In Anticipation

[This entry is being composed on my brand new HP Mini netbook computer. The keyboard will take a bit of getting used to, and I'm hoping the constant seizures the machine has been experiencing are all due to the Norton Antivirus software (which, this time around, I have turned off for the duration as an experiment).]

One of the best things about traveling is how the experience alters one's perceptions or, rather, turns "imaginings" into "realities." And, of course, much of what we imagine to be true about a place, what we anticipate finding, turns out to be totally wrong, even wrongheaded.

Unfortunately much of the time we forget what we once thought to be true, what we anticipated we would find, as those misperceptions are replaced by more accurate understandings. So Lee thought he would set down some of what he expects to find while visiting Egypt before he actually does, so that he can amass a template against which to measure actual changes as a consequence of his on-the-spot experiences.

Already he has experienced some image transformations. He read Alaa Al Aswany's novel The Yacoubian Building (a great read, by the way!), picturing in his mind's eye the entire time a kind of nineteen-thirties style Europeanized setting, a bit run down and old fashioned, as the background for this multifaceted view of life in contemporary Cairo. Then he and Heidi watched a DVD of the film adaptation, and he was surprised by how up-to-date the city and its inhabitants appeared to be. The apartments shown in the film were quite chic and nicely furnished; the clothing people wore appeared quite modern, well made and comfortably worn by the city's residents. Cairo didn't even seem all that dusty!

In India Lee was surprised to find the population much more content than he would have thought they would be; he wonders if Egypt will be the same despite all the corruption, poverty and lack of economic development. Will he find contemporary Egyptian culture at all interesting? ... at all connected to its ancient past? He expects Islamic fundamentalism to be somewhat in evidence and relations between Islam and other religious orientations, somewhat tense.

He anticipates the begging and solicitation by touts to be on par with that encountered in India -- will we be able to wander around on our own without being inundated by either or both? The poverty should be less dismal; the expression of wealth, more muted.

We'll survive the heat, he's certain. We won't be "templed" to distraction as we visit one religious site after another, but inspired by the grandeur encountered. The food will present some nice surprises. We'll be able to put together the influences of the past with present day echoes and will catches glimpses, at least, of images and ideas that illustrate the ongoing history of the country under Greek, Roman, Persian, Turkish and Ottoman rule. We'll learn something about Coptic Christian traditions and a bit about the impact of Islam on modern Egyptian life.

We're really anticipating an eye-opening educational experience, one from which we'll learn to appreciate more than ever a different way of organizing the human experience (as Wade Davis -- our "best of the summer" discovery -- might have put it).