Easter in the Mideast

By Diane Daniel, Globe Correspondent, 05/05/02

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When Fred and Marilyn Pula signed up last summer for an 18-day group tour to Egypt and Jordan, they chose a date that would get them back home to Natick for Easter Sunday. Then came September. So many travelers pulled out, that tour operator Grand Circle Travel had to consolidate two trips, and the Pulas would be away on Easter weekend.

"We are churchgoing folk, and the idea of not getting to church on important religious holidays was not enough to deter us, but was something to think about," said Marilyn, 71. The Pulas are retired and take several trips a year overseas. Alongside world events, they believed that Grand Circle would protect them as much as possible (an armed escort accompanied the group on boat and bus rides). A happier side effect was a $1,000 drop in the tour price, to $4,400 for the two of them.

On the day before Palm Sunday, the group was sailing on the Nile River toward Egypt's southermost city, Aswan, an ancient frontier town. Two ministers were in the group, and one, a Baptist, led a service on the boat.

"It was so incredible," said Marilyn, who like her husband is a Roman Catholic. "He read scripture that specifically included the area where we were. Then he proceeded to give a sermon that combined the biblical history and geography of that very region along with his religious message. He made the Bible come alive by connecting the life of the holy family, Moses, and other important religious figures with the area that we were visiting." That same evening, Grand Circle arranged for the priest at the one Roman Catholic Church in Aswan to say Mass especially for the Pulas.

The tour, meanwhile, was action-packed, with travel by bus, train, boat, and even camel for those interested.

"I rode the blasted camel," Marilyn said. "I didn't know you had to hold on in the front and the back."

Fred, 76, said he was unable to help because "I was too busy laughing."

Monuments were important in Egypt, of course, including the pyramids, the Sphinx, and Abu Simbel, a magnificent temple complex outside of Aswan near the Sudan border. The statues carved into its tombs are 65 feet tall and "stunning," they said.

They both enjoyed Egyptian markets, with their many opportunities for bargains and bargaining. Their five days in Jordan brought more unexpected pleasures.

"We thought it would be nothing but desert," Fred said. "We were amazed that we knew so little about it. It's the classiest little country." They first visited Amman, called "the white city" because all buildings must be white.

And they visited the Dead Sea. "It was fun watching people put mud all over themselves, because it's supposed to be healing," said Marilyn, who noted that only 17 miles across the water were Israel and the West Bank, where more violence had just erupted.

A trip to Petra, an ancient rock-cut city in southern Jordan, coincided with Easter, and another unexpected religious experience.

On the all-day tour, "It seemed that any religious observance would have to be individual and private," Marilyn said.

But the other minister, a Presbyterian, had come prepared, bringing her Bible and sermon notes. The tour guide found "the perfect spot - on top of a hill, in an old temple with tile floors that were so exquisite in their perfection and thousands of years old," Marilyn said. The group looked down on Petra while they worshiped. "We will never forget any one of those experiences," she said.

Send suggestions to ddaniel@globe.com.