Enrichment that comes from travel

Lesser known pyramid

Today I am going to toot my own horn. Having been made aware of an acquaintance's eagerly anticipated first trip to Egypt, I couldn't help but recall the thrill of visiting Egypt and, in particular, being for the first time in a country whose predominant religion was not Christianity. When I re-read my two articles written in reflection of that trip, I was impressed. I want to boast a little, so I have included links to those articles at the end of this post.

Sphinx of Memphis

Ostensibly we were visiting to ooh and ah over the ancient sites of Egypt, and it was a bucket-list trip for Jay. He had wanted to see the pyramids ever since I met him in 1961. Just three years into my retirement (2008), the serendipitous arrival of a brochure for travel there with University of Washington Alumni brought everything together for us. Although Jay was still working, he had the flexibility as the sole proprietor of Jay O. Glerum & Associates to be gone for a three-week trip. But it was impression of current-day Egypt that has stayed with me all these years.

Neither Jay nor I would ever be the same again. Not only did we make some wonderful friends on the

Donkeys and cars share the roads

trip and learned an enormous amount of ancient history from Eman, our impressive Egyptologist, but we saw modern-day Egypt as it was crumbling under the control of Mubarak. Subtle and not-so-subtle unrest was recognized by the University of Washington professor, Jere Bacharach, who traveled with us. As a person who had lived six-months of each year in Cairo for more than a decade, he was highly qualified to answer our questions posed 'out-of-earshot' of locals during evenings when we were 'on our own.' Not only was he fluent in Arabic, but he was savvy regarding what was in the hearts and minds of the citizens of Cairo.

Eman was our knowledgable
Egyptologist who accompanied us
for three weeks in 2008

After Arab Spring, Jay and I repeatedly voiced how grateful we were to have seen Egypt when we did. We both knew we would not get back there again, but today I was reminded of its profound impact on me as I re-read these two articles I wrote (and which are still carried on the Web site of the Seattle Times). For that reason, I'm sharing them today with both humility and pride.    
Call to Prayer by S. Glerum published in the Seattle Times
Transcending Differences by S. Glerum published in the S.T.