The stuff of nightmares

Was it a masochistic mission that possessed me to find myself on a tour bus headed to a place called "Garbage City"? Perhaps . . . I do have a self-punishment streak; after all, I am living in Egypt. In reality, I was a bit misled by the advertisement for this ex-pat excursion, thinking I was going to see some Coptic churches. I had no idea where they would be located.
For a split second, I thought about dashing away from this vessel to hell, but decided that since I had paid $30 and made the effort to get up at an ungodly hour, I would at least see what this "Garbage City" business was about. The name is definitely not a misnomer. This place is "Garbage City" home to the "Garbage people" who sift through the 100,000 tons of trash that Cairo generates every day. The area, called Mokkatam, is the poorest I have ever seen, and now I can skip out on any trip that I had planned to the slums of Calcutta. I already get the picture.
There were ten foot (or more) high piles of garbage lining the tiny streets that our tour bus edged through to get to the church complex.
This image is blurred for your protection (and sanity)

Women carried bags of garbage on their head, children made sandcastles with garbage-laden dirt, and men picked through the fresh garbage with their bare hands to find bits to recycle. To be fair, the place didn't actually stink, which I find characteristic of Cairene garbage. Perhaps it is the dry heat that prevents rotting and the other natural processes of garbage decomposition.
The people were very friendly, smiling and shouting "hello" and "welcome" to our group as we disembarked, and not expecting any money from us. Maybe they were happy to see foreign Christians, whom they feel more of an affinity to than their Muslim neighbors. Or maybe we provided a bit of amusement to their otherwise routine lives.
The first stop on the trip was the complex of Samaan al Kharaz church. These churches were built into the rock hills surrounding Mokkatam by a Polish missionary in the 1980's. The outside of the churches bear huge and intricate carvings of scenes from the Bible, for the illiterate "garbage people."


Then we went into some of the churches, all dedicated to St. Simon, whose claim to fame is that he plucked out his own eyeball to prevent himself from yielding to sexual temptation. Recently, some excavators found a skull that belonged to a one-eyed man, which is believed to be this saint. His remains now lie in the main church in the sanctuary pictured below.

The main church which is a colossus that can seat between 7,000 and 10,000 parishioners.

Another church

I found these churches quite interesting, but unfortunately there were those on our tour who didn't. Now I shall immortalize them in shame. The couple from Germany, decided after the first church that they were bored, and refused to go into any more of the churches, all the while looking on at us (and our amazing tour guide) with snotty expressions, evocative of their poor attitudes.
It's too bad because they missed a cave church that was used by the persecuted Christians during the diocletian purges (300's AD).
I wanted to punch them in the face!
They also missed a "zoo" which is something that I could have missed out on too, because it actually made me want to cry. The zoo was just two monkeys sitting in a dirt floor enclosure that was strewn with garbage. Then a little boy climbed up on the cage and started banging on the metal bars to get their attention. It made me feel sick inside.

Afterward, we proceeded to the Mokattam recycling center, where women take recycled fabrics and make rugs and other textiles by hand, as well as paper products.

They wasted no time in ushering us into their "showrooms" so that we could buy stuff. I briefly thought about purchasing a camel stuffed animal as a souvenir for someone, but then realized it was made from fabrics that had been taken from Cairo garbage, and there is probably a better way to show my love for family and friends. You can all thank me later.
Last, we went to the Virgin Mary Church in Maadi (my neighborhood) where it is believed the Holy Family stopped on their way to Upper Egypt while fleeing from King Herod. The church is situated on the Nile where the Egyptian Christians believe that Mary, Joseph, and Jesus took a ferry down the river. Maadi actually means "ferry" in Coptic.The site of the ferry . . .


Although interesting, the whole experience was akin to an OCD exposure treatment. You can be sure that when I got home I washed my hands thoroughly and took a really long shower. FIN.