The pyramids!

We have been amazed at the history behind the pyramids.  The fact that the moment a king began to rule, they began to plan for his death and afterlife brick by brick.  So much energy, time and resources spent on death.  

Yesterday we saw the museum which contains all the artifacts left in pryramid.  They kept everything-even the toys King Tut played with as a 9 year old boy!

The plalaces were not preserved because they were close to the Nile.  The tombs they wanted preserved so they built on the West side of the Nile.  Unbelievable that after all these years, they remain standing!!

Sitting and climbing on the Great pryramid...

Inside a burial tomb...

The Sphinx...

Our van was waiting but these two couldn't miss a chance to hang out with this camel...

An 11 year old boy walking by one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.  Pretty sure he will remember this!

A mosque...

Overlooking Cairo...

We are in Egypt!

Our day started out with Sarah joining my cousins (and our amazing hosts) Phyllis & Arthur in Arabic class.  This was a great experience for her!  While the language class was going on, the boys and I walked around Cairo.  What did we find? A 7-11 called 7-Mart...

They gave us free samples of frozen yogurt and slurpees!

Our walk...

It's a very different culture here for women and I was thankful I was walking with my two sons (and not my two daughters!) Everyone was kind that we ran into.   We can't help but notice the architecture and culture differences from Nepal to this part of the Middke East.  

Phyllis & Arrhur are amazing!  They have a calendar and schedule planned for our days.  Today we had lunch with their friends...(all Egyptian food and we loved it!). 

Then we went to "garbage village."  Can you imagine there's a place like this?  Phyllis has renamed it "recycling village" and it's where communities have formed around jobs developed from collecting and making items from garbage.  (And then selling them).  So in the morning the men collect the garbage and all afternoon the women make things.  The wonderful piece of this is the jobs and income this provides to sustain families.  The negative piece involves the health hazards these people undergo due to handling this waste.  

This whole part of the city reminds me of the song called "you make beautiful things" with the truth that God creates beauty in the midst of brokenness.  

Here are the scraps of material...

But look at what she's creating...

Then we visited inside this part of the city, the cave church.  They began blasting this in 1974 and are still working on it.  It holds thousands of people during weekly gatherings.  

Luke 19:37-40New International Version (NIV)

37 When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:

38 “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”[a]

“Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”

40 “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”

Sunset and dinner at a park created on top of garbage.  (Kinda like garbage hill in wpg but with millions of dollars poured into it!)

En route to Cairo...

We had a short sleep last night as we woke to my alarm at 4:45.  Electricity was off but Nabin who is on staff at church was gracious enough to put the generator on.  This provided back up electricity so the taxis could find us and so we could find our bags!  We enjoyed our last breakfast of curd and cereal and Nepali tea.

Leaving KTM...

Turkish airlines...

Hello movies, Turkish food and clean bathrooms!

Istanbul 

Here's the after lunch pic...guess how much it cost to feed the 4 of us in the Istanbul airport?   $70!  

Landed now in Cairo.  We had all been up close to 22 hours straight.  Considering this this kids did amazing with all the travel.  More soon from Cairo!

Good-byes today...

Martha and Sarah...

Puja making our dinner... Delicious-I took notes!

We've made some amazing friends and strengthened ones we already had.  Hard to believe we live across the globe from these dear people.  Till next time...

M & M's enjoying fresh fruit & veggies in HK!

Our last moments in Nepal

Here's the masterpiece!  When Raju mentioned that our kids could do a mural we did not factor in their perfectionistic tendencies.  Here's the definition of a perfectionist:

www.thefreedictionary.com/perfectionistic

Mobile-friendly - A propensity for being displeased with anything that is not perfect or does not meet extremely high standards. 

This was hours and hours of labour but a labour of love they will always remember!  The only problem is now that I know these two are professional artists, I have lots of ideas for them at home... 😃

Celebration time on a job well done!  (Plus it's funny how badly these boys need haircuts...maybe Phyllis and Arthur can direct us to a hairdresser in Cairo!)

A playground...not many of these around!

 

Missing our M & M's but it's a lot of fun hanging out with my 3 amigos...

The church.  Sarah playing hacky sac in courtyard and Samuel helping me empty the girls room...

My walk to get breakfast this morning.  Here's a typical scene of a worker fixing a myriad of electrical wires.  Not the same safety precautions that we have in place in Canada!

Breakfast this morning (and many mornings this winter). Fresh curd from Bhaktiphur...

More soon as we wait for our dear friend Puja to come teach us how to cook Nepali!  

Happy 44th Birthday Mike 🎊🎉

Mike and Mikayla celebrating together in Hong Kong... They had an overnight flight and arrived in HK at 3 am ktm time. Looks like that's not stopping these two from exploring and celebrating!

A birthday to remember...❤️❤️