to luxor

yesterday we started out going to the Zebellen project outside of Cairo. the area is inhabited by people (the Zebellen) who live by collecting trash from Cairo and recyling it. we visited the nursery that cares for kids from 6 months to 6 years while their parents work - the kids were so adorable - if i ever adopt a kid, i would love to get an egyptian one - they are so beautiful. then after creating a ruckes in the school by taking pictures of the kids and giving out candy, we visited a program that teaches crafts to the inhabitants of the area. teenage girls learn how to use looms to make rugs and bags, women learn to create patchwork crafts (quilts, pillow cases, aprons, etc) and other people make recylced paper crafts. it was pretty cool. then we went to a different project for boys, where they bring in plastic shampoo bottles to earn money and recieve practical education as well - how to read a contract and find out how much money they should recieve. we made it back to the hotel in time to grab lunch from McDonalds (under $3 for a chicken nuggets meal) and finish packing before getting on the bus to the airport. our flight was delayed for about 2 hours, so we played uno for a while and i wrote some postcards before boarding the plane. it only took about 45 minutes to get to luxor, but we got to the hotel after 8pm. We checked in - our room is far smaller then in Cairo, and you have to put the key in a slot to turn on the electricity in the room, but its pretty nice otherwise. We had dinner at the hotel, then went up to the room to finish writing my dis journal before sleep.

this morning we had breakfast at the hotel before leaving for the west bank, where most of the pharonic monuments are. we started at the valley of the kings, where we saw king tut's tomb (which is really small and empty - no wall paintings really either), plus 3 others (Ramses IV and 2 whose names i forget). next we went to Hepsetsut's temple (where 67 tourists were killed in '97 in a terrorist attack) and then to the Ramseseum (Ramses II's temple). it was really cool to look at the hieroglyphics and paintings in all the monuments. you could really see the line where the nile valley began from the desert. we got mcdonalds for a late lunch, then came here for the internet. It's fairly warm here and beautiful. luxor is much more peacefull the cairo - there's large breaks of time between hearing car horns here.