We had a 4-hour meeting with Samuel yesterday in which we did a walk through of the ritual we're doing later today. Heidi has done, as always, an amazing job organizing, printing the parts, getting them out to folks, etc. She's so good at it and makes it look easy. Just like Suzanne, she's such a gift to all of us.
Yesterday afternoon we discovered that there was a translation error in the ritual. The men AND women are supposed to tone a B-flat. Up to the point, we thought only the men were toning a B-flat. Putting this change in adds a whole new level of complexity. For those who know music, the pitches A and B-flat are only a half-step apart and that is a dissonant interval. It's a bit of a challenge for the men to hold the A while the women sing a B-flat. The natural inclination is to resolve the tension by going up to match their A. However, we're not doing that. We stay on the A, while they tone a B-flat and then we move to a D. The pitches, B-flat and D are very harmonious together, and that's good.
The bus is really quiet right now. Some are sleeping, most are awake. Everyone appears to have their "game face" on. We received word from Lea at breakfast this morning that we might actually do the ritual AT Abydos! Everyone is on high alert!
The temple of Abydos is amazing. Seti I began construction of the temple but his son, Ramses II, completed it. In my opinion, no carvings surpass the quality of Abydos. The details and craftsmanship is amazing to see. Some look like they were just finished yesterday. It's hard to imagine that they're 3,200 years old!
Right now, we're driving through a small village and Lea waved at a little girl from the bus window. The girl blew her a kiss!
We just entered an area where we have a lot of sugar cane growing on our left and the escarpment is on our right. The rifer Nile is on the other side of the sugar cane fields. The irrigation canals and the High Dam allow for multiple growing seasons each year--three times a year for the sugar cane. After the third harvest, they burn the field to fertilize it after the third harvest.
We're now driving through an area where the road has rejoined the Nile. The river is very wide hear and I can't distinguish between the water and the sky on the horizon--they're are ONE!
I just transferred some photos to my computer and saw this one of our guide, Yasser, at Luxor. He's showing us the base of a statue that was broken and repaired in ancient times. I love Yasser's smile because he smiles with his eyes as well as his mouth. He's definitely a kindred spirit. He's an artist as well as a tri-lingual (Arabic, English and Japanese) tour guide.
I'm going to conserve my battery power for the trip home. I'll let you know what we did at Abydos!
Thanks and love,
Stuart
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