The Inauguration from Aswan, Egypt

By Marty and Karen Wiskoff

We were on vacation in Egypt. When people learned we were Americans, many greeted us with shouts of "Obama! Obama! Obama!" On Inauguration Day, we finished a whirlwind morning visit to the fabulous Abu Simbel temples built by Ramses the Great, including flights there and back to Aswan, where our hotel was located. Then all the members of our tour group prevailed upon our Egyptian guide to finish the day's sightseeing early in the afternoon so that we could return to the hotel and watch Obama's inauguration on television in our rooms. We ordered beers and peanuts from the hotel bar, cosied up on one of our twin beds, and watched CNN for four hours. Our guide, whose country has been ruled by the same man for more than 27 years, said to us afterward: "You are so lucky to live in such a country, such a democracy."