Coptic Cairo

A friend of mine is a tour guide, and he took three of us around to the different historical Coptic churches in Old Cairo. There is this small area where several churches are in walking distance from each other. To me they have a feel of catholic churches. I would say that Coptic Christians are in the middle between Christians and Catholics. The insides of the churches were stone and wood, decorated with beautiful/gaudy relics of the Virgin Mary and Saints. Unfortunately, wewere not allowed to take photos inside the churches. Two of the churches we visited were sites that the "Holy Family" (Mary, Joseph, and Jesus) once visited. Apparently, when Jesus, Mary, and Joseph were traveling around the first few years of Jesus' life, they would have to hide from the authorities that were looking for him. Each spot that the Holy Family stayed for an extended period of time, the Coptic Christians later built a church on that land.

The last church we toured, our friend Sarah knew one of the nuns, and she wanted to see if we could visit her. We ended up being able to have lunch with her and talk with her for about 3 hours. She is 99 years old, about 4 feet tall, and only speaks Arabic. She invited us into this living room-looking place and then food was brought to us on a sliver platter, followed by tea and cookies once we were finished. She would talk to Sarah if she wanted to say something to me, and the only word I could pick out that she kept saying was, "Habibti," which means 'my love.' She would giggle when I tried to use an Arabic word here or there, and then I asked her if I could recite all of the Arabac phrases I know....so she stared at me as I rattled off about 15 words to her. :) Another nun was watching us interact from across the room, and she asked if I spoke Arabic. She told Sarah that she could tell God was with me, and she was asking several questions about my life. She encouraged me not to be afraid that I live alone, because God is protecting me....I defnintely had a good nights sleep that night!