Greetings from Cairo!

Dearest Friends,

Thank you for all the energy you sent and have been sending us for our pre-trip preparations and our flights to Egypt. Everything went like clockwork and we made it here safe and sound (with all our luggage in tow!).

It's great to be back again so soon after our inspection trip earlier this year. After 22 hours of travel, we're pretty wiped out, but considering how busy we've been and how long we traveled to get here, we're doing amazingly well.

We had a real gift today on our descent into Cairo. This is our 5th trip to Egypt and I don't remember seeing so much of the city as we landed, nor seeing so many landmarks that I recognized. As we were making our approach we could easily see the pyramids from our seat window (we were on the best side of the plane for the views) and then we got see them again as we circled around again a little lower--it was a perfect site for the start of an amazing journey!

As always, the Cairo airport is pretty hectic with porters and H1N1 control personel (a recent addition to the chaos), drivers, etc. We arrived in Terminal 1, and as Basem promised, a representative was there to assist with our VISAs and ground transportation. When we arrived at the hotel, Basem was there to greet us! Such a treat to see him and it was so nice of him to take time away from his family to greet us--way above and beyond the call of duty. Because of Basem, we went right past reception and directly to our rooms! Such service!

Tomorrow night we're having dinner with he and Manal. That will be such a treat for us. They have been angels to work with throughout this process. We're so extremely fortunate that Lea was able to find them again after so many years!

We'll I'm beginning to fade, so will sign off for now. Tomorrow we're taking a short half-day excursion, but nothing too intense. Afterall, we're here to rest and get ready for the group to arrive.

Thanks and Love from Cairo,
Stuart