My friend James from my university came and visited me in Egypt. It was great to see him again and show my new life in Cairo. And he definitely had a culture shock! He was scared of the crazy driving, happy the food was cheap and tasty, surprised that people held tradition very seriously and was able to celebrate the Muslim Holiday: Eid al-Adha. Eid al-Adha is a Muslim holiday to commemorate Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael. The event happened where Allah ordered Abraham to sacrifice his son in order to test his faith. Abraham was very faithful and as he was about to sacrifice his son, Allah supplied a lamb to be sacrificed instead. In Christianity and Judiasm it is believed that Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son Issac...one of the significant differences between the religions. Anyway, the holiday is very important. It honors an important prophet, brings families together and everyone walks around town showing off their new clothes. The holiday begins on the 10th day of the Hajj (Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca...that they must complete once in their life). On that day, Muslims are expected to dress their nicest and pray a special prayer in a mosque. Then, those that have the money to do so, slaughter a sheep (or sometimes goat, cow, camel) in a traditional manner and donate a third of it to the poor. Then they celebrate with family gatherings and eat the remaining meat. It was fun to be in Egypt during that time because they take their holiday very seriously (more than other countries in my opinion...well probably not Saudi Arabia:) ) And my friend James (along with my friend Erik...he was in my colloquial class) was able to spend the night at my friend Mahmood's house and witness the slaughter of a cow. yuck! but its a new experience!!:)
James of course was able to visit the pyramids (we rode horses around them!! with my friends Erik, Hesham, and Moustafa), the citadel (where the Mohamed Ali mosque is located) and the famous bazaar. Unfortunately I left him in Egypt to visit my friends in Bahrain and UAE....but my friends took care of him and he also travelled to Alexandria and Aswan, Luxor (where the majority of the famous pharonic temples are located). I hope he had fun...it was nice to see him at least:)
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