Category: Egypt

Everywhere, the Same Heartbeat

Everywhere, the Same Heartbeat

From Asia to Europe to Africa to small-town America, I’ve seen how different our worlds appear and how alike we truly are. We may cook different meals, pray in different ways, or celebrate under different stars, but what we seek, the connection, the comfort, the laughter is the same. Wherever I go, I find the same joy in gathering, sharing, and belonging. Proof that people are far more alike than different, no matter how far from home we roam.

Sometimes the world feels impossibly vast. It is a mosaic of languages, a myriad of landscapes, and a multitude of traditions. Yet, the further I wander, the smaller it becomes. I felt it in Paris, where café tables held laughter and conversation that was music to my ears even when I didn’t understand all the words. I felt it in Xiashan, that small rural village in China, where I met a girl from my hometown in Ohio. I felt it in Warsaw with the never-ending rotation of flat mates who became like family. It followed me to Bulgaria where I reunited with young people I met nearly twenty years ago. And now, I feel it again here in Morocco.

Everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve been reminded of something that was painted on a classroom building at a school where I volunteered in Bali: Allow differences, respect differences, until differences are no longer different. Those words have followed me across the continents, from cobblestoned streets in Europe to the sand dunes of Morocco, all whispering the same truth as Indonesia’s national motto, Bhinneka Tunggal Ika – Unity in Diversity.

Maybe that’s why travel still feels a bit like Neverland to me. I don’t mean the place where I refuse to grow up, but that state of wonder that doesn’t fade. It’s a way of seeing the world with open eyes and an open heart. Its finding familiar in the foreign. The music changes, the spices taste different, the languages take on new rhythms. But I’m in a world that keeps reminding me to believe in a little magic.

Here in Kelaa, Morocco, I was invited to a wedding. All I knew about Moroccan wedding celebrations was they often start late in the evening and finish at dawn. I also knew I would need a special caftan. Luckily, one of my friends from the school and a relative of the groom, scouted caftans for me and sent photos. All I had to do was go pick it up and pay the rental fee of 100 dirham (10 euro). This includes laundry service. The other amazing thing? They simply placed the caftan in a bag, handed it to me, and off I went. No ID, no paperwork. But I’ve been in Kelaa long enough to know they could easily find me if I didn’t return it.

I was told by Khadija, my caftan finder, that we would go to the wedding around 21:30. As I was getting dressed, I realized I had no idea how to fasten the belt. Fortunately my downstairs neighbor who is my landlord, sent his wife up to help. When Khadija arrived she told me I needed more eye makeup. She had gifted me an Amazigh wooden applicator with homemade kohl which is a black powder consisting of sulfur, malachite, galena and animal fats. I had no idea how to put it on, so she applied it to my eyes and we set off for the wedding a little after 22:00.

When we arrived we were offered a shot of milk in a small silver cup and a date. This symbolizes wishes for a sweet, pure, and prosperous life. By the time we arrived, we had missed the Amariya procession where the couple makes their entrance on elevated platforms called amariyas, carried by the attendants. This symbolizes their elevated status as king and queen for the night. The bride is attended by a negafa, who helps her with up to seven outfit changes, each representing a different region of Morocco.

Stepping into the wedding was like stepping into a living kaleidoscope. The female guests were dressed in brilliant caftans in every shade of the rainbow. The room was filled with pulsing music and women dancing. The men lingered mostly outside chatting, until the baskets of khobz (round Moroccan bread) and plates of roasted chicken started arriving. They quickly made their way to the tables.

I sat there surrounded by people I didn’t know (Khadija was at another table) and whose words I couldn’t understand. As I looked around, I realized how much I did understand…the common language of joy, a shared meal, and laughter. A community gathered to celebrate something beautiful. It wasn’t so different from weddings back home in the USA. It was families crowded around tables, friends leaning close to talk over the music, and generations joining together in laughter. The songs and traditions were different, but the sentiment was the same…love, belonging, and the simple happiness of being together.

Several days after the wedding I had the opportunity to experience the final day of the four-day Tbourida with some Moroccan friends. Tbourida is a Moroccan equestrian performance dating back to the sixteenth century. It simulates a succession of military parades reconstructed according to ancestral Arab-Amazigh rituals. Riders in their tribal costumes charge toward the crowd, the men fire antique rifles into the air as the horses stop just in front of the crowd. The Tbourida in 2021 was placed on the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

After watching the horses race down the field, we wandered in search of something to eat. We ended up under a small tent where a man was frying sfenj or Moroccan donuts, golden and crisp. We ordered a basket, along with a few hard-boiled eggs, and I soon learned the local trick of smashing the donut into a “boat,” nestle the egg inside, and eat it like a breakfast sandwich. Some women brought us steaming mint tea, and we settled in for what turned out to be a most unexpected yet delightful repas.

