Update

I’ve been following the news from Taba for a couple hours now, and here’s what I can report. Last night it appears a truck drove into the Hilton there and exploded, killing an uncertain number of people and collapsing part of the hotel. A second bomb—probably carried on a suicide-bomber—exploded by the hotel pool. A short time later, two more explosions went off at resort areas to the south, also resulting in deaths and injuries. The main targets of the attacks were Israelis on vacation, though numerous Egyptians have been killed and injured as well. (This fits a typical pattern: in the embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya back in 1998, for instance, far more local people than Americans died.) The near simultaneous nature of the attacks instantly brings to mind Al Qaeda or Al Qaeda-inspired groups. Suggestions that these attacks are directly connected to ongoing fighting in Gaza do not, right now, seem terribly credible. It would be very hard for a Palestinian group to get across the border and stage such a complex attack, which also would have required extensive planning. It seems more likely this attack was organized and carried out at least in large part by Egyptians, though we obviously need to learn more before passing any judgments. Egypt reportedly has begun rounding up “suspects,” and I can only hope they’re getting the right people. One of the worst aspects of this situation is all the innocent people who will probably be hurt as the government cracks down. I am also concerned because a luxury hotel full of Israelis SHOULD be one of the most heavily defended and secured regions of the country. Terrorists hitting such a target successfully is not encouraging.

Having said this, I don’t want anyone to worry about us TOO much at this point. As I’ve written recently in a couple e-mails, we're being careful, while it’s still very unlikely we'll be caught up in any troubles. Egypt is a huge country with lots of foreigners, tourist sites, installations, etc. The list of potential targets runs easily in the thousands. There is, of course, still risk, and we're doing our best to assess it continually, but the odds are very much in our favor. This does NOT mean, of course, we are not concerned. We are thinking very carefully about what this means for us, and, as Presidents sometimes say, all options are on the table.

I will write more when I know more. Faith and I hope everyone is well and send our love.

Embassy Message

Here's the main part of the message we received from the American Embassy 3 1/2 hours ago:


Date: October 8, 2004

To: The American Community

From: Embassy of the United States, Cairo
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WARDEN MESSAGE

On Thursday evening, October 7, an explosion severely damaged the Hilton Hotel in Taba, on the northeast coast of Sinai, causing a number of fatalities and injuries. There are indications that the blast was a terrorist attack; however, investigations on the cause of the explosion are underway. Other explosions were reported to have taken place elsewhere on the east coast of Sinai, including one in the area of the town of Nuweiba in which there were several reported casualties.

While there is no indication that U.S. citizens were the targets of these attacks, Americans in Egypt are urged to exercise caution and remain vigilant. U.S. citizens should avoid travel on the east coast of Sinai north of Sharm el Sheikh, particularly in the vicinity of the towns of Taba and Nuweiba. Travelers outside of Cairo may experience delays due to additional Egyptian security presence.

Bombings in Egypt

So I just woke up to find there’s finally been another major terrorist attack in Egypt after seven or eight years of relative peace. We are safe here in our Cairo apartment, and right now I’m (Faith is still sleeping) just reading news stories and waiting for an e-mail from the embassy that, I expect, should be coming soon. What we will do for the time being is wait and see how things develop. I will be sure to keep everyone posted.

Time

I was totally startled to learn I had not posted to ExodustoEgypt for an entire month. I would have guessed it was two weeks at most. But in a way, it makes sense. I have always considered time a strange and mysterious thing. Some philosophers and scientists ponder why it even exists and what it really is. One ancient Greek philosopher named Parmenides, for instance, went so far as to deny time altogether. Nothing, he said, changed, therefore there was no time. And maybe he's at least half right, because if everything stopped changing, wouldn't time then cease?

My recent time-warp grants, perhaps, scant insight into these questions, though it certainly does link up with other experiences everyone has had: how when you're very busy—or having so much fun—time seems to flow much faster, while whenever things are dull or painful time runs down to a creep, as if it were almost freezing solid. But this is, usually, how things in the present seem. Look at the past, and everything feels as if it flew by on a rocket. Could it really be I graduated from High School nearly 18 years ago? Time past is very swift, time present varies from swift to slow, while time future seems, in looking forward to it, so long and slow—until it too has passed, and once more you are changed.

Right now it seems like it will be forever until we get to be back home. But pretty soon we will be, and then we'll say, where did the time all go? Then I'll turn 37.

Kyle-and-Amr

Kyle-and-Amr
Originally uploaded by Lee Howard.

A shot of Kyle blowing smoke, with Amr, who took us on our camel ride, in the background. The smoke helped smother the camel fumes quite nicely.

Shisha!

Shisha!
Originally uploaded by Lee Howard.

Here (clockwise) is Pam, Kelly (a teacher Pam knows from another school, Lee, Faith, and Kyle. Kyle is a teacher at our school. All of us are partaking of some sweet sisha smoke. (This is right after our trip to the Pyramids.)

The Three

The Three
Originally uploaded by Lee Howard.

Here's the shot we've all been waiting for. That's Faith and I on the right, and Pam Ogle, a great English teacher who taught in Colombia for three years, on the left.

BigShip

BigShip
Originally uploaded by Lee Howard.

This huge ship is not really driving across the desert--it is going through the canal at a point where there's a pretty good-sized lake. The land betwen us and the ship is part of the island we were on. (Dead White Crab Island as I call it.)

Boating to the Island

Boating to the Island
Originally uploaded by Lee Howard.

This is the view as we boated out to the island in the Suez Canal. The trip took only a couple minutes.

EgyptGroup

EgyptGroup
Originally uploaded by Lee Howard.

All the foreign teachers were invited to Ms. Nadia's for an afternoon and evening of sun, food, and fun. Here's a group photo to prove it. (If any of us are looking a bit red or our hair is a bit wild, it's because we just got back from the island.)