en route to cairo

On Egypt Air:
“What kind of pills are you taking?” The grinning man asks. He has seen me take 3-4 pills and put precision drops of grapefruit seed extract into my bottle of water. Our conversation starts from there….A rowdy verbal convergence of consciousness with my row partner Mohammad. He: a Hebatologist (something to do with livers) from Cairo on the way back from a conference at UCLA. Obviously, a leader in his field and a leader in thought. We spoke in terms of universal truths, higher thought and Allah’s love for all. Call it Allah, Jesus, Jahovia, Nature- no difference. It is all one. Ko’ran says this clearly. We recognized the Time as a scientific age where spirituality must not be forgotten and how these two must be fused as one truth. We discussed quantum physics. He gleefully admitted that I had made him change his mind in less than three seconds. “Yes, the positive shall prevail! It is truth!” I am inspired and am reminded that Nature always provides me with beautiful reflections. Reminders. Tokens. Humanity is sacred and omnipotent. Together- we area a unified existence. I am now plugged into the onboard headset. The sacred and humbling sounds of the Ko’ran poetically spilling into my ears. I feel like I’m hearing the comforting sounds of Sanskrit and Nature’s song. Wishing I could take Mohammad up on his offer to meet his wife and children during my long lay over in Cairo….

My mind is now sufficiently re-paired after my luggage debacle. I am confident my suitcase will end up in Addis- eventually. At that rate, I will be wearing my Lulu’s for a week possibly. Or perhaps I’ll find myself dressing like Aha and Hopper if they take pity on me! Egypt Air, however, has been more than kind. From my luggage fiasco, to my embarrasingly frantic boarding, to the stewards on board, I’ve been impressed. The stewards have been exceedingly gracious and have gifted me with a LARGE bottle of water and filled my teacup more than once. Love yuh Egypt Air…..minus this turbulence over the mid-Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea…..

Oh that's not all, though. Now i'm waiting in the Cairo airport. smoke billowing out of half the lungs in the joint. i have returned from the Le Passe Hotel where I was given lunch, dinner and a room for 5 hours. Everyone seemed concerned that I was checking out early. But the reality of giving up my passport (breathe ya'll) hit me when I returned to consciousness somwhere at about 18:00 hours. Upon arrival to Cairo, we were approached by an Egypt Air rep. who basically told us we had to spend our layover in a boujie hotel on Egypt Air's bill- though, they asked for our passports and our itinerary. Very sketch. But everyone has been reassuring. so far anyway.

Several new realities: lines don't exist here. push your way to the front. everything takes atleast double the amount of time you would think. prepare for the unexpected. all are uber friendly and sincere. men stare no matter what. i'm in Egypt.

I did spend some quality time with four other Ethiopian travelers. all were headed home. what struck me first was the "Ethiopian Millenium" sticker on one of their bags. Solomon and Daniel avec Sarah make a perfectly rounded Christian group. We had to laugh. or atleast I did. We added Dawit and his mother Marcia at some point en route to Le Passe and had a meal together. I was schooled in Ahmeric tidbits and found out that Dawit was a worthy mention in my Ethiopian guidebook. already running into the right folks. jah bless it!

so the debacle(s) continue. not the least of which is the reality that Ahmed has the wrong day of my arrival. somewhere at 13:00 hrs, i looked at my itinerary and realized there was a +1 day TWICE on my ticket. ok. no worries. the bwois are smart. hopefully they've already realized i didn't come today, the 7th, at 3 am......maybe they'll keep trying.....