When the establisher of “Almasry alyoum”
newspaper called me from Canada I asked him: “where are you?... have you
visited this or that?”... then we agreed to go on a trip there together. Until this
happens, let me tell you about some of what I have already seen there.
Distance from Kilohana to Vancouver,
both lie in British Columbia province in Canada, is about 390 Kilometers, and that
from Vancouver to the Mexican city of Tijuana, close to the United States’
borders, is about 2277 km if we directly followed Road no. 5 without straying
from it into other areas.
What happened is that I, accompanied by
the “Hegazi family” and “Hallabo family”, did not directly go down the road,
rather we went from British Columbia in Canada to the borders with the United
States, then Washington State… Montana State… Idaho… Utah… Nevada… Arizona…
California… to Mexico… then went back from Mexico to California… Oregon…
Washington… then back to where my son-in-law Gaber Hegazi lives with his family
in a suburb called the West Bank; a suburb of Kelowna city overlooking the Okanagan
Lake that has a myth in the Canadian folklore telling the story of a lake monster
called “Ogopogo” which the locals call the lake demon.
This monster was described to have sea
serpent-resembling fins and body, a whale-like tail and horse-like head. Many
witnesses, believed to be trusted including a man called “Andrea Banett”, say
that they saw the lake monster and that it had grapefruit-size eyes. A
dark-colored metal plate containing information about this myth was put by the
lake.
During that more than 20 days-long round
journey, I lived with the miracles of open nature created by God. Whenever I
open my mouth in awe and even sometimes cry, I whispered: “Our Lord, You did
not create this aimlessly; exalted are You [above such a thing]; then protect
us from the punishment of the Fire[1]”.
When I went through the gap separating
the trunk of the miraculous Pine tree from its bark and stood in the space that
contained me, I read verses from Bible and Quran and went sobbing until I felt relieved
deep inside me.
The same thing happened at the massive
rock wall that has pre-historic scripts inscribed over it including scarabs
resembling those of ancient Egypt with ray lines coming out from it in one of
the canyons or the narrow valleys that I have been to. Of them are the “Grand
Canyon” in Arizona, also “Bryce Canyon”, “Zion Canyon”, “Arch Canyon” and “Reef
Canyon” in the various States that we have been to during our trip.
In the natural reserve forest called
Sequoia in California State, I saw ancient giant trees some of them exceeding
thousands of years old. The tree, which I have been through its trunk and bark,
is called General Sherman and is said to be the oldest living creature on earth
with an estimated age of 2200 to 2500 years.
The road, connecting the bottom of Sierra
Nevada mountain chain with the natural reserve, was going up and winding. Once you get close to the place, you feel –
if you still have some tenderness and serenity left in your soul – as if you
are standing by the entrance of a holy temple, as silence reigns except when interrupted
by the breathes of wind and swishes of leaves. You don’t feel how small and
short the grass surrounding the giant trees is, as grass is duly respected just
like the giant trees. Written over the grass areas: “please, this grass is a
living creature that breathes… so, give it a chance to live”; meaning do not
step over it.
There, the place imposes its traditions
over those who know its value. And so, people surrounding the trees and grass
do not talk but in whispers and signs. In Sequoia, there was a tree lying
alongside the ground as it grew old and fell down. It is forbidden for anyone
to lift it, turn it into windows or doors or use it in making fire. This
sleeping-over-the-ground tree cut off one of the paved roads in the natural
reserve. Therefore, a tunnel was dug through its body where cars can pass. Due
to weather conditions of heat and humidity, and with seeds falling from neighboring
trees over the bark of the sleeping one, new trees grew out of those seeds in
the body of that tree. And so, they called it the “Nurse” which combines the
meanings of being both a nanny and a nurse.
In Canada and the US, some may laugh at
you when they hear you talking about your trip, for example, from Cairo to
Alexandria, and how you stopped by the rest house to get some rest, drink and
eat something, for the distances there are vast and scary, in specific when
it’s winter, prior to winter or there are hurricanes in the area. And so, I
used to receive no answer for my rhetorical questions asking: where are people?
As we drove thousands of kilometers through wheat fields and saw nothing but
hundreds of meters-high giant water sprayers spread in the middle of wheat
fields, with no single human there. The same thing happened in the fields of
fruits.
The narrow valleys or “the Canyons”
represented an example for the ability of erosion to tame rocks by shaping them
excelling over the best and most talented sculptors. For example, in the Arches
Canyon one sees arch-shaped sculptures with some of them full round in its
upper part, some a little bit less curved…etc. However, what really surprised
me is the canyon that looked like an agglomeration of statues that turned from
humans to rocks where one can see a giant sculpture for a man, woman and two kids
walking next to each other… or a tall woman… sometimes a human being riding an
animal. At that time, one cannot help but think about the oriental heritage
narrating the tale of those who disobeyed God and so he turned them into
statues made of salt, firestone or sedimentary rocks.
I tell you the truth when I say that
until this moment, after long years of visiting that fascinating open museum, I
wonder why not? It could be possible that what I saw with my own eyes were once
living creatures that turned into rocks.
We shall continue later.
Translated into English by: Dalia
Elnaggar
This article was
published in Almasry alyoum newspaper on November 22, 2017.
To see the
original article, go to:
#almasry_alyoum
#ahmed_elgammal
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