North Coast Beach House

Travel Journal 9/1/07:

Nader Pickd Hala and I up and we reached the beach house with Mustafa and Umnea around 3pm. There we were me byUmnea's parents, younger brother, Ali (21), twin brother and sister (14) and a range of cousins young and old and a handful of aunts. Everyone seemed very friendly and happy we came. The house was small but very nicely decorated and quite beautiful architecturally. When I told the father this in a down point in the conversation, he seemed very pleased and gave me a tour.

After a small feast of meat, salad, pasta and other dishes we changed and headed for the beach. No one told the Egyptians to wait to swim an hour to after eating.

I zipped the legs off my cargo pants, smothered myself in SPF 50 sunblock, changed my t-shirt and was ready to go.

At the beach a lot of us headed to the water right away. There must have been a dozen or more in our group and they all looked at my funny when I kept my shirt on in the water. How to explain to 2nd degree sunburn to an Arab?

After about 5 mnutse of splashing in the waves I felt I'd had enough. Salt water in your eyes, up your nose and in your throat and stomach. Half standing half floating in water while the rough sea's swells batter you around for a few hours. Polluted water conspiring to seep into your body any way possible. And sand finding trespassing in every crack and orephus you newer knew existed until you had to rinse it our a tenth time.

In my head I saw, "What's the point? Where's the fun in this?" Though, ever the international diplomat, out loud I say "I'm havng a great time! So much fun!" I plant a smile firmly on my face, throw out a few thumbs up and grit it out. Nader couldn't believe I hadn't swam in the sea for 6 years. He and Hala were the last two out of the water, while I might wait another six.

One of the tiny cousins plays volleyball on a team. When her ball materialized after the sun was nearly set and the group and finally emerged from the primordial ooze, Hala suggested we go play. It started as just a cuople of us but after some time we had a decent 4 on 4 noncompetitive game going. The fun ran until well after the sun set and the light gave way to dusk then finally to dark.

It was after 10 pm when we made it back to the house and had washed most of the sand off of us. A short time of sitting around doing nothing prompted the little cousins to suggest playing a game.

Twister and Jenga were produced. Although Twister never made it out of the box, thank Allah, we played 3 rounds of Jenga each with around seven participants teasing each other and laughing incredibly loud until the inevitable moment someone poked or pulled too hard and sent the tower toppling over in slow motion as everyone reached out to stop it.

Hala introduced her favorite card game, Egyptian Rat Screw. Everywhere she goes in the world, which is a lot places, she teaches the people this game. She is quick ad takes the game very seriously so she always wins. Last Christmas our young boy camel guide in the Thar Desert beat hala and she freaked out and still denies it.

We had aroud 10 players playing at the beach house, all around a small table leaning over hands ready to slap the central ple of cards when necessary. It was chaos, a jungle of arms and fingers. When I was eliminated I went into the living room and chatted with some of the old cousins for an hour.

When I returned to the table, the game was still in progress, Hala was still in it, and a little later she had won, beating out 9 others.

Around 2AM we had a small meal, only our second of the day, of bread and cheese. We gave our thanks to the parents and owners of the house and when I told her mother sincerely that her house and family is incredible she seemed a little taken aback and embarrassed by the compliment.

We also had to say goodbye to Mustafa since he and Umnea would not be available the next day and we hadn't decided whether we would leave or stay anyway. We gave heartfelt salutations and promised to stay in contact and that I would repay their hospitality one day.

Nader drove us home and, to keep us from leaving the next day, promised to hang out with us.

The following afternoon we returned to the fancy beach bungalo and while I was sitting outside relaxing the prime minister's entourae drove by and parked on the one narrow road. I didn't see the man himself because it was around the corner but I was told that he has a bunaglo just down from their own.

Nader and Hala were excited to eat at Quizno's that day and so we headed to a mall's food court. We all ate, myself included and I made them promise not to tell anyone I ated American fast food. It was pretty bad like I thought it would be anyway. The other two enjoyed it a lot.

Lastly we saw the new Harry Potter movie in a different mall. Nader hated it and was bored throughout but I like it somewhat.

He drove us home and we all shared a heart felt goodbye. He, his cousin Mustafa and Umnea had done so much for us, and for me although we had just met. It still amazes me, the hospitality of strangers. I've also learned first hand the benefits of having friends around the world, or in my case, friends of friends. But now, thaks to Hala and the openess of her contacts in Egypt, I too can say I have friends in Alexandria.