Congratulations Egypt....

Yesterday, you could feel the happiness of the Egyptian people all the way across the world.  I must admit I went around all day with a smile on my face as I thought about their newly acquired freedom and their success in toppling an oppressive regime.   (It reminded me of how I felt the day Elizabeth Smart was found.  The happiness was palpable!)   I am sure the road ahead will be a rocky one for Egypt and perhaps the rest of the world will feel some repercussions as well, but all people deserve the right to be free from fear and recrimination, from imprisonment and torture.  I have thought a great deal about our country these passed few weeks and about the courage of those who brought about our own revolutionary war. Thankfully the Egyptian revolt was mostly peaceful.  I admire the courage of those who were willing to stand up for freedom, human rights and democracy without really knowing what the long-term consequences would be.

I have followed the Egyptian revolt with a bit of fascination.  I couldn't help but remember the two visits Randy and I made to Egypt and our brief contact with the Mubarak inner circle.  We visited Egypt not too long after a terrorist attack on a tourist bus in the Valley of the Kings which resulted in the death of 57 tourists.  Because of that Church Education had decided to take Egypt off of their travel list during their Israel study tour for CES teachers.  Our Egyptian contact worked hard to get our business back and we were the first CES group to visit after the attack.  As tourism is a huge industry in Egypt they were very anxious to retain our business so our tour guide who was very influential in the industry set up a dinner for our group with the Minister of Tourism, who, as we were told, was Mubarak's second in command.  As Randy was the highest ranking authority in our group as the one administrator on the trip, he and I were assigned to sit with the Minister at dinner - one of us on either side of him.  We were taken to a special room an hour before and given instructions on how we were to act and to address "His Excellency."  We were to walk behind him, not with him, eat when he ate etc.  There was quite the little flurry that someone so important was going to be arriving at the hotel.  We ate on an outdoor veranda by a beautiful pool of water.  I'm sure the meal was exquisite although I couldn't really tell you as carrying on small talk with a world government leader was a new experience and it was difficult to focus on eating let alone enjoy it.  When the Minister arrived he was attended to by everyone around who had anything to do with anything.  You could feel the power and importance emanating from him.   He was a very congenial dinner guest.  (Or were we his guests?)   He painted Egypt in a favorable light.  He told us he liked America but not the violence, immorality and corruption that America exports through it's media.  (Couldn't agree more!)   He said it was safe for a woman to walk on the street of Cairo at 2:00 am because of their strict punishment of crime.  During the cultural entertainment afterward he took the opportunity to talk to Randy on the side out of my hearing and ask him if he had been favored with any of Egypt's excellent belly dancing while he was there.  He recommended a celebrity dancer who earned well over a million a year with her gyrating talents.  Randy politely declined the offer.   All in all, our evening with His Excellency was a memorable one.  Oh yes, and did I tell you this was a bit of a publicity stunt.  We were televised on the national news that evening.  It was broadcast to the world that tourism in Egypt was resumed, happy and healthy.