The things which i enjoy most about travelling are often the small experiences that most people would over look but which often are the interactions which we learn most from. Besides the fact that I need all the help i can get with my Arabic. Which is coming along Shwaya Shwaya Hamdulalah!

Had a hysterical afternoon going off to find a flower shop to buy a present for a friend and ended up having tea and cakes with the owner Zaynab. She is like Ma Larkin in the Darling Buds of May. Had a long chatter generally focussed around family life, antics of her sons and daughters and the English / Egyptian ways! All in my stilted Arabic and her pigeon English and with a bit of pointing at the phrase book.

Have also found a great friend in my tailor Hanny in Aswan. Who has been making me trousers and shirts and generally patching up holes in all my other clothes!

The Sunshine Project is a home for abandoned children in Luxor. Most of the kids have been there from birth, those not found within the first 24 hours of being dumped wouldn't survive.

In a society which revolves around family ties those that have none suffer a fate of isolation. Children born out of wedlock are also considered bad spirits resulting in nearly total ostracism from the community.

The centre is run by Pearl and Lorna two inspirational British women who set it up with their own savings after being confounded by the situation during a holiday 6 years ago. They both now work from 5am till 11pm every day to keep the centre running and are desperatly trying to raise funds to extend the over crowded facilities which they currently use. Land and Plans have been made for a new site but the funds to facilitate the construction are still in the process of being raised.

The day that i vistied them happened to be mother's Day. Pearl, the nearest any of them have to a mother, was in hospital with 7 of the babies suffering from a broncial infection which seemed unspecified by the doctors. One child had already died and trying to get any treatment or attention for the others was proving a major battle. The availabiltiy of doctors is sporadic, to say the least, and expensive beyond the means of your average Fahleen (Egyptian famer). That is unless you happen to enter the 24 hour facility for tourists where there seems to be an abundance of practitioners on hand to sooth a few upset stomaches. Bitter irony i'm afriad.

Anyway the other children are absolutely adoreable and i spent most of the afternoon playing hide and seek, singing Old McDonald had a farm and generally being beseiged in the nursery by 3-8 year olds and being held ransom for a bag of sweets! Smart kids!

Am hooked and will be back for more next time i'm in Luxor i can see.

Jess and i ventured out from the flat to coptic Cairo today. The area of Cairo dedicated to the 10% of the population belonging to the Egyptian segment of Christianity.

It was blissfully peaceful and the feeling of solitude is emphasised by the dramatic change from the noise and drama of the streets outside.

I also had a bizarre experience where I had a long chat to a nun in an art shop in the middle of the hardware bizarre in Islamic Cairo a few weeks ago. Which inspired me to come to this area of Cairo and explore the churches and visit the convent. Don't worry no chance of me adopting the habit and a life time of celibacy but it was strangely moving.

The convent and one of the churches are dedicated to St George so you can be blessed by the chains which are claimed to be the original shackles restraining him when he was tortured and tormented.

It is very strange the things which people bring into religion and worship. Egypt has such a pivitol role in the Biblical stories and in all the three monotheistic religions, Islam, Christianity and Judaism and you can feel that the people feel much closer to it because it all happend here rather than in a distant land.