Biblioteca in Alexandria

Sitting in the reconstructed library of Alexandria. I've been absent from the blog, but for good reason. Currently, my sister and I are traveling through Egypt for a few weeks. We're moving with no plan, and because of it beautiful things have been happening left and right. We've been invited into people's homes, strangers have invited us into shops for tea, and we've been able to catch rides with locals.

We've slept on the beach in Sinai in a small, thatched hut, and ride with Bedouins through the desert. Armed military personnel enter buses to check our passports, making sure we have the proper documentation. Cairo accepted us for a day, and in the middle of the pollution, traffic and noise, we've made friends and found beauty within the city. The Nile flows north continually as Muslims pray east five times a day. Women cover themselves appropriately as men smoke cigarette after cigarette.

Smiles com from people who are shocked by two westerners in random places that westerners don't normally get into. Small alleyways led by Egyptian friends to show us where to find the best little restaurants in Cairo and Alexandria. The adventure is less than a week old, but the days have been stuffed with new experiences and new thoughts.

Being in an area where Caesar, Cleopatra, Alexander the Great, Tutankhamen, Ramses, Moses, and other historical figures have once been resonates. I look out of the newly constructed library near where the Great Library once stood, and I can see the Mediterranean Sea. The building is enormous, and the roof slants towards the sea like a sundial. Muslim women sit in small groups discussing topics buried deep inside their books they read. An Egyptian man sits across from me working out numbers, and old, fat American tourists congregate in a guided tour half-listening to a guide who tells them things they won't remember as they snap pictures with ferocity of the place they will only half remember being at.

I pray that these experiences serve me well in the future, making a better draft of the person I am already.