The Red Sea posted by Bill

Leaving Cairo early Wednesday, we drove through the desert and got our first glimpse of the Red Sea. The sea isn’t really red but named for many of the red corals seen farther out. Incredibly blue with hues of turquoise, the Red Sea stretches for miles and miles along the desert road…

Our gracious hosts, Mohammed and Lyla, received the North Carolina and Texas GSE team at their private villa in a gated community near El Ein. The house was less than 100 yards from the beach and the water was cool, clear, and invigorating. Some of our team members went farther out to for great snorkeling…

Now for the food prepared for us at the villa… The main meal of the day continues to be around 4:00 PM. We had, possibly, the best sea bass and stuffed shrimp I have ever had. There was a rice dish to be eaten only with sea fish… We also had turkey and beef plus several delicious Egyptian casseroles. And then came the never-ending desserts plus lattes. The good food combined with the nice sea breeze and San Diego like weather that we have been having all along, made life very good, indeed!

Thursday, it’s up at 5:00 AM to take the bus to Hurgada for Rotary District 2450 annual conference. The bus ride, which took over six hours through the dessert and along the Red Sea, was chartered and full of Rotarians. We checked into our five star resort, Harmony, at a suburb of Hurgada called Saleh Haseesh. This area is the coming beach resort of the world with construction of new hotels, villas, and townhomes everywhere. Commercialization is held to a minimum. People are here from everywhere: Germany, France, Russia, Spain plus many other countries.

The main Rotary District meeting took place at another incredible, very large resort called The Citadel. It looked like some of the old castles/forts we had visited in Cairo and Alex. Everything appeared to be it carved out of rock… The beginning District Ceremonies looked like something out of the Olympics. Over 2,000 people sat in a Roman Coliseum type arena outdoors under the stars. Nine nations, including Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Dubai, Cyprus, Georgia, Bahrain, and others participated. One at a time, each nation’s respective flag bearer marched down the arena stairs hoisting high their country’s flag with the band playing their national anthems, to the delight of the entire audience.. Quite an extraordinary sight!

Tomorrow, our GSE Team will do a PowerPoint presentation on our incredible experiences in Egypt we have had up to date to the entire District attendees. We will also present the District Governor, Zacharias, and GSE Chair, Ahmed, gifts from our Rotary District 7680 Governor Bob Wilson and GSE Chair John Martin. We will return to Cairo Sunday for two days and then it’s off to Lebanon!!