Tea & Terrorism

Later that night we were privileged enough to meet some families in Luxor. The director of the Karnak restoration had friends who wanted to meet us and share their culture, so we went in groups of three to discuss daily life, speak Arabic and share tea and coffee together. I went with three other people, one of our speaking partners and the director of the archeological restoration in Karnak to his friends’ house. On the way, he briefed us on the family’s history. Our family had had a couple of rough years. The man who we were seeing works on restoration projects on many of the temples in Luxor. His brother was in the Egyptian army and worked as a guard at Hatshepsut’s temple. There was a terrorist attack there in 1997 where a group of terrorists crossed the mountains and lined up 63 tourists and killed them inside the temple. Horrified, his brother was working as a guard there during the attack. All of the Egyptian guards were unarmed. His brother attempted to protect the tourists without any weapon and unfortunately in the process he was shot three times. He was taken to a hospital in Cairo where he wasn’t given very much attention. He developed an infection in his wounds and they had to amputate his arm. Already difficult to find work in Luxor without being handicapped, this man couldn’t find work. After help from some of his friends, the army agreed to give him a job managing the bathrooms after his heroic efforts during the terrorist attacks. I was heartbroken hearing him refer to these events. When we met him, he was a jolly guy but there was clear pain in his eyes. He described what happened to him all the meanwhile patting his arm and repeating hamdull-allah.(thanks be to God) I have never met someone so positive who was hurt so badly. His perspective and their living conditions slapped me awake. Life is not about what you have, where you go or how you succeed. It is about perspective, family and love.
On the last morning we visiting Luxor Temple and were specially guided by Michael, one of ARCE’s archeologists and a specialist on restorations. He had worked on the most famous sites in Egypt and his insight on the history, archeology and architecture of the structure was mind blowing. After that we headed back to our slice of paradise in the Winter Palace and then had a farewell party in the lounge before heading back to Cairo. Upon disembarking from the plane my first thought was home sweet home. I was surprised at myself-- when did the Middle East become my home?