Even though I was exhausted after 28+ hours without sleep, I couldn't leave Cairo without visiting the Egyptian Museum. This massive collection of enormous rooms contains thousands of antiquities. I had two very peculiar experiences:
First - I paid the extra $20 to enter the room with the mummies. So there I was, two days before Passover 2010, staring into the mummified face of Ramses II who ruled Egypt approximately 3,000 years ago, and who (according to Cecil B. DeMille and some scholars) reigned during the time of Moses and the Israelites' exodus from Egypt.
Second - I had been warned by one of my co-workers who had just visited Egypt that the schoolchildren are particularly enamored with Americans. As I was viewing the exhibits, three 13-year-old girls approached me, asked me if I was American, what was my name, how old was I(!!), was I having fun in Egypt, etc. After a few seconds some friends joined the girls and before a minute there were 30 (I counted!) school kids talking to me, giggling, asking me questions, touching my hair and following me around. Every time I took a few steps this giant ameoba blobbed around me. I felt like Miley Cyrus. A very disconcerting experience.
One 15-year-old boy said, "I don't want to annoys [sic] you, but can I ask you a question?" He said, "Why do American people hate Arab people?" After hemming and hawing, I asked him, "Why do you think that?" (not knowing if I meant Who told you that? or What do you suppose the reason is? He said that he thinks Americans believe all Arabs are terrorists. He said (speaking as an Arab), "We hate terrorists; we hate these killers."
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