ya know.
being in egypt, in both the nation and class, i'm kinda dissappointed that while i was there, i didnt get to know the culture a bit better.
but it seemed like they kinda hid it from you. whether it be cuz they dont think youre there for the muslim way but rather the ancient sites or they just dont want you to know their actual poverty... since they are a third world country and all.

mustafa (our guide) and i did have a couple heart to hearts when meg wasnt around.
maybe it was cuz i was the only guy in the group. but anyway. i think he wanted to know more about my culture so i couldnt really get in any of my own questions.

one question that really sticks out to me though, was him asking...

so if i went to america... what kind of rights would an egyptian have?

uh. the same as everyone else.

so i could have... sex ... with an american girl?

heh. uh. yeh....

but dont get me wrong. mustafa wasnt a perv or anything.
it just shows how much we dont know about each other and where we come from.

one thing that i was persistant about though was that i asked him about these sacred meteors (or rocks, i cant remember which) that they hold in mecca.
i inquired about the reverence that they hold for them.

i dont think he really got what i was asking, so i eventually gave it up, but he said that the people went to mecca (their once in a lifetime or more journey) and would kiss the rock. i asked why, but the only response i would get was that muhammed had done it, so people want to emulate that and so they do it themselves. i guess what i should have asked was why muhammed did it, but instead i tried to rephrase my question and it got me nowhere.

but thinking about it. muhammed is basically the dude who started this whole islam thing, right?
well. what better way to do that than to incorporate past religious beliefs into the new one that you will use to gain the peoples respect and control them?
tribes had their sacred meteors already, so he just incorporated them. as to what significance he put on them, i couldnt get outta mustafa, i guess its just one of those things that a religion believes, but kinda forgets why...

but what got me thinking about that was from my oaxaca class. catholic buttfucks ran across the new world converting everyone to believe in la virgen de guadalupe but in doing so, they just stuck her into their past indigenous rituals. like day of the dead. this used to just be reverence for ones dead ancestors/relatives, but now they call it synomiously all saints day.

i guess it should have also been kinda evident with the whole easter/christmas thing.
just put a different spin on old celebrations. solstices now with a jesus emphasis.

dammit. nothings pure anymore....

and you wonder why i dont believe in religion... with its continual evolution to suit people's needs.