A Long-Awaited Trip to Egypt

Having grown up as a child in a Foreign Service family, I was lucky enough to live in many wonderful places around the world. As my own children grew up, I hoped to be able to share some of those wonderful memories with them as well. One of the places that I particularly wanted to take them was to Egypt where I had lived for four years in the early 60’s in Cairo. We never seemed to be able to find the right time and then, after 9/11, it began to seem impossible. My husband and I kept putting off a trip to the Middle East as we waited for the political climate to improve. In the fall of 2003, I finally decided that we could end up waiting forever for things to change and we made plans to go over the Christmas vacation, come what may. I managed to corral all three children (no easy feat!) as well as my husband and we set out for a magical two weeks. The Egyptians couldn’t have been more welcoming and it was enormously gratifying to me for my family to begin to understand my love for that part of the world. Don’t put it off! - Ellen