was turning onto the runway.  Usually in America, a plane will turn on the runway and sit idle for a few seconds.  Not so this time!  Instead, I could hear and feel the captain engaging full throttle for take off as he was aligning with the run way!  That was certainly more of a dangerous move than the typical American is used to!  But it ended up being fine: I was able to watch the edge of the runway along our side and once the turn onto the runway stopped, the plane never had to correct its course down the runway.

I was once again at a window seat, so I could take pictures of the desert as we flew to Egypt.  Interestingly, I observed from our flight path screen we had to completely avoid Israeli airspace.  The plane flew straight south along the Jordan/Israeli border, and turned west once it was clear of the southern tip of Israel.  But that allowed me to get some shots of the Sinai peninsula!  The sun was setting as we were descending for Cairo, so I could see the building lights flickering on.  Not much for a camera to catch anything, though.

We landed and taxied near the airport terminals, but we did not park near a terminal.  Instead, I came off the plane with the passengers on a mobile staircase and boarded a bus.  The bus let us off at a place in the airport that looked like customs and immigration.  Before getting into the line for customs, I had to purchase an Egyptian touring visa from a bank in the room.  I was told ahead of time that the visa price had gone up from $15 US to $25 US.  Curiously, I looked at the new, official visa and the price indicated on it was still $15 US.  Seems someone was making a buck, but it’s hard telling who.  But it’s also something that’s different about many other countries: bureaucratic racketeering can be much more common than in the States.

Anyway, I cleared Customs, collected my luggage, and met some of my colleagues for the first time!  The Head of School, 8th Grade Homeroom, and Art Teachers met me in the airport lobby.  I also saw some familiar faces from Chicago and Amman; they turned out to be the school 4th Grade Teacher, 9th Grade Teacher, and his wife!  We made a quick stop to a duty-free shop and then loaded our stuff onto an ISE school bus.  While we rode to our apartment building (referred to by everyone as “the villa”) Ellen, the Head of School let us know we would be dropping our stuff and sleeping at the villa, and then drive out at noon the next day to a resort at the Red Sea!

We arrived at the villa and I was given the key to my apartment and an Egyptian cell phone provided by the school.  Fortunately, they had ordered dinner at another teacher’s room.  The food was all Egyptian cuisine, including Koshary, which is a distinctive and popular dish in the country.  I met three other new colleagues and we comprised the group that would be going to the Red Sea the next day.  The Head of School and Art Teacher would not be going with us in order to accomplish things at the school.  So all in all, we were a group of eight that would head out the next day.  And that will be the focus of the next article!