Day 7-Coptic Cairo

Friday is the religious day in Egypt, so we started out our spiritual day at the Branch Regan went to church in as a kid which was in a town called Maadi. The villa where the church is located was still there and looked the same to Regan. The only difference was the amount of people. When he was living in Cairo, there were about 40 people in the church. The day we went to church there were close to 80! It was so neat to see so many people attending the 

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Egypt!

While at Church, Regan was able to talk to a lady who was in the branch when he was a kid.

We found out that the week before, an apostle of the Lord from our Church, Elder Bednar had come to Cairo to visit this branch. He said that the villa they were meeting in would not be large enough the next time an apostle comes to Egypt. That was pretty cool to hear that the church in Egypt is growing.

After we went to Maadi for Church, we went back to Cairo to meet up with our guide and driver. They took us to Coptic Cairo, meaning Christian Cairo. We started out at the Hanging Church was is dated back to the 3rd century AD and is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It is called Hanging because of its location above the gatehouse of the ancient Roman fortress "Babylon". It contains 110 Holy religious icons. 

We then went to the Saint Sergius and Bacchus Church which is believed to have been built on the spot where the holy family {Mary, Joseph and Jesus} rested at the end of their journey to Egypt.

We then went to a Jewish Synagoge of Ben Ezra which gained its importance from its store room in the 19th century which contained a treasure of abandoned Hebrew manuscripts. 

Seeing the other church's and religions in Egypt was so cool. I really enjoyed learning about the history of Christianity in Egypt. 

Easier then took us to Garbage City to see the Cave Church. When I say Garbage City, I really do mean it is a city within garbage. The buildings are all so close together and contain people as well as storage for trash. In the building with the colorful graffiti, there were tons of pigs which are illegal. Basically, people collect the garbage in the city, sort it in categories {glass, metal, paper, plastic} and cut it down to size, bag it and resale it!

The streets were so dirty and muddy, yet people were walking round like it was no big deal. People have made their lives living in garbage city and sorting through the trash for a living, so for them, it is just a way of life. Garbage City is Cairo's large informal garbage collectors settlement where garbage recycling is central to the populations economy.

These buildings look like they are just going to fall down since they are basically leaning on each other!

It was So crazy driving in the streets of garbage city. Our driver did an amazing job of maneuvering through the streets with all of the trucks holding trash.

Once you got through garbage city, the Monastery of St. Simon, The Cave Church  is at the end. The monastery of St. Simon has the largest ampitheater which seats 20,000. This church is the largest church in the Middle East. There are religious carvings all over the rocky mountain.

We ended our day with one of my favorite Egyptian dishes, Koshary which is the national dish. It is Egyptian Rice, Lentils and pasta with Spicy Tomato Chile Sauce