Nick Here

Nick here.

I'm on the mend from a pretty rough cold that has had me hacking, wheezing, shivering and sweating for the past 4 days.  Marli had it too, but I fear (or am grateful) that she is made of tougher stuff than I because she has borne it much more admirably than I!  My brother seems to have contracted the same cold and is just getting over it himself.  It has been interesting buying Egyptian medicines and negotiating with the local apothecaries on the prices of their pharmaceuticals.  I must say I was happy to be sick in the beautiful town of Dahab, Egypt.  It's a sleepy little beach town where backpackers abound and are mixed in quite readily with modern Egyptian entrepreneurs and the Bedouin locals.  Most of the three days we spent in Dahab consisted of pleasant strolls on the boardwalks, shucking off the restaurant touts (who are far less aggressive and much more pleasant than those in Cairo), rummy with Marli, laying in the sun and inquiries into possible activities on our return journey.  All in all it was a wonderful way to recover from a cold!  Today we decided to make the trip out of Egypt on a whim.  We weren't sure if we'd end up in Jordan or in Israel but we thought it would be ok anyway it panned out.  After chatting with some folks at King Chicken last night we decided to forego our prior plan of taking a ferry from Nuweiba to famed Aquaba in favor of a land crossing into Israel through the town of Taba.  We met a pleasant Egyptian fellow by the name of Ibrahim on the bus and I engaged him probably for the sum of an hour all said and done during the 2.5 hour bus ride.  We learned a lot about various things:

1. Ibrahim met his fiancee for 1 hour before agreeing to become engaged.  (this is pretty standard in Egypt)  It reminded Marli and I of something that Trale (Marli's brother) had pointed out in an evening discussion on love.  It was that if 2 reasonable people who want to make a relationship work there is no real reason (normally) that they should not be able to!  It seems to work for many of the Egyptians anyway.  I still prefer the American way of dating and choosing a mate, but am intrigued by the idea and encouraged by the thought.  Humans are very adaptable creatures after all.
2. Many people who ride buses work for airlines in Egypt (he is probably the 4th person we'd met like this.)
3. I learned that Christians believe that Jesus was a descendant of Abraham through Isaac, and Muslims believe that Muhammad was also descendant of Abraham through Ishmael.  Marli pointed this out as I was conversing with Ibrahim (Abraham) about the nature of his name and was talking about Issac when Ibrahim corrected me and said Ishamel...I was unaware of this key difference in tenets of the faiths.  Very neat!

So we've arrived in Israel with no plans but are formulating some goals.  We are very fortunate to be in the position we are in and are grateful for it!  We have some great ideas for Israel they include the following:

1. Float on the dead sea
2. Jerusalem for a while (don't know how long)
3. Avoid Gaza
4. Avoid Lebanon
5. Nazareth
6. Maybe Tel Aviv...maybe not
7. Maybe Bethlehem but maybe not, depending on the vibe we get in Jerusalem (Bethlehem is in the West Bank)

Anyway, I'm finding this rather fun so I may begin to post more often if I find the time.  Until then I'll sign off. And hopefully fall asleep and wake up healthy tomorrow.  There's a regular screech outside the window that we can't seem to identify as bird, monkey or baby...we may never know but I leaning towards bird.