On our way from El Berba to Luxor we stopped at some monasteries in the Nil Valley and stayed over night in the Mutrania (Bishops House) of Sohag.
Area of Sohag:
Eastern Nilshore: ca. 6km northeast of Akhmin: Monastery of the Archangel Michael (Malak); Monastery of the Martyrs (Deir al-Shuhada); Monastery of the Virgin Mary
Western Nilshore: White Monastery; Red Monastery. Here Italian Specialists where just finishing there work of restoration. So we saw beautiful old frescos.
Quite close to Berba, „just“ 24km south on the western edge of the desert you find the monastery of Abu Vena. He was a Saint and monk from the end of 4th century. The old monastery founded by him was hidden in the desert for centuries. The monastery was most likely built around the burial site of Saint Fana. His tomb was found during excavations of an international team representing seven European academic institutions and led by Austrian scholar Prof. Dr. Helmut Buschhausen in 1992.
We visited it already for the third time and again enjoyed the quiet atmosphere of the desert and the strong spiritual feeling of the monks. One of the monks was even speaking a little bit German and telling us his touching personal story.
„Bustan al Bachja“ which means „Garden of Joy“ is a green oasis in a brown and grey surrounding. Here children can play in a secure place, families can meet and celebrate feasts. Groups from schools, other parishes or also Muslim organisations use this garden for meetings. The maintenance of the garden is paid by the little entrance fee all groups have to pay. With Juliana’s watching eye, good watering of the grass and plants and the yearly repairing of broken playground equipment the garden will stay a wonderful place for many people and years!
In El Berba the community of Sisters of Sion is rather small. In the moment it’s only Sr. Juliana keeping up the wonderful hospitality of Notre Dame de Sion and living their charisma of Dialogue and Solidarity. So she often has guests from the village or is out for visiting families in their homes.
We really had trouble to find gas for Sr. Juliana’s Toyota Avanca! Between Cairo and Minia on this 300km there was no gas station with gas of 90 or 92 Octan. There maybe were two or three with gasoline and long queues of cars, motorbikes and tractors. So with our last 10l we went from El Berba to Minia searching for gas without success, continued to the pharaonic grave site of Beni Hassan and in the evening returning to Minia with Osamas help we found a totally crowed gas station with the fuel we needed! Beni Hassans caves are not visited very often by tourists. So the Tourist Police was waiting for us and guiding us all the time from one cave to the other. The colour and the variety of the paintings inside are really remarkable!
There are two Kindergarden in El Berba. One is in the house of the developement center and its Aza who is responsible for it. The other is in the Sisters house and is for children with special needs. There are four young women you work and play with these children in different groups. On top of the house the have a playground under a sunshade. Sr. Juliana initiated this Kindergarden and still is active in keeping it running.
As they like music, Barbara gave them twice a music lesson playing with Orff instruments. They enjoyed and we hope the teachers will be able to continue this work.
El Berba is village at the edge of the western desert about 30km southwest of Minia and northwest of Abu Gurgos / Al Fikria. These towns are at the Nile 300km south of Cairo. The population is still increasing and now maybe at 12.000 persons. Many of the people of Berba live in Cairo and work as concierge in apparent houses. Sometimes the parents live in Cairo and the children in Berba. Or the eldest children look for work in Cairo and support the family at home in Berba. Although people have to look for work outside the village it is still a very agricultural village. There is no starving in Berba but many families have to live from a few pounds (1 EUR = 7,8 EGP) a day which officially means poverty.
In Berba today you find 12 mosques but still only one Coptic Catholic Church. As in daily life Christians and Muslims have not the same rights it is a 18 years fight to build a new and larger church. Now after the Revolution people realised that in the last 15 years there was a strong but secret mission by the Salafist Muslims. Berba is far away from Cairo and the people mostly feel only the bad troubles raised by the Revolution: More criminals, more corruption, more arbitrariness, less security, less maintenance of infrastructure.
The Sisters of Notre Dame de Sion live in a private house where there is also the Kindergarten for the handicapped children. They support the very active Christian community. Especially the „Garden of Joy“ is an important place for meetings and playing which was initiated and still is organised by Sr. Juliana.
As foreigners its hard to find your way from the towns of Minia or Abu Gourgos to Berba as there are now roadsignes. But staying in Berba with the Sisters is a very calm and comfortable way to get to know Egyptian peoples daily life. Being guest you are not hassled as a tourist.
