we caught our train to aswan last night at about 9:30. mon and i shared a cabin which was actually pretty nice- our own sink and two beds, one of which turned into seats for when we werent sleeping. after about 5 mins on the train the attendant came by with dinner. it was served in foil packets with cardboard tops. like plane food maybe. nope. this was honesty the worst meal i have ever had. horrible to the point that we werent even mad, we just laughed a lot. the main course was overcooked noodles with bits of paper stuck to them and tiny mystery brown chunks. then there was beef that look like cat poop and i'm not exaggerating here. the cardboard lid on the beef had a metal bottle cap melted to it and was burned. i have no idea. next was fish that was burnt and twice cooked, but actually not too bad. the only good part was a roll. and for dessert? a green orange. not just orange with a green splotch, it was all over completely 100% green. marshall tested it and it was too sour to eat. the train also had music we could turn on in our cabin. it was a lovely repeated mix of abba and the village people. we turned that off pretty quickly. after a while i had to pee so i went to the bathroom at the back of the carriage. it flushed onto the tracks. i could see the tracks below us through the toilet hole when i flushed it. amazing. we all slept really well tho- rocked to sleep by the train. fortunately, you cant screw up bread and jam for breakfast so that was yummy and we arrived in aswan at 2:30pm. we went to our hotel quickly and then down to the nile to catch a boat to elephantine island to visit a nubian (sudanese) village. it was similar to oases before we headed out to the white desert in that it was incredibly poor. most homes are mud and brick. the people were really friendly tho and we kicked soccer balls around with the kids and visited a family home. everything was painted in yellow, blue, turquoise, or red so it was incredibly colorful and the village sheep herd wandered around on its own nibbling here and there on i dont know what. the nubian people have lived on this island for thousands of years, but the aswan dam has kept floods from wiping out their villages so they are doing better now than in the early 1900s. after walking through the village we caught our boat again and rode around several more islands in the nile listening to a nubian elder talk about the history of the area. there were lots of papyrus and marsh birds everywhere on the banks and also some ancient hieroglyphics carved into the rocks. we docked at a sandy area below some rich guy's house and met our camels. camels are very funny creatures. they look incredibly awkward sitting because of their knobby knees and freaking long legs and they make a really loud gurgling burpy yelling sound. my camel was pissed and made lots of noise when i walked up and also when he was made to stand up. his name was buumaki. shannon's camel wandered off into the desert with her on it and no one could hear her cries for help except me so i pointed and a dozen camel herders scurried off to retrieve her. we started out walking up some sand dunes and passed the ruins of the san simione monastry at sunset amid more dunes and desert cliffs. we then entered what is called the valley of 40 days (it would take camel caravans 40 days from the sudanese capital to reach it) which was surrounded by more dunes and cliffs. i asked my camel herder guy if i could go faster so he let me trot along on my camel. he would try to run up to the camel again to slow it down and the camel would run faster to get away from him. one time my camel took a 90 degree turn and trotted off much to the dismay of my camel herder, but i was able to steer it back. eventually the camel herder was too tired from running alot so the camel had to walk again. riding a camel is almost exactly like riding a horse in my opinion, although they are much taller and much more stubborn. and sound funnier. eventually we made our way into another nubian village on the bank of the nile for dinner. it was really cool riding the camels through because the alley ways and corridors were so narrow my legs would brush the walls. and everything was painted bright blue. and i saw lizards running up the walls. for dinner, a family that is friends with our tour guide asam made us chickpea stew, vegetable stew, zucchini stew, fried nile perch, cucumber/tomato/parsley salad and sun bread. so delicious! we were really excited to eat sunbread which is made by heating the dough in the sun atop a roof for several hours and then baking it. after dinner a bunch of kids came and played games with us and then the carpets were cleared away and the men of the village produced drums and started singing nubian songs. the kids were such good dancers! they took us by the hand and at one point i was dancing surrounded by 6 or 7 little girls. the younger kids liked being picked up so they could dance in your arms and see above everyones heads. marshall was a favorite of the little boys and at one point had one in each arm and three hanging off each leg. it was so much fun! dancing with those kids is something i will never forget. after this, we walked back to the boat and rode back to our hotel. we are all really tired tonight so i think it'll be bed when i'm done with this. tomorrow we have a free day so we will check out the market and the nubian museum and probably a botanical garden. love you all back home!
