The Monasteries of Wadi Natrun

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Ok we are still not in our new flat, but we are in the building! It is smack bang in the middle of town, only a stone's throw away from everything we need. There is a nursery in the building too with friendly people working there, and the City Mall is just across the road. And it has a 2.5 pound shop! There is a great little shisha cafe across the road, in fact this was the first cafe we ever went to here, but we stopped going because Erin thought the waiter was dodgy. So we call it Dodgy Cafe. They make us nice sahlab with sprinkles in it. Another bonus about our building - we don't have noisy kids upstairs jumping up and down and ringing our doorbell. And there isn't a mosque right outside the balcony. There is a home church in the adjacent flat which sounds like it is a charismatic congregation. They invited us to attend but I didn't think my Arabic would be good enough. Our flat is nice, but it looks like it is part of the nursery and not really geared up for people to live in. So we will have to be patient until our new flat is ready.

We headed back to Cairo for Christmas, and on the way down we stopped at Dandy Mega-Mall near 6 October City. This place is just like Westfield Mall back home, if it wasn't for the Egyptians shopping there you would swear you weren't in Egypt. We went to a French owned hypermarket called Carrefour, it is like the Warehouse Mega with grocery sections as well as appliances and clothing. Ho hum. I have found that in Egypt, supermarkets are only good for getting non-traditional things like peanut butter, otherwise local stores (what we call dairies) stock the essentials, and Egyptian pharmacies are well stocked with toiletries. And vegetables are best bought from vege markets or fruit shops. Egyptian vegetables are so tasty, I have never had such tasty tomatoes and expensive things like eggplant, kumara and fruit are dirt cheap here. The only things that are expensive for us are apples (usually imported) and meat. Dairy products are moderately priced, cheaper than back home, but possibly expensive to local people.

We attended the joint English/Arabic Christmas Eve service. It was interesting to observe the Arabic Anglican service with Arabic Christmas Carols (same tune but Arabic lyrics), liturgy ("God be with you" - "And also with you") and the service was very well attended.

After Christmas, some friends we had met at the guesthouse were interested in coming with us to the Wadi Natrun monasteries, which are a little further on from Sadat City. This area is where the ancient Egyptians harvested the salts (natron) which they used in mummification. Monasticism developed in this area around 330 AD, starting as individual hermits that gathered together for church and other facilities, and then building towers and walls to protect them from Libyan Berber raiders. There were more than 50 monasteries in this area at one time, but now there are only 4. Monasticism is hardly a dying tradition in Egypt these days, our monk guide at the St Bishoi Monastery said that there were 178 monks at his monastery alone. St Bishoi was a very pious humble man, and was said to have met Jesus Christ. The first time was when he was washing the feet of a traveller, and he noticed the holes in them, upon which the traveller disappeared. The second time was when he helped to carry an old man, and noticed his load getting lighter and lighter, and realised it was Our Lord. The monks are very friendly and welcome visitors, giving them a guided tour which concludes with a filling meal of bread and beans. Something else we noticed, was that some monks don't like having their hands kissed, and if anyone tries they whip their hands away abruptly. The Coptic Pope is traditionally chosen from the monasteries and he has his residence here, in fact he was exiled to here by President Sadat in the 80s. It is a very peaceful place and quite beautiful with its interesting architecture and green fields. At the gift shop you can buy locally made produce like honey, wine and papyrus. We had a great day here, the only downpoint being that Erin forgot the camera in the dining room. Luckily we had signed the guestbook and left a contact number, so we went back the next day to pick it up. This time we visited the Syrian Monastery, which is famous for its beautiful frescos. There is also a very large, old tamarind tree, which is said to have sprouted from the staff of St Efrem the Syrian monk after he came to visit St Bishoi. After our visit, we waited for the tuk tuk driver to pick us up and take us to the bus stop, but he kept us waiting, and during this time a monk driving a car asked us if we wanted a ride. We agreed, and shortly afterwards we witnessed the most blatant corruption we have seen in Egypt to date. On the main highway (which is the equivalent size of State Highway 1 to Hamilton), the police had blocked off the road and were extracting bribes from drivers. The monk gave him 50 LE, which is about 10% of the average Egyptian monthly salary, but several drivers had been pulled over to the side of the road, presumably these were the ones who didn't have enough. It was awful to witness how the population is oppressed in this way.

We came back to Cairo again a week later to celebrate Coptic Christmas on 7 January. We attended midnight mass at a local Coptic church, then went back to the guesthouse for "dinner", as this is when Copts break their 40 day Christmas fast. On the news the next day, we heard that 6 Christians in Upper Egypt had been gunned down in a drive by shooting as they left the Christmas service. This particular area is notorious for the tension between Muslims and Christians and Christians complain that the Government does little to protect them or investigate the incidents, while denying that it is a religious conflict.

We are getting into winter now and while the sun is warm and probably at least as hot as a NZ summer, it is cool in the shade. If there is a cool breeze blowing and the sky is overcast, the cold is bitter. Nights are very cold. I have heard that winter is Egypt's shortest season, but I am having trouble believing it! Having said that, we are told the weather is unusually warm for this time of year and even saw blossoms in some orchards near the highway

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Photos

Xmas 2009
In the Guesthouse.

Wadi Natron
St Bishoi Monastery

Wadi Natron
Coptic prayerbook. Coptic language is written using Greek letters and some additional ones derived from hieroglyphs.

Wadi Natron
Road to the Syrian Monastery

Wadi Natrun
Beautiful fresco in the Syrian Monastery.

Wadi Natrun
Fresco of Mary breastfeeding the infant Jesus.

Wadi Natrun
St Bishoi washing Christ's feet

Comments

[nice little sis]

hi mel the monastery sounds like a really interesting place to visit.