If yesterday has been relaxing, today was meditative. No temple visit, no fixed schedule. Just us and the felucca. Great. We spent the whole day onboard, playing card games and "Vier Gewinnt" - Farah was not very lucky, loosing against me 2:3, but again you could see this guy was intelligent. We also discovered each other's 'artist names' if we were porn stars. I didn't know this game before but in order to find out what you would be called if you become an 'actor in adult movies', you just take the name of your first pet and add your current street name (or alternatively your mother's birth name). Some of those constructions are indeed hilarious, and I could proudly present myself as "Bibi Bop Stak"… :o)

Maybe it is time to tell you a bit about my fellow travelers, so you have an idea with whom I am spending my time these days: Well, first of all you have Mathieu and Rachelle from a town near Ottawa. They live in the French speaking part of Canada, therefore their names and they also speak French together. It is actually the first time I hear Canadian French being spoken around me and it sounds quite funny. Almost like French spoken with an American accent. Mathieu, also called "Mister Pink" after his tremendous sun burn on our first felucca day, and Rachelle, a beautiful dark-haired girl, are married for 3 years but together for 10, although they are no older than me. Everyone can see they are in love and it is wonderful to witness that something rare like that exists at my age. If ever I am with someone for 10 years, I wish it would be like that. Our four Canadian girls are the youngest on the tour: Erin has some sort of an "American Touch", she is the most outgoing and talkative one of all four and likes to pose for pictures. Sarah is her cousin and what I would call a "sweet girl". Jess is fun and always good for a laugh. In summer, she will go to Taiwan for a year to teach English there. Alyson always puts on her mascara, no matter the heat or circumstances. If necessary she takes a CD as mirror and gracefully accepts that it will melt away during the day. She also won the contest of best porn star names, having introduced herself as "Christy Misty Woods". On the other felucca, we have Felicity (my room mate from Cairo), Jacinta, Carmel and Danielle, all in their mid-twenties and all from Australia.Felicity and Jacinta travel on their own, whereas Carmel and Danielle are friends who spend their vacations together. Then there are Damian and Andrea who are on their honeymoon, also from Australia. To complete the group, we also have Steve, a funny guy from New Zealand who has obtained the nickname "Frodo" both because of his size and origin. Last but not least, there's another Sarah from Canada. She is the one I was in contact with before the trip started, as some of you may know. We got in touch via the online forum of the tour organizer and exchanged a couple of emails in early April. Sarah turns out to be a 50-year old lady from Calgary. This is actually the first time she ever traveled abroad (except to the US) and it is fun to see how amazed she is by a lot of the things we experience. Overall, she is very kind and we get along well.
So these are the people I am surrounded by. Add Vincent, our Tour Leader, and you've got a great group together!

Okay, back to my report. Today's highlight was definitely the visit of Farah's home village. Around lunch time we landed at an island to get new drinks and food on board. While our sailors took care of that, Farah invited us to meet his family. We gladly accepted his invitation and followed him up a narrow path towards his village. Soon the news of our arrival had attracted loads of children who came running to welcome Farah and his guests. First we stopped at a tiny shop to support local economy and buy some snacks for us but quickly we found ourselves handing out chocolate and cookies to the kids. They were all over us like a swarm of bees, asking for sweets, pens or photos. Farah tried to keep them in order by making them sing and clap their hands which worked to distract them but not for long. When we continued to his house most of the kids came with us, the more brave ones dragging our sleeves, the shyer ones keeping some distance. When we passed the small village streets made of clay, children we passed on our way smiled and liked to use the only word they apparently knew in English, shouting 'hello' over and over again. Men mostly didn't say anything or briefly spoke to Farah in Arabic; women mostly hid themselves under their headscarf or smiled at us shyly. When we arrived at Farah's place, we met his mother, sisters, cousin and some other people who all lived close by. It was a very touching experience to see how they lived in such poor conditions, although compared to local references they seemed still quite well off. Farah proudly showed us his house which was made of bare bricks and concrete, no colour, no wall paper, no windows. There was no floor except clay and mud on the ground. Rooms were very scarcely furnished and apparently shared with chicken, cats and dogs. At this stage, the roof was like a terrace on which Farah was planning to build a first floor as soon as he could afford it.

His family was very friendly. Some of them spoke a little bit of English or French and tried to engage us in basic conversations. At some point, Erin and I were invited by two girls (I guess they were our age but that was difficult to say with their faces hidden under their headscarf) into their room which was furnished with two big beds and a radio recorder. The recorder played loud Arabic music and we asked the girls if they were dancing to this music. As soon as they understood, they asked us to dance, so Erin and I started dancing in their little room, thinking that it was their turn next. But instead, one of the girls ran off to tell everyone about the "dancing tourists" in her room and soon loads of young women came to watch us dance. I guess this has never happened before because we became a real attraction. Our audience laughed, clapped hands and apparently found us very amusing. I guess our way of dancing was kind of frivolous to them and Farah's sister Ida kept asking me over and over again to swing my hips.

At the end, all 15 of us were asked to gather (= squeeze) in the tiny living room and were offered tea but nobody felt like taking away that little bit this family owned. It was so touching to see that they were ready to give whatever they had to welcome us. It is actually weird, you hear about things like this or you see them on TV but once you experience it, you're just not prepared for the emotions that it can cause. I had a hard time not to cry on the way back to the boat. After having had all those kids waving good-bye to us, we continued our cruise. Unfortunately, we had very little wind today, so that we were floating with the natural current of the Nile most of the time. At the end of the day I took the time to draw my very fist conclusions after 7 days of traveling: 1) State of Mind: Absolutely RELAXED!!! 2) Physical Condition: my coccyx (Steissbein auf deutsch) hurts, probably from the felucca bedding, I have a few bruises on my legs (don't know where from), one small blister on the left foot - no big deal - and a scratch from some straw when going off board today. Altogether, I'm physically okay.