The Sun, the Sand, the
Shadow!
Wednesday, 29 March 2006
(28 Safar
1427AH)
31° 34' 4".6 N - 25° 7' 24".2
E
Salloum Plateau, Egypt
(VIP Eclipse Viewing
Area)
Totality: 3m55s
A somewhat motley group of mostly American and British tourists, traipsing
around a small tourist-starved town in the deserts of central Egypt on a cool
Tuesday night in springtime, lugging their bags of hard-won chocolate bars and
potato chips, dreaming of the hot shower that would not be forthcoming for at
least another day, searching in vain for the ultimate prize that had led them to
this remote outpost: Plastic Folding Chairs.
The exact set of
circumstances which could have lead to this scenario is quite difficult to
imagine, yet there we were. I say "we", because of course, I was there, right
along with the others. I had my snacks. I wanted a plastic folding chair,
too.
But in the end, only a select few of us ended up with the treasure.
Having been first in line at the small roadside plastic-goods merchant's stand,
these few succeeded where the rest of us had failed, and left us with only empty
cardboard boxes, the pain of unrequited longing, and the strange look on an
Egyptian man's face which could only mean that had his inventory been up to
snuff on that particular Tuesday evening, his dreams of higher education for his
children could at last have been fulfilled.
We'd voted on it, after all.
We'd made the decision to be there, searching for the chairs that would
accompany us into the cold, remote desert night, while warm beds in a seaside
Mediterranean resort that had been opened on this off-season evening just for
us, in rooms that had been bought and paid for - lay dormant and unused. Except,
that is, for their covers and bedspreads.
Maybe I'd better start at the
beginning.
This was a wonderful trip, to a wonderful country that turned out to be the
most friendly hosts I could imagine. The excitement of getting to see Egypt with
all its historical treasures, combined with an eclipse, was simply too much to
pass up. I pestered my wife until she let me go. (Sometimes I wonder if she's
not counting the days till the next eclipse just like I do, but for altogether
different reasons...)
I need to say one thing about the culture of Egypt,
though, just to say that I've said my piece. Westerners have this view of Muslim
countries that makes them out to be very backward, very medieval, very
disrespectful of women and such. But I have to say, the men in Egypt were
anything but "backwards". Even when just walking around the dusty streets, they
wore what would be considered every bit of business casual in America. And their
personal grooming was quite impeccable. The cars may not have been in pristine
shape, but to look at the people walking down the street, these were people who
were very proud of who they were, and of the face they presented to those around
them. That was very respectable, and I felt the honor and dignity of the place
the whole time I was there.
And, I will say something about the women who
chose to cover themseleves with the veil and other coverings required of their
faith. Hardly a prison to contain them, their coverings were a badge of honor
they wore very proudly. Our tour guides, for instance, were highly educated,
highly articulate and intelligent young ladies who would've been a great
complement to the lives of any man who would have found himself in a position to
join a life-partnership with them. They were very straightforward about it, too
- covering themselves made them feel as though they were the prize they had
every right to expect themselves to be, and it would be their privilege to force
any man who wanted to look at them twice to have to use his imagination about
their outward appearance until he'd proven himself worthy to the parts of them
that truly defined who they were. A great lesson for Western women, and further
proof that 'different' does by no means imply 'inferior'.
We saw the
pyramids, we saw the sphinx, we saw the library at Alexandria (the modern one -
I so wanted to get a library card!), and bless their hearts, the tour company we
were with did everything they could to whirlwind us around to all the various
sights without being too "touristy" about it. But there were only a few
first-timers on this trip, and one got the distinct impression that there was
not much, even in this magical place, that would keep us from our primary
goal.
As we pushed westward into the desert from Alexandria for the
half-day journey to our resting place for the night, some real questions came
up. Egypt is still a third-world country, and beauracracy certainly continues to
hold its share of sway over most of the things that happen there. Our guides
were well-connected, and the owner of the travel agency even had a cousin who
knew President Mubarak himself. So, if there were a place to see the eclipse
from, we would be certain to be there - right? Well, maybe. There had been word
that the country had prepared a wonderful place for all the eclipse-chasers from
around the world who would choose to converge on the tiny little corner in the
northwestern part of the country near Salloum, which was the only spot in Egypt
where the path of totality would pass over. They had indeed prepared a wonderful
place, but they also knew that as word of that place spread, the onslaught of
undesirables (those who hadn't had their reservations made months in advance)
would turn the place into a chaotic, hectic nightmare of inhospitability that
simply could not be allowed to proceed.
The rumor was that they were
going to close down the whole place, and not let anyone in. Yikes...
With
only one road to Salloum, and only one road up the side of the huge plateau to
the west of town where everyone would be congregating, the prospects of staying
in our nice, rented bungalos the night before, followed by a leisurely drive up
the mountain to our reserved viewing site the next morning, looked somewhat dim.
Once we found that they were indeed going to be closing the road into Salloum
early on eclipse morning, it was time to make a choice. The resort we were going
to stay in that night before the eclipse had been opened up just for us, and it
was very nice. 50 miles or so from the path, but nice nevertheless. One doesn't
always think of Egypt as having wonderful beaches, but of course it does - right
on the Mediterranean! And my particular cabin was about 200 yards from the
beach. Nice and warm, with all the amenities and no one but our group around to
disturb the tranquility, and we were faced with having to stay there on eclipse
day, or maybe having to view the eclipse from the bus on the side of the road,
logjammed into a roadblock in the middle of an otherwise deserted desert road?
As I said: Yikes.
We all got together around dinner time and took a vote
- we'd be heading out right away, that night, and would get into Salloum before
they had the chance to close the road. Nashwa (the travel agency owner) made all
the right calls, and was assured that we'd be allowed in if we'd get there ASAP.
So, we had an hour to get packed, shower for the only time we'd get to in the
next 36 hours or so, pull the blankets off the bed for the cold trip ahead
(packing them carefully away so as not to incur the wrath of the resort owner
who would've been petrified to see his blankets donned by weird foreigners
traipsing off into the night), and reconvene for the long ride to Salloum. My
batteries for the camcorders were not fully charged, but I did the best I could.
I even packed out a little toy plastic folding chair that had been in my
cabin.
We got on the bus, and mostly slept as it trudged rhythmically
through the blackness. It was a long drive to Marsah Matrouh, and we needed to
stop there to make sure we had supplies for the long trip and long day ahead. No
one knew exactly what kind of accommodations would be awaiting us in the
"official" eclipse viewing area, so we assumed the worst. That meant, whatever
clothes and blankets and chairs we had on us, was going to be what we had -
period. The busses would have to leave us there, and so there would be no "base"
to spend the resst of the night in, nor any of the following morning before
eclipse time. And it was pretty chilly when we got off that bus in Marsah at
9:30pm or so.
Anyway, we found various little streetside shops to sell us
snacks, candy, drinks, etc, for the long bus ride that faced us. No one sold
blankets, though, and I remember thinking that in a worst case scenario, the
little blanket I'd temporarily pilfered from my bed in the bungalow, combined
with the light jacket which was the only outer clothing I'd brought on this
trip, would not be nearly enough to keep away the effects of hypothermia. Plus,
we all had that excitement of anticipation and adrenaline that keeps you awake
long after you know you should rightfully be asleep, and I was very worried that
the lack of sleep would render me unable to focus on the next day's critical
tasks. Some of our group found beer (the most alcoholic thing you can find in
Egypt), and actually drank a couple. This seemed to me to be a bit presumptuous
of the quality of "facilities" we'd be likely to encounter over the next few
hours, and I graciously abstained.
My fears about lack of sleep were
well-founded, because I didn't sleep at all on the bus. As we got closer and
closer to the viewing site in the wee hours of eclipse morning, I remember
thinking that I was likely to daze my way through the entire event, and that it
was a good thing I'd left the intricacies of an Umbraphile setup back home for
this eclipse!
We made it through the checkpoint that would be closing in
only a few hours' time, and trundled up the side of the high plateau to whatever
viewing area awaited us. It was decidedly cold, even in the bus, and we were
fearing the worst as the bus made its final turn. We could see hoards of people,
though, and huge tents lined up all along both sides of the road. Row after row
of buildings, large circus-style tents, port-a-potties, and even telephone
stations, all set up by the Egyptian government in preparation for the onslaught
of VIPs that it was now becoming obvious that we were! I couldn't believe our
luck, and to this day, I'm astounded that so much infrastructure could have been
thrown up so efficiently and thoughtfully by the government for us.
It
wasn't just for us, though. This was apparently THE official eclipse viewing
area for all the scientists, journalists, politicians, military, and any VIP who
could make their way west, with whatever entourage they felt compelled to bring
along. It was like a gigantic eclipse convention in the middle of nowhere, and
we were going to be a part of it.
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The official badge we were issued at the
eclipse viewing site |
The tents would keep away the hypothermia, if for no other reason than to
block any wind that might stir up, and to keep in any heat from the many people
who were staking out their spots to pass the next few hours. The ground was
covered with nice rugs, but they were lying on bare earth, and were quite cold.
I found a few chairs, and set them up in a row to act like a very hard bed to
stretch out on. Wrapped in my blanket, with nothing but the light jacket and
basically a T-shirt underneath, I soon became very cold. Teeth-chatteringly
cold. But there was little I could do about it, other than tough it out till
morning. Not much sleep at all in that situation, either.
A couple of
times, I braved the cold (with the blanket wrapped around me) to head over to a
potty. On one of those occasions, as I stumbled through the very foggy morning
(and dodged some very die-hard Japanese scientists who had already begun to set
up some equimpent in the dewy pre-dawn fog), I saw a huge building that looked
very official. Some guards were ostensibly in position at the door, but my badge
gained me entry to what I thought might have been a heated building, where I
could very slowly walk around in a quite official manner, using every available
minute they'd allow me to soak up every last bit of warmth.
Well, the
building wasn't heated, and it was only slightly warmer than the outside. Some
of this was due to the fact that it was a substantial building (though it too
had been built solely for the eclipse), but also, there was some heat being
generated by the (!) walls full of computers that had been set up for - get this
- Internet access! E-mail! And eBay! That was too good to be true, and I availed
myself of it immediately. I sent an e-mail to work, letting them know where I
was and what I was doing (it was the middle of third shift, Indiana time). I'm
sure that went over well. But it did serve to warm my fingers up a little bit,
at least.
When I finally shut down, cleared the Internet cache, and got
re-wrapped up for the excursion back into the cold, the fog had gotten a lot
thicker. Even though dawn was starting to break, the thick fog almost offset the
extra light, and so it was still just about as dark outside as it had been an
hour before. I made my way back to the tent, though, and started thinking about
getting ready the stuff I'd need to watch the eclipse. Stuff? What stuff? I only
had one video camera, two regular cameras and the three attendant tripods. It
would only take 10 minutes to set that up. Still, I started fumbling with stuff,
just to try and determine what I'd forgotten to bring on this trip that I'd have
to figure out a way to do without.
Turns out I hadn't forgotten anything,
and my setup was actually put together and torn down several times before I
finally decided on the right spot. After dawn broke, we were all treated
to a wonderful sunrise, the sun hanging low in the east as a perfect orange ball
with most of the edge taken off by the thick layer of fog that shrouded the
horizon. There were some worries of clouds forming from this, but they
turned out to be completely unwarranted. The guards began setting up metal
detectors at the tents, I guess for nothing better to do as all the people who
were going to show up were already there, and we'd been coming and going into
the huge tent for hours. But no, the tent we'd been staying in was
designated as the officla staging area for the scientists, and so now anyone who
wanted to enter or leave would have to avoid the huge, open sides of the ten and
make their way to the one metal-detecting portal at the front - and attended by
very fierce looking bomb-sniffing dogs. Truly a keystone cop scenario, but
we soon found out the reasons behind so many precautions when the President
arrived.
President Mubarak arrived on a helicopter with a couple of hours
to go until totality, and the guards truly snapped to as his motorcase drove
past. Where on earth do they get all these soldiers? I swear every
soldier in Egypt must have been standing within 100 yards of me as they formed a
human chain on the sides of the dirt road his limo parade drove down. The
procession made its way to a tent much nicer than ours, about 300 yards or so
down the trail a bit. He would be watching the eclipse in
private.
The carnival atmosphere surrounding our tent picked up
tremendously, as the more than 1,000 people on hand readied themselves for a
spectacular show. There was not a cloud in the sky. I worked with
the guides to talk to people about the eclipse. I gave an interview on
Egyptian TV, with the obligatory thanks to the locals for having put up such a
wonderful viewing area and being such gracious hosts. Yes, it's a very
beautiful country and I'm having a great time and the pyramids were
wonderful.... All of which was true. I handed out eclipse glasses to
anyone who wanted them, and that privilege quickly became abused as more people
flocked to me. One of the guides helped me out by shooing everyone away,
and admonishing me that I was being just a little too giving - people would take
advantage of that. She was right.
(To be
continued...)
I'd like to say one final thing about the people in
Egypt, and I don't know where my point was better exemplified than by this
little episode I had outside the library at Alexandria. While we were visiting
the library, I'd left my bag 'o stuff that I always carry around (a little
handbag for my money, passport, wallet, cameras, etc) in the bus. Totally safe,
and better there than with me, because I didn't think there'd be any need to
have it with me inside. Well, in the library was this gift shop, and I cannot
avoid the temptations of a gift shop, no matter the language or the time zone.
Anyway, I found some things I wanted to get, and my total came up to a little
bit more than I had on me. So, I left the library to go back to the bus, and one
of our guides caught my arm and asked where I was going. "Back to the bus to get
a little money." It was about four blocks or so, and he said no, not to walk
that far, no need to go all that way, "how much do you need?" "Oh, you don't
need to do that..." "Sure, sure, no problem. How much? $20?" "Well, yeah, sure,
that'd be enough, and I'll pay you back..." He handed me a twenty, and turned me
back around to the front door.
Thus financially enabled, I made all my
purchases, made it back to the bus, and eventually, we got back to the hotel for
the night. It was a very swank hotel, and in the mad luggage rush (accompanied
by the lure of additional gift shops), I couldn't find the guy to pay him back
before everyone had scattered for the rooms. Oh well, there'd always be the
morning.
The next morning, I found him almost immediately, and went into
my pocket for a $20 bill. I handed it to him, and he looked at me like I was the
second man that hour who'd offered to buy his daughter for a very low price. I
told him it was for last night (I didn't put it quite like that, not in a Muslim
country...), and as it dawned on him that I was paying him back for his
generosity the previous day, he got the biggest smile on his face. I thought I
was doing something wrong, literally, as he laughed, put his arm around me and
grabbed my shoulder really hard. He pointed at me, and yelled out to everyone
around him, that "this is a very good man, right here, you know?" He was smiling
ear to ear as he took the money, and even later that day whenever he saw me,
he'd chuckle and point a 'you-da-man' finger at me.
This is the
difference between business and personal dealings in a country like Egypt. In
America, we equate money with business, and it is a sign of a person's
uprighteousness (I guess) that they make good on all their debts. (At least,
that's the way I feel about it.) If someone loans you money, you should pay it
back, right? Well, this man (who kept very dutiful track of every penny owed to
his company for all the extras the guests indulged in) had no expectation at all
that I was going to pay him back for the personal gesture of assistance he'd
given me. I learned later that Egyptians are very proud of their generosity and
their hospitality. Giving to someone in their time of need isn't something
that's expected to be repaid. You do for your friends when they need you, and
they do for you when you need them. It's understood, it's expected, it's one of
the things we see as weird and imposing about people from that culture, but it
was also the cause of my new friend's amusement. I'd almost offended him by
trying to pay him back! It would've been far better for me to buy him lunch or
something like that, not as a payback, but just as a simple gesture of "I want
to do something for you". He did the cultural double-take when I handed him the
twenty, and his laughter was at himself as much as to me, for his having
forgotten that my paying him back was as important to my dignity as his not
expecting to be paid back was to his.
A very valuable lesson for both of
us.
The "sunset on the horizon" during totality.
(This gives you an idea of how dark it gets!)
Yours truly being interviewed by Egyptian TV - I'm
famous!!!
(Thanks to my travel companion Ben Hu for this
picture!!)
My story isn't done yet, as you can see above. But for now, I'll fulfill a
couple of promises I made on the trip:
Hello, Alejandro
and Jen and Giuseppe and Katarina!
and Nerma and Dalia and
Nashwa and Hashem and Hussein and everyone from
KADMAR
TRAVEL!
(I hope I spelled your names
right!)
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The day after the eclipse, the large
Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram published a nice article along with
these
photos of President Mubarak and his wife (viewing the eclipse just up the
path from us!) |
Go here to read the
article
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GOES weather satellite photo of the shadow
as it approaches the West coast of Africa |
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The ISS astronauts also saw the shadow. In
this picture, SE is up, and that's Cyprus
at the top. The shadow is
over the Mediterranean, about to hit Turkey!
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back
© 2006 Dan McGlaun