Afterward, we drifted through rows of stalls with trinkets and jewelry shiny in the afternoon sun, piles of herbs and spices perfuming the air, and t-shirts swaying in the breeze. We stopped again to watch the next round of riders, their synchronized charge racing down the field. While we stood there, a young boy approached shyly, greeted me in English, and shook my hand as his friends giggled nearby. My friends explained he’d been dared to do it. Just behind me, a man was spinning clouds of pink cotton candy. We ended up buying half a dozen sticks for the boys…a sweet reward for bravery.

As we made our way back to the car, it struck me how familiar it all felt. Between the dust in the air, the scent of horses and hay, and the laughter of children, I could have been back at the Trumbull County Fair in Ohio. Not in appearance, but in essence. The hum of the crowd, the shared delight in simple pleasures like popcorn, cotton candy, and plastic toys that might not last the day but would certainly be loved for the moment. Whether in Morocco or middle America, people gather for the same reason: to belong, to laugh, and to share joy together. The details changed, but the heartbeat was the same.

Beyond the grand celebrations, it’s the smaller rituals that reveal our shared humanity most clearly. In the local hammam, the communal bathhouse, women gather not just to cleanse, but to connect. They talk, tease, share family stories, and laugh in the steamy warmth.

It reminds me of women’s spa days back home, or long lunches that stretch lazily into afternoon. It’s the same comfort of friendship, the same release of laughter that only comes when you’re surrounded by people who understand you.

Across the world, I’ve found this rhythm in a thousand different forms…over wine in a Paris café, in a Warsaw market, sharing dumplings in China, or at a diner in small-town Ohio. The settings change, but the essence remains unchanged. People coming together to share the simplest and richest parts of life.

After so many places, I’ve stopped searching for the line that separates different from same. In Morocco, at a wedding, laughter floated around tables just like it does at family gatherings back home. At the Tbourida, families cheered while children ran past, sticky-fingered with cotton candy…the same sweetness I remember from summer fairs in Ohio. In Europe, too, I’ve felt it at Sunday picnics along the Seine, in the playful banter of summer camp in Bulgaria, and in the quiet joy of people simply being together.

The settings change, the music, the colors, the customs, but the feeling doesn’t. Everywhere, people want the same simple things: good food, good company, and a place that feels like home. I used to think home was a point on a map, but I’ve learned it’s something more like a familiar heartbeat I recognize wherever kindness and connection live.

Maybe that’s the quiet truth I keep chasing. Unity doesn’t erase difference; it celebrates it. The magic isn’t only in faraway places, but in the way every place holds a reflection of home. The more I travel, the more I understand that the world’s beauty doesn’t lie in how different we are, but in how familiar we can feel, even in the most unfamiliar places.

The world isn’t as divided as it looks. Maybe, if we allow and respect our differences long enough, we’ll start to see they were bridges all along. Maybe that’s the true magic of this Neverland of mine, discovering that no matter how far we wander, the heartbeat of home echoes everywhere.

Allow differences, respect differences, until differences are no longer different.

 

A Day in Alexandria Egypt

A Day in Alexandria Egypt

Egypt…a country in the Northeastern corner of Africa linking it to the Middle East. When I think of Egypt, I think of the Land of the Pharaohs, the Nile River, Cleopatra (even though she had no Egyptian blood), the pyramids, the Sphinx, and of course Tutankhamun or King Tut.  I never really thought about “Roman” Egypt even though I know Cleopatra was romantically involved with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.

Spending the summer working for English Wizards who sent me to  Z Camp in Bulgaria, afforded me the perfect opportunity to visit Egypt.  I spent a few days exploring Bulgaria at the end of camp and then headed to Cairo.  I actually stayed in Giza so I could wake up each morning and see the Great Pyramids and Sphinx.  I was enjoying all my time in Cairo and Giza but wanted to see other areas.  Luxor/Valley of the Kings I decided was too far and time-consuming for this trip, so I decided on a day trip to Alexandria.  I arranged for a private car, driver, and guide through Viator which I have used many times in the past all over the world.

Alexandria is the third-largest city in Egypt after Cairo and Giza.  It is the seventh-largest city in Africa.  It was founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BC on the site of an existing settlement named Rhacotis which became the Egyptian quarter of the city. Alexandria was best known for one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the Lighthouse of Alexandria.  Being a lover of cemeteries and catacombs, the Necropolis, one of the seven wonders of the Middle Ages, especially caught my attention.  Okay, enough history, let me get on with my visit to the city. That’s a lie because you know I will give you a bit, probably a lot, of the history of the sites I saw.  What can I say, I like learning the history of what I am visiting?

Being about a 3-hour drive from Giza to Alexandria, the day started very early.  I was very happy when my guide suggested we stop for a coffee before getting on the highway.  Caffeinated, I settled in the backseat for the drive.  As we were driving the guide gave me a bit of the history of the city and said our first stop would be the Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa or “Mound of Shards”. So named because of the mounds of terra cotta shards that were found there.  These items were left behind by those visiting the tombs, who would bring food and wine for their consumption during the visit.  Being a place of death, they did not want to bring these containers home so they would break them and leave them.

