Faces of the Nile

Our room at the Shepheard looks west across the Nile that runs beneath our balcony on the other side of the Corniche.  Felucca boats and river restaurants sit on both shores, while the opera house and grounds of the Nile island of Zamalek (where we used to live) sit just to the west.

In the morning, an eerie mist lies close to the water while geese fly low, nearly touching the gray water.  As the sun rises, everything turns to the gold of sand; yet as it rises more fully and during the heat of the day, the view turns white with unfortunate blankets of gray-brown smog nestled among the buildings.  With evening, the air appears to clear and the sunset turns this world of the Nile back into shades of gold and orange.  And with night, lights appear on the horizon and hug both sides of the Great River.

Is it possible that nothing has changed? Or that the river and shore masquerade as historically constant?  Life seems quiet and normal, but tonight at dinner and in the next days we’ll learn more about what is true in a land that has nearly always been prisoner to external colonists or internal autocrats.  More about what we are learning soon….

It’s wonderful to be back in this magical land, Linda

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 18th, 2011 at 6:36 am and is filed under Education, Leadership, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.