Saturday, November 12, 2011

8th November A Busy Day

 

Ivy returned home today after a fruitless visit to the Grand Mall, the shop she wanted was shut! Geoff took her to the airport and waved her off while Maddy and I went to watch Neil and Melinda get married. We caught a bus from Maadi at 12 noon and arrived at Anafora about 90 minutes later. The place is a Christian retreat in the desert on the Alex road.

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I took over 300 pictures, this is just a small sample, The place is very picturesque with rooms for the guests, a central kitchen where you can help your self to drinks, a library (no internet or TV), small pools to sit in and a Bedouin style eating room. The place is a working farm so there are animals to visit and the church holds a multi-lingual service every evening at 8pm. The reading for the wedding service was in 5 languages!

The church has 2 gift shops but only 1 was open while we were there so I bought Geoff a small pot.

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This is inside the church, no shoes! Chairs for the less supple down the side. The congregational song was ‘Shine Jesus Shine’ with music through the laptop. Family members were watching through Skype (via a dongle), there was a group of Arabic singers, a lady with a harp, a French man with his guitar all of whom played individual pieces. Then a ride in the donkey carriage with the Egyptian girls following it clapping in time and chanting, all very different.

Dinner was BBQ chicken with Egyptian salads, then fruit salad and wedding cake. The cake was sponge, 2 layers of chocolate cake and one layer of plain sponge.

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We left on the bus at about 7:30 pm and were back in Cairo for 9 in time to pack.

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