Rose Rose Through 'Though Wronged at the ROM

Fourteen of us MicroSkills LINC participants and volunteers were in for a rude ride this morning when we finally arrived at the ROM after an almost 12-month wait. But first, a happy group photo!

As soon as we got inside the main entrance, security guards Keith, Archie, and Helen took turns to badger us about our bags--they were either too big, the wrong type, or something--while letting others through that were less "acceptable looking" than ours. When questioned about the discrepancy and discrimination, they blamed management, who they said had been giving them "verbal abuse" and inconsistent orders, which they were only carrying out. They also welcomed the prospect of our lodging an official complaint to the ROM.

Notwithstanding the welcome, we headed to the Egyptian exhibits and were treated to an educated tour by our volunteer Rose, who happens to be Philly's wife, an alumna of Donald's class, and a Ph.D. in art education.

No body parts were wasted by the Egyptian mummifiers, who carefully put the organs in canopic jars for the afterlife. Unfortunately, there was one exception. They couldn't figure out what the brain was for and carefully scraped it all out through the nose to be thrown away.

A write up on good ole' Djed, my favourite mummy! Everybody's got to take a picture with her. Given her looks, or rather that of her mummy case, it's a no-brainer.

Here, our other two volunteers, John and Tim, pose with Djed.

The following five photographs illustrate further the ancient Egyptians' fascination with death and the afterlife. Here is their famed Book of the Dead.

We also saw plenty of mummies of cats, ibises, crocodiles, and even mice.

That's because the Egyptians worshipped all kinds of creatures. Above is a bull god, and below is a jackal-headed god. When the children of Israel left Egypt, some of them turned to worshipping golden calves, which caused the God who rescued them to be angry and to punish them severely.

Hello, who goes there? Hello? 'Allo?

Tim and the Queen Cleopatra

Hey, ladies, what's the rush?

Ah, it's Ameer with the camcorder!

They didn't have Braille stations the last time. Good for you, Tim! (Check out the video below!)

No bluffing! That's a forgery!

Uh oh, who's that at Bloor and Avenue?

Ah, Solzhenitsyn, the great advocate for freedom of speech.

Don't miss practising speaking English with our native speaker volunteers John and Tim on Friday afternoons!

Here are a couple of videos:

Tim feels up a 4,500-year-old statuette:


Terry, Najmeh, Rose, and all check out the forgeries: