Egypt Winter 2011 - Day 2, 1- read bottom to top

Day 2 was also the same as last semester, except that the traffic was so heavy going through Cairo that we had to go straight the Pyramid's Light Show instead of stopping at the hotel first. We had some extra time and here is a photo of some of our students. This is a really cool way for them to see the pyramids for the first time.

I wrote about Day one last fall semester. But, there was one thing I wanted to add to this semester's trip. Everything was just the same this time except that Kent and I participated in the "Desert dune" experience. This isn't the dune but it gives you the feel of the desert.

We spent the night on a Kibbutz. We were met by our hosts before we actually arrived at the kibbutz and they took us out into the desert. The buses dropped us off and we hiked up a trail, over the top and came to a HUGE sand dune. Kent and I didn't enjoy the next part. They gave the students about 20 minutes to "play" on the dunes. Then we were to meet AT THE BOTTOM! I did make it most of the way down before falling - I scooted the rest of the way down on my behind, filling my pockets, shoes and pants with fine powdery sand. :)

That was the first part I didn't like. Then, one of the students who was jumping down the dunes, hit his bare foot on a hidden rock and took a big chunk out of his heel. The ironic part is that he spent several minutes before he jumped moving rocks out of the way so no one would get hurt! He found the only rock left behind. :( The docs tried to bandage it up as best they could. When we finally got back to the kibbutz they sewed it up.

When we all reached the bottom of the dune, the leader had us go off into the desert and sit somewhere by ourselves. This was the next problem. Some of them went way far away, where they couldn't hear the call to come back and one of them couldn't get down from where he had climbed without help from one of the faculty!

Now, for the really nice part. As they sent us off by ourselves, they gave us a piece of paper with a scripture reference on it. It was the scripture from 1 Nephi about being in the wilderness alone. They gave us about 20 minutes to just sit and be quiet and then answer some questions on the paper regarding the scripture. After we all gathered back together, they divided us into 4 groups and we gathered around some bonfires and shared our thoughts from the scripture. It was really a wonderful experience. We had a couple of the students, when they spoke in Sacrament meeting later in the week, refer to what they had felt and learned from this experience.

When the Kibbutz first began doing this, they purposely tried to find a scripture that would mean something to Mormons. They looked through an online copy of the Book of Mormon but could not find the word "desert" anywhere. They contacted the administrator here and asked him about it. He suggested that they look for the word "wilderness". Which they did and came up with the scripture that I have mentioned. I am impressed that they would try so hard to make it a truly meaningful experience for us.