Khan el-Khalili, Cairo

Is a souk dating back to the middle ages, is a configuration of a few streets. It is a main tourists attraction and therefore all prettied up and sanitized. It still demonstrate character, what we came to Egypt to see and to experience. While it still sell stuff the regular Egyptian needs, most of the stalls today sells touristy kitsch, souvenirs for tourists like miniature camels, pyramids, sphinxes, head scarves, water pipes, metal lamps, spices and sundries. There is a lot of tea drinking. Sweet mint tea and a water pipe is a regular National pastime of the men. The women may shop but don't sit and linger. They are all covered up. We've seen some of them in churches in the Coptic Christian areas. I guess, just as we, Christians are curious about mosques, Muslim men and women are curious about churches. We did talk about religion with one of the taxi drivers. We don't usually unless they bring up the subject. In this case we had this taxi driver drive us to Wadi Natrun, some 70 miles away towards Alexandria to the Coptic monasteries. He went into the churches with us and spoke to one of the Coptic Christian priests who was our guide in Arabic. He asked the priest if he could enter (he is Muslim), the priest said, 'all are welcomed'. On the way back we talked about Islam and Christianity. He said, he couldn't understand how God can have a son. We explained that it is not the human understanding of son ship, where a man and a woman have sex and viola, a kid. He finally understood. The son ship of Christ has more of a spiritual meaning. No where, in our conversation did we agree that we, Christians worship the same God . We, Christians, do not believe that we are worshipping the same God, only authors like Karen Armstrong does. We do not believe in a God that require their adherents to blow themselves up and take others with them. In Egypt, we cannot escape the argument about religion, how a conservative religion could keep their women covered up and poor. Of course, there are modern Egyptian women. One cannot escape noticing the inequitable distribution of opportunities. Even for men, a lot of educated men drives taxis. We had 2 who said they were accountants. When kids asked us for pencils, it was heartbreaking. I was born to a very poor family on the island of Borneo but we never had to beg for school supplies.

I digress. Now back to the souks or bazaars. Khan el-Khalili is sanitized for the tourists. There are others all over the city that are so decrepit. We tried going to some others but was met by a bunch of ragamuffins who surrounded us, asking for money. I cannot take this kind of thing, I get overwhelmed. So we hailed a taxi and left. Looking back, it wouldn't have been appropriate for us to visit and take pictures of their poverty and depravity. What we took is enough to show the living conditions.