Update from Cairo

THIS IS THE MISSING POST (which you will read about in the post right before this one).  Sorry - I thought I lost it but here it is after all.  And if you scroll ALL THE WAY DOWN to the beginning you'll see a great photo of the Kahn el Kalili, the wonderful tourist market I've written about.

I'm still not an expert with the pictures so I'm just going to upload them and try to explain as I go along.  The photo left is the local market - you can get glimpses of completely veiled women.

In the list of interesting things I've done in Cairo (my last post) I forgot to include hiking in the Wadi Degla.  The Wadi Degal is a huge expanse of desert right near our commissary.  You can drive in a certain distance but eventually you have to get out and walk.  Our trip was in early May so the weather was fantastic - beautifully clear and breezy.  We hiked for about an hour; I just loved it.  I've never realized before how beautiful desert can be.  You always think of sand and rocks, and in fact that's pretty much what we saw, but the contrast with the blue blue sky and the different colors of the landscape was stunning.  Of course I have no pictures....I only just recently realized my blackberry takes pictures  and I can send them to myself on hotmail.  I'm so technologically retarded it isn't funny.  Now I've started carrying my actual camera around with me too, so I'm trying to capture Cairo digitally.  I'll share as much as I can.

Yesterday we were authorized to grant one hour admin leave so everyone could leave the office at 3:30 p.m. instead of the normal time of 4:30 (for local Egyptian staff).  That was because Tahrir was filling up fast with demonstrators - there had been a call for a "million man march".  I think they got about 25,000, but that was enough to impede traffic in and out of the embassy which is only a couple of blocks away.  So, we were told if we didn't leave at 3:30 we might not be able to leave at all.  Since I forgot my toothbrush, I  decided to leave.  I got a glimpse of Tahrir on the way out - huge tents cover a large part of it, so I couldn't see much.  This is the hottest time of year so I would NOT want to be out there all day long like these demonstrators.  They get point for perseverence.  We are very well guarded at the embassy; at times, we don't even know anything is going on until someone tells us.  You can't hear anything or see Tahrir from our windows.