149 Cairo, Egypt

149.

Cairo, Egypt: one of the workers in the Egyptian Embassy in Chad gave me the phone number of his brother in Cairo and suggested that I should telephone him from the airport when I arrive in Cairo so I do. The brother soon arrives in a taxi and offers hospitality with his family to the Doc and I. The Doc has no other plans for visiting Cairo and is happy to have a contact here so we are now traveling together.

We cross town, which reminds me of Chicago—but maybe a little older and less organized.

Our new Egyptian friend lives in a third floor tenement apartment with his wife, pretty teenaged daughter, two smaller girls, grandma with swollen legs and grandpa with diabetes and a head infection. Soon the phone rings. It’s for me! The military police welcome me to Cairo and ask me to stop by to register at the nearest police station.

In the evening, the Doc and I take a walk beside the Nile. Barges are tied up along the bank. We nibble pumpkin seeds and drink fresh mango juice at a sidewalk kiosk. It is a fine evening.

We spend the next day in Cairo checking out tours to the pyramids. The cheapest costs thirty-five dollars—too expensive for hard-time travelers. Our host suggests we wait until the cool of the evening and then simply catch a city bus to the “Giza” suburb for fifteen cents each. Much better. So in the twilight we ride an ordinary bus into the city suburbs.

I am talking to the Doc beside me when she catches her breath. I follow her gaze out of the bus window and there, lit by fading sunset glow and moonlight; the great pyramid fills the bus’s window! I have never seen such an awe-inspiring view out of a bus window in my life!

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