Background:
The first topic of this recording concerns a church’s plans to open an orphanage and the second is the chairman of the FPA in Egypt, Volkhard Windfuhr talking about a train trip organised for the FPA from Kharga to Safaga and his long-standing interest in railways.
Side A:
The speaker starts talking about two flats he and his church bought which is not yet finished nor furnished. The last one is costing them 240 000 LE. The first instalment was of 90 000 LE and the remaining monthly ones are of 25 000 LE. He tries to collect the money needed from the congregation of the church every month. They have plans of building on the roof, so that they will be able to shelter 60 children, probably girls. They try to shelter them from as young as possible until they become independent, or dependent on somebody else. The running expenses of the flats are supported by the congregation. Orphans have first priority, as well as people with risk of leaving Christianity, but they might take children whose parents cannot support them as well. People don not like funding buildings, so he would like support for furnishing, the expenses of the children, and normal house equipment. It would also be very helpful for them to have volunteers coming from abroad.
Volkhard Windfuhr informs us that he belongs to the “sect of railway amateurs”that he has always had an interest in railways. When he heard that there was a nearly unused, brand new railway line from the beautiful Kharga Oasis, the only place where there is a Persian temple in Egypt, crossing the Nile Valley, even touching ancient sites like the Dendera temple, going all through the mountains not far from the Mont Claudianos. All these places that he already knew are connected unintentionally by a railway line. The end of the line touches down on deep slopes to the Red Sea, and then runs north again, ending in Safaga. Windfuhr found out that there were no trains on the line, even for the transport of phosphate, which was the reason it was built.
Subsequently, he contacted the management of the National Egyptian Railways. His initial idea was to revisit the railway museum with members of the FPA, but he decided to convince decision-makers to organise a small train to run the aforementioned distance. It would let them see regions many people had never seen. He ponders the reasons of the authorities to organise this trip, but he thinks that they did it as a test to see if there would be any response. The trip only depended on his personal relations and there was no higher political authority involved. However, when he interviewed President Mubārak, the previous December, he spoke of tourism and told the president that he would like railway fans to visit Egypt, as there was a railway line he would like to see running. The railways authorities, however, did not know about this conversation.
His railway interest started when he was about 5-6 years old, when his family lived in front of a railway station. He is happy with the two articles he has read about the trip, but he thinks one focuses too much on the shortcomings of the Egyptian rail service and that it was not really about the trip. He points out that after stagnation in the Egyptian railway service for the last 15 years, they have started building new lines and modernising railway workshops the last couple of years. Even if there is still a long way to go, one cannot overlook the efforts done.