STORIES OF INTEREST FROM AMERICAN TRAVELERS IN EGYPT:
1) On Sunday, February 23rd, an article entitled "Egypt, the mother of all tourism sites, babies a U.S. visitor" by Toni Stroud, was published in a number of newspapers in the U.S. The following excerpts are from the Chicago Tribune:
After three weeks in Egypt that included seven flights within the country, an overnight on the wagon-lit train from Cairo to Luxor, a death-defying road trip between Cairo and Alexandria, stays in five hotels and voyages on two Nile cruise boats, nothing bad happened to me in Egypt. I received not a single mosquito bite. I didn’t get sick on the food. Nothing broke. They didn’t even lose my luggage.
While talk of an impending U.S. war with Iraq filled news pages and monopolized air waves here at home, a Muslim took a Christian by the hand to see the place where, many believe, a Jew received the 10 Commandments. Somewhere along the way, we stopped being guide and tourist, Egyptian and American, and simply became friends.
That’s hardly the image many Americans conjure these days at the mention of traveling to an Islamic country in the Middle East. But the Egyptian people I encountered were filled with good humor, warmth and hospitality; and the Egyptian government has had more than five years to saturate the country with security measures since the November 1997 terrorist attack at Hatshepsut Temple
Stroud lists at some point the impressive security measures that are conspicuous in Egypt, especially at tourist sites: "travel and tourism security in Egypt today is vastly more pervasive and more highly visible than anything American travelers have experienced domestically since Sept. 11, 2001," she states. "But for myself, as an American woman traveling solo, I came to feel even more protected by the encounters I had with average Egyptians working in the tourism sector - though my independent nature found that so much mothering took some getting used to."
To read the entire article please go to:
http://www.gmtoday.com/news/travel/travel_vacation/topstory45.asp
2) An interesting email reached us a few days ago from a librarian at ARCE (American Research Center in Egypt). It turns out that she had been a member of the faculty at the University of Dayton, and she was particularly interested when her director gave her the information about the ALA in Alexandria. Following is an excerpt from her email:
"When my director brought your email address to me was I surprised to see UD as the web site. I was a visiting professor there in the 90's in the School of education!
I now live and work in Egypt and want to welcome you to a wonderful place to visit. I am the librarian at the American Research Center in Cairo working with research students from all over Egypt and the world.
While we do not focus on literature we have a large section of our library dealing with African and Egyptian literature.
I noticed that you don't have panels or papers on the location of information (there are some small libraries of all sorts that house invaluable material in your area. Given that the Alexandria Library is your site and in your theme, I thought this may be of interest. It is huge by the way and any donations will be appreciated.
If I or my organization can be of help to you and the conference please feel free to contact us. Our best support may be just in encouraging people to come. IT IS VERY SAFE AND THE EGYPTIAN PEOPLE ARE VERY FRIENDLY AND HELPFUL.
Hope your conference is a success.
Carol Wichman, Librarian, ARCE"
3) Discussing the anxieties about how Americans are viewed in Egypt, Suzanne MacRae , one of the participants planning on attending our conference in Alexandria, wrote the following:
"I have encountered much the same distinctions [distinctions between the way people judge public policy and individuals] in my various
travels abroad. I have never had anything but courtesy and generosity from the people I met (well, an exception is the persistent merchants who
aggressively try to sell to me). When I went to Egypt in 2000, I did the usual Nile tour and an added tour of the western oasis, thus saw a lot of
the country. I went on an "adventure" tour which stayed in small, very Spartan hotels, on a small boat on the Nile where the food was grand and
the crew darling, esp. the captain who became my friend although he spoke no English. He made tea esp. for me and let me come into the pilot's
cabin. People smiled at me everywhere and always if I smiled first. I met lots of darling children at the Egyptian museum; they were smart,
friendly, and very interested in US and learning English. When I am not in Africa, I miss it deeply and have an irreparable 'hole in my heart.' And I can hardly wait to get to Alexandria."
4) An American academic takes a teaching job at the American University in Cairo. He writes of his experiences upon arrival earlier this year:
"Greetings From Cairo" by DANIEL KOWALSKY was published in the Chronicle on September 10, 2002. Kowalsky writes:
"Let me start by saying this: in
general, on campus or in town, everyone I've encountered has been enormously,
almost heart-breakingly, generous, kind and patient. I have experienced not a
shred of anti-American or anti-Jewish hostility, and let me point out that I am
not bashful about declaring where I'm from or to which of the three monotheist
religions I belong. True, there is the heat and humidity, but Cairo is actually
far milder than the place I lived last summer: St. Louis, Mo. Oh, and I've been
eating everything in sight and am yet to get sick, so there!"
As so often when we travel, he is struck by the significance of where he finds himself:
"Looking back, it seems very odd that, before my arrival, it did not occur to me that I was moving to what now seems to be the most extraordinary place in the world."
To read the whole article click on the link below or find it in the Chronicle