Because of the period, you can find the merger of Greek, Roman, and Egyptian culture.  You can see Egyptian statues wearing Roman-style garments or creatures from Greek and Roman mythology.  You enter the catacombs by climbing down a circular stairway (99 steps) surrounding a shaft where the deceased bodies were lowered.

Between the second and fourth centuries, the facility was used as a burial chamber. It was rediscovered in 1900 when a donkey fell into the access shaft.  It is believed that the catacombs were originally intended for one family, but for reasons unknown, expanded to house numerous other individuals.  So far, 3 sarcophagi have been discovered along with other human and animal remains.  The sarcophagi have non-removable tops, so it is assumed the bodies were inserted from behind.  The entrance to the main burial chamber resembles a temple with two columns and numerous other carvings.  I was seriously blown away by this visit.

After leaving the catacombs the temperature being hot AF,  our first stop was for water, cold, please. Then we headed to see a Roman triumphal column.  The Corinthian column known as Pompey’s Pillar sits among the ruins of a Roman complex called Serapeum.  The Temple was built at the end of the 3rd century BC during the rule of Ptolemy to worship the god Serapis.  So, who in the heck is Pompey and why does he have a column?  In 60 BC, Pompey was part of the military-political alliance known as the First Triumvirate along with Julius Caesar and Marcus Crassus.  Pompey was also married to Caesar’s daughter Julia. After the deaths of Crassus and Julia, Pompey and Caesar began contending for the leadership of the Roman State in its entirety. This led to Caesar’s civil war, Pompey was defeated, fled to Ptolemaic Egypt where he was assassinated. But that still doesn’t explain why he has a pillar.  It is said that when he was assassinated by Egyptians, they put his head in a jar and it was stored atop the column. Another theory from Crusaders of the Middles Ages is that Pompey’s ashes (not his head) were atop the column and gave it the Nickname “Pompey’s Pillar”.

Most historians now agree that this monument was built in 298 AD, in honor of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, but the name Pompey’s Pillar has stuck. The column is flanked by 2 red granite sphynx statues which were discovered in 1906.  It is believed they were built between 186 and 145 BC during the reign of Ptolemy VI Philopator.

As I mentioned previously, it was hot AF so after visiting the Pillar we made another stop for water.  Funny thing, all this water and I didn’t have to pee…guess I was sweating it all out. Okay, hydrated and cooled off a bit it was time to head to our next venue, the Roman Amphitheatre.

It was discovered in the 1960s during excavations for a planned government building. It is believed that the amphitheater was built in the 4th century AD and used until the Arab invasion of the 7th century.  The theatre, the only one of its kind discovered in Egypt had marble seating for around 700 people.  With further excavations and research still being carried out, there is now a theory that the theatre may have been a small “lecture hall” and the whole site an ancient academic institution.  Along with the ruins of the theatre, remains of Roman baths, columns, a residential district, a gymnasium, and a largely intact villa.  It is called “Villa of the Birds” because of a large mosaic on the floor depicting several species of birds.  Excavations continue at this site today.

Unearthed in 1998 by the Polish Archaeological Mission, the American Research Center in Egypt – in collaboration with the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Polish-Egyptian Preservation Mission, the Polish Center of Archaeology and Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities then began work to conserve the mosaics in the Villa of the Birds. The mosaic shows a pigeon, a peacock, a parrot, a quail, and a water hen as well as a panther. It was fascinating to see people working at the site during my visit.

 

 

 

 

 

More water and off to our next stop, the Citadel of Qaitbay.  Situated on the Mediterranean Sea, the Citadel was considered one of the most important defensive strongholds not only for Egypt but all the coast.

It was erected on the site of the Lighthouse of Alexandria.  The Alexandria Lighthouse is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.  An earthquake in the 11th century damaged the lighthouse and only the bottom survived and was used as a watchtower and a small mosque was built on top of it.  An extremely destructive earthquake in the 14th century completely destroyed the lighthouse. Although it is believed that the remains of a Byzantine bath are thought to be built from the remains of the Alexandria Lighthouse.

In 1805 when Mohammed Ali became ruler of Egypt, he completely renovated the Citadel, but in 1882 the British bombarded Alexandria and the Citadel sustained great damage.  It was neglected until 1904 when King Farouk wanted to turn it into a Royal Rest House and ordered it renovated.  The most recent restoration was in 1984.  The Citadel is now one of Alexandria’s most popular tourist attractions with beautiful views of the bay.

By now it is getting to be late afternoon and we still have a 3-hour drive back to Giza.  I am hot, tired, thirsty, and hungry.  One of the great things about being with a private guide, I didn’t have to go to the pre-planned everyone has to eat here type place.  I asked my guide to please take me to a small local place to eat traditional Egyptian food.  I was not disappointed.  I can’t tell you what I ate, but they laid out a feast for me.  Well-fed and hydrated, once in the car I quickly fell asleep to the sounds of Egyptian music.