The wake
from a larger vessel rocked the felucca,
a traditional Egyptian sailboat, heaving it against the pontoon it was docked
beside. As water entered the hull, the two Americans aboard imagined their
mission of personal diplomacy sinking along with their second-hand boat. Ayman
Hazem, 25, their Egyptian captain, jumped into action and fashioned a plug out
of a bar of soap. Then he called to men mixing concrete on the shore and
acquired enough material to fill the hole permanently. The patch on their newly
delivered breach held for the remainder of the hundred-day journey from Aswan
to Alexandria.
Will
Raynolds, 30, and Joshua Maricich, 31, knew what they were getting into when
they set out to sail the length of the Egyptian Nile in September 2011. Both
had sailing experience back home on the Pacific coast of the United States and
had lived in the Middle East for years—Will as an archaeologist studying ancient
ruins in Libya, Josh as a journalist reporting from Yemen. (They originally met
as Fulbright scholars in Jordan in 2005.) When violent uprisings in those
countries brought them to Cairo, they decided a 1,200-kilometer river journey
would be a fascinating way to witness the changes taking place in Egypt—and
perhaps foster some cultural ties along the way.
Aboard
the felucca, which they christened Jasmine in honor of Tunisia’s Jasmine
Spring revolt, Raynolds and Maricich moved slowly through the densely populated
countryside, docking each night in villages that most Egyptians and certainly
foreign tourists pass over on their way to bigger cities. The government
assigned them a police detail to travel north of Luxor, an area known for
sectarian violence and acts of terrorism. “It was hard for us to accept that
security concerns were so dire,” said Raynolds. “In every village, they would
welcome us but then warn us about the next village.” After docking one evening,
gunshots on shore deterred them from leaving the Jasmine.
A few
weeks later, a group of civilians who believed that Raynolds and Maricich may
be foreign spies accosted them inside an Internet café in Upper Egypt. Days
earlier, three American students had been arrested and deported for participating
in clashes in Cairo. Raynolds and Maricich were questioned by local
authorities, then released.
One of
the reasons the travelers attracted attention in an area rarely visited by
outsiders was the American flag flying from the stern. Fishermen cursed them,
and in the Mediterranean port of Alexandria, two children responded to the U.S.
Stars and Stripes by hurling bricks at the Jasmine.
More often, however, local residents opened their doors and hearts after
spotting the foreign faces. “We put a different spin on what they think they
know about America,” said Maricich.
The river
journey ended in August, but Raynolds and Maricich are on a new mission: to
contribute to a better understanding of Egypt, especially of its rural region
and people, through speaking engagements inside the country at venues including
the American University in Cairo, as well as in the United States. They also
plan to publish a book about their hundred days on the Nile. The Egyptian
family whose felucca they purchased
has put four generations on the river, from the times when such vessels were
mainly used for trading rather than touristic excursions, and sailors knew
every contour of the river’s flow. With the family rocked by harder economic
times after the Egyptian revolution, the felcucca they sold to Raynolds and
Maricich was the last the family owned. “Getting a taste for some of that
knowledge that was handed down,” says Raynolds, “was a privilege.”