Yesterday we went to Cairo where we got a special, private tour of some of the antiquities in the Egyptian Museum. The museum has been developing a corps of blind guides trained to take school children from the local school for the blind, on tours. We were a training exercise. Gail was given an opportunity to play with pharonic toes, explore the regions of a many thousand year old kilt-wearing personage, and handle a black, hard as a rock...because it was rock...snake. We learned about the use and science of an embalming table, and were permitted, contrary to normal regulation, to feel displays, hieroglyphics and...well, snakes.

Cairo. What can you say about Cairo? Here's what: Beeep!beeeeeep!beep!Hooonnk!Hoooonk! See, there are no traffic laws or conventions in this country...cars go wherever they can, when they want to, however they can, and all the while, beeping a code that says "I'm here" "I see you" OK come past" Stay back you asshole" all the while, driving forwards and backwards in traffic, and if it were truly possible to drive due sideways it would be happening. Meanwhile, pedestrians, motorcyclists, and doorless buses with people hanging out of them are part of this ever changing, insane, choreography. The maxim to remember is "In Egypt everything is forbidden and anything is possible."