Today is “6 October” here. It’s an Egyptian holiday. There’s cities and streets named after 6 October as it is Egypt’s Armed Forces Day: a public holiday celebrating the day in 1973 when combined Egyptian and Syrian military forces launched a surprise attack on Israel and crossed into the Sinai Peninsula, which marked the beginning of the October (Yom Kippur) War.

The holiday made for less traffic on our way to Faiyoum. A small rural city a couple hours south of Cairo. This city is where my mom was originally from and where we have the most extended family, most of whom I’ve never met.

We were supposed to be picked up at 8 am today. Mina was a tad late, but Bassem, the driver for Marian, Diaa & Fam had overslept and wasn’t picking up his phone. Everyone was very worried about him. Mina ended up starting the drive with Matt and Sarah and I until we eventually got a hold of Bassem.
We made our way to my Aunt Fifi’s apartment for breakfast and group 2 made it about an hour later. My parents and a few other family members were there and oh so happy to see us. My parents come to Egypt often these days and Faiyoum tends to be their home-base because of Fifi. It is much smaller and greener than Cairo. I don’t know if it’s just because it’s a weekend and holiday for them but the traffic seems to be much less than Cairo too.

We drifted from room to room in Fifi’s apartment, just chatting with people, and trying to stay awake. Eventually we all left to go to Anba Abraam Monastery. It is considered one of the most important monasteries in the Faiyoum because it is the burial place of Anba Abram, the favorite bishop of Faiyoum and Giza from 1882 to 1914. They didn’t let us take any photos here except for in the “zoo” area, which had monkeys, deer, different kinds of birds, and llamas. I remember coming here in 2010 with Fifi; back then there weren’t any animals but we were allowed to take photos.



After the monastery, we headed over to the Faiyoum water wheels, which are a prominent symbol of the town and oasis. The wooden wheels are driven by fast-moving water of the Canals and were introduced into Faiyoum during the Ptolemaic times.
The people of Faiyoum are very proud of the waterwheels as they are a source of irrigation for the farmlands. During my last visit, I was taken to see them as well, but with no back story so I had no idea what I was looking at. Just nodded my head and snapped the photo.

At the waterwheels, some local youth saw Matt and asked to take a selfie with him. He shook them off like the Drake meme not realizing what they were saying. Then some attendants came over and shewed them away. Not sure if he was instructed to by the tourist police or on his own. However, everywhere we go there seems to be an officer there “for our protection.” It’s been drawing some attention and I think the locals might think Matt is a celebrity athlete.

Our next stop was our Airbnb. There are only a handful of hotels here and most are 45 minutes away by the lake. Mina came with us to talk to the AirBNB host. He quickly realized this guy was going to try to scam us for being American as he was already asking for more money than we paid. He took us back to the car, told us to cancel and made me block the host. I swear we would be so lost on our own. After that we went back to Fifi’s apartment for dinner. My family had so many animals prepared for us including chicken, stuffed duck, stuffed dove, and rabbit (sorry Monica).

Once we finished eating, more and more family members trickled in throughout the night to see us. There might have been over 50 people in the apartment at peak time. Matt was a huge hit. They fell in love with him and his attempts at arabic almost instantly. He did so well at remembering everything he had learned.

Though the apartment was fairly large, me and Matt’s favorite spot was the balcony. The breeze was perfect and there was enough hustle and bustle in the streets to keep us entertained. As the evening grew darker, the air started to fill with pollution from cars, dust, and cigarettes.

At 9:00pm in the middle of a family photo, all the power went out. We learned that this happens every night at the same time for about 30-45 minutes to “preserve” power. I don’t necessarily believe it. In a city full of moving water, there should be no shortage of energy. Anyhow. Mina hooked the 9 of us up with a hotel nearby. We ended up paying $56 for 4 rooms. The hotel was nothing like the one from Alexandria but it did the trick.