Far from doing the "walk like an Egyptian..." in the streets of downtown Cairo, Abeja and I often pretend we're superheroes and go boldly across the street, hoping the minivans, taxis, mopeds, cars, city buses, tour buses, bicycles and donkey carts don't hit us. And here I was thinking Cairo was all desert, camels and pyramids!!!

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We met a really nice girl named Mona. To our surprise, she and her friend, Catr, spoke to us in English. "Hello. How are you? My name is Mona."

Mona said to us, "River Nile! Come, river Nile!" Abeja and I looked at each other, shrugged, then grinned. Welcome to Cairo, I thought, as we all linked arms, and headed down a side street towards the Great River that has shaped and created the country that is Egypt.

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We finally climbed aboard a ferry as the sun was setting and pushed off for our first trip down the Nile, the longest river in the world at 4266 miles. That's farther than the United States is wide.

We heard the call to prayer as we reached our destination, a platform on the other side of the river. Saying goodbye to our new friends, we set off back to our hotel, glad for such a nice welcome from the great city that is Cairo. Perhaps by the end of our stay we really will be "walking like Egyptians!"