King Tut relics, the Aswan Dam, the ruins at Luxor, the Great Pyramids.
Springfielder Janet James and sister Phyllis Brockmeyer took in the usual tourist sites in Egypt in February. But along the Nile, they also saw relics to the political repression and corruption of the Mubarak regime that had just been forced from power by the protests at Tahrir Square.
James and Brockmeyer presented "Egypt after the Revolution: First Americans in!" Tuesday to open the Wittenberg University Office of Alumni Relations' Noon Lunch & Lecture Series.
Flying to Cairo as soon as the Egyptian Museum reopened, the two found tourism at a standstill.
"It was empty everywhere," said Brockmeyer, of Fort Wayne, Ind., a retired teacher of art and architectural history.
Six of the usual 200 tour boats were navigating the Nile, and the waits at the pyramids and museums were nonexistent.
Although the police withdrew their services during two weeks of their stay, people "told us over and over, don't worry, we'll take care of you," James said. They also "talked to us quite a bit about being afraid of the future," as memories lingered of an era in which neighbors informed on neighbors who then disappeared.
Brockmeyer remarked on another symptom of repression: Egyptian writers "would take their books to Syria to be published."
As one guide told James: "You have to understand this is the first time in 30 years that we can talk."
Traveling the Nile, the sisters saw two shrines to the political repression and corruption. The first was a smouldering building that stored records the government kept on its citizens, the second a construction site that had been abandoned by a Mubarak crony.
Egyptians on the boat gave Mubarak credit for not firing on protestors in the square, Brockmeyer said, "but they were angry about all the money they thought he had stolen."
The two saw much that they liked in Egypt.
"Even the poorest of the poor people are very proud of their heritage," Brockmeyer said. "Nowhere did you see graffiti."
In the middle of the desert, they also found school children sporting Scooby Doo and Disney backpacks.
National pride was evident in the colors painted on buildings and signs and in a story about religious tolerance in Tahrir Square.
On Fridays during the protests, "the Christians circled the Muslims so they could have their prayers, and on Sundays the Muslims circled the Christians so they could have their service, "James said.
While awaiting a flight home, the sisters found themselves the beneficiaries of like concern. One guide "was praying for our safety," Brockmeyer said.
The speaker series will continue Nov. 29 with "Wittenberg Stories" by Professor Tom Taylor.
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